Topical posts. General guidance on various subjects in the field of records and information management.
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,…
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…
If you’re a local government whose records were damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Beryl, we’ve put together these guidelines and resources on disaster recovery from a records perspective and encourage you to read through them. If you have specific questions or you’re feeling in over your head with records management, contact your regional analyst. Do…
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…
There’s no denying that AI (artificial intelligence) is the buzzword du jour. Have you ever wondered how to classify records generated by AI on your retention schedule? Whether or not your government entity is actively using AI, it’s a question worth considering. What is AI and Why Would My Government Entity Use it? According to…
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…
By: Ellen Gleason & Sierra McGee. As a Records Management Officer (RMO) for a state agency, at some point you will need to send your records to TSLAC for transfer or review. This means your records have met retention and their record series has an archival code of “A” or “R”. But then what? What…
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…