Records management is the systematic control of records throughout their life cycle. University employees routinely create, receive, use, and destroy records in the normal course of business, and records management provides rules and a structure for ensuring that all of these processes happen in a way that fits with our operational needs and our legal responsibilities.

The goal of records management is to ensure that University employees create the records we need, keep these records in ways that allow for efficient access and use, maintain records for as long as we need them for operational, legal, and audit purposes, and to dispose of them when they are past their retention period. Most records are destroyed at the disposal point; however a small percentage of records is identified as having permanent value to the University. These records should be transferred to the University Archives (located in the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library) upon approval of the University Archivist.

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