Getting started

Information Management and Protection (IM&P) offers resources to get you started in managing your information.  These resources address common information management and protection challenges, such as creating good records, email cleanup and using network drives to manage information.

Among the resources to get you started are a set of quick-tip documents called For The Record, awareness posters, templates for conducting risk-based assessments of services and worksheets for creating an inventory of your unit’s records.  A new tool under development is MUNCLASS, a Classification and Retention Plan for the management of university records.

Here are five steps to get you started in information management and protection.  Resources are provided for each step:

  1. Know the basics
  2. Manage email
  3. Manage the shared drive
  4. Manage paper
  5. Protect information

Know the basics

Information needs to be properly managed just like other university assets to maximize its value and minimize its cost.  All Memorial University employees have a stake in making sure information is efficiently and effectively managed.

Here are resources to help you understand the basics of information management and provide a foundation for practising good information management within your unit:

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Manage email

Units across the university rely heavily on email as a means of communication.  Like any other record, email needs to be managed to ensure that it is secure, readily available when needed, accurate, kept as long as needed and appropriately disposed of when it’s no longer needed.

These are resources to assist in the management, processing and organization of email:

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Manage the shared drive

Units across Memorial University use shared drives as a central space for storing electronic information.  Over time, these drives can become unmanageable due to duplication, inconsistent naming and a general lack of oversight of contents.

Here are resources that will assist in the cleanup, reorganization and ongoing maintenance of shared drives:

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Manage paper

University units often keep more paper records than they need for immediate and ongoing business needs.  The following resources provide guidance on the best practices for paper records cleanup and day-to-day management of paper records:

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Protect information

Information protection is an area of practice in which the management of information converges with security policy.  It includes measures to protect information from inappropriate access or use, as well as to ensure integrity and availability as required.  Taking a modern, risk-based approach to protecting information is key to ensuring the information’s confidentiality, integrity and availability over time.

These resources assist units in protecting and classifying their information assets:

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