Disaster Recovery Programs

Why Is It Important To Plan For Disasters?

Organizations should develop appropriate protective measures for their records and copies of their vital records to respond to actual or potential emergencies or disasters identified in contingency planning. This is the records management aspect of emergency management. Vital records are emphasized because they tend to have the greatest value in case of emergency or they require extra protection because they document legal or financial rights. The type and level of value determine the amount of protection agencies should provide. Special protective measures for vital records may include using fire-rated filing equipment for storage; constructing onsite vaults; transferring records to offsite storage; duplicating the records at the time of their creation, such as computer "backup" tapes, using existing duplicates as vital record copies; or microfilming vital records.

These "special records" require specific environmental conditions and careful handling throughout their life cycle to ensure their preservation. Organizations must maintain temperature and humidity controls for special records such as photographs and negatives, microforms, audio and video tapes and disks, and electronic tapes and disks.

When emergencies or disasters occur, however, even the best of protective measures may not prevent damage to records. Consequently, organizations need to develop records recovery plans for timely and economical response to records disasters in order to salvage or replace damaged records and the information that they contain.