Identifying Vital Records

Identifying Vital Records

A record is ‘vital’ if the organisation – or a particular office within the organisation – cannot function without it. The personnel department may consider its employee files vital because all critical data about each employee is recorded in one central location. On the other hand, the payroll department may hold copies of employee records; these records may not be vital to the payroll department, since they are just reference copies and could be replaced by originals from the personnel department, as long as the personnel records have not been lost or damaged.

Similarly, an archival institution may consider its accessions registers vital, as they are the primary evidence of what has been received by the institution. The records centre may maintain copies of the same registers; because these are not originals they may not be considered ‘vital’. But they may in fact be the only security copies, making them even more valuable than the originals.

In general, it can be said that vital records are those records that support the ‘vital’ functions of the organisation. Without those records, the organisation would have great difficulty continuing its core business.

A functioning vital records management programme must begin with an understanding of what is a vital record to that organisation. It is useful to repeat the definition included at the beginning of this module.

Vital records: Records considered critical to the ongoing operations of an organisation or the re-establishment of operations after an emergency or disaster. Also known as essential records.

Who Identifies Vital Records?

But senior management has a more important role to play than simply defining the organisation’s business. A vital records programme will succeed only with strong and visible support from the organisation’s senior management. A comprehensive plan requires broad participation and a commitment of resources. Senior management support is paramount to ensure that business resumption planning and a vital records programme can compete for financial and personnel resources.

Senior management should actively support the vital records plan as it is being implemented and then on an ongoing basis, to ensure its general acceptance and, ultimately, its success. Such support could be in the form of memos to staff on the necessity and importance of the vital records plan, reference to the plan in staff briefings, or by any other means of communication with employees of the institution.

Identify who in your institution (by position title, not personal name) should be involved with the development of a vital records programme. Indicate briefly why you selected those positions.

The group responsible for actually developing a vital records management programme should include both people responsible for records management and people involved with emergency preparedness. The key users of the records should also be involved in the process of identifying vital records, and legal, financial and technical experts may also be consulted. Senior management should be involved from the beginning of the process to ensure that the programme is established in its entirety and is kept up to date. The archival institution should participate throughout the entire process in order to provide both technical and management input into the decision-making process.

Which Records Are Vital?

The mission statement, legislation and policy documentation of the organisation can provide information that will help define the organisation’s vital services and responsibilities. The determination of those vital services and programmes will then determine which records are vital. However, as a general rule, it is possible to say that vital records will have at least one of the following three qualities.

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  They will be crucial to the operations of any organisation

  or
  

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  they will be required to protect the rights of individuals or the organisation
  

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  they will be absolutely integral to the reconstruction of the organisation in the event of an interruption or termination of services.
  

Name three records that you consider absolutely crucial to the operations of your organisation.

Name three types of records essential to protecting the rights of individuals involved with your organisation (such as employees, or the general public, or users).

Name three types of records that you would have to have access to in order to re establish your organisation’s operations in the event of an emergency.

For each type of record you identified, indicate why you thought it was important.

Appraising records in order to determine if they are vital requires a knowledge of the functions of the organisation, the records required to carry out those functions and the life cycle of records. All of those responsible for the information holdings of an organisation should be involved in determining which records are vital. The records manager, librarian, electronic records manager and the emergency planner or security person should work closely with each other and with the users of the information in order to determine which records are vital.