april/may 2007 moving? reorganizing? retiring? · moving? reorganizing? retiring? ... alphabetic...

April/May 2007

Vol. 1 No. 3 Summer 2008

Moving? Reorganizing? Retiring? What To Do With Your Records

Active Records Systems

Office Efficiency

Records Quarter lyRecords Quarter lyRecords Quarter ly

Records Quarterly Spring 2008

Moving? Reorganizing? Retiring? What To Do With Your Records

Some phases in the course of your career at UC are perfect for cleaning out and reorganizing your records and among them are office moves or reorganizations and retirements. Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to lug all of those boxes and cabinets of records along with you? This is especially true if you are making a temporary move as you’ll have to do it twice! Well, your wish can come true with a little advanced planning and help from Records Management.

As with any decision-making when it comes to your records you will need to consult your approved records retention schedule to determine what you can do with the records in your custody. If you don’t have a schedule, you will need to work with Records Management to create one—remember, you cannot dispose of any records without an approved schedule (UC Rule 10-43-10 point 5). As you go through the process of preparing your records for organizational changes you may discover that your schedule needs to be revised to more accurately reflect your records. Records Management can help you with that process as well.

Packing Up and Moving Out

You will want to begin by disposing of anything that your schedules allow. Destroy or discard those records that are not archival and transfer eligible records to the University Archives. Don’t forget to complete the necessary Certificate of Disposal and forward a copy to Records Management (See disposal procedures at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/disposal.html). If your office has a lot of records that require destruction you may want to schedule a shred day with UCit’s Information Security (call 558-ISEC).

Next pack inactive records that you don’t need in your immediate office area, but that still need to be retained according to your schedules, and send them to storage. The Office of Asset Management offers secure, on-campus long term storage to university departments at rates much lower than industry averages. For more information contact Central Storage at [email protected] or 556-5654. Alternatively, you could use an outside storage vendor. There are many in the Cincinnati area and you can find contact information for several of them on the Records Management website at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/

vendors.html. If the records are no longer your responsibility because of a reorganization, contact the new office of responsibility and arrange for storage of the records with them. It is important in this case that someone in the new department knows about the records and will manage them.

After you have taken care of the inactive records, remove personal papers and non-record material that you no longer use. Take this time to do some “spring cleaning” and clear out any documents that you don’t need for UC business.

What you have left should be your active university records. If you are physically moving your office these are what you will want to take with you to your new location. Files already organized in cabinets can be kept there and moved as one unit; just make sure that you secure the drawers before the move. You can also remove the files and pack them in boxes if the furniture is not going with you. The easiest way to pack records that are organized in standard file cabinets is to use transfile boxes, which hold the equivalent of one file drawer and have approximate dimensions of 24L x 12W x 10H. Transfile boxes are readily available through Central Stores.

(Continued on page 3)

This photograph shows the difference in size and con-struction of a transfile box (on the left) and a standard record box.


Records Quarterly Records Quarterly is the newsletter of University of Cincinnati Records Management. It is published four times per year in October, January, April, and July and 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 [email protected] with your name and email address and you will be included on a separate dis-tribution list. Contributions to Records Quarterly can be made by emailing content to [email protected]. URLs included in this issue were current at the time of publication.

If you are reorganizing or consolidating departments, you could have increased or decreased responsibility for managing the records of your new department, or the records themselves may have changed. You will need to decide what active records you’ll have to retain and what should go to someone else and arrange for the transfer of any records that you no longer manage. Contact Records Management to update your schedule if you are no longer responsible for creating or managing certain records series or if you have increased responsibilities due to a reorganization.

Leaving UC or Transferring Departments

Are you retiring? Congratulations! Make sure to preserve your hard work and your legacy at UC by transferring any and all approved records to the University Archives.

When you are leaving the university it is important to understand that you cannot remove university records from University custody. This does not apply to information that is considered intellectual property, including faculty papers, and that by definition you own. If you have any difficulty at all making the distinction between university records and your own intellectual property please contact records management or the Office of Intellectual Property. The University Archives does accept faculty papers donated by individual faculty members. For more information about donating your papers please contact the Archives and Rare Books Library.

Do you have employees who are leaving or who have already left your department or the University? Ideally you should try to work with them before they leave to manage the records that they hold. Review the paper filing system in place for the records and inventory the records that are being left behind. Collect any keys to file cabinets and file rooms. Inventory files on both the hard drive and any network drives that the employee maintained and get passwords or other authorizations necessary to access those drives. Ask if there are any records offsite for which the employee was responsible and make sure to get contact information and any authorization information for offsite vendors. If the employee is the records officer for your office ensure that you have a copy of the approved records retention schedule and contact Records Management with the name of your new records officer.

Finally, if you have any questions concerning your records when you are involved in an office move, reorganization, or departing employee, contact Records Management for assistance.

(continued from page 2) University Records Management The University Records Management Program is administered by the University Archives in com-pliance with UC Rule 10-43-10. Janice M. Schulz, University Records Manager and Archives Specialist Office Location: 806 Blegen Library Mail Location: 113 Email: [email protected] Phone: 556-1958 Fax: 556-2113 Website: www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/records_management/


Records Management Basics

Active records are those that you need daily to do you work or that you work with on a frequent basis. Proper management of active files helps you to save time when locating records, to make the best use of your space, and to save money by reducing the costs associated with staff time, equipment and supplies. A good, efficient active records system will make the rest of the records lifecycle much easier to manage. Some key things to think about when determining what type of file system to use or when analyzing your current system include:

• Active paper files should be physically located as close to the user as possible.

• Electronic records should be accessible to all staff members who need them through a shared drive or document management system.

• Appropriate security should be applied to electronic records, file equipment and rooms in which paper files are located.

• Equipment and supplies should be appropriate for the volume and size of paper records that you need to store and for the location in which they are stored.

File Systems There are several different types of filing strategies for active records and yours should fit in with the types of records that you work with, the way in which you use them in your business processes, and the security level of the information. These systems can be applied to both paper and electronic files. The most commonly used systems are:

Alphabetic Filing Alphabetic filing is perhaps the most common and easiest method of organizing active records. In this type of system, documents and files are stored according to the alphabet from A to Z. Alphabetic filing is a good solution for records that need to be easily accessible by personal name, company, organization, or any other common designation.

Subject Filing In subject filing, files are organized on the highest level by subject. Examples of subjects include correspondence, reports, projects, and events. Within each subject, files and documents can be organized into subsets, alphabetically, chronologically, or numerically.

Numeric or Alpha-numeric Classification Systems Numeric and Alpha-numeric systems are also known as indirect filing systems, as an index is needed to locate files. Files in this type of system are coded with a numeric or alpha-numeric method, which makes this ideal for use with sensitive records. In order to find a specific record, someone cannot go directly to the files and search through them, rather one has to have access to the index. This system is also good for systems of records that are constantly growing.

To demonstrate how each one of these systems is constructed, let’s look at a case study that is common to many offices on campus—student files. Our student files contain many types of documents including, correspondence, applications, transcript evaluations, and placement test reports. Most of the records is a student’s file have sensitive information that is protected under FERPA.

In an alphabetic system, student files would be organized by the last name of the student and documents related to that student would be placed within the student file in some determined order. The file structure itself would look something like this:

Additional file guides could be used to break the files into sections and make searching easier. As new student files are created, they would be added alphabetically within the system. It would be very easy to go to these files and quickly find the file that you want by the student’s name.

If the same record group was organized on a subject basis, it would look something like this:

Page 4

Active Records Systems


Within each folder, student records could be organized alphabetically by last name or chronologically. This may not seem like an effective way of organizing these records if they need to be accessed by the student’s name, but it demonstrates the difference between filing systems.

Student files could also be filed in a numeric system using M numbers.

As with the alphabetic plan, documents would then be contained within each student’s individual file. Additional file guides could be used to break the files into sections and make searching through the long numbers easier. Color coding is often used in numeric classification systems such as this to aid in retrieval and to cut down on misfiles.

An index that makes locating a student’s file by name possible would accompany the file plan:

Adams, B. M13456781 Alexander, S. M24567812 Barnes, J. M12345678 Brown, M. M25678123

An indirect file system such as this adds an extra layer when accessing records, but it provides a more secure way of storing this type of sensitive record series. It also allows for easier expansion of the file system, with new records being added to the end of the series, rather than within the series.

Each of these was demonstrated as a paper-based system, but keep in mind your electronic files could be organized using the same type of file structure.

File Maintenance

It’s important to keep your file system maintained to achieve maximum efficiency.

Document Your File Plan Staff members using your system need to know how it is organized so that they can maintain it as it was intended. You should document both the file structure and the order in which documents should be placed within folders. Keep the documented plan near the file cabinets or within a root folder in an electronic system.

Use “Out Guides” To keep track of files that are being used, place an “out guide,” also called “out cards,” in the spot where the file usually resides. Out guides are frequently made of stiff press board with an area to record who has the file and when it was taken or vinyl with pockets in which other papers can be inserted. Out guides not only indicate that a file is in use, but they also aid in re-filing. By holding the place where the file belongs, misfiles may be avoided.

Weed Active Files Active files should be weeded regularly to keep them current and manageable. Inactive records, duplicates, and non-record material should be removed and dealt with accordingly. Refer to your retention schedule to determine what you need to do with your inactive records. Inactive records that need to be retained should be removed from active storage and

transferred to a more cost effective area.

Getting Help If you need to develop an active records system or you want to overhaul your existing system, contact Records Management. We will review your needs and work with you to create a system that will allow you to most effectively manage your records. Contact Janice at [email protected] or 556-1958.

Active Records Systems are an integral part of the records maintenance step in the records lifecycle.


Office Efficiency

The final records management objective that we will discuss in this series is “To promote the administrative efficiency at the University by removing inactive or obsolete records from offices.” A good records management program can help an organization upgrade its recordkeeping systems so that information retrieval is enhanced, and office efficiency and productivity are improved. A good system provides guidelines for creation and maintenance of the records we need to do our jobs effectively. Time spent searching for missing or misfiled records is non-productive. A well designed and operated filing system can facilitate retrieval and deliver information to users as quickly as they need it. An efficient system also reduces operating costs. On average, it costs about $900/year to maintain a single file cabinet. Recordkeeping requires administrative dollars for filing supplies and equipment, space in offices, and staffing to use and maintain a filing system. By removing unneeded paper from file drawers, we free up office and drawer space to be re-used, preventing the unnecessary purchase of new equipment. It also frees up time of office staff who no longer have to fish through loads of unnecessary files to find what they need.

Tips for Maintaining the Efficiency of Your Office

1. Periodically weed your active files and remove records that have no active value to you any longer. Place them in inactive storage or dispose of them per your approved records retention schedule.

2. Follow your retention schedules. If your schedule says that you can get rid of it—do it! Don’t be a pack rat.

3. Avoid creating and retaining unnecessary copies. If a document can be accessed electronically, store it on a central server or folder and let people know where they can find it. If a documnet has limited value to you and you know that you can get another copy from the creator, dispose of it.

4. Reports printed from databases don’t always have to be retained if the report can be recreated at any time. If you have made notations on the report that document decisions, processes or actions taken you will want to keep it, otherwise dispose of it.

5. Make sure your active filing system is meeting the needs of the primary users. If you decide that it is not working for you, read the article entitled “Active Records Systems” on page 4 in this issue or contact Records Management for a consultation.

Records Management Objectives • To promote the administrative efficiency at the University by removing inactive or obsolete records from offices. • To protect the University by ensuring compliance with all internal, state, and federal policies regarding the creation and disposi-tion of University records. • To ensure that all documents of administrative or historical value are rightfully preserved through transfer to the University Ar-chives.

Promote, Protect, Preserve Page 6

Office efficiency in action at UC in the 1960s from the 1969 Cincinnatian Yearbook


ABCs of RM: A. Keep what must be kept.

B. Shred what may be shredded.

C. Understand the difference between A and B!

Humor

Top 10 Reasons to Not Get Organized

1. Hunting for important documents adds excite-

ment to a boring schedule.

2. Stacking papers on your desk protects it from ultraviolet radiation.

3. Being as confused as everyone else helps you fit in.

4. Moving piles of paper keeps you in shape.

5. If you understood what you were doing, you would be terrified.

6. Confusion brings out the best in you.

7. Organization kills creativity.

8. Shuffling papers prevents dust from piling up.

9. Your competitors’ spies will never find what they're seeking.

10. Clutter magnifies your importance.

University Records Manager Appointed to Ohio Electronic Records Committee Janice Schulz, University Records Manager and Archives Specialist in the Archives and Rare Books Library, has been appointed to the Ohio Electronic Records Committee (OERC). The University of Cincinnati has not had a representative on the committee in the past and will greatly benefit from this opportunity to network with other Ohio professionals responsible for the management of electronic records. The goal of the OERC, which first convened in 1998, is to draft policy for the creation, maintenance, long term preservation of and access to electronic records created by Ohio's state government. More information about the OERC can be found on their website at http://www.ohiohistory.org/ohiojunction/erc/. Ms. Schulz attended her first meeting as a member of the Committee on June 19, 2008. The committee is currently working on a series of educational material that can be used to facilitate workshops on electronic records management in Ohio. Anyone with questions or concerns about current or future electronic records matters can contact Ms. Schulz at 556-1958 or [email protected].

Educational Opportunities Introduction to Records Management The next Introduction to Records Management workshops will be held in November, 2008. 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.


Schedule Development New Schedules: • Campus Services—MainStreet Operations • Campus Services—Marketing • Sponsored Research Services Updated Schedules: • Department of English • DAAP Student Affairs • Operations & Maintenance—West • Operations & Maintenance—East • Work Control • Clermont College Library • Resident Education & Development • Clermont College Registration & Records • Curriculum Resource Center University Records Management is systematically working with each department in the University to inventory their records and to create records retention schedules outlining the length of time that records must be kept. If you do not have a current records retention schedule, you will be contacted in the near future to begin this process for your department, but you don’t have to wait until then to get a handle on your records. Contact Records Management to get started. Records Transfers The following University records have been transferred to the University Archives: College Conservatory of Music, Allen Sapp Papers Accession No. UA-08-02, 2 Boxes Papers, 1986-1993, including correspondence,

committee records, and budget material of the Dean of the College Conservatory of Music, 1986-1993.

Department of English Accession No. UA-08-03, 1 Box Records, including annual reports, assessments,

program and course development, awards and prizes, newsletters, and department projects, 1987-2001.

Resident Education and Development Accession Nos. UA-08-05 & UA-08-06, 9 Boxes Records, including meeting minutes, correspondence,

manuals and reports, 1990-2001. Raymond Walters College, College Relations Accession No. UA-08-04, 26 Boxes + 1 Banner Records, including ephemera, audiovisual materials,

publications, and photographs from Raymond Walters College, 1967-2007.

Clermont College, College Relations Accession No. UA-08-07, 16 Boxes + 2 Unboxed Items Records, including course schedules and bulletins,

publications, periodicals, press releases and media mentions, and ephemera, 1985-2006.

Retention for New Financial Policy Forms The new financial policies that went into effect on February 1, 2008 created several new forms that require retention policies. Many of the forms state that a copy should be retained and made available upon request from Internal Audit. Those copies should be retained for a minimum of three years and then they can be destroyed. Forms included in this category are Travel Authorization Form, Policy Pre-Approval Form, Policy Exception Form, and Individual Mileage Log. Copies of any required documentation should be retained as well as the forms. As departmental records retention schedules are reviewed, a new records series will be added if appropriate. Personnel Medical Records Medical and health records of UC faculty and staff should not be included in the personnel files maintained by University departments. Personnel files are open to discovery but health information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and disclosure is limited. If the department holds such records

(Continued on page 9)

Program News


Records in the News Former Ohio AG Seeks Mountain of Records July 30, 2008 WCPO.com

Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has submitted an extensive public records request to gain access to records created during his tenure in office. The records requested include his emails, news clippings, schedules, and expense records as well as records of public records requests for those same things made by other people. The current staff recognized that Dann’s request is “pretty voluminous” and has given no estimate on how long it will take to satisfy the request. Dann took office as AG in 2006 and resigned amid scandal on May 14, 2008. While in office he was responsible for creating guidelines for complying with new public records laws signed by Governor Taft in December 2005. Financial Consultant Accused Of Dumping Boxes Of Personal Records July 31, 2008 kypost.com Deputies in Warren county recently found a cache of valuable customer financial information—in a dumpster. They believe that it was put in the dumpster on Socialville-Foster Road by a financial consultant who lives in a nearby neighborhood. Among the information contained in the records are social security numbers, addresses, and driver’s license information—everything that someone looking to steal identities would need. The customers appear to all be from Florida. The financial consultant has not been named as police are still trying to locate him. The records were originally found by a neighbor who reported his discovery to the authorities.

they should be maintained in a separate file. These can include, but are not limited to, documents that refer to any kind of medical condition or treatment that an employee has had (including Time Off From Work Forms), physicians’ certificates and other documentation of a medical leave of absence. Human Resources is currently working on a list of documents that should be maintained in personnel files. In the meantime, if you have any questions about records that can or cannot be included in a personnel file, please contact the Human Resources Service Center. Committee Records The following policies apply to university committees that are made up of employees from diverse departments. Such committees include President’s subcommittees, search committees, accreditation committees, task forces, etc.

1. Committee records fall under the Inter-University Council of Ohio Records Retention Matrix retention code ADM9910, Subject Files. Official committee records should be retained by the chairperson of the committee for a minimum period of three years. Records can be stored in the office of the chairperson or in offsite/vendor storage managed by the office of the chairperson.

2. After the three year retention period, the records should be transferred to the University Archives. A Certificate of Records Disposal should accompany the records. If your retention schedule does not include a series for committee records, you will need to have it updated before the transfer can take place.

3. Records to be retained, if created, may include charter, charge, by-laws, membership rosters, agendas, minutes, presentations, handouts, publications, documented decisions, reports, and official recommendations. This is not an exhaustive list.

4. Copies of records maintained by committee members other than the chairperson should be retained as long as they are necessary for that member’s purposes and then they should be destroyed.

(Continued from page 8)

april/may 2007 moving? reorganizing? retiring? · moving? reorganizing? retiring? ... alphabetic...

Documents