AFI33-322 23 MARCH 2020 5
Chapter 1
RECORDS MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW
1.1. Purpose. Records serve a vital role in documenting the Air Force mission: providing
evidence and accountability of the organization, function, policy, and procedures to the public,
congress, and the Department of Defense; ensuring important information is available to support
effective decision making, thus enhancing readiness and lethality; protecting the legal rights of the
Air Force and the public. Records are created and received by military, civilian, and contractor
personnel to document official business, serve as memory of the organization, provide a record of
past events, and serve as the basis for future actions.
1.1.1. Records management includes planning, controlling, directing, organizing, training,
promoting, and additional managerial activities involved with respect to records creation,
maintenance, use, and disposition. It involves preserving, setting up safeguards against illegal
removal, loss, or destruction of records and promptly and systematically disposing records of
temporary value. Records management is a subset of information governance, the policy-based
control of information to meet all legal, regulatory, risk, and business demands. Records
management is also a part of the information access programs, areas which involve the
collection, use, search, protection, accessibility, and disposal of information.
1.1.2. The International Organization for Standardization established standards for records
management such as International Organization for Standardization 15489, Information and
Documentation - Records Management, April 2016, underlying several areas of National
Archives and Records Administration guidance of which the Air Force must comply,
information available at https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/requirements-
guidance.html (T-0). Announced by the Secretary of Defense in 2017, the Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff introduced Information as a new, seventh joint function.
1.2. Federal and Departmental Guidance. The Air Force records management program is
governed by laws, regulations, and policies from the Federal Government, specifically the National
Archives and Records Administration, Department of Defense, and the General Services
Administration. See references in Attachment 1.
1.3. Records. Records include all recorded information, regardless of form or characteristic,
made or received by a federal agency under federal law. In addition, records are created and
received in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for
preservation an agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organizations functions,
policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the United States Government or
because of the informational value of data in them. Records do not include library and museum
material made or acquired and preserved solely for reference, exhibition purposes or duplicate
copies of records preserved only for convenience. Information in any medium can be a record, and
this includes information created or received by the Air Force in contingency or wartime
operations, as well as in all routine and peacetime business. Electronic media is required for the
creation, use, storage, and management of Air Force records. Drafts can be altered but official
records cannot. To determine if documentary material or electronic mail (e-mail) meets the
definition of an official record, see Attachment 3. Official records belong to the Air Force and
not to the individual who created or received the records. There is no distinction between “record”
and “official record” in this publication.