The capability to manage corporate information well is fundamental to any successful organisation. The Create and Maintain Recordkeeping Standard identifies the key requirements for successful information management for recordkeeping purposes. The standard supports the Public Records Act 2005 requirement for the creation and maintenance of full and accurate business records. It sets out the minimum requirements for your organisation’s corporate information to remain accessible, reliable and useable as part of good business practice.

This requirement to keep full and accurate business records does not mean every
work-related conversation, interaction, or piece of correspondence needs to be
kept. It relates to those records which document a business action, transaction,
or decision and are a record of your business activity. To meet these requirements,
some change to current business processes will be needed in organisations where
good recordkeeping practice is not already well established. This change may require additional resources, but the benefits and business efficiencies of having useful, well organised, reliable and sustainable information cannot be underestimated.

Creating and maintaining effective information requires technical expertise, as well
as an understanding of information management and recordkeeping. The Create
and Maintain Recordkeeping Standard is intended for a predominantly specialist
recordkeeping audience. Staff in your organisation who are responsible for information and records management or recordkeeping technology management should refer to this document when designing business information policies and systems. This will give you confidence that your information assets are being well managed.

This standard sets out a systematic approach to ensure organisational information can be managed efficiently; that it can be found when needed; and it can be relied upon to support informed decision making and effective service delivery. Adopting this standard across both central and local government will improve knowledge sharing within and between organisations. Common outcomes can be achieved by using shared approaches and processes.

This standard contains a checklist to help you measure your current recordkeeping
practices and capability and identify any areas for improvement. If you have any
questions or comments about this standard please contact the Government
Recordkeeping Programme at Archives New Zealand.

Signed:

Chief Executive and Chief Archivist

Date: 30 June 2008

Review date: 2012