Every state agency and local government creates and maintains employee records. Often maintained in individual files for each employee, the personnel file is added to regularly throughout its active life, and it may often be consulted during its long inactive life. We create and use personnel records to hire, re-hire, train, evaluate, compensate, address grievances,…
Due to the myriad of changes in technology, content and data management are becoming an increasing challenge in the private sector as well as government entities. These challenges are due to an increased volume of data flowing throughout an organization, leading to an increase in the velocity of change. This increase may expose various vulnerabilities…
Happy 1010! Today we celebrate Electronic Records Day, which raises awareness about the crucial need to manage and preserve government electronic records. CoSA State Electronic Records Initiative’s Advocacy and Outreach Subcommittee has developed several informational resources available on their website: https://www.statearchivists.org/programs/state-electronic-records-initiative/electronic-records-day/electronic-records-day-promotional-materials/. We like to raise awareness of the challenges of managing eRecords throughout the year,…
If you read Joshua Clark’s recent post on text messages, you know that, depending on content, they can be government records that are subject to retention rules. The question then becomes: how do we capture them so that we can retain them for the appropriate retention period? There are several methods that can be utilized,…
One of the most critical decisions you must make as a records management officer at a local government is deciding on a schedule for records retention. This schedule gives you the authority to destroy records. In developing your records retention plan, you must choose from the following three options: Forego a records retention schedule and…
This is the seventh post of a multi-part recap of the 2017 e-Records Conference. Presentation materials from the conference are available on the e-Records 2017 website. Information Governance: Take Control and Succeed The Public Information Act and Updates from 85th Legislative Session TSLAC Wants Your Electronic Records Establishing Information Governance for Local Governments in Microsoft…
There is a term in records management circles you might have heard of called “big buckets.” Have you ever stopped and thought, “What is this? Should I be doing this? Am I missing out on something?” (Coincidentally, there’s the pop culture acronym F.O.M.O. which stands for “fear of missing out” that comes to mind. Google…
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,…