ARMA International (Association of Record Managers and Administrators) was established in 1955. Its approximately 11,000 members include records managers, archivists, corporate librarians, imaging specialists, legal professionals, IT managers, consultants, and educators, all of whom work in a wide variety of industries, including government, legal, healthcare, financial services, and petroleum in the United States, Canada, and 30-plus other countries.

ARMA International publishes The Information Management Journal, the only professional journal specifically for professionals who manage records and information on a daily basis. The award-winning Journal is published bi-monthly and features top-drawer articles on the hottest topics in records and information management today, as well as marketplace news and analysis.   The association also develops and publishes standards and guidelines related to records management. It was a key contributor to the international records management standard, ISO-15489.  ARMA International are also responsible for the guideline for establishing alphabetic, numeric and subject filing systems.   These guidelines can be purchased from the ARMA Bookstore at www.arma.org.

According to the guidelines, the following are the criteria for the selection of filing systems:

Subject filing

When a range of topics is wide such as correspondence, clippings, catalogues, research data, product development plans and inventory lists you would consider subject filing.  This can sometimes be the most difficult as you would need to determine what the subject would be in order to find the documents.

Often it is necessary to consult the originator of the document to find out what the subject should be.

Alphabetic filing

 When records are retrieved by personal, organisation or government agency names such as names of people, organisations, firms, project, publications, products or things, they are usually filed in alphabetical order.

• No code number of significance is applied to the records and no index needs to be maintained.
• This system is used for a small amount of files which are generally not too confidential.

 Numeric filing

•  This filing system usually contains an exceptionally large volume of records
• Records have unique numbers affixed to them e.g. invoices
• Records have been assigned code numbers that have some significance e.g. a number on an insurance policy may indicate branch and year of issue
• This filing system is used for confidential records e.g. hospital, doctors rooms etc.
• An index needs to be maintained.