General Records Management

Appoint an agency Records Management Officer (RMO).

• Does RMO have adequate authority?
• Is there a records management unit or does the RMO have assistants? 
• What department is the RMO part of?
• Does RMO have responsibility for the entire agency? If not, how is responsibility divided up?

Define role and responsibility of RMO in writing.

Regular communication between agency staff and RMO.

• Is RMO kept informed of projects impacting the agency’s records program?
• Does RMO or liaisons periodically evaluate records management practices of the agency’s departments?

Include records management responsibilities in all agency staff’s job descriptions.

Encourage records management compliance throughout agency.

• Are there records management liaisons in each department?
• Are initiatives in place to promote records management compliance throughout the workplace?

Have support of management in recognizing the importance of good records management.

Develop agency records management plan.

Budget for records management.

• Maintenance of recordkeeping systems
• Storage and maintenance of records
• Continued improvements to records management, including additional staff, training for staff, procurement of equipment and other resources

Able to identify official copy, e.g., paper, microfilm, or electronic.

Identify vital records, e.g., emergency operating records and legal rights records.

• Is this incorporated in the agency’s disaster planning?

Utilize the records management services of the Archives.

• Publications
• Training
• Consultations
• State Records Center

Policies and Procedures

Establish policies for the following:

• E-mail
• Disaster planning and recovery
• Business continuity
• Security

Establish procedures for what gets filed and how files are managed.

Distribute policies to staff.

Establish procedures for legal discovery.

• Keep (don’t destroy) backup tapes.
• Do not destroy any records involved in discovery even if their retention period has been met.

Establish policies and procedures to endure that records created on the agency’s behalf by contractors are regarded as property of the agency.

Establish policies and procedures to ensure that official records are organized and maintained in designated file locations rather than in desk files or on personal computer hard drives of individual employees.

Creation of Records

Create sufficient records to document the agency’s actions and activities, including decisions arrived at orally, and to meet administrative, legal, fiscal audit, and other needs.

Use non-proprietary file formats (electronic records).

• Refer to Archives’ Transfer, File Format, and Preservation Policies document for file format information.

Use open architecture systems (electronic records).

Use well-designed file structures.

• Do paper and electronic file structures correlate?
• Do structures tie into retention periods?

Have well-defined roles and responsibilities for maintaining files.

• Are these captured in a written policy or procedure?

Use file naming conventions.

• Do names tie into retention periods?

Apply accurate, descriptive and complete labels to file folders, cabinets and boxes.

Conduct extensive planning prior to implementing large electronic recordkeeping systems.

• Have you conducted needs assessments or feasibility studies or cost benefit analysis or business process analyses?
• What large systems do you currently have?
• What large systems are you considering?

Take recordkeeping requirements into account in planning and developing new technology applications and when modifying existing systems.

Involve RMO in development and planning of new recordkeeping systems.

Involve RMO in development of micrographic applications.

Disposal of Records

Adopt and follow the Archives’ General Retention and Disposition Schedule for New York State Government Records.

Develop agency-specific records schedules for unique records not covered by the General Schedule and obtain approval from the Archives for those schedules.

• Are these records schedules up-to-date?
• Has your agency reorganized since the schedules were developed?
• Has your agency or one of its programs expanded and spurred a growth in records since the schedules were developed?
• Have new programs been initiated that produce new types of records since the schedules were developed?
• Have new electronic recordkeeping systems been introduced that may alter the types of records created since the schedules were developed?

Regularly review agency-specific records schedules to make sure they are up-to-date.

Obtain approved Records Disposition Authorization (RDA) for electronic records and microfilm even if RDAs already exist for their paper equivalents (particularly if you plan to dispose of the paper).

Regularly dispose of records that have met their minimum retention period.

• What method is used for both paper and electronic?
• Do you dispose of paper records once they have been scanned?

Maintain documentation of disposal of obsolete records.

• Who maintains this documentation?

Access to Records

Follow provisions of the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

• Maintains a subject matter list (inventory of records).

Appoint a Records Access Officer.

Follow provisions of the Personal Privacy Protection Law (PPPL).

Maintain and audit regularly a list of all users and their access privileges. List should differentiate users who have write access from read only access.

Develop and implement access control procedures such as password protection and privilege authorization.

Assign appropriate classifications to records, e.g., public, personal, sensitive, confidential, secret, top-secret, or other categories.

Use encryption for confidential electronic records.

Maintain audit trails for electronic recordkeeping systems.

Work with Archives to determine any access restrictions once records are transferred to the Archives.

• Identify redaction requirements.

Locating Records

Able to locate official records on or off-site.

• In transport to, from, and at off-site scanning vendor.

Follow State Records Center procedures including the use of barcode labels.

Store records in on or off-site storage facilities that follow Archives’ guidelines.

• Do you use off-site agency-owned or other leased or contracted storage facility?

Develop and maintain an inventory of agency records.

• Do you have an inventory of your paper records?
• Do you have an inventory of your electronic records?
• Do you have an inventory for all or some of your departments? If some, which ones?
• Do you match your records to their RDAs?

Able to locate records easily within recordkeeping system(s).

Determine appropriate point in record’s timeline to transfer records to offline or off-site storage.

Program has adequate physical resources for growth (e.g., rule of thumb is to plan for 30% growth).

Training

Inform staff of agency’s records management officer and liaisons and program.

• Is staff aware of what the RMO does?
• Does staff routinely communicate with RMO or liaisons?

Make staff knowledgeable with agency’s records management program, policy, and practices.

Require staff to attend record management training (by management).

Attend Archives’ records management workshops.

• RMO?
• Secretaries, file clerks, and others with regular records duties?

Preserving Records

Ensure that electronic records are maintained for their entire retention period.

• Do you have a migration plan in place?
• Do you have a schedule in place for verifying that media is free of permanent errors and refreshing electronic media?

Establish a schedule for verifying that media is free of permanent errors and refreshing periodically (e.g., every year).

Create and maintain off-site backups of electronic records to safeguard against loss of information due to equipment malfunction or human error.

• Do you have a backup plan in place? e.g., how frequently do you perform backups?
• Are backups stored at least 5 miles away from official copy?

Follow good backup procedures for personal computers.

• Does staff routinely store records on LAN or electronic media or external hard drive?

Maintain documentation for electronic recordkeeping systems.

• Refer to Archives’ Transfer, File Format, and Preservation Polices document for specific information.

Put procedural controls in place for all electronic recordkeeping systems to protect the integrity of records and their legal admissibility under the rules of evidence.

Label electronic media well.

• Avoid the use of adhesive labels or writing on the reflective surface of optical media.

Store permanent or long-term records in environmentally-controlled, secure space.

• 62-68 degrees Fahrenheit
• 35-45% relative humidity

Store permanent paper records in acid free folders.

Store master microfilm separate from access copies.

Store master images files separate from access copies.

Identify electronic records which are of archival or permanent value due to their long-term research or other significance.