Organizing Shared Drive
By Shan Jin
Records Analyst
Queen’s University Archives
July 2012
Contents
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An Administrative Assistant’s First Day Nightmare
Shared Drive – Pros & Cons
Assign Responsibility
Establish Guidelines
Classification Plan
Naming Conventions
Version Control
University Records
Retention and Disposition
Implementation and Migration
Maintenance
Training
Contacts
An Administrative Assistant’s
First Day Nightmare
Shared Drive – Pros
 Electronic records are easily accessible to
those who need to refer to them, and can be
easily reused.
 Electronic records are backed up and
recoverable in the event of system failure.
 Users can refer to electronic records in a
central location rather than managing or
emailing duplicate copies, saving storage
space.
Shared Drive – Cons
It is difficult to locate, retrieve and use information if the
drive has not been structured or titled appropriately.
Electronic records accumulate and are rarely deleted,
leading to volumes of storage that are costly to maintain.
In absence of a robust Electronic Document and Record
Management System, while some security measures can
be added, most records on shared drives can be easily
edited or deleted and there are no audit trails.
Assign Responsibility
Maintain an administrator role. The administrator is responsible for
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establishing / updating guidelines
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creating / maintaining a classification plan
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Creating new top-level folders
Preventing ad-hoc changes to at least the top two levels without serious consideration or
controlled process
Reorganizing, adding or removing folders on according to the University’s Directory of Records
and Records Retention and Disposition Schedules
monitoring a shared drive
Regularly review folders and records to ensure they meet the guidelines.
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overseeing a periodic disposal of electronic records
The administrator can also serve as a Records Custodian of the unit.
Establish Guidelines
To ensure that shared drives are used in a manner that maximises the
benefits and minimum the risks and costs, guidelines should be created
to standardise common practices. The guidelines should be in line with
the University’s Records Management Policy and Procedures.
The guidelines should address following issues:
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Classification Plan
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Naming Conventions
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Version Control
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Retention and Disposition
Classification Plan
The classification plan of a shared drive shall mirror the Directory of
Records developed by the University’s Records Management Program.
Map the folders and subfolders using that classification scheme.
Naming Conventions (1)
File name should contain enough information to properly describe the contents
for easy retrieval and sharing of information. Some of the elements of a file
name include title, version number, date, author or creator, unit name, type and
file extension.
Here are some tips of naming a file:
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Select and consistently use one standard name for office, committee, topic
or people.
Keep file names short by using common abbreviations, e.g. using “rpt”
instead of “report”.
Maintain a key of all abbreviation used.
DON’T use texts for dates.
Select and consistently use one standard format for dates, e.g. YYYY-MMDD or YYYY-MM.
2010Apr13FINAL
2010Sep9Draft
2011Aug10Draft
2010-04-13 Staff Meeting Minutes, Final
2010-08-10 Staff Meeting Minutes, Draft
2010-09-09 Staff Meeting Minutes, Draft
Naming Conventions (2)
Numbers in a file name will be sorted from the left so "zero filling" may be
required. This will maintain the numeric order in the file directory.
Naming Conventions (3)
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Order the elements in a file name in the most appropriate way to
retrieve the record.
Avoid descriptive terms regarding format or version at the start of file
names.
Naming Conventions (4)
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When including a personal name in a file name, give the family name
first followed by first name and middle name, e.g. Smith, John A.
A standard delimiter should be adopted to separate elements of a file
name. Some common delimiters include: underscore(_), dash (-) or
space.
Different systems have different file name requirements, in particular
different characters that they do not recognize in document names.
Avoid using non-Alphanumeric characters such as forward slash (/),
backslash(\), greater than sign (>), less than sign (<), asterisk (*),
question mark (?), quotation mark ("), pipe symbol (|), colon (;) or
semicolon (;).
Capital letters can be used to delimit words in a file name, e.g.
FocusGroupNotes.doc.
Version Control
 Save the modified version as a new document.
 The version number of a record should be indicated in its file name by
the inclusion of “V” followed the version number and, where applicable,
“Draft” or “Final”.
EGEE-II-DJRA2.1-331457-v0-0 (Draft)
EGEE-II-DJRA2.1-331457-v1-0 (Draft)
EGEE-II-DJRA2.1-331457-v2-0 (Final)
University Records
University Records are information created, received and maintained in the
course of conducting university business and kept as evidence of that
activity.
For example, a copy of Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of
Privacy Act is reference material, but not a University Record.
Ideally, university records should be managed in an Electronic Document
and Record Management System (EDRMS). In absence of an EDRMS,
University Records should be managed in separate network location, which
does not allow changes or deletion without proper authorization, e.g. only
users on an access control list have full access.
Retention and Disposition
A Records Retention and Disposition Schedule defines how long to retain
certain records and what to do with the records at the end of their retention.
Most of the university records will be destroyed after they are no longer
needed for current and future business or compliance with legal
requirements. University records designated as “AR” in the schedules
should be transferred to the archives for permanent retention.
Electronic records should be deleted regularly according to schedules
developed the University’s Records Management (RM) program.
Check the University’s RM program website for schedules.
http://archives.queensu.ca/rm/Retention.html
In case of doubt, please contact the University’s RM staff. Contact
information can be found at the end of the presentation.
Implementation and Migration (1)
The first step to reorganize a shared drive is to conduct an inventory of the current
shared drive. The purpose is to
identify folders and files that have passed their retention date or subject to a legal
hold
DO NOT delete any record during the inventory process. Just indicate the proposed action on an
inventory form, e.g. any record with an expired retention, outdated reference material, duplicates,
superseded records, records subject to a legal hold.
create a classification plan
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A classification plan shall mirror the University’s Directory of Records.
Assign classification number for folders.
Rename the folders using agreed upon naming conventions.
assign Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR) to each folder
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The OPR is responsible for authorizing deletion or transfer of records.
Designated OPR information can be found in Records Retention and Disposition Schedules.
Implementation and Migration (2)
Based on the result of the inventory, a unit can create a new shared drive,
then
Migrate all documents to the new shared drive, or
Migrate the current year, plus one or more previous year, or
Migrate on a go-forward basis, or
Migrate older documents into the new system as used
If the current shared drive structure is not very complicated, a unit can just
modify the current drive using the classification plan created in the inventory
process.
Implementation and Migration(3)
Once the migration decision is made, it is time to
Rename / Move Folders and Records
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Rename and move folders to conform to the classification plan and naming conventions
Move records to the right folders. All records should reside within a folder.
Rename records using naming conventions and version control guidelines
Delete empty folders
Implement Disposition
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Records designated as AR in Records Retention and Disposition Schedules are to be
transferred to the archives. Please contact the University Archives to arrange a transfer.
Prepare an Authorization for Destruction of Records Form and have it signed by the Officer of
Primary Responsibility.
Unless a record is subject to a legal hold, delete any record with an expired retention, outdated
reference material, duplicates, superseded records.
Records involved in litigation and/or potential litigation should be kept until the legal hold is
released, then they can be disposed according to the schedules.
Maintenance
It is important that regular ‘housekeeping’ is conducted to keep shared drives
in good order and promote ease of retrieval.
An shared drive administrator should periodically check the folders and
records in shared drives to ensure they meet the guidelines.
Guidelines and Classification Plan should be reviewed regularly.
All employees need to review their files (both paper and electronic), identify
records that have reached their retention period specified in the University’s
Records Retention and Disposition Schedules and either destroy them or
arrange for them to be transferred to the University Archives. Authorization
should be obtained before disposition actions are taken.
Training
The University’s Records Management (RM) staff will offer various
training programs to meet the recordkeeping needs of the university
community.
The University’s RM staff have developed policies, procedures and
guidelines on best recordkeeping practices. For more information,
please visit
http://archives.queensu.ca/rm.html
Class-room and web-based RM training programs are being
planned, including courses tailored to the needs of particular groups
of staff or topic. These courses will become available in the future.
Contacts
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Gillian Barlow, University Records Manager

Shan Jin, Records Analyst
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Deirdre Bryden, Archivist (University Records)
Please contact us at (613) 533-2378.