It won’t be long until the federal government will have completed a major step of one of its biggest information management initiatives, the Managing Government Records Directive (M-12-18). GCN brought this news to us in their article, “Information management extends beyond digital records.”

The directive seeks to establish a modern framework for the management of government records and instructs agencies to manage both permanent and temporary email records in an accessible electronic format by the end of 2016.

This is an overwhelming task with a daunting deadline, but currently, the majority of agencies are on track to meet the directive’s deadline.

This will get them ready to refocus their attention towards meeting the next major deadline, set for the end of 2019, which requires them to manage all permanent electronic records, not just email, in an accessible electronic format.

The digital aspect is a large component, but it also means considering the whole of any agency’s overarching information management program, including compliance, classification, retention and employee training.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.