Council on archives international records management trust

Inventorying

The inventory will provide the basis for developing the programme and improving records management generally. Ideally, it should include information about all of the data and records associated with a system, regardless of physical characteristics.

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  Name of the system: This indicates the commonly used name and acronym of the system.
  
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  System control number: Where applicable, this specifies the internal control number assigned to the system for reference, control or cataloguing purposes.
  
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  Agency programme supported by the system: This states the agency programme(s) or mission(s) to which the system relates and cites any laws or directives authorising such programmes or missions. It also lists the names, office addresses, telephone numbers and location of the programme personnel who can provide additional information about the programme and the system supporting it.
  
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  Purpose of the system: This indicates the reason(s) for the system and the requirement(s) it meets.
  
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  Data input and sources: This describes the primary data input sources and the providers of the data to the system.
  
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  Major output: This shows the system’s main products and the frequency of their preparation.
  
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  Information content: This indicates the main subject matter, date coverage, time span, geographic coverage, update cycle and other major characteristics of the system. It also states whether the system keeps superseded information and whether it contains microdata (unaggregated or unsummarised data) or summary data (data summarised from the microdata, also referred to as macrodata).
  
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  Hardware/software environment: This indicates the computer system that creates, manages and manipulates this information and the software used.
  
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  System manager(s): This lists the name, office, telephone number and location of the system manager or other system personnel who can provide more information about the system and the programme it supports.
  
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  Location of documentation needed to read and understand the files: This records where the code books and file layouts are maintained. It also indicates the office, room number and name of the person having custody of paper documentation. Identifies and locates any documentation that may be held in computerised form (such as CD-ROMs that accompany software).
  
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  Restrictions on access and use: This indicates national security, privacy or other restrictions.
  
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  Authorised disposal of the information as determined by the records schedules: This indicates the disposal decision, for example ‘permanent.’ If there is no schedule the inventory should indicate ‘unscheduled’ and recommend a disposal date.
  
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  Disposal authority citation: This gives the records schedule and item number(s) covering the records contained in this system. It also cites any record schedule(s) and item number(s) authorising disposal of system components, such as input forms, printouts, output reports and so on.
  
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  Location and volume of any storage media containing identical information: This records the location of any magnetic tapes or disks containing information identical to that in the system being inventoried. It also indicates the number of tapes and/or disks and their storage capacity.
  
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  Related systems: This identifies and shows the location of any systems that relate to the system being inventoried and documents the nature of the relationship (for example, a database on one system may draw information from a database maintained by another system).
  
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  Identification of the person conducting the inventory: This gives the person’s name, office, telephone number and location.
  
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  Date prepared: This gives the date the inventory was prepared.
  

Choose a current computer system in your organisation and try to inventory its electronic records. Note you may need to obtain permission to do this.

Scheduling

After compiling an inventory of electronic systems, the records manager must determine whether the information in any system is covered by disposal instructions in existing general records schedules. For example, accounting records throughout the public service are sometimes managed by means of a general retention schedule. It is critical that these instructions and schedules reflect relevant legislation, particularly with regard to disposal.

The first decision that needs to be made is whether all or part of the records generated by a computerised system should be kept electronically or on paper. The retention schedule should record this decision. Many organisations without the staff capacity or the facilities to preserve electronic records have decided to print hard copies of word processed or electronic mail documents. The success of this approach depends upon a clear understanding by all employees of the obligation to print and file all record material.

In these cases, employees should be encouraged to destroy electronic versions of documents created by computer applications as soon as paper records are filed, unless they need them for updating or reissuing. Success also depends upon the records programme establishing mechanisms for monitoring and measuring compliance with this approach.

If the appraisal decision is to destroy electronic data and records after a certain period, staff must understand what is required to destroy them completely. This is particularly important for restricted documents, especially those that are security classified. In these cases it is necessary to erase the entire disk or tape, in order to ensure that files that have supposedly been deleted cannot be recovered. Where applicable, records managers should consult the organisation’s information security officer for additional requirements for destroying security classified electronic data.

It is important that records managers assemble the following facts before they can recommend disposal of electronic records and data.

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  What government programmes does the information support?
  
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  What is the authorising law or directive for the programmes?
  
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  What are the functions that the information system performs?
  
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  What are the sources of the data in the system?
  
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  What information is in the system, such as the primary subject matter, time span, geographic coverage, update cycle (the regular process of updating a file) and so on?
  
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  What reports or other outputs does the system produce?
  

The records manager will also need other information, such as the commonly used name and acronym of the system and citations to any previously approved disposal for any data in the system. Much of this information should be included in the inventory of electronic records.

The information in each automated system should be scheduled comprehensively. The schedule should take into account

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  data sets and files included in the system
  
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  paper inputs and outputs
  
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  processing, subset and special format files created and used in the system (a subset is a data set where each element is part of another data set)
  
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  documentation that describes and defines the system and the data in it.
  

Disposal instructions should be established for each of these components within the context of the overall system. The technical appraisal may have to be deferred until transfer is imminent if the records have long-term archival value but are not scheduled for transfer to an archival facility within three to five years. This is because technology changes so fast that an early technical appraisal might be out of date by the time of transfer. Any changes made to the system should be tracked until that time.

Once the organisation determines how long it needs to retain data in an electronic record-keeping system the records officer should provide specific retention times for each system component. These components include all inputs and outputs as well as relevant systems documentation, regardless of medium. The disposal instructions should be specific enough to provide for different information needs within the organisation. Any special legal requirements (concerning entitlement, for example) should also be reflected in the disposal. The disposal must be co-ordinated with programme offices to ensure that all involved parties know when the information is no longer needed for agency purposes and what will happen to it.

Electronic records must be scheduled for disposal, just as paper records are scheduled.


Activity 25

Choose a current computer system in your organisation (preferably the system you inventoried in the previous activity). What do you need to take into account to schedule it? Where would you get the information?

Directory: documents -> educ training -> public sector rec
documents -> Concept stage
documents -> The great global switch-off
documents -> Nonprofit grant application
documents -> The Truth about the Rwandan Genocide
documents -> Annual InStructional unit plan
documents -> Chaos equipment included
public sector rec -> Council on archives international records management trust

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