Have you ever saved drafts of a record like correspondence, a publication, or report to prepare it for its final form? Suddenly you’re left with edited, superseded copies that were saved in an effort to reach its finalized version. So, what happens to these lingering copies? If you have ever skimmed the retention schedules for…
Welcome back to our occasional series “Off the Record,” a curated collection of articles we found interesting on a broad range of topics, some which are directly related to records management and others which might share common themes. No, we didn’t write these articles—hence the name of this series, “Off the Record”— but, fortunately, we…
Classifying local government records can feel like a Rube Goldberg machine. A light marble (Outlook meeting notice) will float over a weighted ramp, launching itself through the funnel of GR1000-26c, Routine Correspondence. Let’s switch the marble to a metal ball (regular operational correspondence). The metal ball doesn’t weigh the ramp down, but its weight pulls…
The Remarkable Records Series was created to highlight our favorite, weird, and wacky record series found in the retention schedules. We’ve covered the quirky and funny, but it’s time to complain contribute a lesser favorite: Complaints. Recently we received a record clarification question from a Local Government (LG) that seemed to fit under the umbrella…
Administratively Valuable (AV) is a retention code that stirs a lot of questions. How long is AV? What even is AV? Can you say “Administratively Valuable” five times fast? While we analysts at TSLAC can point out best practices and strategies regarding this retention code, we can only speculate so much. To offer a different…
You grab your popcorn and snuggle down under a blanket to watch your favorite sci-fi movie or fantasy show. For a moment, you are whisked away from mundane reality—only to be brought back down to earth when the characters seem to be acting out scenes from your own workplace. We call this state of mind:…