Design and development of a records retention and disposition schedule and guidelines at Infectious Disease Institute

Abstract

This research study was carried out at Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) to investigate the causes of the high rate increase in volume of records in the institution’s Records and Information centre. The objectives of the study were to find out the types of records maintained at IDI, to understand the retention and disposition procedures at IDI, to examine the causes of the great increase in volume of records stored in IDI information and archival centre, to find suggestions for improving the existing records management procedures that will help optimize records storage space at IDI and lastly to develop a comprehensive records retention and disposition schedule and guidelines for IDI. A qualitative research approach was used for the study and a non-random sampling method was undertaken. Interview and observation methods were used to collect data. The study found out that IDI lacked a well-established RRDS that could be used to eliminate records that have outlived their value so as to optimize the available records storage space. The study also recommended that IDI records could be digitized so as to improve their quality and reliability using the available IT resources and as such only physical copies of high value records could be retained. The study therefore led to the proposal of a Records Retention and Disposal Schedule (RRDS) for IDI that will improve the overall utilization of information resources, control the growth of records volume, demonstrate compliance with regulatory recordkeeping requirements, enforce the consistent implementation of record keeping policies, improve ability to locate and retrieve records when required and greatly reduce litigation risks.