Managing Your
Inactive Records
When your records become
“inactive” (meaning you are no longer using them regularly and may retrieve
them only two or three times a year or less) it is time to dispose of them if
appropriate, transfer them to the Records Center for storage until their
retention period has expired and they can be shredded, or transfer them to the
University Archives for permanent retention.
It is important for your office to have a retention schedule in place
for all the records you create. Retention
schedules tell you what to do with your records once they are no longer
active.
1. What is a retention schedule?
2. Who determines the retention period?
3. How does the retention schedule benefit us?
4. What should I do with duplicates or documents received from other
offices?
5. Is there a way that my office can help with the records management
process?
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A records retention schedule
is a document that identifies a set of records and states how long the records
are to be kept and what their ultimate disposition will be in light of federal
and state laws, University policy, and historical importance. The retention schedules are reviewed and
approved by certain administrators including the Office of General Counsel and
Audit and Advisory Services. The
records of the University of Notre Dame, depending on their value, will either
be retained permanently or destroyed after a specific period of time. The retention schedules will help your
office to know how to handle your records after they have become inactive.
Who
determines the retention period?
The retention period for
your office’s records will be based on your needs, accepted archival practice,
and applicable federal and state law.
The Archivist for Records Management will contact your office and
confirm a time to meet with you and evaluate your records. A record inventory form will be
completed for each series of records in your office by the Archivist for
Records Management or by a member of your staff. You will be asked to give input on what you think an appropriate
retention period might be for the records, and we will use your suggestions and
the information compiled during the site visit to recommend a retention period
for each of your record series. Once
your office and ours have agreed on a proper retention period, it will be
reviewed by the Office of General Counsel to be sure that it is in compliance
with all legal requirements before being formally adopted. Audits and Advisory Services may check for
compliance with retention schedules as part of their regular audit process.
How
does the retention schedule benefit us?
The records retention
schedules benefit both your office and the University as a whole. Complying with the retention schedule has
multiple advantages. The retention
schedule diminishes legal risk to the University by ensuring that records are not
destroyed prior to when it is legally appropriate, but are destroyed when they
should be. It will free up file space
in your office where you may currently be storing inactive records. In addition, the retention schedule allows
the Archives staff to identify and collect historically significant records
that should be retained permanently in order to preserve the University’s
institutional memory.
Please
note! In the
event of a claim, a lawsuit, anticipated litigation, the issuance of a
subpoena, the receipt of a written discovery request, the service of a summons,
or an audit relating to any matters that may involve records or other materials
in your office or department (including without limitation electronic records
and e-mail), the record retention schedule should be suspended and no
records should be destroyed or disposed of unless approved in advance by the
University’s Office of General Counsel.
Records relating to legal cases involving the University will, in most
cases, be retained permanently (irrespective of their previous retention
schedule) in the discretion of the General Counsel’s Office. All questions regarding the disposal or
destruction of documents in the event of anticipated, threatened, or pending
litigation (or administrative agency proceedings) should be referred to the
Office of General Counsel before any documents, records, or other materials are
disposed of or destroyed.
What
should I do with duplicates or documents received from other offices?
When retention schedules
are written for your office, we will identify all of the records that your
office creates. Your office is the
“office of record” for these documents, meaning that because you created a
document, you are the holder of the official copy. Therefore, it is your responsibility to retain the original
document for the appropriate amount of time.
If copies of a document created by your office are sent to another
office on campus for information purposes only, that office should dispose of
the copy when their need for the document has ceased, because you will be
holding the official copy of the record for the correct retention period.
If you have duplicate
documents, they can be disposed of when you are finished using them, as long as
it is not a record that you have taken significant action on – for example, a
response to a report. In that case, you
may want to retain the report with your response for reference purposes. Disposing of duplicate documents when
necessary and not retaining records that may be officially kept elsewhere on
campus will help to lower the volume of records that you have in your
office. If you are in doubt about
whether or not to keep a document, please contact the Archivist for Records
Management.
Is
there a way that my office can help with the records management process?
There are several ways that
you can help the records management process.
You should designate a “Records Coordinator” within your office. The Records Coordinator would be responsible
for working with the Archivist for Records Management to ensure that your
office’s records are being properly maintained. The Records Coordinator should be someone in your office who
understands the records that you produce and is able to make decisions on the
retention and disposition for these records.
The Records Coordinator will be the “records expert” in the office and
should aid your staff in solving records management problems. The Records
Coordinator will be the point of contact in your office for the Archivist for
Records Management, and will be responsible for seeing that records are
transferred or disposed of properly and at the appropriate time. At this time, it is not required that your
office appoint a Records Coordinator, but we strongly suggest it, especially
for larger offices with many responsibilities and records.
When
in doubt, call us. We are here to help!
We can offer advice to your
office on a wide array records management issues, including assessing your
current filing system, discarding duplicate materials, completing records
inventories, developing retention schedules, and any other record keeping
question you might have. Our services
are free so give us a call or email the Archivist for Records Management at lauraedgar@nd.edu.