Hi All:  I apologize for the cross-posting.  I posited this to the 
ERECS list a couple of days a go:

I've recently become involved in a data warehousing project and am 
grappling with the issue of what is a record and how long is it 
retained in regards to a data warehouse. In the analog world, the 
byproduct of an operational system, say a quarterly or annual report, 
would be a definitive record with a specific life. However, in data 
warehousing the underlying data of those reports is migrated to (and 
potentially transformed) to the data warehouse typically with the 
intention of maintaining that data much longer than one would the 
original record for analytical purposes. My gut tells me that this is 
because we now have the capability to maintain the data, as well as 
to integrate it with data from other operating systems in a 
normalized atmosphere, and with this ability we now have a desire to 
keep the data longer as a way to analyze our organizational history.

So the questions I have (or the discussion I would like to foster is):
    * Does the transformational act of migrating to the data 
warehouse from an operational system create a new record?
    * If yes, do we have a new record series for the data in the data 
warehouse?
    * Is the data either which way a record, or are only the 
byproducts of the operational system and data warehouse records?
    * Do the analytics reports, generated from a data warehouse, have 
a retention and is it greater than, equal to, or less than the data 
in the data warehouse?
I'm not necessarily looking for definitive answers, but would like to 
generate discussion on this topic or be pointed to resources that 
have addressed or discuss this issue.

Thanks -- Dan


Daniel W. Noonan, MLS, CDIA+
Electronic Records Manager/Archivist
Ohio State University Archives
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