Life cycle of record

By Khairul Izzuan Bin Ahmad

Life cycle of record.

Life cycle concept that drawn an analogy between the life of a biological which is born, lives and dies. Same with the record also have their own life cycle which is the records is created, used by the organization and maintain it, will appraise to determine its valuable or not and lastly will dispose or sent to archive. This stage will discuss about the life cycle of record itself and will gain your knowledge about what it’s the life cycle of record( simple as the journey of life of records itself).

Creation

Creating records is a fundamental part of doing business, records are created by the organization as a transaction to the business their doing. Records will be retrieve for their information to help the organization know what to do for their organization. What ever the transaction are done, the records will exist automatically to proof the transaction they have done. For an example, when the transaction business via email or letter we create a record that can subsequently serve as evidence of the transaction. Other transaction in which record are routinely generated including the form of contracts, invoices and so on.

Distribution or Use and Maintenance

In this phase, the record those are created will be used by the origin office and the records will maintained as long it use for the organization. The concern in this phase is the retrieval of information by the records their keep must be quick and help the organization to make a decision. For an example, the movement of the file, the where about of files must be known to the registry. The registry will records the movement of the records and know where the records and know who responsible to that records.

Appraisal

Appraisal is the process of determining the value of records for further use, for whatever purpose, and the length of time for which that value will continue. Also known as evaluation, review or selection.

The important of appraisal which is :

- To identify the records needed by capture sufficient of business activities.

- To determine the length of time the records need to kept.

- To decide and documented the format and location in which the records need to be kept.

- To determine the ultimate disposal of the records.

- To determine the value of records as a primary value or secondary value.

Appraisal involves two tasks. First, the process of deciding what records need to kept for their continuing value to their creators, and how long they should be kept. Secondly is the process of deciding which records have an enduring value for purposes other than those for which they were created.

Disposal

This is the final stage of record management process. In this phase, records that no have a value for the organization or individual will be dispose. For the government department, the national archival institutional like Archive of Malaysia will assist in the disposal process. Those records that have a value will be sent to the archival repository and will kept permanently for reference to the public.

The private sector can do the process of disposal with the guideline by the administration officers or their manager. Their also can kept their records semi active and non active at records repository that their rent. By kept the semi current or semi active record outside their building will be save the cost money and space.