ISO 15489-1:2016 : Records Management

Records are both evidence of business activity and information assets. They can be distinguished from other information assets by their role as evidence in the transaction of business and by their reliance on metadata. Metadata for records is used to indicate and preserve context and apply appropriate rules for managing records.
Managing records encompasses the following:
a) creating and capturing records to meet requirements for evidence of business activity;
b) taking appropriate action to protect their authenticity, reliability, integrity and useability as their
business context and requirements for their management change over time.

Increasingly, records are made and kept in digital environments, offering a range of opportunities for new kinds of use and reuse. Digital environments also allow greater flexibility in the implementation of records controls, within and between systems that manage records.

ISO 15489 establishes the core concepts and principles for the creation, capture and management of records. It sits at the heart of a number of International Standards and Technical Reports that provide further guidance and instruction on the concepts, techniques and practices for creating, capturing and managing records.