Recordkeeping Taxonomy

The Taxonomy for Recordkeeping in Field Missions of UN Peacekeeping Operations is a taxonomy for recordkeeping which has been developed for use in all UN peacekeeping missions.

The taxonomy is based on the functions and activities of peacekeeping operations. It has three main purposes:

to organize records created or received in the course of peacekeeping operations
to find records created or received
to support the implementation of records management policies (e.g. on retention of records) by linking records management actions to categories in the taxonomy.

The taxonomy is organized into three broad groups:

and classifies records into a hierarchy of categories and subcategories with scope notes for each category and subcategory.

There is also a series of common categories which appear under each function:

Common activities

The Taxonomy User Guide provides an explanation of how to use it and includes sample file plans, a mapping of the taxonomy categories to the Peacekeeping Operations Retention Schedule (PORS) and a management summary: