Records are writings preserved on plates, including the plates of brass and the plates of Nephi. Lehi searched the brass plates and found that they contained “the five books of Moses,” “a record of the Jews,” and prophecies of holy prophets and Jeremiah (1 Nephi 5:10-13). Laban and his fathers had kept the records, and Lehi said the brass plates “should never perish” (1 Nephi 5:16, 19).
Mormon searched records delivered into his hands and found plates containing “this small account of the prophets” from Jacob to King Benjamin and many words of Nephi (Words of Mormon 1:3). King Benjamin taught his sons that the brass plates contained records and commandments, while the plates of Nephi contained “the records and the sayings of our fathers” from Jerusalem to his time (Mosiah 1:3, 6).