Academic literature on the topic 'Electronic Records Management'

The management of electronic records and documents seems to be very developed in Romania. Mostly under UE financing, a lot of institutions implemented modern systems and digitized legacy paper records. Pertinent pieces of legislation were adopted (time-stamp, electronic signature and even an electronic archiving act) and this might create an image of proper regulated environment. But a closer look to the facts shows that proper electronic records management lacks almost completely. The paper will look into details about the way modern archives are prepared for the future.

One of the key features of an electronic record is its authenticity. Ensuring the authenticity of managerial electronic records at all stages of its life cycle from the moment of its creation to long-term storage allows us to remove obstacles in the development of electronic records management. The authenticity of electronic records has been the subject of research within the frameworks of an international project InterPARES. A record is considered authentic if its author, place, and time of creation are definitely established, as well as its provenance from the said author. To ensure this property of an electronic record, not only authentication and electronic signature at the moment of the record creation are required, but also creation of the so-called “trusted environment” designed to ensure preservation of records metadata by means of controlled managerial procedures. The focus should be on the information system as a whole. This understanding of electronic record authenticity has been entrenched in international standards on information and documentation. In Russian practice, the concept of “authenticity” is used very rarely; when applied to management electronic records, it is used mainly in the sense of identicalness to some source record. Such understanding involves procedures for comparison with reference record, which should remain unchanged. At the same time, within electronic environment in which the functioning of electronic records takes place, it is practically impossible to ensure that file(s) remain unchanged. Given the record’s social nature, we must understand that immutability of an electronic record is a relative concept that concerns preservation of its social function. That is why we must allow only a relative recognition of the identity of electronic records, allowing for possibility of some changes within which the electronic record retains its social functions. The difference between the copies of electronic records within this difference allows us to talk about authentic records.

Records management operation is vital as it can protect the organization and also helps in achieving its goal. Proper record keeping is critical to ensuring the administration's successful and productive record management. A wide range of records management difficulties and problems in dealing with electronic records, requires a qualified records manager in an organization to implement records management best practices, including how records are kept and maintained. This paper suggests a qualitative study on records managers to find a solution to the problems mentioned. The findings can benefit organizations dealing with electronic records, thus contributing to the body of knowledge.

The paper deals with the main researches of the Russian specialists in records management and experts in related scientific subjects that have been studying electronic records from the moment when this concept was found in the late 1990th till nowadays. The author analyzes definitions of the concept electronic record, studies its features, connected with information environment specifics as well as an electronic medium of information, definition of the main categories of electronic records and indications of their classification. By the beginning of XXI century a concept of electronic record was formed, which was un-contradictory for records management and archival science, its working definition was offered. Scientists think that an electronic record is a document that carries out the same functions and has the same indications as a traditional document. At the same time it was defined that a specific data carrier character and documenting methods put a problem of electronic records typology. The author has also solved a number of urgent problems - defined the electronic records structure and recognized its validity. The most actual problems for further studying were designated in the Program. Later scientific discussions were taken place about these questions to a greater or lesser extent, and now they become active in connection with a problem of an electronic records archival storage.

Purpose This paper examines existing research on the topic of personal health records (PHRs). Areas covered include PHR/patient portal, recordkeeping, preservation planning, access and provider needs for future reuse of health information. Patient and physician PHR use and functionality, as well as adoption facilitators and barriers, are also reviewed. Design/methodology/approach The paper engages in a review of relevant literature from a variety of subject domains, including personal information management, medical informatics, medical literature and archives and records management literature. Findings The review finds that PHRs are extensions of electronic records. In addition, it finds a lack of literature within archives and records management that may lead to a less preservation-centric examination of the new PHR technologies that are desirable for controlling the lifecycle of these important new records-type. Originality/value Although the issues presented by PHRs are issues that can best be solved with the use of techniques from records management, there is no current literature related to PHRs in the records management literature, and that offered in the medical informatics literature treats the stewardship aspects of PHRs as insurmountable. This paper offers an introduction to the aspects of PHRs that could fruitfully be examined in archives and records management.