Scanning source records is a common practice throughout the Government of Alberta and
has been in place for many years. As
ministries plan and implement their electronic content management systems,
opportunities for imaging source documents are often identified. The Canadian national standard on electronic evidence defines “source record” and states that source records can be disposed of once their electronic forms have been
stored in a secure records management environment. It also states that other policies or
business requirements may require the source record be retained for a specific period of
time. For the Government of Alberta, such policies are embodied in the Records
Schedules which are approved by the Alberta Records Management Committee (ARMC).