Regardless of its physical manifestation, a record represents evidence of or information about a decision, transaction, process or other activity/function. It is a permanent asset - or fixed content - that is subject to rules for compliance, retention, access control, appraisal and disposition (whether this is destruction/deletion or permanent preservation). Typically a record will be "declared" as such.

Defining Records

Records might include books, papers, maps, photographs, tapes, films, recordings; digital, paper and microform documents.

A record can include more than one actual document, where together they constitute the evidence. A document becomes a record when it is placed in an organized filing system for use as evidence or information. Preserving a record's contextual relationship to a larger group of documents is a key difference between records management and Document Management, which typically focuses on the management of an individual content object and meeting the operational requirements for using business information.