Email is the predominant means of communication for most organisations, it has replaced the fax and telephone and, in many cases, the letter as the means by which the day-to-day business of an organisation is conducted. Email affects the way we work; it allows for enhanced workflow and is important in the scheduling and prioritising of our actions, it is also a means of informal communication between colleagues. In some cases an email might be the only record of a transaction or a decision having being made. Email is an effective and efficient communication tool it is immediate and because it is on our desktop it feels like a personal communication system, however, when used to conduct the business of an organisation an email constitutes a record and as such needs to be treated within the records management structure of that organisation.

Electronic records, including emails, exist in a virtual world and, because they are easily created and disposed of, management of this electronic resource is not often carefully thought out or subject to policy. Digital records are subject to the same legal requirements as records in a paper format so it is important that an organisation develop a clear policy with regard to email within the overall records management structure.

A good records management programme needs to ensure that records are authentic, reliable and usable throughout their lifecycle and this concern, therefore, applies to email.
Records management issues with regard to email include:

• Access - Official email needs to be identified as such and habitually printed and filed or stored on a central network folder to make it accessible to relevant staff. Emails should be stored according to the function, process or activity that produced them. All electronic records should be held on the appropriate folders on the network to ensure that they are backed up daily. Emails that need to be preserved over time should be held in accessible formats whether in hardcopy or on-line.

• Disposition - Emails should be preserved or deleted as necessary, ideally according to organisational retention and destruction policies. Duplication should be avoided, so policy must state who is responsible for storing which emails.

• Legislation - The Data Protection, E-Commerce and the Freedom of Information Acts, among others, apply to e-mail. The relevant standard is BSI PD 0008, the Code of Practice for Legal Admissibility and evidential weight of information stored electronically.

• Authenticity - Is the email from the person who appears to have sent it? Has the record been altered? Is there a record of changes made?

Metadata is of crucial importance with e-mail. Metadata is information about how, when and by whom the record was created and accessed. In other words, it is its context. This is an extremely important point, should the email ever be examined in a court case. In order to be legally admissible, electronic records must be accurate and up to date and accessible, as well as safe and secure. To be considered as evidence, a record must possess content, structure and context and be part of a record keeping system. Metadata may be lost when printing out emails, so care must be taken.

Another important aspect to email as a digital record is that emails may contain attachments or links to other digital records. Moreover, an email is often not a stand-alone record, but is part of correspondence on a given topic. Thus, it must be addressed in conjunction with the other records that address the same subject.
In conclusion, when developing an email policy, as part of an overall records management programme, an organisation should be guided by legislation, standards and best practice.

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