Electronic%20Records%20Management

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Electronic Records Management
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What well cover

• Electronic records responsibilities and
  challenges
• Storage media and database concerns
• Reformatting
• Metadata
• Email management
• Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

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What is a record?

• "Public record" or "record" means recorded
  information that documents a transaction or
  activity by or with any public officer, agency or
  employee of an agency. Regardless of physical
  form or characteristic, the recorded information
  is a public record if it is produced, collected,
  received or retained in pursuance of law or in
  connection with the transaction of public
  business. The medium upon which such information
  is recorded has no bearing on the determination
  of whether the recording is a public record.
• Code of Virginia, Title 42.1 Chapter 7
• Virginia Public Records Act

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What is an electronic record?

• An electronic record is a record created,
  generated, sent, communicated, received, or
  stored by electronic means.
• Formats Include

Word processing files Databases
Spreadsheets PowerPoint presentations
Email Scanned images
Web sites Multimedia files

• Storage Media Include

Hard drives Diskettes
CDs DVDs
Magnetic Tape Network Servers
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Electronic Records Responsibilities and Challenges
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Electronic Records Management Responsibilities
It shall be the duty of any agency with public
records to cooperate with the Librarian of
Virginia . . .

• to establish and maintain an active, continuing
  program for the economical and efficient
  management of the records of such agency . . .

ensuring that its public records are preserved,
maintained, and accessible throughout their
lifecycle,
including converting and migrating electronic
records as often as necessary so that information
is not lost due to hardware, software, or media
obsolescence or deterioration Source The
Virginia Public Records Act, Code of Virginia,
Section 42.1-85
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Electronic Records Challenges

• Cooperative effort between
• records management staff
• management
• legal counsel
• information technology department
• Major advantage major liability
• ease of copying and modification
• Media degradation and obsolescence
• Format obsolescence

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More Challenges

• Controlling accumulation and duplication
• Maintaining records in a way which will enable
  retrieval of all documents relevant to a
  transaction when they are needed
• Ensuring that records are not retained for any
  longer than necessary, in order to avoid both
  overloading systems and to avoid indiscriminate
  dumping

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Electronic records destruction

• Records containing identifying information must
  be destroyed within six months of the
  expiration of the records retention period.
  (COV 42.1 -86.1)
• According to 17VAC15-120, electronic media
  containing Social Security numbers must be
  overwritten, degaussed or physically destroyed at
  the end of its retention period.
• Deletion ? destruction!

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Storage Media and Database Management
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Database Management

• Have ability to take files offline and store them
  (inactive table)
• Retrieve inactive files for the full duration of
  the retention period
• Identify records eligible for deletion or
  preservation
• Document what has been deleted or transferred

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Storage Media Considerations

• Large enough to accommodate future growth
• Appropriate level of certainty for the recovery
  and security of data
• Non-rewritable media is best when concerned about
  record longevity or security
• Digital storage media is not adequate for
  long-term or archival preservation of records.
  Migration will be necessary.

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Reformatting
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When reformatting, remember

• It is legal to reformat records into digital form
  unless specifically prohibited by law
• Digital image is legal for response to FOIA or a
  court subpoena
• No RM-3 (Certificate of Records Destruction)
  required for destruction of originals
• May also reformat permanent records. Consult
  your Records Analyst before starting
• Must maintain access to the records for the
  length of the retention period

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Reformatting Caveats

• Must have a quality control process in place
• Need an indexing system
• System must keep the records safe and accessible
  during the entire length of their retention
  period
• System must be able to reproduce technical
  drawings and blueprints to scale
• RM-3 form is required when records are deleted
  (destroyed)
• If vital records, software application and
  indexing system must be included in offsite
  storage

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Digital Imaging Advantages

• Reduced need for physical storage space
• Multiple users and access levels
• Shorter retrieval time for users or during
  discovery
• Low shipping costs and ease of information
  dissemination
• No loss of image quality from generation to
  generation
• Ability to search using optical character
  recognition (OCR)

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Digital Imaging Disadvantages

• Images are not human-readable without computer
  equipment
• Significant equipment costs, including hardware
  and software
• Hardware and software obsolescence
• Systems change every 18 months to 5 years
• Software changes every 2-3 years
• Different types of scanners required for various
  formats
• Complex and time-consuming
• Image capture
• Quality control
• Metadata management
• Retention periods are harder to implement
• Sorting those to be deleted from those to be
  saved
• Forget that these are records

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Metadata
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Metadata

• Data describing context, content, and structure
  of records and their management through time
• Data about data
• Metadata is any sort of information someone would
  use to describe a document if that document
  wasn't available.
• Creator
• Contributor
• Date
• Modifications
• Document type

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Email Management
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Email is not a record series

• Email is a format, not a record series. Asking
  how to file an email is the same as asking how to
  file a piece of paper.
• The content determines the disposition.

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Non-records vs. records

• Non-Record
• Routine requests for information
• Security backup files
• Reference copies
• Record
• Responses requiring special compilation or
  research
• Correspondence concerning policy
• Implementation/management of programs

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Record or Non-Record?
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Record or Non-Record?
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Email is not always correspondence!

• Work Orders - Administrative Copies Retain 3
  years then destroy.
• Grant Records (Non-fiscal) Retain in accordance
  with terms of grant or 5 years after termination,
  whichever is greater, then destroy in compliance
  with no. 8 on the schedule cover page.
• Legal Opinions Requested by the agency
• Retain permanently.

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Email retention

• Email should not be stored within email system
• To save email outside of the system
• Create personal folders (or .pst files) that are
  stored outside of your mailbox (but can be viewed
  using your email client) store on a secure
  shared network server, not a local hard drive
• Store, access, and manage email messages and
  other electronic records in an Enterprise Content
  Management System (ECM)
• Print emails and maintain them in a manual system

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Manual versus Auto-Archiving

• AutoArchiving is an automatic process (if
  turned on within Outlook) that takes place at
  regular intervals
• Rather than using the AutoArchiving function,
  users should set aside time (every week or month,
  for example) to clean up mailboxes and manually
  organize emails according to retention schedules

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Organizing your e-mail

• Organize e-mail in folders by records series or
  subject area and fiscal or calendar year.
• Establish agency- or division-wide filing
  structures.
• Archive manually and frequently.

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Discoverability and liability

• E-mail records are subject to the same
  accessibility requirements as other public
  records they are exempt from access only if
  they fall within the exemptions provided under
  FOIA.
• Requests from the public for e-mail records must
  be honored in the same manner as other public
  records.
• E-mail records must remain accessible during
  their entire retention period and should be
  maintained in such a manner as to permit easy
  access and timely retrieval.

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Top Ten Tips for Email Use

• 10) Use CC / Reply to All sparingly, BCC almost
  never
• 9) One email, one subject
• 8) Dont mix personal and work-related
  messages
• 7) Manage both sent and received emails
• 6) Be careful opening attachments

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Top Ten Tips for Email Use

• 5) Proofread
• 4) Use a useful subject line
• 3) Retain the final email in a thread
• 2) Include official signature

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Top Ten Tips for Email Use

• 1) Do not put anything in an email message that
  you would not want to see printed in tomorrows
  newspaper or displayed on a bulletin board. When
  sensitive issues need to be discussed, a
  face-to-face conversation or telephone call may
  be a better communication choice than email.

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Dont type angry

• Dear xxxx
• I say this reluctantly but not so subtly you are
  not suitable for a graduate degree. It does not
  matter if your father died or if you have a
  medical certificate.
• I have been too nice and given you too high marks
  all along
• You are the worse performer in the class
• Prove that your father died and your were
  distraught and unable to complete assignments-in
  spite of your abysmal record to date as an
  underperforming and underquallifed student- and
  perhaps you might qualify for an extension to get
  a C-
• Paul G. Buchanan, Director New Zealand Centre for
  Latin American Studies
• 30 May 2007

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ECM
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What is ECM?

• Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is the
  technologies used to capture, manage, store,
  preserve, and deliver content and documents
  related to organizational processes. ECM tools
  and strategies allow the management of an
  organization's information.

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More ECM Information

• ECMINFO_at_veap.virginia.gov
• http//cao.virginia.gov/enterprise_content_managem
  ent_initiative.shtml

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Archives and Records Management Services
800 E Broad St Richmond, VA 23219 Phone
804-692-3600 Fax [phone] http//www.lva.vir
ginia.gov/agencies/records