narrative record

n. Information in fixed form (a record) that documents some aspect of individual or organizational activities, but which does not relate to specific transactions.

Notes

Because narrative records do not grow out of a routine process, they often have an ad hoc form. Narrative records may include reports, work diaries, and personal notes.

Citations

Duranti and MacNeil 1996, p. 53 [A] large portion of electronic records has a narrative function, that is, it does not relate to business activity other than by being the expression of the way in which individuals set themselves to work and go through the informal motions of carrying out activities and decision making. . . . Supporting and narrative records are records whose existence is not required by the juridical system, but that are generated by their author for his or her convenience and by choice.