Records management addresses business information created in the course of everyday work and retained to provide evidence of work undertaken.

Records are evidence of business activities. Where emails provide evidence of business activity they must also be defined as records.

The concern of records management is that records are authentic, reliable and usable throughout their lifecycle from creation to disposition. Where emails are defined as records these concerns must also apply.

Access
• Private medium: Email is essentially private and therefore official emails need to be identified as such and printed and filed or stored on a central network folder to make it accessible to relevant staff.
• Storage: Emails should be stored in an accessible way, according to the function, process or activity that produced them
• Preservation: Emails that need to be preserved over time should be held in accessible formats whether in hardcopy or on-line.

Disposition
• Retention and Deletion: Emails should be preserved or deleted as necessary ideally according to organisational retention and destruction policies

•Duplication: Sending attachments within email to a group of individuals – the recommendation is to have the attachment available centrally and the link sent withinthe email

•Data Protection: CC field should be used when mailing to a group who have no need of knowing each others address

•Freedom of Information: Email is covered by FOI legislation and must be made available in response to FOI requests.

Authenticity
• Authoring: Is the email from the person who appears to have sent it. Electronic signatures. Passwords and organisational procedures need to be in place.
• Audit trails: Has the record been altered? Is there a record of changes made?

Evidential nature (context):
• Structure - message header (author, recipient, subject, transmission info (date & time sent etc), message body containing content
• Content - actual message
• Context -

Whereas publications and reports tend to be discrete items, records (unique primary source material) require context to provide real value and integrity as a record.

For example, email that forms part of correspondence on an issue is of more value than a single email sent. A draft email is a document, once sent it becomes a record since it participates in a transaction.

Need to know
1) Business context: What function/activity produced the record – what is the source?
2) Other records: What other records within the function provide context for this record – what other records?
3) Other parts: Are there parts to the record? For example, links to spreadsheets, Word documents etc. especially dynamic links where the attached information changes.

Necessary metadata needs to be captured about the email and its attachments

Email management usually addresses access and storage, in addition to these it should also address retention, authenticity and integrity.

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