EXERCISE 4. In pairs, discuss the following questions.

Check the answer with the

text "What are Records?".
1. How does the ISO define a record as?
‘Records’ are information created, received, and maintained as evidence by an
organisation or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of
business (ISO 15489); digital record: a document in digital form that is managed as a
record (InterPARES glossary).
2. What kind of purposes does records include?
The purpose of the record includes:
Records provide evidence: For example, the ministry creates records of the evaluation
process to show how it chose one company instead of another.
Records support decision-making: For example, submissions are in a standard format
that allows comparisons to be made between companies in terms of costs, work plans,
experience, etc.
Records enable the organisation to hold itself accountable: For example, the records
can be used to show that the ministry has complied with procurement regulations.
Records support the pursuit of individual rights and entitlements: For example, the
records can be used to defend the ministry against a company’s claim that it was not
fairly treated in the tendering process. Taking another example, records can be used to
support tenants’ claims that insufficient compensation has been paid when a building
they have been living in has been demolished during a construction project.
Records are the source of valuable data and information for monitoring, analysing and
planning. For example, information from a contracting process is combined with
information on all other contracts for construction projects in the same year; the
combined information is analysed to report on how much was spent, on what types of
projects, where and so on.
3. What types of form or medium can records come in?
types of form or medium can records come in:
Most are still created on paper, in the form of correspondence, minutes, reports and
memoranda, and they are normally filed systematically. In addition, information may
be recorded on paper in ledgers, registers, notebooks, appointment diaries and other
volumes, or they may be in the form of maps and plans (cartographic records),
architectural and engineering drawings, pictures (iconographic records) or computer
printouts. And records may also be created on media other than paper: in roll
microfilm, microfiche or computer output microfiche (COM) formats (microforms);
as photographs, including prints, negatives, transparencies and x-ray films; as sound
recordings on disk or tape; as moving images on film or video (audiovisual records);
as electronic text or images copied on magnetic tape or magnetic or optical disk or
held in online databases (electronic records; formerly known as machine-readable
records); as three-dimensional models, scientific specimens or other objects; or as
combinations of any of the above formats in an electronic form (multimedia).

EXERCISE 5. Match the words with their definitions.

1 – d: to maintain = to keep in existence

2 – g: to record = to keep information for the future by writing it down or storing it on
a computer
3 – a: to manage = to control or organize someone or something
4 – b: to create = to make something new
5 – c: to comply = to act according to an order, set of rules, or request
6 – e: to monitor = to watch and check something carefully over a period of time
7 – f: to access = to be able to get or use something