RECORDS : Records means "any written matter or document prepared for possible future uses". It may be in the form of a letter, notice, circular, invoice, voucher, picture, chart, report, registers, books of accounts etc.
A record provides a summary of information. For example, if you want to know how many beakers you have in stock, you have at least two ways of obtaining this information. You can count the beakers in each lab and store or you can consult the stock record. (the accuracy that is required and when you last took stock will be relevant here).
If your lab had the misfortune to catch fire or suffer a major disaster, how could an accurate claim is presented to the insurance company? How can the number of accident near misses and incidences of bad practice, etc. Be assessed and monitored? How can Excise department monitor the use of alcohol? How can you make sure that you know where specific pieces of equipment, etc. are? The answer to all these questions is not by relying on your memory, but is that you need to keep records. These can be kept on record cards, in record books, or on computer files.