JISC

Higher Education Institutions: Function Activity Model (FAM) & Record Retention Schedule (RRS)

Foreword: Kings College

Functional analysis and the creation and use of a records retention schedule lie at the heart of effective institutional information management.  If we cannot track how we create, hold, use, distribute, preserve or destroy information whether in electronic or paper form, there has to be doubt whether our institutions are running as effectively as they might be or indeed within the law.

Experience at King's College London of adapting and using the predecessor of this Function & Activity Model and its associated Record Retention Schedule has underpinned for us its many uses.  However broad its headings may sometimes seem, it is a good basis for discussion between information professionals and administrative and academic staff and represents an invaluable spur to the creation of a record retention schedule specifically tailored to the exact needs of an individual institution.  Equally, once adapted and approved by the governing body or relevant executive committees, it is a firm building block for other work; in our case a Data Protection Audit and devising a Freedom of Information Act Publication Scheme.

The particular benefit of this most recent work is that it provides a welcome update in terms of the legislative environment and e-agendas which are both adding urgency to the need to implement records management fully.

Patricia Methven
Deputy Director of ISS and Director of Archives and Corporate Records Services
Kings College London