Records and Information Management: Fundamentals of Professional Practice, Fourth Edition presents principles and practices for systematic management of recorded information. It is an authoritative resource for newly appointed records managers and information governance specialists as well as for experienced records management and information governance professionals who want a review of specific topics. It is also a textbook for undergraduate and graduate students of records management or allied disciplines-such as library science, archives management, information systems, and office administration-that are concerned with the storage, organization, retrieval, retention, or protection of recorded information. The fourth edition has been thoroughly updated and expanded to: -Set the professional discipline of RIM in the context of information governance, risk mitigation, and compliance and indicate how it contributes to those initiatives in government agencies, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations -Provide a global perspective, with international examples and a discussion of the differences in records management issues in different parts of the world. Its seven chapters are practical, rather than theoretical, and reflect the scope and responsibilities of RIM programs in all types of organizations. -Emphasize best practices and relevant standards. The book is organized into seven chapters that reflect the scope and responsibilities of records and information management programs in companies, government agencies, universities, cultural and philanthropic institutions, professional services firms, and other organizations. Topics covered include the conceptual foundations of systematic records management, the role of records management as a business discipline, fundamentals of record retention, management of active and inactive paper records, document imaging technologies and methods, concepts and technologies for organization and retrieval of digital documents, and protection of mission-critical records. In every chapter, the treatment is practical rather than theoretical. Drawing on the author's extensive experience supplemented by insights from records management publications, the book emphasizes key concepts and proven methods that readers can use to manage electronic and physical records.
About the Author: William Saffady is a records management and information governance consultant and researcher based in New York City. He is the author of over three dozen books and many articles on information governance, records management, record retention, document storage and retrieval technologies, library automation, and other information management topics. Saffady received his Ph.D, and M.S.L.S. degrees from Wayne State University. Before establishing his full-time consulting practice, he was a professor of library and information science at the State University of New York at Albany, Long Island University, Pratt Institute, and Vanderbilt University. Saffady is a fellow of ARMA International, and he is profiled in the Encyclopedia of Archival Writers, 1515-2015, a reference work published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2019.