Record Manager Question:

Records are the outputs that detail each and every business and administrative transaction of the University and contain information about our students, members of staff and all our external contacts. They are the essential resource for the University's effective continuation. They also form the University's collective memory that must be available beyond the memory or working life of any single member of staff.

A document in itself is a type of record, but so is the information that describes the document when it forms a separate entity. For example, an entry in a library catalogue (whether on card or in a computer database) which records the author, title and location of the book, is as much a record as the book itself.