Vital Records

Records are categorised for protection into four (4) types:

Vital Records

These are those records which if are destroyed, could seriously affect the viability and continuation of the University. There are many cases of company's going out of business as the result of a fire destroying its vital records. For example property files, agreements and leases etc.

Important Records

These are those considered necessary for the smooth running of an organisation, but whose loss would not necessarily put it out of business. Their loss would however cause serious disruption and inconvenience, and involve many hours of research to reconstruct. For example Personnel history cards, minutes, public liability claims, student academic transcript etc.

Useful Records

These form the bulk of any organisations records; these would be an inconvenience if lost but not a disaster. In most instances their loss can be written off and there is no need to reconstruct folders i.e. Body registers

Transitory Records

These would contain material that is not important or essential to University business for example letters of appreciation, course information (not conducted by CSU) etc.

The objectives of any disaster recovery plan are:

As Charles Sturt University scans all received documents and holds electronic versions of all material produced these electronic files/scanned images act as a back-up or copy of the physical documents where they exist, these electronic files/scanned images are also backed-up by DIT each night when registered within TRIM. The physical vital documents should be protected as best as can be i.e. within lockable rooms/cabinets and on appropriate shelving.