John, another great posting, but a bit confusing to me. I agree with
everything you said, but metadata is not something separate from a
record, its something that is a component of a record. If you decide to
keep a record for a business purpose, it would appear that you would
keep its associated metadata. If components of that record's metadata
serve no business purpose, those components could be scrubbed, if that
too serves a business purpose. I'm not entirely convinced that this is
necessary in most instances, as I am assuming the scrubbing of that
metadata also entails overhead. 

The only concern I have raised relates to records authenticity (as well
as utilizing one business process to justify another unrelated one). If
the metadata is a key component of that authenticity (and, as Randy
pointed out, that isn't always the case) I'm assuming you wouldn't want
to scrub it, otherwise you have undermined the records value, regardless
of litigation concerns. And, as I said at the beginning of this
conversation, if you are scrubbing that fundamental metadata because of
litigation concerns, and in the process destroying key components of a
record's authenticity, how is this any different than destroying records
without reference to a retention schedule, or, in the example I
originally cited, removing a signature from a contract? I can understand
the application of this in a legal records keeping context, where it
appears all parties agree in the practice, but I really question the
scrubbing of metadata fundamental to records authenticity. I'm assuming
that is not what anyone is actually proposing. I also note that many of
the examples cited don't appear to me to be applying to record copy, but
rather to copies provided externally.

I guess I'm confused in this thread as how this turned into a
conversation on "keeping everything" or "all metadata", since I actually
haven't seen anyone suggest that.

Dwight Wallis, CRM
Records Administrator
Multnomah County Fleet, Records, Electronics, Distribution and Stores
(FREDS)
1620 S.E. 190th Avenue
Portland, OR 97233
Phone: (503)988-3741
Fax: (503)988-3754
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