Vital Records
The small subset of records an organization needs to resume operations after an emergency and to protect its legal and financial rights — protected through duplication and dispersal.
Vital records are the records an organization absolutely needs to continue or resume operations after an emergency, and to protect the legal and financial rights of the organization and the people it serves. They are a small, critical subset — often just 1–5% of total holdings.
They fall into two groups: emergency operating records (needed to keep functioning — current contracts, delegations of authority, emergency plans, critical operational data) and rights-and-interests records (needed to protect legal/financial rights — incorporation documents, personnel and benefits records, accounts receivable). A vital records program identifies them in advance and protects them, typically through duplication and dispersal (off-site or geographically separated copies), and refreshes those copies on a regular cycle. This work is a core part of continuity-of-operations planning, and is distinct from preserving permanent records for their enduring historical value.