Records at Berkeley Lab--From the Cradle to the Grave

1. Records at Berkeley Lab--From the Cradle to the Grave John W. Stoner Archives and Records Office (ARO) November 19, 2004

2. Overview

3. Goals for This Workshop • Help you to understand your role in processing, maintaining, storing of Lab records. • Give you the tools you need to deal with Lab records. • Answer your questions: • What exactly is a record? • What do I need to keep and send to storage? • What should I NOT send? • When should I send records to storage?

4. Workshop Goals • Answer more questions: • How do I prepare the records for storage? • How do I pack and label the boxes? • What forms do I use and how do I fill them in? • How do I get the records to ARO? • How long should the records be stored? • How do I retrieve the records? • What are Vital Records? • What do we do with electronic records?

5. ARO’s Mission and Services • Ensure the comprehensive and on-going collection of records documenting the Laboratory and its work. • Respond to internal and external records and information requests. • Provide records training to Lab employees. • Coordinate the Lab’s Records Liaison Officer (RLO) Program.

6. Records Responsibilities • Division/department responsibilities include: • Establish effective controls over creation, maintenance and use of records. • Create and preserve records that provide adequate and proper documentation. • Transfer semi active records to storage.

7. Records Responsibilities • Most of the work in meeting records responsibilities is done by administrative staff, who know the records best: • Creation and maintenance of filing systems. • Filing of records. • Preparing records for transfer to storage. • Requesting records from storage. • Administrative staff are key players in Lab records management. • ARO is here to assist you in that role.

8. Questions & Answers, Or, How Do I:Store Records?Retrieve Records?Destroy Records?

9. What to Send to Storage • Send only records to storage. • What is a record? • Documentary material, in any media, created or received in the normal course of laboratory business. • It is worth preserving because it provides evidence of the Lab’s policies, procedures, activities, and decisions. • It has technical, administrative, historical, and/or legal value.

10. What NOT to Send to Storage • Do not send nonrecords or personal papers to storage. • What are nonrecords? • Copies of documents maintained in more than one location or • Materials available from public sources. • What are personal papers? • Documentary materials of a private or nonpublic nature and • Do not relate to or have an effect upon the conduct of Lab business.

11. When Should I Send Records to Storage? • When a pre-established file cut-off (end of the calendar or fiscal year, end of a project, etc.) has been reached. • When records in the office are inactive (referred to on an average of once per month or less) but must still be retained. • NOTE: You should have accumulated atleast one full storage box of records before you transfer them to storage.

12. How Do I Prepare Records for Storage? • Go to the ARO web site and read the Transfer Instructions and Standards, then: • Organize and box the records as separate series. A series is: • Unit of records arranged according to a filing system or kept together because they: • Relate to a particular subject or function • Result from the same activity • Document a specific kind of transaction • Take a particular physical form • Records retention schedules (lists of records that authorize their disposition) are organized by series.

13. How Do I Prepare Records for Storage? • Do be sure all records are in labeled file folders. • Don’t: • Transfer pendaflex (hanging file folders) or binders. • Send floppy diskettes, transparencies, chron files, multiple copies, or publications. • Mix series or store personal papers with lab records.

14. How Do I Prepare Records for Storage? Please don’t transfer the following to storage:

15. How Do I Pack and Label Boxes? • Contact ARO (aro@lbl.gov or x5525) to order the correct boxes – record format determines box size. • Boxes are sent as flats and need to be constructed. • Treat the box as a file drawer – the front is marked FRONT and has spaces labeled ACCESSION NUMBER and AGENCY BOX NUMBER. • Transfer records from hanging file folders and binders into labeled manila or accordion folders.

16. How Do I Pack and Label Boxes? • Transfer the records from existing filing equipment to the boxes, maintaining the original order. • Leave one to two inches of space in each box – don’t over or under pack. • Fill all the boxes except the last one. • Number the boxes in the AGENCY BOX NUMBER space following the format 1 of 11, 2 of 11, etc.

17. How Do I Pack and Label Boxes? Assembling the box:

18. How Do I Pack and Label Boxes? Assembling the box:

19. How Do I Pack and Label Boxes? Treat the box as a file drawer:

20. How Do I Pack and Label Boxes? Packing and labeling the box:

21. How Do I Pack and Label Boxes? Don’t over or under pack:

22. What Forms Do I Use and How Do I Fill Them In? • Electronic transmittals must be submitted to ARO (aro@lbl.gov) before any records can be transferred. • Download the transmittal and quality checklist from the forms page at the ARO web site. • Fill in the information about the records in the fields provided.

23. What Forms Do I Use and How Do I Fill Them In? • Complete all fields except those marked Archives and Records Use Only. • In the Brief Description of the Records try to answer the following questions: • Who created the records? • How were the records used? • What do the records include? • How are the records arranged? • In the Type of Materials field, check all materials found in the records. • In Records Retention and Disposition, indicate if the records are temporary or permanent. • Do not sign the form – that space authorizes records destruction, not storage.

24. What Forms Do I Use and How Do I Fill Them In? • On the second and subsequent pages, fill in the box numbers (1 of 11, 2 of 11, etc.), the folder numbers, and the file folder headings in each box - exactly as they appear in the box. • If an electronic index already exists it may be used or copied and pasted into the form, so long as box and folder number and folder heading are clearly indicated. • The heading for every folder in every box must be listed and the order of the file listing must match the order of the folders in the boxes.

25. What Forms Do I Use and How Do I Fill Them In? • Low cost storage at the Federal Records Center (FRC) requires that Lab records meet a set of standards. • Fill out the Accession Checklist to make sure your records meet the standards. • The answer to all the questions on the form must be “Yes” to meet the standards. • Once the records arrive at ARO and are reviewed, if they do not meet the standards, they will be returned to you.

26. How Do I Get My Records to Storage? • Email the form to ARO (aro@lbl.gov) with a project ID number for Transportation. • Place a hard copy of the forms in the first box of the series. • Put a sign on the boxes – “Hold for ARO Pickup.” • ARO staff will review the forms and put in the pickup request with Transportation. • Upon receipt of your records, ARO will send you an acknowledgement letter. • Upon transferring the records to the FRC, ARO will send you an updated transmittal.

27. How Do I Get My Records to Storage?

28. How Long Should the Records Be Kept? • How long records are kept is determined by records retention schedules – legal documents listing records by name or type and specifying: • When they should be sent to storage. • When records will be destroyed. • Which historically valuable records will be sent to the National Archives (NARA). • Records schedules are approved by NARA. • The Lab uses twenty-seven different schedules.

29. How Long Should the Records Be Kept? • Scheduling Lab records. • ARO service done in consultation with records creators/users. • Matching often generic and standardized schedules to unique Lab records. • Keys to successful scheduling: • Lab records need to be organized and maintained by series. • Creators/users need to provide complete and detailed description of the records when they are transferred to ARO.

30. How Long Should the Records Be Kept? • Destruction of Lab records • Records stored at the FRC are covered by records schedules that specify when the records will be destroyed. • Before any record at the FRC is destroyed there must be written authorization from the department head. • If the department wants the records stored beyond their scheduled destruction date, written justification needs to be supplied to ARO.

31. How Long Should the Records Be Kept? • Destruction of Lab records • Records not covered by a schedule have no destruction date – they are unscheduled records. • Unscheduled records cannot be destroyed – consult with ARO.

32. How Do I Retrieve Records From Storage? • Pull your acknowledgement letter or updated transmittal. • Go to ARO’s online records request web form and enter your employee ID number. • Fill out as much of the form as you can but at least the following: • Requesting a box or file? • Temporary or permanent loan? • Five to seven day delivery or next day delivery? • General description of what you are trying to retrieve.

33. What are Vital Records? • Two types of records are considered Vital: • Emergency Operating Records – essential to continued functioning or reconstruction of the Lab during and after an Emergency. • Rights and Interests Records – provide evidence of legal status, ownership, and financial status. • Divisions are responsible for identifying and protecting their vital records. • ARO will assist divisions with their vital records programs.

34. What Do We Do About Electronic Records? • The world produces about exabytes of unique information per year - roughly 800 megabytes for every man, woman, and child on earth. • Ninety-two percent of new information is stored on magnetic media, primarily hard disks. • NARA’s federal regulations require that electronic records be managed within a recordkeeping system. • NARA accepts electronic records but only permanent electronic records. • NARA accepts transfer of electronic records on various media but transfers them to magnetic tape for storage.

35. What Do We Do About Electronic Records? • Data files and databases must be transferred as flat files or rectangular tables. • Textual documents must be transferred as ASCII files but can include SGML tags. • The Lab’s challenges – how to store electronic records so that they are: • Immediately accessible to the right people at the right time. • Organized in a recordkeeping system for scheduling and disposal. • Accessible as long as the law requires.

36. What Do We Do About Electronic Records? • In the meantime: • We know that we have already lost information. • We know that paper is a long-lived medium. • Electronic records should be printed and filed in existing recordkeeping systems. • File structures of recordkeeping systems should be replicated on network on network directories.

37. Where Do I Go to Get More Help? • Go to the ARO web site. • Contact us directly at aro@lbl.gov or x. 5525. • Arrange for a free records consultation (“house call”) in your office. • Arrange to have all the records transfer processing done by ARO at $58 an hour (our Records Processing Recharge Service).