You don’t have to – and probably shouldn’t! – use the trendy KonMari method of cleaning and organizing when it comes to managing government records. We can’t exactly apply the principle of whether or not a record ‘sparks joy’, because if that were the case, the public would be very upset about how much we…
At this year’s e-Records conference, we hosted Access Science’s Lisa Cromwell and Amelia Johnson who showed us how to use assessments to engage our organizations. Both stressed the need to continually reassess business operations in an open empathetic way. Assessments are more than just surveys – those can be helpful – but what is really…
When you read TSLAC’s local government retention schedules (“local schedules”), you may notice the word “obsolete” pops up in lots of different places. Some folks ask us what we mean when we say obsolete. Obsolete generally refers to a record that is no longer active. How your records management program must treat an obsolete record…
I am not a naturally organized person. Last weekend, my husband watched me paw through a laundry basket of essentially all black clothes looking for a black tank top and the two I came up with weren’t the right one. But I have to be organized at work, because others need to find things quickly…
Last year, we were invited to participate in the Juvenile Records Advisory Committee (JRAC), a group composed of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, court staff, probation officials, and others who are experts in the field of law, especially focused on juveniles in the court system. Our goal was to rewrite Chapter 58 of Texas Family Code,…
We know how to dispose of paper records. You can either destroy the records by burning or shredding them. Although these methods of destroying records may have been a viable option in the past, these same methods might not be enough to remove all traces of data from records being stored electronically. Before destroying an electronic…
The time has come to declutter your home and save space while protecting your information. Best of all, it’s FREE! Did you know, at most, you only need to hold onto past tax returns documents for 7 years after initial filing? If you have confidential paper documents, or even just boxes and boxes of non-confidential information,…
One of the most common questions our analysts get asked is “How can I improve records management at my office?” In this video, our analysts offer ten tips to get your records management program in shape and ready to shine! Subscribe to our channel and our blog, The Texas Record, for more Analyst Tips coming…