Electronic Records
Management
Identifying, Organizing, and
Preserving your e-records
The Problem with Electronic
Records
 Massive Volume of e-Records
 Increases by 30% per annum
 Volume of unnecessary e-Records
 30-60% of all stored documents are copies
 Electronic Non-records
 “90% of what I get is Spam…”
 Ephemeral Nature of e-Records
 ‘Surrogacy’ issue
 Limited control over organization
The Problem, cont.
 Information Security
 Who’s looking at your records?
 How to protect confidential e-recs?
 Record Authenticity
 Legal issues re: file changes (Zubulake)
 Long-term preservation?
 File Format?
 Physical Medium?
Part I: Identifying and
Authenticating your e-Records
What is a record?
 Records: Recorded information, in any
format, that allows an office to conduct
business
 Does NOT include unofficial records:
 Duplicate Copies
 Drafts and Informal Notes
 Routing Slips
 Personal Correspondence
 “Does this document help me perform the
duties in my job description?”
Electronic Records
 Value of a record determined by content,
not format!
Electronic Record
Paper Analog
E-mail message
E-Form template
Memo, typed letter
Form master copy
Museum accessions
database
Student paper (e-mailed
or D2L-submitted)
Instant message log
Accession card catalog
Student paper submitted
in class or via mail
Memorandum of
conversation
Is it an Electronic Record?
 Does your file:
 Support or document a transaction?
 Document the formulation or execution of a policy,
interpretation of a policy, or change of policy?
 Document Actions taken in response to an inquiry?
 Relate to the substantive business of your office
or work unit?
 Provide information regarding the historical
development of UWM programs or people?
 If “yes” to any of the above, it is a record!
Record vs. Non-Record: Examples
 E-mail to contractor clarifying terms:
Record!
 E-mail from department head to staff
giving committee assignments: Record!
 Sender must retain as record; recipient(s)
may delete as appropriate
 Draft of a report: Non-Record!
 The final report will be a record, however
Copy of Record
 The official record, for business and legal
purposes, of a business transaction
 If you take any action on a document, that
document becomes YOUR record, even if
other copies are maintained elsewhere
 EXCEPTION: Convenience copies may be
discarded freely
Copy of Record: Examples
 If you create a document as part of your
everyday work, you are the record holder
 If you manage or lead a committee, project, or
program, you are the record holder
 If you are holding a received record for
reference, you are NOT the record holder
 Sender usually record holder in these cases
The Authenticity Problem
 Electronic records are inherently malleable
 May be modified after creation (esp. desktop!)
 Electronic records are inherently surrogate
 The actual ‘record’ the magnetic pattern on
server or hard drive
 Electronic records are inherently unstable
 Need for migration, etc. often damages
integrity of file
The Authenticity Solution?
 FRE 803(6): Authenticity is presumed if
University relies on the records
 Some possibilities for verifying authenticity
 Versioning?
 Read-Only Protection/Digital Signatures?
 Fixed Form/Stable Content conversion? (e.g.
save as PDF)
 Ultimately, these solutions only as useful
as records creators are vigilant
Part II: e-Records Creation and
Maintenance
Not All Records Are Created Equal
 Desktop Application Records
 Ex: Word documents; databases; imaged
copies of paper documents
 E-mail Records
 Ex: Transitory messages; routine
correspondence; policy/procedures
correspondence
 Web Information
 Ex: HTML files; CSS style sheets; blogs
What’s In A Name?
 File names should be as descriptive as possible
 In case of email or other machine-generated
titles, use subject as descriptor
Poor/Confusing
Better/Descriptive
Minutes.doc
ITSecurityMinutes108.doc
Subj: Helpful Info
Subj: Project X Contact
Info and wiki address
PurchasesFY07.mdb
Purchases.mdb
Tagging and Classifying
 Benefits of ‘tagging’ and ‘folksonomy’
 Develop office-wide categories to describe
documents
 Working with other departments on this allows
categories to work on broader scale, more
consistently
 From there….?
 Tag/Categorize documents as they are
created
Filing System: Desktop/Web
 Your computer/server is your filing cabinet;
the directories are your drawers/folders
 Advantage over paper filing: multi-level
hierarchy!
 Allows greater control over organization– if
you keep up with it
 Keep record series (groups of functionallyrelated records) separate
Desktop Filing Suggestions
 Alphabetically
 Good for student files, personnel, etc.
 Automatic arrangement, but low org. control
 Chronologically
 Good for activity tracking, financial recs, etc.
 Useful for keeping track of disposition
 Subject
 Good for administrative/reference files
 Most versatile, requires most vigilance
Hybrid Filing
 Combining one or more of the filing
archetypes to fulfill reference/retention
needs
 Example:
 Reference Correspondence
 FY2006
 November
 Smith, A
 Smith, K
Filing System: E-mail
 Keep all emails in your inbox
 Advantages: Easy; computer-aided searching
 Disadvantages: Inbox clutter, manual
searching
 Foldering Scheme
 Advantages: retain context; manual
searching; reduces inbox clutter
 Disadvantages: Large implementation and
maintenance requirement
Hybrid System for Email
 Delete non-record email as needed
 Manually file emails for
reference/retention, OR set up filters
 Filter by sender, subject line, recipient, etc.
partially automates filing
 Leave emails in inbox that require quick
follow-through
 File appropriately once responded to
The Cardinal Rule of Filing/Naming
Be Consistent!!!!
Part III: E-Records Retention and
Disposition
Why do I need to keep e-recs?
 To document the operations of your office
 To document important programmatic
decisions
 To preserve the history of your office and
UWM
 To provide legal protection for your office
 To comply with Wisconsin state law!
 Wis. Stats. 16.61; Wis. Stats. 36.19
Why do I need to DESTROY erecs?
 To use less server space
 To reduce the clutter in your inbox and on
your desktop
 To avoid confusion about which file is the
record copy
 To provide legal protection for your office
RRDAs to the Rescue!
 Records Retention and Disposition
Authority (RRDA)
 Retention period (minimum)
 Final Disposition
 Record Series description
 When followed, RRDAs, or Records
Schedules, simplify decision-making
process on keeping/destroying records
 Required by state law!
Sample RRDA
What if an RRDA doesn’t exist?
 Non-record files and emails (drafts, notes,
etc.) may be deleted immediately
 Official Records may not be destroyed
without a schedule
 Many records, such as fiscal recs., scheduled
under General Records Schedules (GRSs)
 Contact Records Officer to arrange for erecords survey and scheduling
General Disposition Tips
 Set aside a little time each day/week as
‘purge time’
 ‘Purge day’ at end of FY or in slow times?
 If using Outlook or Thunderbird for email,
set up date search for archiving
 If records are unscheduled, organize them
in preparation for scheduling
 Function, Date, Creator?
 When in doubt, hold on to it!
Exception: Litigation Holds!
 Applied by official in advance of lawsuit potential
 If a litigation hold is placed on a record series or
email group, no records from that series may
be destroyed
 Supersedes all existing records schedules
 Records outside scope of hold follow normal
disposition
 Also applies to Open Records Requests
 Contact Records Management or Legal Affairs
with questions
Long-Term e-Recs Preservation
 UWM Archives does not currently have a
dedicated E-Records Repository
 On short list of projects for 2008
 Preservation problems: Medium
 CD-ROMs? Magnetic Disks? Server?
 Preservation problems: Data Format
 Obsolescence? Proprietary Formats?
 Current Recommendation: Keep in office
Geof Huth’s ‘Three Ms’
 Message: Is the content of the document
adequately preserved?
 Media: Is the storage medium durable
enough to retain its integrity over time?
 Metadata: Is there enough supplementary
info to contextualize the document?
 If you lose even one of these components
of an electronic record, you have not
adequately preserved it.
A Brief Sidenote on Metadata
 Metadata: A characterization or
description documenting the identification,
management, nature, use, or location of
information resources (data)
 Inherent metadata (email headers, date of
creation, document author, etc.)
 User-supplied metadata (tags, categories,
abstracts, etc.)
 Critical for document search, context
Preservation Solution #1: Printing
e-Records
 Avoids problems of obsolescence,
mutability
 Most office managers better equipped to
deal with paper records
 UWM Archives can accession paper
records more easily
 Disadvantage: No searchability or
reusability; onus to print on user; wasteful
Preservation Solution #2: Native
Format Storage
 Storing documents as created by
applications
 Easiest option for most users, particularly
if well-organized
 Disadvantage: Requires constant
migration (every new version); no backup
puts data at risk; media may degrade
 UWM Archives is NOT equipped to handle
this method of storage
Preservation Solution #3: Neutral
Format Storage
 Files converted to non-proprietary format (TIFF,
XML, PDF/A) and stored remotely
 PantherFile, LOCKSS Box
 Reduces/eliminates need for migration or
emulation
 Provides backup and transfer options
 Disadvantage: Conversion may be laborintensive; onus on user for now
 UWM Archives, UITS searching for mass-conversion
tool
A Few Special Notes on Email
 Archive your email on your computer or
server space, not on the email server
 Think about it: do you check out books from
the Post Office?
 Convert archived email to neutral format
 TXT files are easiest; XML files preserve
metadata better
 Keep attachments associated with email
files
Email notes, cont.
 Include original message and reply inline
when possible
 Allows for complete documentary record
 Only need to save last message in thread
 Include all relevant information in printout:




Header information
Body Text
Attachments
Signature blocks
Personal Email?
 Two Rules of Thumb:
1. Try not to send personal e-mails from
your university account; if you do, though,
keep them separate from your work emails.
2. Never send work-related e-mails from
personal e-mail accounts!
Above all else…
 As much as is possible, consider
electronic records to be ‘normal’ university
records, and treat them as such!
 Stay on top of managing your e-Records,
and they won’t spiral out of control!
For More Information
 UW System Policy on Use of University
Information Technology Resources
http://www.uwsa.edu/president/communications/pub
licat/itpolicy.htm
 UITS Short Courses (The Email
Management course is particularly useful)
 https://www4.uwm.edu/uits/services/training/courses
/index.cfm
Wisconsin Information
 State of Wisconsin E-Mail Policy and
Guidance
 http://enterprise.state.wi.us/home/email/Default.htm
 Wisconsin DOA Electronic Records
(See especially the training links)
 http://enterprise.state.wi.us/home/erecords/
 ADM Ch. 12: Electronic Records
 http://www.legis.state.wi.us/rsb/code/adm/adm012
.pdf
UWM Records Management
 New Records Management Home Page!
 http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/arch/recordsmgt/
 Includes links to UWM and UW-System
General Records Schedules, webcasts, this
presentation
 Or, Contact Records Management directly:
 houstobn@uwm.edu (Brad Houston)
 414-229-6979
Questions?