ISO 15489-1 2nd Edition – Records Management

ISO 15489-1, “Information and documentation – Records management – Part 1: Concepts and principles,” has just been updated.  This new edition is a technical revision and replaces the previous 1st Edition from September 2001.  You can purchase your copy of the new 2nd Edition from Document Center Inc. in a variety of formats.

Records management is an essential component of a good document control program.  The ISO 15489-1 provides you with a complete overview of the core concepts and principles of the management of records, from creation to archiving.  Since the original release of the standard in 2001, a lot of changes have occurred in this field, primarily due to the increased reliance on digital records.  This has led to a major overhaul of the publication.

After the first 3 sections on Scope, Reference documents, and Terms and definitions, the 1st Edition covered the benfits of records management and the regulatory environment.  No more.  The 2nd Edition moves directly into the Principles of managing records in Section 4 and Records and record systems in Section 5.  Then the Section 6 is the Policies and responsibilities, as before.

Where the old edition reviewed record management requirements in Section 7, the new edition addresses Appraisal, a different take on assessing your needs and the implementation process that will work for you. And following this, the new Section 8 strictly covers Record controls and Section 9 focuses in on the Processes used for creating, capturing and managing records.  This is in contrast to the old publication’s sections on Design and implementation, Processes and controls, Monitoring and auditing, and Training.  And the new 2nd Edition has a 9-item bibliography that was not in the first release.

You may be wondering if this complete re-write of the standard will affect the ISO/TR 15489-2 on Guidelines which is still the 1st Edition from 2001.  There is no committee activity on a new edition for the part 2 at this time.

And of course, you’ll want a copy of this new document if you’re involved in records management or document control at your organization.  Be sure to use an authorized distributor like Document Center Inc. for all your standards purchases to make sure you’re conforming with copyright law.  You can search for and order standards at our webstore, www.document-center.com.  Here’s the direct link to the order page for the ISO 15489-1.

Do you have more questions?  Want to work with a real person in order to place your order?  Contact our staff by phone at 650-591-7600 or by email at info@document-center.com.  We’ve been working with standards since 1982.  Make us your Standards Experts!