When it comes time to schedule records with the Utah State Archives and Records Service there may be some confusion about general retention schedules. What are general schedules? What purpose do they serve? How do I use a general schedule? ARMA International defines a retention schedule as: “A comprehensive list of records series, indicating for each the length of time it is …
Records Management Zombies: Or, the Challenges of a Mindless RM Program
Records managers can learn from zombies. A general observation about zombie behavior: Zombies wander aimlessly. They lack direction or the ability to plan ahead. Zombies do not exhibit signs of motivation until they see one of the living. If a zombie meets a person they then stumble and charge to get to their next meal, often hurting themselves in the process. Similarly, records management …
eDiscovery, Litigation, and Utah's Retention Schedules
On September 22nd I attended the Intermountain eDiscovery 2011 conference in Salt Lake City. At the conference Ralph C. Losey, of Jackson Lewis LLP, discussed the challenges and latest solutions to electronic discovery. Three significant points were: 1) If you “reasonably” expect litigation, then you must stop all records destruction; 2) In Manhattan it is considered gross negligence if an IT …
2012 Utah State Archives Records Management Training Dates
The Utah State Archives is pleased to announce the 2012 training dates. It will be an exciting year for training as we introduce two new workshops: “What’s In Those Cabinets: Tackling the Records Inventory and Appraisal Process” and “Essential Records Protection and Disaster Recovery.” Participants of these workshops will begin the process of inventorying in-office records, create a standardized rubric …
Moving Utah's General Retention Schedules Forward
It has been over a decade since the Utah State Archives and Records Service did a comprehensive review of its general retention schedules. Since then a great deal has changed in the way that states and non-governmental entities manage their records. The nature of records is changing, or maybe more accurately has changed, as centuries old analog formats are being …