Examination of electronic records and traces of electronic records in terms of archive destruction practices

The destruction of electronic records requires different methods and tech-niques in comparison with the other data storage environments. Leaving software and hardware traces of electronic documents and being in different environments consti-tute a problem in terms of archival destruction. Therefore, the software and hardware mechanisms / tools that will make it impossible to re-access the destroyed electronic documents are of great importance for the application of the archival destruction the-ory to the electronic documents. These mechanisms/tools are expected to remove or destroy electronic records and traces from systems and storage environments. Since the lack of like a thesis on how to electronic documents and their traces should be destroyed, the study has to be handled with a balancing qualitative rese-arch approach that consists of a combination of critical literature review, heuristic case study and thematic analysis. In the study, studies and approaches has been eva-luated within the scope of the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Turkey. As a result of research, it has been developed standards by different states or governments for the destruction of electronic documents and their traces. In Turkey, methods and techniques of destruction used for modern archival were not found the official standard that is prepared for the electronic records. In addition, the electronic document and traces of the current and obsolete environment can be destroyed by separating the media and their properties should be considered in the context of the results obtained. While it is mostly used software methods for destroying documents and traces in the current environment, it is seen that hardware methods can be used in addition to software methods for obselete media. As a software methods, different techniques are applied, such as disposal, clearing, overwriting, purge and degaussing. Also, different techniques are used for hardware methods, such as deaccessioning, grinding or scrubbing, hammer-milling, disintegration, shredding, incineration, cut-ting and smelting.