Electronic Records Management

ELECTRONIC MAIL MANAGEMENT, RETENTION, AND DISPOSITION

This presentation will focus on how to apply records management procedures to email.
Records Management Email Management Archive

Is email overwhelming?

Definitions: Record

Record as defined by GRAMA is a book, letter, document, paper, map, plan, photograph, film, card, tape, recording, electronic data, or other documentary material regardless of physical form or characteristics: that is prepared, owned, received, or retained by a governmental entity or political subdivision; and where all of the information in the original is reproducible by photocopy or other mechanical or electronic means.
UCA 63G-2-103(22)(a)

Documents that are considered non-records include: drafts, personal notes or communications, proprietary software, copyrighted material, junk mail, commercial publications, and personal daily calendars. UCA 63G-2103(22)(b)

DEFINITION: EMAIL

An asynchronous message, especially one following the RFC 2822 or MIME standards sent via a computer network held in online accounts to be read or downloaded by the recipients. Email consists of a header, with routing information, and a body, which contains the message, separated by a blank line. Email records include metadata and attachments.

Definitions: Metadata

Metadata is data about data. It is information about who created a document, and when; size; and who changed it, and when. It is a record of events about the particular file.

WHY MANAGE EMAIL?

State and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure compel civil litigants to preserve and produce electronic evidence on demand in discovery. Fed.R.Civ.P. 34(a)(1)(A) amended in 2006 provides that any requesting party may inspect, copy, test, or sample any designated documents or electronically stored informationstored in any medium and that electronically stored information stands on equal footing with discovery of paper documents.

WHY MANAGE EMAIL?

By managing email accounts, governmental entities can manage records and dispose of obsolete records and personal information appropriately.

EMAIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Email records should be placed in some kind of record-keeping system.

Centralized Systems are available which can automate email records management. User-managed folders within an email system are a simple electronic recordkeeping system.

EMAIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Centralized systems:

Local Area Network (LAN) Archiving software Electronic Document Managing System for Enterprise Content Management (EDMS/ECM)

EMAIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Agencies lacking a centralized system will need to rely on user-management.

Not identifying or preserving a record appropriately due to a lack of processes or technical capability does not lessen the legal standard for the retention of records.

EMAIL MANAGEMENT
To manage email: 1. Identify and categorize email by record series retention schedules approved by the State Records Committee 2. Set up folders in a record keeping system according to record series for retention management and disposition 3. Follow best practices email management guidelines 4. Adhere to acceptable use standards

1. RETENTION MANAGEMENT

Currently most retention actions are managed manually at the discretion of the employee and specific agency policies within the context of the current email environment.

Individual employees will need to manage their email records.

IDENTIFY THE RECORD SERIES

Identify the record series which will indicate the emails legal retention schedule/period and its ultimate disposition (i.e., destroy or permanent preservation and access).

Administrators and records officers should work together to identify which record series should be used for the agency. Employees need to work with the agency records officer to identify the appropriate, approved records series retention schedules for the agency.

RECORDS SERIES RETENTION SCHEDULES

Approved record series retention schedules can be found on the State Archives website. Administrators should use the philosophy of big buckets, limiting the number of choices (to a dozen or fewer). The agency should appoint a destruction officer to approve and review destructions.

VALUE OF RECORDS
Most

agencies will have:

Transitory Correspondence

Routine correspondence, meeting agendas, etc., that have limited and short-lived administrative value only.

Administrative Records/Program, policy, or

decision-making correspondence

Business-related messages that provide substantive information about agency functions, policies, procedures, or programs. These emails document the discussions and decisions of the agency and must be saved.

PURCHASING PLAN
FOLDERS DISPOSITION Transitory Correspondence
(GS, Item 1-9, Transitory Correspondence)

2 years 5 years

Destroy Destroy

Solicitations
(Series 16591, Solicitation files)

State Cooperative Contracts

(Series 16593, Purchasing contracts)

6 years
6 years

Destroy
Destroy

Agency Contracts
(Series 16593, Purchasing contracts)

Performance Measures 4 years Archives (Series 16584, Administrative correspondence)

State

2. EMAIL MANAGEMENT
Folders

within the email system can be set up according to function and retention category, or series. When an email worth keeping is sent or received, it is moved to the appropriate folder.

DISPOSITION

Once they have met retention, email records should be disposed of according to the series retention scheduleeither destroyed or transferred to the State Archives. Destruction of obsolete records should include all records in active and backup storage. If all records are not authentically destroyed, they are still liable for discovery. Destruction of obsolete records should be reviewed under the approval of the agencys destruction officer.

3. EMAIL MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES

Once folders have been organized, email should be managed according to best practices guidelines.

Preserve the record-copy Preserve the thread Use a meaningful subject line Conduct agency business on agency systems Do not combine business and personal email Do not retain copies

IDENTIFY THE RECORD-COPY

The record-copy is the official copy for reference and preservation to which the retention schedule applies. Both the received and sent messages will need to be managed.

RECORD-COPY

Primarily, within government, the outgoing (senders) copy of an email is the record-copy.

RECORD-COPY

Incoming (the recipients) email originating from outside the government is the record-copy.

PRESERVE THE THREAD

Preserve the thread of the correspondence. The records series retention schedule applies until a response is made to the initial email, at which point a series of correspondence (thread) is created.

PRESERVE THE THREAD

In such instances, the last email in the threadthe one containing the entirety of the correspondence between two or more personsbecomes the record-copy and thus the copy with the approved retention period.

ENSURE THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE RECORD

Saving just the conversation and not the thread leaves room for data manipulation.

MEANINGFUL SUBJECT LINE

In order to provide accessibility and promote efficient searching mechanisms, all outgoing emails related to government business should have a subject line that clearly reflects the content of the email. Index terms to the metadata may be applied to further promote ease of access.

CONDUCT STATE BUSINESS ON STATE SYSTEMS

Government business conducted via email should use established and approved agency email systems. Work done from personal accounts could be transferred to the state system so records may be managed appropriately.

SEPARATE BUSINESS AND PERSONAL EMAIL

Do not combine messages of business (records) with messages of a personal nature (non-records). If the content of an email contains both personal information and business-related information (record), it must be kept as a record.

DO NOT SAVE NON-RECORDS

Emails that are personal messages not related to business, me-too messages, listservs, [or already captured by someone else] should not be saved. Dispose of all non-record emails to reduce the amount needing to be managed and stored.

DO NOT SAVE COPIES

Copies do not need to be retained. Email can be broadcast to hundreds of people at once, and each of those duplicates should not be saved. Only those recipients who then respond to the correspondence need save copies.

PERSONAL COPIES/COPIES OF RECORDS

Often

employees argue the need for keeping copies of records for their personal work use, past the retention period, or copies of nonrecords. However, these records and information will still be discoverable.

PERSONAL COPIES

Emails that are strictly personal, and not valuable to work, should be transferred to personal accounts and never saved.

ACCEPTABLE USE STANDARDS

The states acceptable use rule, Rule R895-7. Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources, provides basic policy,
No expectation of privacy. The email system is a state product and all data is owned by the state. Email can be broadcast and forwarded by individuals outside the states control.

REVIEW
Remember, to manage email records, Identify and categorize email by record series retention schedules approved by the State Records Committee Set up folders in a record keeping system according to record series for retention management and disposition Follow best practices email management guidelines Adhere to acceptable use standards

REVIEW

Email management guidelines:

Identify the record-copy Preserve the thread Use a meaningful subject line Conduct agency business on agency systems Do not combine business and personal email Do not retain copies

Review: Retain or Not to Retain?

REVIEW: RETAIN OR NOT TO RETAIN?
From: Publishers Clearing House <easymoney@pch.com> To: Utah- Paul Tonks<ptonks@utah.com> Date: 11/11/09 11:11 AM Subject: You Won!! Congratulations! You have just won Publishers Clearing Houses 2009 money give away! Please send us your social security number, checking account number, birth date, and password to your work computer, and we will process your big money prize immediately.

Ed McMahon

Review: Retain or Not to Retain?

From: Joe Citizen <ihategovernment@anarchylives.com> To: Utah- Paul Tonks<ptonks@utah.com> Date: 11/11/09 11:11 AM Subject: Im complaining!! Im mad. Im mad. Im mad. Im mad. Im mad. Im mad. Im mad. Im mad. So since I am paying your salary, fix it.

Sincerely,
Joe Citizen P.S. Im sending a copy of this email to every newspaper in the country because Im mad.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

see Utahs E-mail Guidelines.

END