Just like your hopelessly romantic friend who continues to jump into the deep end of the dating pool will tell you, asking compatibility questions and planning to prevent later problems is intimidating and boring. However, five days later, over a gallon of Rocky Road in a dark room, listening to Adele, they’ll also tell you…
World-breaking news in my world: Texas state agency and public university Records Management Officers (RMOs) and records liaisons are not skipping happily to their computers to begin working on their quinquennial records retention schedule recertification (recert). Cue the chill vinyl that was playing and is now scratching, my coffee cup dropping, and my heart breaking.…
Per Local Government Code, 203.041 (LGC)(a.)1. local governments are required to manage an internal schedule. Some local governments have asked, “can I get the Texas State Library and Archives Commission’s (TSLAC) local retention schedules in a spreadsheet?” Now we can do you one better! All of TSLAC’s 12 local retention schedules have been uploaded into…
For those of you using shared drives and not advertising shortcuts as a great solution to staff member’s file path and collaboration problems, I would like to ask: Why not? Probably because you have a million other things going on, but shortcuts really are one of the best ways to help staff collaborate on the…
How many duplicates of a record must a government keep for the full retention period? In terms of records management laws and rules, one copy of a record must be kept for the full retention period, and we call this the “official record copy.” Any identical copies of the official record copy are considered “convenience…
Records and information management programs are at the heart of every organization. Records contain information that staff need to continue operations, complete daily tasks, and provide reasoning for an organization’s actions. Good records and information management ensures that stakeholders are satisfied that they have proper access to the information they need. Additionally, protecting records ensures…
Understanding what meets the definition of a “local government record” is important for a local government employee (especially a Records Management Officer). This is because your entity’s local government record is a record that you’re required to keep for a certain amount of time based on laws, rules, and standards associated with the Texas State…
When entering the records management world, it doesn’t take long to figure out that it is generally difficult for records leaders to obtain buy-in from others in their office. We’ve heard from many records leaders that staff don’t feel records management is pertinent to their job’s responsibilities, the term “records management” sounds too dated to…