Records Management Introduction for Organizations Considering Donating Their Records to Stanford Uni

1
Records Management Introduction for Organizations
Considering Donating Their Records to Stanford
University Libraries

• Presentation by Steven Mandeville-Gamble

2
Introduction

• Records Management is the process of identifying
  records of enduring value
• By the end of this presentation, you will have a
  better understanding of what to keep, what to
  discard, and when to do so.
• How to handle existing records and records to be
  created in the future

3
Agenda

• Records Management Essentials
• Enduring value
• Types of value
• Knowing what to toss
• Records Retention Schedule
• Proper arrangement of materials
• Ideal storage conditions and practical
  alternatives
• What to send to Stanford

4
Records Management Essentials Enduring Value

• Records of enduring value
• Only 3-5 of all records created have enduring
  value
• Vast majority of records created have limited
  value, usually time-restricted

5
Records Management Essentials Types of Value

• Evidentiary documents activities of individual
  or group
• Informational contains information about
  individual, group, or subject
• Intrinsic document has intrinsic value for
  cultural, historical, or monetary reasons

6
Records Management Essentials When Value Ends

• Intrinsic Value typically has no end date
  (Declaration of Independence, Organizational
  Charter)
• Informational Value end date dependent on
  subject being described (I.e. time of next coffee
  break vs. details of scientific discovery)
• Evidentiary Value end date dependent on the
  activity being documented (I.e. travel expenses
  vs. policy decisions)

7
Records Retention Schedules Part 1

• First step analyze the records of the
  organization to determine what categories of
  materials exist (correspondence, administrative
  files, project files, personnel records, etc.)
• Second step determine whether various
  categories of materials have intrinsic,
  evidentiary, or informational value
• Third step if documents are evidentiary or
  informational in nature, determine if their value
  has a logical end date.

8
Records Retention Schedule Part 2

• Fourth if value is time restricted, determine
  what the end dates of the value are and schedule
  destruction of records on or after that date.
• Fifth If value is enduring, determine whether
  records are needed for operation of organization
  if so, keep on site. If not, identify and
  prepare to be sent to Stanford University
  Libraries Dept. of Special Collections

9
Proper arrangement of materials

• During analysis of records, determine if
  organic, functional record series exist (e.g.
  correspondence, research notes, project files,
  organizational records, publications, etc.)
• Identify arrangement schemes used in the past
  alphabetical, chronological, numeric, etc.
• If more than one arrangement scheme, choose most
  logical, most recent, etc.
• Can also have record subseries of discrete
  materials

10
Proper arrangement of materials Sample (Part 1)

• Organizational Records, 1931-1980
• Correspondence files, 1931-1980
• Alphabetic correspondence, 1931-1955
• Chronological correspondence, 1956-1980
• Personnel records, 1973-2003
• Alphabetic Personnel records, 1973-2003
• The Incident files, 1977
• Benefits file, 1984
• Benefits by Social Security Number
• Benefits by Name

11
Proper arrangement of materials Sample (Part 2)

• Project files, 1902-1999
• Reinventing the Widget Project files, 1902-1932
• Project leader notes, 1902-1914
• Project coordinator files, 1912-1932
• Reports, 1931-1932
• Meta-Meta Language investigation files, 1993
• Human Subject files, 1993
• Human Subject review application files, 1993

12
Proper arrangement of materials Moral to the
Story

• Specific arrangement not as important as
  consistency and documentation
• Decide whether existing arrangement suffices or
  not if so document, document, document
• If existing arrangement does not suffice,
  establish guidelines for a new arrangement and
  document, document, document

13
Ideal storage conditions and practical
alternatives

• Ideal storage climate and humidity controlled
  environment in acid-free boxes and file folders
• Practical alternatives
• acid-free folders in filing cabinets
• acid-free folders in acid-free record storage
  cartons
• acid-free folders in acid-free manuscript boxes

14
What to Send to Stanford

• Records of enduring value created by your
  organizations activities
• Send at most two copies of any document to
  Stanford, three if they are generated by your
  organization
• Only the office which produces a document,
  letter, publication, etc. should send that
  document to Stanford
• Send summary information, if it exists, instead
  of detailed information

15
What NOT to send to Stanford

• Records that do not have enduring value
• Personnel files
• Detailed files kept in support of tax returns
  (copies of organizational tax returns themselves
  suffice)
• Personal files, unless directly documenting the
  organizations activities (I.e. personal
  correspondence files kept at the office)

16
Summary

• Not all records created equal
• Records often have existing - if unidentified -
  arrangements which can be discovered and/or built
  upon
• Analysis of existing arrangement and groupings of
  materials can save time and effort in the long
  run
• Identifying what to keep, what to discard, and
  what to send on to a repository can save time and
  money in the long run

17
Where to Get More Information

• Print Resources
• Penn, Ira A. et al. Records management handbook.
  Hants, England Gower Publishing Co., 1989
• Bellardo, Lewis G. and Lynn Carlin. Glossary for
  Archivists, Manuscript Curators, and Records
  Managers. Chicago Society of American
  Archivists, 1992
• Miller, Fredric. Arranging and describing
  Archives and Manuscripts. Chicago Society of
  American Archivists, 1990

18
Where to Buy Archival Supplies Metal Edge Inc

• Metal Edge, Inc.
• http//www.metaledgeinc.com
• Reinforced tab file folders
• Document storage boxes
• Record storage cartons

19
Where to buy Archival Supplies Metal Edge
(Example 1)
20
Where to Buy Archival Supplies Metal Edge
(Example 2)
21
Where to Buy Archival Supplies Metal Edge
(Example 3)
22
Where to Buy Archival Supplies Hollinger

• Hollinger Corporation
• http//www.hollingercorp.com/
• Record Storage Boxes