I agree with John. You might also like to contact the records management professional bodies in other countries e.g. In UK The Information and Records Management Society. www.irms.org.uk. Many countries In mainland Europe have no word in their language for records management but the archivists and anyone involved in information governance understand the needs of the countries there. ARMA has a European Region so you may want to check with them. China and Japan have been influenced by Australia a bit and do have records management professionals. Culture is hugely important and colours the way RM is delivered. The judicial systems are all quite different. China has masses of provinces that have their own regulations. Each country in Europe has its own laws but also EU directives. There's lots more but this email could end up a book at this rate. Hope this helps Alison North ARMA International Director Elect 447785 397101 -----Original Message----- From: John Phillips <[log in to unmask]> Sender: Records Management Program <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:24:51 To: <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: Records Management Program <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: International Records Programs Mary Haider is right - the basics are the same. However, in working these issues with clients, I have found that your major challenge will be establishing the records management, data retention, security/privacy, and CULTURAL EXPECTATIONS of each country with which you will collaborate in developing your program. US laws, regs, and norms certainly do not necessarily apply to other countries. They can be very adamant about following their own norms with any records stored within their boundaries (paper or electronic) , as well as, responsibly managing according to their standards any records originating within their systems. You want to build on local country specific attorneys or international law firms and records storage vendor contacts with their feet on the ground in remote places. And you will need to inform your management about conflicts between the US and Other Country record keeping and data retention requirements. Building actual representatives and contacts in the Other Countries is the most important technique in getting cross-enterprise international compliance with your organization's needs. John ************************** John Phillps Information Technology Decisions www.infotechdecisions.net -----Original Message----- From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Smith Sent: Friday, June 08, 2012 12:59 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: International Records Programs Dear Colleagues: I hope everyone is well on this Friday afternoon (at least in PA). My organization, like many, has international operations for which I am looking to implement a records management program. We currently have operations in the UK, Japan, Germany, Italy and China with an eye toward other opportunities. I wanted to reach out today to see if there are any checklists for establishing an international records program. Does anyone have such a checklist they would be willing to share? Some of the things I am looking to address include records retention (of course!) along with long-term offsite storage, onsite storage, e-discovery, electronic data retention and purging from files shares, etc. I would greatly appreciate any feedback. I can be reached at my contact information below. Thanks, Steve Stephen A. Smith, MLIS, CRM, CIP, CDIA+ Records Manager QVC, Inc. 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