Grants & Awards: LGRMIF: 2009 Grant Application Materials

Active Records

Records management can have the greatest positive impact when applied to active records. These are among the most important records because they are the most frequently used, cost the most to maintain, and are essential to the current management of government.

Grants under this project category fund the planning and implementing of a new technology and enhancement of an existing system. Funding is generally not recommended for maintenance, which includes system upgrades (unless the upgrade involves an increase in system capability), redoing a previously funded project, or addressing records that have accumulated since the completion of a previous project.

Applicants are encouraged to discuss any proposals under this category with their Information Technology (IT) departments.

Category Requirements

• Records Management Focus. To be eligible for funding, your project must focus specifically on improving the management of records and access to information in your local government. This is especially important for projects that propose to implement new technology. Address how you will use technology to improve current records management and future records management needs.
• Records Retention and Disposition. According to the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education (Part 185), local governments must ensure that
• records retention requirements are incorporated into any plan and process for design, redesign, or substantial enhancement of an information system that stores electronic records.
• electronic records are not rendered unusable because of changing technology before their retention and preservation requirements are met.

To demonstrate that you know and are prepared to meet these regulatory requirements, using the appropriate State Archives records retention schedule (CO-2 for counties, MU-1 for municipalities, ED-1 for school districts and BOCES, MI-1 for miscellaneous governments), list the records series involved in your project and indicate the minimum retention period for each records series, as indicated in the records schedule. Address how you plan to maintain the records for the full retention period, especially if the records are permanent, and destroy the records appropriately when the retention period has passed.

• Submission of Needs Assessment. Submit eight copies of the needs assessment or Business Process Analysis (BPA) upon which a technology implementation project is based, and explain any inconsistencies between the needs assessment and your proposed plan of work and purchases. If you do not include a needs assessment, explain why you did not. Applications for funding an implementation project will fail if the reviewers believe a needs assessment was necessary but was not conducted. For information about how to prepare a needs assessment and when a needs assessment may not be necessary, contact your RAO or consult State Archives Publication #64, Conducting Needs Assessments for New Recordkeeping Systems.
• Requests for Quotes (RFQ). Submit eight copies of the RFQ that outlines the standard requirements used to collect the quotes included in the grant application. You must indicate in the RFQ that you provided a copy of your needs assessment to all vendors as an attachment. A well-written RFQ should help ensure uniformity in the format of vendors' responses, so you can more easily compare the quality and cost of different proposals.
• Detailed Consultant or Vendor Quotes. Provide eight copies of three complete, detailed quotes for each service that will cost over $5,000. The detailed quotes should clearly delineate individual project costs (travel, staff training, equipment installation), hours for each service provided, and vendor qualifications. Lack of consistency between quotes, and lack of clarity or detail in quotes, will reduce a application's chances of funding. In addition, submit the required Vendor Quote Form (LG-VQ) for each item over $5,000.
• Maintenance of Technology and Data. Your grant narrative must demonstrate that your local government clearly accepts the responsibility of maintaining any proposed technology (including electronic systems and data contained in and generated by a system) after the end of the grant period. Such maintenance would include software and hardware upgrades, annual maintenance agreements, data migration plans, and staff costs to run the system.
• Source Code. Include a clause in any software development contract that requires the software code for customized software to be placed in escrow. Also require the vendor to deliver software documentation that meets industry standards.

Project Subcategories

a) Files Management supports projects to reorganize paper or electronic files, implement file classification systems, develop written policies and procedures, and train staff.

Subcategory Requirements

• Describe the problems with the current filing system and the proposed changes to it, including anticipated improvements in the speed and accuracy of retrieval.
• Explain why you chose one files management solution over another.

b) Disaster and Business Recovery Planning supports projects to develop, test, and implement disaster and business recovery plans and systems.

Subcategory Requirements

• Describe the components of the proposed disaster and business recovery plan, including any strategies for testing its viability.
• Demonstrate that you will continue to update and test the business recovery plan after the end of the grant year.
• Justify, in terms of costs and the value of records involved, why you chose one disaster recovery strategy over others.
• If applying to update a disaster plan funded under a previous LGRMIF project, explain why you could not update the plan during the normal course of business.

c) Indexing and Access supports projects to index or improve access to active records. Methods used to improve access include traditional manual indexing, implementing full-text-searching software, scanning and converting printed text to electronic text, or some combination of these. Funds are not available to support the maintenance of indexes, nor are they available to add new records to an existing index. However, applicants may request funding to address a backlog of records not addressed under a previous grant application.

Subcategory Requirements

• Demonstrate the need for improved access by indicating the number of times over a specified period you retrieved information from the records in question.
• Indicate the date span of the records series you intend to index. For example, if proposing to index the last twenty-five years of your minutes, specify this in your application and provide the earliest and last date of the minutes.
• Describe the chosen method for improving access: manual indexing, full-text searching, or a combination of solutions. If using prepackaged software, indicate the name and version (e.g., Access 2007, Minutes Manager).
• Indicate the number of hours you will need to prepare for the indexing (staff training, developing a master list). A sample master list of terms is available in State Archives Publication #78, Indexing Minutes.
• If you are developing a database index, indicate the number of hours you estimate the indexing will take. The usual estimate for indexing minutes is seven pages per hour. The usual estimate for indexing birth, death, and marriage records (and for similar types of objective indexing) is 4,000 keystrokes per hour.
• Indicate the number of hours needed to develop your procedures manual. A sample procedures manual is available in State Archives Publication #78, Indexing Minutes.
• Complete a separate Imaging and Microfilming Project Information Form (LG-IM) for each records series involved in the project, if using imaging as part of your indexing solution.
• Discuss how you propose to update and maintain the index over time.

d) Imaging and Document Management supports needs assessment and implementation projects for imaging and document management systems. Since the LGRMIF does not fund the maintenance of ongoing imaging programs, the imaging of new records in a series of records previously funded under an imaging grant is ineligible. However, applicants may request funding to address a backlog of records not addressed under a previous grant application.

Subcategory Requirements

• Detail how you have determined that imaging is the best solution for managing the records involved. Address access issues, retention requirements, and costs.
• Demonstrate your ability to implement and maintain an imaging system. For example, discuss your ability to budget for systems maintenance, store image files, protect file integrity, and migrate images to the next platform and/or format.
• Follow the State Archives' Imaging Production Guidelines regarding image specifications. See also Publication #77, Managing Imaging and Micrographics Projects, for information on aspects of project management.
• Complete a separate Imaging and Microfilming Project Information Form (LG-IM) for each records series involved in the project.

e) Email Management supports projects to enhance a government's ability to manage email, especially the appropriate retention and disposition of email, the preservation of permanent email, e-filing, and access to email for litigation and other reasons. Governments can apply to conduct a needs assessment for or implement a new email management system.

Email Management projects will receive an additional five points in the numerical ranking of applications.

Subcategory Requirements

• Describe your current email system (or systems), indicate the number of users and types of records your government tends to transmit via email, and give an approximate volume of email your government accumulates annually.
• Describe the retention, access, preservation, and legal issues associated with your government's use of email.
• For email management implementation projects, describe how you will ensure that all users will manage their email appropriately under the new email system (e.g., through a series of policies and procedures, system-enforced business rules, and audit trails).

f) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) supports needs assessment and implementation projects for GIS. Reviewers tend to limit funding for the purchase of computers, software, and network infrastructure.

Subcategory Requirements

• Follow the GIS development process described in State Archives Publication #GIS03, Local Government GIS Development Guides.
• When applying to implement a GIS or to augment an existing GIS, submit eight copies of the needs assessment on which your project is based.
• If you are implementing a GIS, follow the recommendations of your needs assessment in your grant application narrative. Include timelines for equipment purchases and application development. If your needs assessment is more than two years old, explain why you believe its recommendations are still viable. If you do not adhere to your needs assessment completely, provide compelling justification for not doing so.
• Fully explain why your government needs GIS and specific GIS applications.
• Explain how your government will maintain its GIS and the GIS data in the future with its own funds.
• Demonstrate your government's ability to maintain data it acquires through data conversion. If you do not fully demonstrate this, reviewers may recommend funding no more than $5,000 for data conversion. For example, indicate the level of funding your government will dedicate to staffing, equipment, and vendor services in support of data maintenance, or indicate what percentage of data conversion will be paid with government funds.
• If imaging is a component of your GIS project, complete a separate Imaging and Microfilming Project Information Form (LG-IM) for each records series involved in the project.

g) eGovernment supports projects to enhance a government’s ability to transact business over the Internet. Governments can apply to conduct a needs assessment for website development or enhancement, to provide online access to government records, or to develop electronic filing capability.

Subcategory Requirements

• Explain how the project will improve either access to, or the creation of, records.
• Justify website development or enhancement projects in terms of significant improvements to records access or business applications.

h) Records Systems supports needs assessments and implementation projects for any recordkeeping system not covered under another category. Such recordkeeping systems might include database management systems (for example, fire incident reporting software), incident voice recording systems, enterprise content management (ECM), and many others.

Subcategory Requirements

• Explain how the new system will improve the management of, and access to, records. Be specific about the types of records your project will address.
• Demonstrate your government's ability to maintain, with its own funds, the system and the electronic records the system will generate.

i) Business Process Analysis (BPA) supports the analysis and improvement of business processes that create records. A BPA project is a good choice for a government that has identified a recordkeeping problem but does not have a specific technological solution to that problem.

Subcategory Requirements

• Describe the business process that will be the focus of the BPA, and discuss why that process requires improvement
• Identify the records that are created and maintained as a result of that process.
• Describe how you will use the BPA to address records management issues.

j) County Land Records Initiative supports efforts to improve electronic recordkeeping systems in county clerks’ offices and the New York City Register. Only county clerks and the New York City Register are eligible to apply in this project subcategory. If you represent a county clerk’s office or the New York City Register, you may apply to implement any electronic records project that falls under the Active Records category (except for GIS). Possible projects include, but are not limited to:

• developing a needs assessment for, and implementing, a new electronic records system
• increasing the capacity of an existing recordkeeping system
• backfile conversion
• developing services for the Web (e.g., e-filing)
• migrating a legacy system to a current platform

GIS projects are not eligible for funding under this initiative.

Subcategory Requirements

• Comply with any relevant Active Records subcategory requirements. For example, if you are proposing to scan a backlog of paper records, follow the subcategory requirements for Imaging and Document Management projects; if you are proposing to launch a new online service, follow the requirements for eGovernment projects.
• Applicants are reminded that they are required to provide three quotes for scanning and other services even if they are currently using a particular vendor's county clerk's system. An ongoing relationship with a vendor does not constitute a sole source relationship for this grant category.