Designing a Corporate Records Management

Portal for NARAKristin Burneston

Greg P. Johnson

Eric Stoykovich

Charlotte Sturm

Table of Contents

Mandate of Our Team The Problem with Records Management at NARA The CRM Portal:

Its Functions for Different Users Its Structure

Decision Tree Database and Data Dictionary

Use Cases Access, Security, and Placement of the Portal Research Questions Answered Conclusions Questions?

Mandate of Our Team

Purpose: To design “records management implementation tools” for the Office of Corporate Records Management (CRM) at NARA

Participating Customer: Susan Sullivan, Director of Corporate Records Management (CRM) at NARA

Problem of Corporate Records Management at NARA Records are not routinely identified, scheduled

and managed Many records have been identified and their

dispositions scheduled, as in Records Control Schedules and General Records Schedules, but implementing these schedules is difficult

Increased use of electronic communication and desktop software has turned nearly all employees into managers of their own records

The NARA Transformation and Records Management Transformation created a Corporate Records

Management Office (reports to the Chief Operating Officer Tom Mills)

Corporate Records Management is divided into two units: Records Management Operations (ensures recordkeeping) and Records Management Laboratory (collaborates with Applied Research Office and consults with Chief Records Officer)

The CRM Portal

The Corporate Records Management Portal is a suite of tools to assist all NARA employees with their recordkeeping responsibilities including the identification, storage, management, and protection of records that document the business activities of NARA.

Do you have a Record?

FAQ

Library

Contact

Training

Secure & Preserve

About

Tool Suit

e

Welcome to the Corporate Records Management Portal

Different Users of the CRM Portal (1) Implementation Officer (IO)

i. Serves as the primary or first contact for NARA staff at the business unit level for records management mattersii. Develop file plans & record inventoriesiii. Train local staff at unit leveliv. Execute disposition (transfer or delete/destroy eligible records under direction of IMO) at unit levelv. Implement procedures (e.g. departing employees, shared-drives)vi. Provide RM information to IMO or Corporate RM for evaluation of compliance and performance

Different Users of the CRM Portal (2) Information Management Officer (IMO)

i. Coordinates records management activities (e.g. records scheduling, inventorying & file plan maintenance, disposition, training, evaluation, and RM performance) of a major office or component within NARA throughout headquarters, regional facilities, and presidential libraries

ii. Ensures recordkeeping policies, procedures, and corporate strategies are implemented and updated for all NARA units under their responsibility

iii. Serves as the primary contact and customer of the Corporate Records Management Staff at headquarters

Different Users of the CRM Portal (3) General Staff

Nearly any staff member at NARA, froman archivist to an HR staff member to a lawyer in the General Counsel's office.

IOs and IMOs: Functions of the CRM Portal

Inventorying and scheduling records Using the database for reports Writing or amending a file plan Adding, revising, or removing a document from

the RM Library Collaboration on specific projects.

Do you have a Record?

Notify CM

Library

Review Feedback

Red Flags & Alerts

Inventory

About

Tool Suit

e

Customize

Welcome to the Corporate Records Management Portal

Do you have a Record?

Notify CM

Library

Review Feedback

Red Flags & Alerts

Inventory

About

Tool Suit

e

Customize

Welcome to the Corporate Records Management Portal

You have: 5 Alerts

6 Questions 7 Comments

NWML File Plan

General Staff: Functions of the Portal

(1) Decision Tree

Definition: a highly structured way of making decisions Simple Language Functions as a system of inputs and outputs

Use Case #1

Howard Lowell, the Deputy Assistant Archivist for NARA’s Office of Records Services (NWM) in Washington, DC, wrote an official letter on September 9, 2005 to Michael Chertoff, the director of Homeland Security.

Is this letter a record of the business activities of NARA’s Office of Records Services?

Use Case #2

Library Tool

(2) Search the Records Management “Library” for Records Management Tools Documenting Your Public Service

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/publications/documenting-your-public-service.html#federal

Recordkeeping in Transformation FAQs

General Records Schedules (GRS)http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs/

NARA's Records Control Schedule (RCS)http://www.archives.gov/about/records-schedule/

Library Tool

All unit-specific file plans (such as Susan's example document for NWML)

All of the items included in the FAQs portion of NARA's public website: http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/faqs/

All of the current items on the Records Management portion of NARA's public website: http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/

All of the guidance documents found in the Toolkit for Managing Electronic Records: http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/toolkit/pdf/all-nara-non-nara-tools.pdf

Data Dictionary

System Managers shall maintain adequate and up-to-datetechnical documentation for each electronic information systemthat produces, uses, or stores data files. Minimum documentationrequired is a narrative description of the system; physical andtechnical characteristics of the records, including a record layoutthat describes each field including its name, size, starting orrelative position, and a description of the form of the data (such asalphabetic, zoned decimal, packed decimal, or numeric), or a datadictionary or the equivalent information associated with a database management system including a description of therelationship between data elements in data bases; and any othertechnical information needed to read or process the records(see 36 CFR 1234.20).

Customers of the Portal

Conclusion

We recommend that NARA think about the CRM web portal primarily as an inventory management system and scheduling tool. As currently proposed, the CRM portal would be used by employees of NARA to schedule internal records. However, in the future,