Storage and preservation issues for paper and digital records : a case study on a law firm

Abstract

Storage and preservation issues for paper and digital records need to be tackled so that the records survive the test of time. In this long essay some questions will be raised in order to shed light on issues related to this topic. These include a number of questions: why is records management needed for the storage and preservation of records? What are the storage issues for paper records? What are the preservation issues for paper records? What general guidelines for storage and preservation of paper records exist in the records management practice? What are the storage issues for digital records? What are the preservation issues for digital records? What are the guidelines for the storage and preservation of digital records? It is hoped that this long assignment succeeds in answering some of the questions above. A case study on a major law firm in Malta will also be conducted. Valuable inputs for this long essay have been provided by the managers, and the IT department. Feedback and cooperation was sought through a questionnaire. The law firm has made progress in implementing new procedures for the preservation of records and also upgraded their archives with the aim of making them more secure and facilitate the retrieval of records. In general the practices adopted in the law firm studied, show sound quality; one area where further improvement can be achieved is in implementing further policies for the safeguarding of their physical and electronic records and more maintenance to the physical archives with the objective of making the archives where records are preserved more accessible and secure.