We are excited to announce that we will be conducting free introductory records management classes via Zoom for local governments on: These classes are free for local government employees in Texas. Visit our training page for registration instructions. Class Description Records Management Basics for Local Governments – 3-Hour Webinar This course is an abbreviated mashup of our…
One of the ways we at the State and Local Records Management Division (SLRM) assist state agencies and local governments in ensuring records and information are accessible for the short-, medium-, and long-term is by operating a full-service, cost-recovery image conversion center, the Imaging Services Department. We recently asked Imaging Services Supervisor Jacqueline Jacobs and…
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.…
Those of you who work for state agencies may be familiar with the recertification process, where the Records Management Officer (RMO) submits a records retention schedule of all the records of the agency with instructions on how to manage them. Each state agency must recertify their schedule every five years for review and approval. Recently,…
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…
The auditing process is fundamental to ensuring compliance with the law and best practices. However, many records management officers will get nervous when someone mentions doing an audit. Although it can be daunting to put your program under a microscope, there are many positive things that can come out of doing an audit on your…
In the records and information management (RIM) field, a file plan is a tool you can use to keep track of what and where records live in your organization for their entire lifecycle, from creation or receipt to disposition. Think of it as a roadmap that marks important landmarks regarding a record: where and in…