Automated Support of Records Disposition

1. Automated Support of Records Disposition Bill Underwood Principal Research Scientist Georgia Tech Research Institute NARA Briefing January 6, 2004

2. Overview • Retrospective: Whence it came to be. • Perspective: What it is. • Prospective: What it can be and additional research needed.

3. In Retrospect W. E. Underwood and S. L. Laib “The Language of Records Disposition,” AIAI TR 95-01, Army Research Laboratory, Atlanta, Georgia. Prepared under contract DAKF11-93-C-0043, Managing Electronic Records in an Army Office, February 1995. S. Laib. Program Documentation for a Disposition Language Style Checker and Translator. Technical Note AIAI-TN-94-03, Artificail Intelligence Atlanta, Inc. August 1994. W. E. Underwood, S. Laib and J. Underwood, Managing Electronic Records in an Army Office: Final Report, AIAI 97-06, August 1997.

4. Retrospective • Analysis of the disposition instructions in the GRS and the US Army’s Record Schedule. • Synthesis of a grammar for generic and specific disposition instructions. • Semantics of disposition instructions. • Tools for syntax checking, translating, and carrying out disposition instructions

5. Types of Generic Disposition Instructions • Temporary Records • Time (Destroy after period) • Event (Destroy after event) • Time-Event (Destroy period after event) • Permanent • Permanent • Permanent-Event • (Permanent. PIF after event)

6. Specific Disposition Instructions Permanent. PIF after completion of Study ACTIVE PIF after completion of Study INACTIVE Cut off at the end of the year Retire to servicing FRC after 2 years Permanent

7. Analysis of Combinations of instructions Destroy after 5 years, or 1 year after termination of membership, whichever is first. COFF 31 Dec 1994 Dest Jan 2000, or Dest Jan 1996 if membership was terminated during the year

8. Second Alternative Meaning Destroy after 5 years, or 1 year after termination of membership, whichever is first. COFF 31 Dec 1994 Dest Jan 2000, or Dest 1 year after termination of membership

9. Third Alternative Meaning Destroy after 5 years, or 1 year after termination of membership, whichever is first. ACTIVE PIF after termination of membership or Dest Jan 2000, whichever is earlier. INACTIVE COFF 31 Dec 1994 Dest Jan 1996

10. Combination of Instructions • Destroy after period, or when events [, whichever is earlier (later)] • Destroy after period, or period after events[, whichever is earlier (later)] • Destroy when events, or after period[, whichever is earlier (later)]. • Destroy when events, or when events[, whichever is earlier (later)]

11. Combinations of Instructions 5. Destroy when events, or period after events[, whichever is earlier (later)] 6. Destroy period after events, or after period[, whichever is earlier (later)] 7. Destroy period after events, or when events[, whichever is earlier (later)] 8. Destroy period after events, or period after events[, whichever is earlier (later)]

12. Are combinations of Basic Instructions Needed? • All the combinations of basic instructions discovered in MARKS, also appear in the GRS. • The Federal statutes and regulations upon which NARA and Federal agencies base disposition have different retention requirements. • Different offices within an agency may have different operational retention requirements. • If its possible to simplify the combinations, it should be done, but was beyond the scope of the original work.

13. Combinations of Generic and Specific Instructions Ex: Destroy 20 years after full production of the prototype takes place. Retire after 5 years in the current files area (FN 702-3b) ACTIVE PIF after full production of the prototype takes place. INACTIVE Cutoff at end of year Retire to FRC after 3 years [Retire to FRC after 5 years] Destroy 20 years after cutoff

14. Retain, Hold and Keep • Cut off annually, hold 1 year in CFA, retire to WNRC with the next regular shipment. Destroy 25 years after cutoff. (FN680-31a) • Destroy 3 years after case is closed. Keep in CFA until destroyed. (FN 11-3a) • Destroy after 75 years. Retain 5 years in CFA. (FN: 40-5f)

15. Grammar • Disposition instruction ::= Instructions for temporary records | Instructions for permanent records | Instructions for working files | Do not Destroy. Disposition authorization pending NARA’s approval

16. Grammar Instructions for temporary records ::= (Destroy|Delete) after period [, (or ((after|when|upon|on|at) events) | period after events) [, whichever is (earlier|earliest|later|latest)]] …

17. Grammar period ::= numeral year[s] [and (3|6) months] | (1|3|6) month[s] | (30|60|90) days

18. Grammar for Specific Instructions • Cut off (at end of (CY|FY|month)) [, or (after|on|when) events, whichever is (earlier | earliest)] | after period | (when|after|on) event

19. Perspective: Tools • Style Checker • Translate Generic to definite, dated disposition instructions • Automated Support for Carrying out Disposition Instructions

20. Tool: Style Checker • Lex – lexical word analyzer • Yacc (yet another compiler compiler) – syntactic analyzer and translator. • The grammar was described in Lex and Yacc and used to construct a style checker for disposition instructions

21. Example: Style checker Destroy 5 years after close of fiscal year. <<* 11. REPHRASE USING Cut off *>> Destroy after 5 years. Cut off at the end of the FY

22. Generic Instruction Destroy after 30 days Parameterized Instruction COFF end_of(month,year) Dest months_after (1, month, year) Specific Disposition COFF Jan 31, 2004 Dest Feb 28, 2004 Translating Generic to Specific Instructions

23. Tools: Carrying out Disposition Instructions • Enterprise RMAssistant • Used by Agency to create Records Schedule, Normalize Disposition Instructions • Office RMAssistant • Supports creating office file plan from Agency records schedule, Creating Specific Disposition instructions from Generic, Carrying out Records Disposition, including transfer. • Filing Assistant • Supports filing, creation of case folders, retrieval, and indicating disposition events.

24. Support of Disposition Actions • Cutoff • Transfer • Retire • Destroy • ------------------ • Transferred • Retired

25. Prospects • Standard Syntax and Semantics for Disposition Instructions • Standard Software Tools for Syntax Checking and Translating Generic to Specific Disposition Instructions • Standard API to Support Carrying out Disposition Instructions

26. Needed Research • After creation of the grammar, it was realized that media refreshment and prescription of preservation actions might be needed in the disposition language or in a preservation language. • Additional testing and refinement of the grammar, translation rules and semantics is needed.