tobekept

Tobekept is a term used in information governance to designate items that are designated for retention and long-term preservation. The term is not a formal standard but appears in discussions and some organizational policies as a shorthand for “to be kept.”

In practice, tobekept applies to digital records such as emails, documents, datasets, images, and multimedia within retention schedules. It helps separate items that must be retained for legal, regulatory, or operational reasons from those that can be discarded. Tobekept classifications can also influence how items are stored, accessed, and disposed of over time.

Core principles often associated with tobekept include provenance, authenticity, integrity, and accessibility. Items move through a lifecycle that can include stages such as created, tobekept, active use, archived, and disposed. This lifecycle framework supports consistent decision-making about retention duration, review, and safeguarding measures.

Implementation typically relies on metadata, classification schemes, and policy-driven workflows. Metadata fields may cover origin, retention period, legal holds, and access permissions. Information systems used for tobekept commonly implement versioning, audit trails, backups, and secure storage to ensure fidelity and retrievability over time.

History and status: The term emerged in informal professional discourse and is not standardized across the field. Usage varies by organization, with some libraries, archives, and enterprises incorporating tobekept concepts into their records management practices, while others use more explicit or different labeling schemes. See also: records management, digital preservation, archival science.