Records Management Flashcards

What is 'appraisal' in the context of archival and records management practice?

Answer: Evaluating records to determine their retention value and ultimate disposition

Appraisal is the process of evaluating records to determine which should be retained permanently, retained for a defined period, or destroyed based on their administrative, legal, fiscal, or historical value.

A CDIA candidate is designing an imaging system for a county government. Which records management requirement is unique to government agencies compared to private sector organizations?

Answer: Government records are often subject to public access laws such as FOIA or state open records acts

Government records are typically subject to public access laws like the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or state open records acts, imposing transparency and access obligations not applicable to private sector organizations.

In a records management program, what is 'accession' most accurately defined as?

Answer: The transfer of physical or legal custody of records from one organization or system to another

Accession refers to the formal transfer of records — including physical custody or legal responsibility — typically from an originating office to an archives or records center.

Which of the following is an example of a 'non-record' that would typically be excluded from formal retention scheduling?

Answer: Preliminary drafts not retained as evidence of agency decision-making

Preliminary drafts that are not kept as evidence of the decision-making process are typically classified as non-records and are excluded from formal retention schedules.

What is the primary risk of 'format obsolescence' in long-term digital records preservation?

Answer: Software or hardware needed to read the record format may no longer be available

Format obsolescence occurs when the hardware or software needed to render a digital format is no longer available, making records unreadable even though the data still exists.

Which records management concept ensures that when a department is reorganized, records created under the old structure can still be linked to the functions that created them?

Answer: Provenance (respect des fonds)

Provenance (respect des fonds) is the archival principle that records should be maintained according to the organization that created them, preserving their original context even through restructuring.

A court finds that an organization intentionally destroyed records relevant to a lawsuit after a litigation hold was issued. What legal consequence is most likely?

Answer: The court may impose sanctions including adverse inference instructions against the organization

Intentional destruction of records under a litigation hold constitutes spoliation, and courts can impose sanctions including adverse inference instructions — telling the jury to assume the destroyed records were unfavorable to the destroying party.