Social media presence tests agency records management

The federal government's ever-growing social media presence is presenting new challenges for agencies, such as a lack of standards for records management. Those challenges cannot be met at the agency level alone, according to a new report, so it is time for the federal government to lead a move toward uniformity.

"New media brings with it new challenges -- especially for records managers struggling to apply existing records management laws and regulations . . . in a social media world," author Patricia C. Franks, associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University in California, said in the report. "These new challenges cannot be met at the agency level alone. It is time for the federal government to dramatically transform records management."