This view of electronic records is inclusive of any information created and recorded on a computer by a public employee regardless of its confidentiality or legal restrictions upon its public disclosure. Questions about access to electronic records and requests for access to public records should be referred to the University Archivist or the University Legal Advisor. Electronic records or files have many different forms and formats. The lines separating the types of electronic records have become increasingly blurred. Numerous software applications have the capacity to combine graphics, text, and sound into single records.
Networked systems allow multiple authors to work on a single document.
As software becomes increasingly sophisticated, the electronic record can assume different forms depending on the software used to access it. There are, however, some distinct types of electronic records which can be identified and their dispositions easily determined. Although text has traditionally been used to prepare hard copy records through the use of word processing and desktop publishing software, text documents are now often created for use only in machine readable form. However, the vast majority of textual electronic records continue to consist of drafts and copies of correspondence, memoranda, reports, and publications distributed in hard copy form. Databases consist of data elements organized and stored so that the elements can be manipulated or extracted to serve diverse applications.