The Records Management Office (RMO) was established to facilitate the efficient and economical management of recordkeeping activities of the university. The program provides a variety of valuable services critical to the effective management of the university’s recorded information and provides low-cost maintenance for semi-active and inactive records (needed for ready reference). The rules established will provide standard guidelines for the University of Tennessee System.
The Records Management Office provides specialized records management services, training, and long-term storage of inactive records. RMO’s goal is to support effective decision-making and accountability by ensuring efficient information storage and retrieval. RMO is concerned with the tasks needed to control the creation, use, storage, and disposal of records. The advantage of standardizing the identification and disposal of the university’s records is the reduction of recordkeeping costs related to space, equipment, and staff time. By standardizing the recordkeeping practices, the records management program aims to:
- provide uniform access to information on a university-wide basis
- prevent the creation or retention of unnecessary records
- provide recordkeeping systems that efficiently maintain and retrieve information
- provide efficient and prompt disposal of records when their administrative, legal, audit, and regulatory value has ceased
- abide by other relevant legislation
The Records Center is managed by a highly competent staff trained in records management and disposition services. They receive, retrieve, deliver, transfer, microfilm, scan, and destroy records according to approved policy. The records are stored in a temperature and humidity controlled secure building and are maintained by an automated records management system. Normally records can be retrieved for customers within the same day.
In addition, the work processes for all functions are constantly being analyzed to improve efficiency, maximize quality, and reduce costs to both individual departments and the university.