Records Quarterly Vol. 2 No. 2 Summer 2009 View as PDF

Contents

• Records Clean-Up Days: Getting your records storage under control
• The College of Law Clean-Up Day: A Success Story
• Records Management Basics: Inactive Records Management
• The University’s Records: The Early Days: UC’s Predecessor Schools
• Program News
• Information Security Update
• Records in the News
• Leg & Reg
• Educational Opportunities
• RIM Quips
• About Records Quarterly
• UC Records Management

Records Clean-Up Days: Getting Your Records Storage Under Control

Summer quarter seems to be a popular time of the year for departments to roll up their sleeves, pull on their jeans, and tackle the backlog of records sitting in storage areas. The increased amount of archival collections that we have received and the certificates of disposals being submitted made me think of writing an article to help departments that may be contemplating a cleaning project. Whether you have a central storage area that needs to be cleaned out or individual offices that need attention, organizing a clean-up day is a good way to get it done. Here are some tips to planning and carrying out a successful records clean-up day.

Get everyone involved

Everyone creates and stores records, so to get a good handle on what you have, what can be disposed of and what needs to stay, try to get as many people in the department involved as possible. Highlight the benefits of creating and maintaining a well-organized file system and work area. If you are working on a storage area, take inventory of what you have in storage to the best of your ability and contact the people who are responsible for the records.

Consult your records retention schedules

It is essential to consult your records retention schedules to find out whether or not you can dispose of the records. You will want to review the schedule itself and see if it requires any updates before the clean-up day. Also, make sure that records for each unit of the department are covered on a schedule. If not, contact records management to update and existing schedule or create a new one to address the missing records.

Contact Records Management

If you need updated or new schedules, the work will have to be completed before your scheduled day so that you can dispose of the records that were not currently scheduled at the outset of your planning. Additionally, I would be happy to be onsite on the day of your clean-up to assist with records analysis and to box up records to be transferred to the Archives. An extra set of hands is always helpful during a records clean-up!

Pick a date and advertise it.

This can be made easier if you use Outlook calendaring. Use the “Plan a Meeting” action in the calendar application to view the schedules of the staff in your department to determine the time when you will be able to get the most participation.

If each staff member is working on their own desk/office area, draft some guidelines for addressing records and let them know where the departmental records retention schedules can be found. If it is impossible or inconvenient for a staff member to participate on the date that you assign, you can ask them to examine their stored records before the event and mark what can be disposed of and what should be retained.

Don’t forget your electronic records

PCs and storage media should be evaluated as well as your paper records. This is a good time to evaluate whether you need to migrate records to another medium or format in order to keep them accessible throughout their lifetime. Electronic storage may have special destruction requirements. See UCit’s Computer and Electronic Media Disposal Policy at http://www.uc.edu/ucit/documents/RETIRED_EQUIPMENT_CLEANING_PROCESS.pdf.

Have equipment and supplies ready

Make sure that you have a dolly or two for moving boxes that will be disposed of or stored elsewhere. You may also need records cartons if you are pulling records out of file cabinets and transferring them to inactive storage and bins for the temporary storage of records to be shredded if a vendor is not onsite. Your shredding vendor may be able to supply you with the appropriate bins.  Disposable dust masks are recommended, especially if participants have allergies. Also, don’t forget a broom and dust pan and other cleaning supplies. Storage areas can get pretty dusty. And of course, have your records retention schedules available as well as something to note down what is being disposed of so that it will be easier later to complete your certificate of records disposal.

Set up shredding services

Chances are good that you will end up with more paper to shred than a department-owned machine can handle. If you do not already have a relationship with a shredding vendor, you can find contact information on the records management website at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/vendors.html. Additionally, you can contact the office of Information Security, which has a contract with Shred-It. InfoSec can be reached at infosec@uc.edu or by calling 558-ISec.

Most shredding vendors can either pick up your material after the clean-up is complete, or they can be onsite during the event. Decide what you would like to do and discuss your needs with the vendor beforehand.

Complete disposal certificates

As always, it is essential that you document what records you dispose of, including those that you destroy or discard AND those that you transfer to the Archives. As you will have a lot going on the day of your clean-up and several people may be responsible for disposal, it may be easiest to have a notepad available and write down what records are being disposed of as it happens, then completing the form later. The certificate forms can be found at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/FormsDownloads.html.

Keep things organized

Now that you have everything clean, tidy and organized, nail down procedures that will help to keep it that way. Institute an annual or semi-annual records purge based on retention requirements. The frequency of a purge should be based on the volume of records that you accumulate, the space you have available for storage, and the resources you have to perform the purge. Make rules for what can be stored in a central area and who can authorize storage. Chances are good that your storage areas will not become cluttered if they are being monitored. As fun as record clean-up days are, one major one is enough!

The College of Law Clean-Up Day: A Success Story

The College of Law conducted a clean-up of their central records storage area on June 5, 2009. Organized by Sharon Leigh, Associate to the Dean, and Jim Schoenfeld, Assistant Dean for Administration, the one-day event was a great success.

The success of this event was the result of careful planning by Sharon and Jim. They started by reviewing available records retention schedules for each department of the College and updating as necessary. They made sure that as many staff members as possible got involved and stressed the importance of the project.

On the morning of clean-up day, everybody assembled for refreshments then got down to business. I was onsite with copies of each records retention schedule, ready to answer questions about specific records and pack up records that would be sent to the University Archives.

Most boxes were clearly marked with the contents and dates of the records, which allowed a good first sweep, making room to work with the records that required more attention. Records to be shredded were moved to a holding area in anticipation for the shredding vendor’s visit that week. The result of the planning and hard work was reclaimed space, an organized storage area, reduced risk, and peace of mind!

Records Management Basics: Inactive Records Management

There will be a time in the lifecycle of most records when they are no longer needed for frequent administrative use, but according to records retention schedules still need to be retained for a certain amount of time. These are called inactive records. Inactive records should be moved out of the active records system and stored prior to final disposition. This article gives guidelines for economically managing inactive records while still providing access to the records when needed.

Storing Paper Records

With office space at a premium, it is cost-effective to send inactive records to more economical warehouse storage or offsite to a central storage area or vendor facilities.

When packing boxes for storage, there are some things to keep in mind to make later disposition easier.

• Box records series together according to their disposition dates. Don’t mix different disposition dates in the same box. This will make it much easier when boxes need to be pulled for final disposition.
• Label the boxes with the records series, date range of the records and disposition date. Commercially purchased boxes often have spaces for this information pre-printed.
• Inventory the records folder by folder. Include a copy of the inventory in the box and keep one for your files. The inventory in the box will help people who are not familiar with the records locate needed documents.
• If you are storing records in your own facilities, give each box a unique identifier and record its location so that you can easily retrieve it for use and disposal. If you’re storing with a vendor, they will do this for you and provided you with reports to track your inventory.

Inactive records can be stored on-site or off-site in either a university owned building or a third-party storage facility as long as conditions in the facility are conducive to paper storage. The facility should have a moderate temperature and humidity, should be free of water sources, pests, and vermin and should have some type of fire protection. The University does not have a central storage facility, but Central Storage offers low-cost storage solutions for university records. Additionally the records management website lists several off-site vendors for your consideration.

It is not cost-effective to leave records sitting in storage after their retention period has been met, and it opens the University up to risk, therefore you need some kind of system to track records due for disposal. If you are using vendor facilities, the vendor should provide tracking services to alert you when a box is ready for final disposal. Discuss this service with the vendor when you contract their services. If you are using your own storage facilities, you will need to set up your own tracking system. This could be as simple as creating a spreadsheet with box numbers, contents, locations and disposal dates that is periodically accessed to check for boxes eligible for disposal.

Imaging Paper Records

Although imaging paper records can result in increased storage capacity and decreased storage costs, it is not merely a solution to storage issues. Imaging should be evaluated based on how it will improve your business processes. A cost-benefit analysis of paper vs. imaging is essential to making the decision to convert your paper records. It is highly likely that you will pay more to image records that have a retention life of less than ten years than you will pay to store them either on site or with a vendor. Please see the Winter 2009 edition of Records Quarterly for a discussion on how to make the decision whether or not to image your records.

Electronic Records

Although space presents less of an issue with electronic records, the sheer volume that most of us have makes it important to organize them in order to maximize administrative efficiency. According to the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) it costs 20 cents to buy 1GB of storage, however, it costs around $3,500 to review 1GB of storage. (see the AIIM ROI Email Calculator at http://www.aiim.org/productcatalog/Product.aspx?id=1743)

When removing inactive electronic files from active records systems, you can either keep them online in a special repository, or you can store them offline. Online storage is made much easier with the use of a system or component designed for electronic records management. If you use a Document Management System (DMS) or Content Management System (CMS) in your area, you most likely already have the tools to manage your inactive electronic records, including retention and disposition management. Explore your systems to determine what records management capabilities they may have. Many of us, however, do not have access to an electronic records management system. You can still store your electronic records online by moving them into an archived area on your hard drive or server.

Flash drives, CDs, magnetic tape, and external hard drives are all examples of offline storage. When storing electronic records it is important to consider the retention period when deciding what medium to use. Records have to be accessible throughout their lifetime. Records with a retention period over five years will most likely require data migration throughout their lifetime. Migration is the transfer of records from an obsolete or near-obsolete medium or format to a different medium or format that will continue to make it readily accessible. With the rapid rate of technological change and innovation, even if the media is still available, the software and hardware required to access the record may not be. Magnetic tape is perhaps the most stable offline medium for storage of long-term electronic records, and CD-ROM is proving to be a good option as well. And of course you can always print electronic records and store them the old fashioned way unless law requires the records to remain accessible in electronic format.

Don’t depend on system backups to satisfy the storage and retention requirements of inactive electronic records. Backups are performed for the purpose of business continuity in the event of disaster or system failure. Tapes and other backup media are not typically archived, but are regularly re-used in the process of recurring system backups. Additionally, access to data created from a backup process requires a special restore process, making this type of storage inadequate for the  access needs of inactive records.

Offsite storage vendors also offer solutions for electronic records. In addition to providing media storage, some also offer electronic vaulting, which allows you to store records on vendor-managed servers and many times allows quick, direct access to the stored records.

Safety & Security of Inactive Records

It is essential that you protect your inactive records from damage and unauthorized access. Both paper and electronic records required security appropriate to the requirements of the record content.

Offsite storage vendors will most likely provide excellent safety and security for your inactive records. It is important, however, to discuss their safety and security measures when entering into business with a storage provider.

If you are storing inactive records in-house, make sure that the facilities and storage equipment in use provide the appropriate level of security. Sensitive paper records and offline electronic media should be stored in locked cabinets or cabinets in locked rooms. Electronic Records Management Systems or Content Management Systems normally have a built-in security function that allows access to only those specified by an administrator. Remember to keep inactive records stored online backed up, just like your active records.

Resources

UC Central Storage

Email: assets@uc.edu

Phone: 556-5654

Vendor List

http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/vendors.html

UC InfoSec Data Protection Policy

http://www.uc.edu/ucit/documents/Data_Protection_Policy.pdf

UCit’s Computer and Electronic Media Disposal Policy

http://www.uc.edu/ucit/documents/RETIRED_EQUIPMENT_CLEANING_PROCESS.pdf.

The Dos and Don’ts of Records Storage Contracts

by John Montana

http://www.allbusiness.com/management/3603671-1.html

Analysis of Costs and Benefits for ERM/ERK Projects

National Archives and Records Administration

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/prod8.html

The University’s Records: The Early Days: UC’s Predecessor Schools

This article is part of a series on the history of records and records management at UC.

Part 1:    The Early Days: UC’s Predecessor Schools

Part 2:    Documenting A University

Part 3:    Age of the Computer & Records Management

The University Archives holds records of the Cincinnati College (founded in 1819), the Medical College of Ohio (founded in 1819), the Ohio Mechanics Institute (founded in 1828), the Miami Medical College (founded in 1852), and the Conservatory of Music (founded in 1867), that provide clues to understanding how records were created and managed in the early days.

Early Records Management & Records Managers

Although the term “records management” would not be coined for decades, the administration, faculty and staff of these schools, nonetheless, had rules and procedures for what information was to be recorded, how it was to be organized, and to whom responsibility was given. Stress was put upon the accurate recording of financial, executive, and, eventually, student information.

We find in the Laws & Regulations of the Cincinnati College, codified in 1819, what may be the earliest mention of records management requirements:

Chapter IV. Section 3. The faculty shall appoint a clerk who shall enter in a book, a fair statement of their transactions, resolutions, and determinations, which book the clerk shall lay before the trustees at each of the stated meetings.

The Cincinnati College operated for six years after its founding in 1819, then instruction ceased until the Cincinnati Law School became part of the Cincinnati College in 1834. In 1836 a new department of medicine and a liberal arts college were added. Neither the medical nor the liberal arts sections lasted more than a couple of years, but the law department remained until it was merged with the University in 1897. Very few records exist from the infancy of the Cincinnati College between the years 1819 and 1825 and only scattered papers are extant from its reemergence in 1836.

A snippet of the earliest know record of UC’s predecessor schools, minutes of the Faculty meeting of the Medical College of Ohio, January 14, 1820

The earliest known record of UC’s predecessor schools held by the Archives is a record of the minutes of the Faculty meeting of the Medical College of Ohio dated January 14, 1820. At the meeting several letters were introduced by President Daniel Drake and “ordered to be filed.” Where these letters may have been filed is a mystery as they are not included in the Archives collection.

Any early minutes of the Board of Directors of the Ohio Mechanics Institute that may have been recorded between the years 1828-1840 are lost, although supporting papers go back to 1838, and membership records date back to the institution’s founding in 1828. Few curriculum records before the twentieth century still exist. The bylaws of the Board, adopted on June 24, 1829, specify that “it shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep a correct record of all the proceedings…”

Rev. Elijah Slack was the first Registrar of the Medical College of Ohio. As such, it was his responsibility to record minutes and file documents of the Faculty. Slack was made Dean in 1830.

Peyton Short Symmes, was secretary of The Cincinnati College at the time of its reconstruction in 1836, and he may have held the position during the earlier attempt at sustaining the College.

Alexander Hamilton McGuffey, of the McGuffey Reader family, succeeded Peyton Symmes as secretary and treasurer of the board in 1845. McGuffey would contribute much to the recordkeeping of The Cincinnati College with his conscientious documentation as well as his preservation of the private papers of his father-in-law Daniel Drake upon Drake’s death in 1852. Included in Drake’s papers were the records of the medical college during his tenure as Dean. Sidney Maxwell took over as Secretary of The Cincinnati College after McGuffey’s death in 1896.

In the early days of  recordkeeping, each college administrator in charge of creating or receiving documents was also personally responsible for the safekeeping of those records, which usually found their way to that individual’s residence or place of business rather than a central repository.  Additionally, meetings were held in homes, offices, and sometimes public spaces, so the records would be carried around by the person responsible for their maintenance.

This practice may certainly be the reason for the loss of the earliest records of the Cincinnati College. In 1861, Peyton Symmes, died, leaving no estate, and taking with him the secret location of the Cincinnati College board records. Upon his taking office, McGuffey attempted to procure the records maintained by Symmes, but was unsuccessful. Symmes, who McGuffey described as “a literary and very accomplished gentleman” but “exceedingly unsystematic,” stored the records of the board at his home, and their location was never discovered by subsequent office holders. Fires in the college building in 1845 and 1869 could also  be a factor in the absence of records.

Whether those early records that we do have survived as a result of a concentrated effort to preserve information, or just the luck of the draw, we do not know. The clustering of extant records around specific time periods and offices may indicate that the retention of records was driven by individual choice, rather than prescribed policy.

That we have fewer records from times past may also be a consequence of the arduous task of actually creating records ages ago. Much more time was put into writing out reports, minutes, and correspondence, as compared to our ability to dash these documents off on a computer, and copies had to be recreated manually. The mimeograph did not enter the scene until 1876, and, while it had been around in certain forms since early in the nineteenth century, carbon paper did not find a practical application until the typewriter was introduced to consumers late in the nineteenth century. There was no time or desire to create unnecessary or unnecessarily lengthy records.

Records in Litigation

In 1873 it was discovered that records of the shareholders of The Cincinnati College were sketchy at best. In a report to the shareholders dated March 28, 1873, the board reported that “there are no complete records to show who are the stockholders of the Cincinnati College” and that “there is a danger in this uncertainty that the stock may be lost, or its ownership be disputed.” This state of affairs was undoubtedly the result of the loss of records from Symmes’s stint as Secretary. The Board charged a committee of three to attempt to reconstruct the list of stockholders from extant college records, newspapers, court records, and personal inquiries, and issue certificates to those stockholders who could be identified.

It seems to have all started when the Board of the Cincinnati College denied a request from the Young Mens’ Mercantile Library Association to have electric lighting installed in the library premises, which were located in the Cincinnati College building. This denial incited the YMMLA to recognize other grievances regarding the management of the building, and they decided to right these perceived wrongs by attempting to oust the Board. The YMMLA argued that the Cincinnati College no longer met the terms of its charter, and that control of the College, and thus the building, should be transferred to the board of the University of Cincinnati. They were successful in  getting the general assembly of Ohio to pass a statute in 1892 assigning the property and control of the Cincinnati College to the UC board.

The problem with this statute was that while the Cincinnati College was chartered for a public purpose, it was still a private, stockholder-owned entity.  The Board of the Cincinnati College refused to comply with the statute and appealed in 1894. Alexander McGuffey testified regarding the reproduction of the stockholder records and the validity of the information that was presented at trial. The reconstructed stock certificates became central to the defense’s stance that the college was backed by private funds. Lawyers for the plaintiff went to great effort to discredit the reconstructed records, pointing out that many of the stockholders listed on the certificates were deceased at the time that they were issued, and  alleged that many of the stocks had been put in Alexander McGuffey’s name. McGuffey was very successful however at tracing each documented transfer by the heirs of each original deceased stockholder and proving the validity of the certificates. The Cincinnati College won the suit and the statute was repealed. Eventually they did merge with the University of Cincinnati, but in their own good time three years later.

An early “staple” on an 1836 report of the Building Committee of the Cincinnati College

Early Records Creation

Today it is difficult to imagine creating records without the aid of a computer, but, in fact, putting pen and ink to paper was almost the sole method of recording information at UC and its predecessor schools until around the turn of the twentieth century, when the first typewritten records began to appear. Although printing allowed institutions to publish catalogs, brochures, pamphlets, and important documents, the day to day creation of records was still accomplished manually.

As the 1819 board rule implies, records were kept in bound books, or documents were created on plain, usually unlined, paper. Pre-printed letterhead and business forms began to appear in the 1860s, and were first used by the Cincinnati College around the 1880s.

Office aids such as paper clips, staples, folders, envelopes, and even file cabinets, were non-existent when the Cincinnati College was founded, and would not come into use until late in the nineteenth century. Instead of staples or paper clips, office workers used pins, string, wax seals and ribbon to secure papers together. Bundled papers were rolled or folded and stored in cabinets with openings called “pigeon holes.” Later documents were stored in flat cases or punched and put in two-pronged binders.

Coming Up

In the next Records Quarterly we’ll discuss the emergence of the University of Cincinnati, some unique records held by the University Archives, and the procedures and tools that made recordkeeping more efficient and effective.

Program News

Schedule Development

New Schedules:

• Law School Dean’s Office
• Facilities Management/Contract Services
• Human Resources—Records
• Facilities Management/Project Services

Updated Schedules:
• DAAP Student Affairs
• Mechanical Engineering

Records Transfers

The following University records have been transferred to the University Archives:

Institute for Policy Research Publications
Accession No. UA-08-19, 1 box
Publications including newsletters, brochures and external communications, 1997-2008.

College-Conservatory of Music Publications
Accession No. UA-8-20, 1 box
Publications including newsletters, brochures, programs, and calendars, 2008.

Campus Services Publications
Accession No. UA-08-21, box
Publications including brochures and handbooks for various campus services, 2007-2008.

Quarters to Semesters Conversion Committee Records
Accession No. UA-08-22, 1 compact disc
Records including agendas, minutes, charge, rosters, reports and website, 2008.

College-Conservatory of Music Alumni Association
Accession No. UA-09-01, 2 boxes
Records of the College-Conservatory of Music Alumni Association including meeting minutes, miscellaneous pamphlets and publications of CCM and the alumni association, programs from performances and events, photographs of CCM events, correspondence about alumni events, constitutions of alumni associations, and financial information, 1888-2000.

The Maita Levine Collection
Accession No. UA-09-02, 1 box
Examinations, awards, AAUP committee records of a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, 1974-2005 .

American Association of University Professors
Accession No. UA-09-03, 1 box
University/AAUP Agreements, Faculty Follies programs & photographs, and buttons, 1975-2001.

Public Relations News Clippings
Accession No. UA-09-05, 4 boxes
News clippings from the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post, 2005-2006.

Engineering Library Annual Reports and Statistics
Accession No. UA-09-06, 1 box
Monthly statistics and reports for the Engineering Library, 1974-2007

North Central Association Accreditation
Accession No. UA-09-07, 1 box
Report to the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, 2008-2009

President’s Cabinet Minutes
Accession No. UA-09-08, 1 box
Minutes of the meetings of the University of Cincinnati’s President’s Cabinet, 2004-2009

Public Relations General Files
Accession No. UA-09-09, 2 boxes
Subject files of various general topics compiled by the Public Relations Office, 1973-2006

Campus Calendars
Accession No. UA-09-10, 1 box
University calendars published and distributed by UC, 1987-2006

University Honors Program
Accession No. UA-09-11, 1 box
Publications, including graduation recognition programs and invitations and website, 1992-2008

Academic Health Center Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Service Video Recordings
Accession No. UA-09-13, 1 box
Recordings of the Medical Center’s annual MLK memorial ceremony, 1986-1993.

Robert Cook Notebook
Accession No. UA-09-14, 1 ledger
Notebook on contracts used by Robert N. Cook, a College of Law professor from 1963-1981. The notebook was used while he attended Duke Law School, 1933.

Michael Kivko Notebook
Accession No. UA-09-15, 1 ledger
Notebook on property law used by Michael Kivko while he attended Harvard Law School. It was found with Robert Cook’s notebook on contracts, 1926.

College of Business, Academics and Administration
Accession No. UA-09-16, 5 boxes
Records, including committee files, program development and review, staff development, event planning and programs, honors information, and awards, 1984-2006.

Data Protection Policy
The office of Information Security has released a data protection policy that applies to all university data stored in both electronic and paper formats. The purpose of the policy is to help insure the protection of the university’s restricted data from unauthorized access, damage, alteration, or disclosure while preserving the ability of authorized users to access and use institutional data for appropriate university purposes. Please take a moment to read over this policy and evaluate your systems for compliance. The document can be found at http://www.uc.edu/ucit/documents/Data_Protection_Policy.pdf. For more information about data protection, contact the office of Information Security, which can be reached at infosec@uc.edu or by calling 558-ISec.

The Importance of Disposal Certificates
Disposal Certificates are our proof that we are following our records disposal policies and can be invaluable when defending our position in the event of legal discovery. If you were asked to produce records that have been disposed of according to approved records retention schedules, simply showing the retention schedule would not suffice.

A certificate should be completed each time you dispose of records. The form is available in both pdf and MS Word format on the Records Management website at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/FormsDownloads.html.

How to Request Your Records From the University Archives
If you have previously transferred records to the University Archives and you have a need to retrieve those records for use in your office you can do so through a very simple process. Each collection that is processed by the Archives is given a unique accession number and a box-by-box, folder-by-folder inventory is created. You should have been sent a copy of the inventory with the accession number. Consult the inventory and determine which boxes you need, then call or email the Archives with the accession number and the box numbers that you want to retrieve.

If you do not have a copy of the inventory, or you do not know what collections the Archives holds for your department, you can visit our finding aids page at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/archives/collections/UACollectionRecords.html. If you still cannot locate the records the you need, please call the Archives at 556-1959.

We will retrieve the boxes from storage and make them available for you to either pick-up or use in the Archives. Pick-up services can be arranged by contacting Grounds & Moving or a staff member or student can pick up the boxes; the Archives & Rare Books Library does not offer delivery services.

Do You Have an Archives Box?
The University Archives collects two copies of each UC-produced publication. If your department produces such publications, a records series should appear on your records retention schedule directing you to send copies to the Archives. Some departments have found that the easiest way to do this is to maintain an “Archives Box” in which two copies of each publication is placed as they are produced throughout the year. At the end of the year the contents of the box are sent to the Archives as one unit.

Inter-University Council Records Retention Manual
The final draft of the updated IUC Records Retention Manual has been approved. Copies of the manual are being sent to the General Counsel of each IUC member school. When we receive our copy, current schedules will be evaluated based upon any new requirements.

The Inter-University Council of Ohio (IUC) has a contract with Information Requirements Clearinghouse (IRCH) to use its software and its on-going database of legal research. Three times each year, the IUC will receive updates from IRCH, and will revise the manual for its member institutions. This is a vast improvement over the former updating process. Since its inception in 1992 the manual has only been updated twice to this point, in 1994 and in 2000. With the new system, we can reduce the risk of following outdated regulations and better ensure compliance.

Tip Sheets
New tip sheets have been loaded on the Records Management Website. Information is available for Active Records Systems, Electronic Records, Email Management, Inactive Records, Public Records, Retention Schedules, and Vital Records. They can be found at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/tip_sheets.html or from the Records Management home page.

New Financial Policies with Records Implications
Policy # 1.3.2, Conflict of Interest on Federally Sponsored Projects
http://www.uc.edu/af/documents/policies/COIfedsponsproj.pdf

This policy specifies that records of all financial disclosures covered by the policy and of all actions taken to resolve conflicts of interest are to be retained for a minimum of three years after the submission of a final expenditure report or as otherwise provided under 45 CFR 74.53(b).

Policy # 1.3.1, Financial Fraud Prevention
http://www.uc.edu/af/documents/policies/finfraudprev.pdf

In this policy, the definition of fraud, includes “Forgery, falsification, or alteration of documents (e.g., checks, bank drafts, deposit tickets, promissory notes, time sheets, time and effort reporting, travel expense reports, contractor agreements, purchase orders, electronic files, etc.).

Policy # 2.1.15, Asset Disposition
http://www.uc.edu/af/documents/policies/assetdisp.pdf

This policy deals with the disposition of both capital and non-capital assets and includes the following provision for Information Security Considerations:

“For UC to appropriately control the information for which it is responsible for safeguarding, media that is no longer being used must be properly safeguarded.

UC information system assets should be disposed of in accordance with Federal National Institute of Standards in Technology (NIST) guideline 800-88. Information system assets include the storage media and also the devices used to create, process, or transmit this information. When storage media are transferred, become obsolete, or are no longer
usable or required by an information system, the disposal of these systems must be coordinated through the Office of Asset Management in cooperation with UC Information
Security.”

Information Security Update

The current edition of Information Security Update is available on the InfoSec website at http://www.uc.edu/infosec/ISecUpdates/InformationSecurityUpdate.pdf. The update, a quick summary of the State of InfoSec both inside and outside of UC, is published by UC Information Security and is announced via a Security Update listserve. An archive of past updates is also available at http://www.uc.edu/infosec/AlertArchive.htm.

Records in the News

The links to stories provided here were active at the time of publication. News links tend to expire quickly due to Associated Press regulations. Apologies for any dead links.

West Virginia U. Accepts Latest Report on Degree Problems and Says It's Time to Move On

The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 30, 2009

West Virginia University received the second phase of an outside consultant’s audit of its academic record-keeping practices today, and the institution’s interim president, C. Peter Magrath, said in a written statement that the university accepted the report’s findings and would put in place its recommendations, along with those of an earlier report released in February.

WVU still can't explain awarding of 118 degrees

The Charleston Gazette, March 31, 2009

After a second review, consultants still cannot explain how 118 undergraduate and master's degrees from West Virginia University were awarded between 1998 and 2007, even though the students apparently didn't have enough credits.

TMI on Student Grades at Brigham Young

Inside Higher Ed, April 2, 2009

Officials at Brigham Young University are apologizing for an accident last week in which all of the students in the College of Humanities (about 2,500) received an e-mail with the grade point averages of all of their fellow students, with names. University officials said that the e-mail with the students' grades was intended for the registrar, and never should have been sent out to everyone. Officials apologized and pledged to institute controls to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

Security Flaws Found Inside BMV Dumpsters

www.10TV.com, April 23, 2009

A 10TV investigation found that some records policies at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles have not done enough to protect you and that some BMV deputy registrar clerks are not following the rules.

Presidential search records destroyed at Hocking College

The Columbus Dispatch, April 24, 2009

The president of Hocking College's faculty union was astonished when she received public records she requested from her employer. It's what she didn't receive -- faculty and staff evaluations of the finalist who is the union's apparent choice as the college's new president -- that led her to denounce the selection process as a "fiasco."

Public Access Rules Now in Effect

Supreme Court & Judicial System News, July 2, 2009

New rules on public access to court records (Sup. R. 44-47) took effect Wednesday, and staff attorneys from the Supreme Court of Ohio have been offering training sessions around the state.

Leg & Reg

2009 Sunshine Law Manual Available
The 2009 edition of Ohio’s Sunshine Law Manual is now available in print or electronic form. To order a free print copy, go to the Ohio Attorney General’s website at http://www.ag.state.oh.us/SunshineRequest/default.asp. You can also download a copy in pdf format at http://www.speakoutohio.gov/wp-content/uploads/sunshine2009.pdf.

State of Ohio Request to Redact Personal Information
Under paragraph 149.45(C)(1) of the Ohio Revised Code, an individual may request that a public office or a person responsible for a public office’s public records redact specified types of personal information of that individual from any record made available to the general public on the internet. An individual who makes a request for redaction “shall…provide any information that identifies the location of that personal information within a document that contains that personal information.” O.R.C. 149.45(C)(1) If redaction is not practicable, the public officer or person responsible for the public office’s public records shall verbally or in writing within five business days after receiving the written request explain to the individual why the redaction is impracticable. O.R.C. 149.45 (C)(3)
http://www.ag.state.oh.us/legal/pubs/Request_to_Redact_Personal_Info.pdf

Educational Opportunities

Workshops

The next Introduction to Records Management Workshops will be held in November.

This workshop can also be brought to your department. To set up your own presentation, contact Janice. If you have interest in a more advanced records topic, please let us know and we may be able to design a workshop for you.

Webinars

AIIM, the enterprise content management (ECM) association, offers free webinars to both members and non-members on managing documents, content, records, and business processes. The live webinars are offered on Wednesdays beginning at 2:00 p.m. and they run for approximately one hour. For a list of upcoming webinars and registration instructions, please visit their webinar page at http://www.aiim.org/Events/Webinars-ECM-BPM-ERM-Systems.aspx. Archives of previous webinars are also available on AIIM’s site.

ARMA International also offers webinars, although they are fee-based if you are not a member of the association. The fee is usually $35.00. While AIIM concentrates on electronic records, ARMA offers education on both electronic and paper-based systems. Their selections can be found at https://www.arma.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=ARMAISeminarCurrent. ARMA also offers archived seminars for viewing.

A note about webinars: In most cases these are vendor-sponsored presentations and you may be contacted by a representative following the event.

RIM Quips

• The best laid plans of mice and men are all filed away somewhere.

• MURPHY'S UNAVOIDABLE LAW OF THE OFFICE: Copy machines mangle only important documents. COROLLARY: If a machine goes wild and runs off 180 copies, it will do so when you are copying a personal letter.

About Records Quarterly

Records Quarterly is the newsletter of University of Cincinnati Records Management and is distributed electronically via the Records Management website. Subscribers to the Records Management Listserv will receive notification of new issues automatically. If you are not a member of the listserv and you would like to receive these notifications, please email Janice Schulz at Janice.Schulz@uc.edu with your name and email address and you will be included on a separate distribution list.

All content is written by Janice Schulz unless indicated. Permission to use any content must be obtained by contacting UC Records Management via the methods above. Contributions to Records Quarterly can be made by emailing content to Janice.Schulz@uc.edu.

URLs included in this issue were current at the time of publication.

 

UC Records Management

University of Cincinnati Records Management is administered by the University Archives in compliance with UC Rule 10-43-10.

Janice M. Schulz,

University Records Manager and Archives Specialist

Office Location:            806 Blegen Library

Mail Location:               113

Email:                            Janice.Schulz@uc.edu

Phone:                           556-1958

Fax:                               556-2113

Website: http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/