Disposition
The final action taken on a record at the end of its retention period — typically destruction, transfer to an archives, or permanent preservation — carried out under documented authority.
Disposition is what happens to a record when its retention period ends. It is the closing stage of the records lifecycle, and there are three principal outcomes:
- Destruction — the record is destroyed using an appropriate method once it is no longer required.
- Transfer — the record is moved to another custodian, such as a national or organizational archives, often the path for permanent records.
- Permanent retention — records appraised as having enduring value are preserved indefinitely.
Sound disposition is defensible: it is carried out routinely and consistently, under documented authority (a retention schedule), and it can be suspended by a litigation hold when records are relevant to anticipated or active legal matters. Defensible disposition is not about destroying inconvenient information — it is about disposing of records you are no longer obligated to keep, in a way you can prove was proper.