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State Records Services
Disposition
analysis and records scheduling
A key part of a fully implemented
records management program is regular application and use of an approved records
retention schedule. A schedule is a list of each record type, what is termed
a "record series," and each electronic records system created by a
public agency. A record series is simply a filing unit or document maintained
as a unit because it relates to a particular subject or function, results from
the same activity, has a particular form or because of some other relationship
arising out of its creation, receipt or use. A current, accurate records retention
schedule should represent a comprehensive inventory of the information holdings
created or received by a publicly-funded agency.
Having an approved schedule is an important first step, but a schedule must
be used on a regular basis by agency personnel for a records management program
to be considered implemented. When an agency finds it must create new records
or electronic systems or when it determines that certain records or systems
are obsolete and are no longer being created, the schedule must also be revised
to reflect these changes.
Once new or revised records schedules
are approved by the State Archives and Records Commission, agencies may apply
schedules to their records management needs, with the confidence that they have
the legal authority to make appropriate disposition of their records when following
the directions contained in the schedule.
At the core of the department's program
to manage government information is a systematic process of identifying, describing
and analyzing each record and each electronic record system created by an agency.
This leads in turn to a preliminary assessment of the administrative, legal,
fiscal, and future historical or research value of each record type. These values,
and any special directions for the management or disposition of this information
during and after its regular business use, are expressed in supporting documentation
to a draft records retention schedule. The supporting documentation and the
draft schedule, are submitted to the State Archives and Records Commission for
their review and approval. The commission has explicit statutory authority to
review and approve schedules for the retention and destruction of records. Their
decisions in these areas are final and binding.
Records retention schedules, when
approved by the commission, furnish public agencies with clear legal authority
to make disposition of their records according to the schedules' terms, and
with a strong resource for management control. They help public officials identify
which records must be retained permanently and which records may be destroyed
after a certain period of time. They help an agency ensure that adequate documentation
of its activities has been created and is being maintained, as required by statute
(KRS 171.640).
Schedules become the basis for each
agency's records management program, ensuring accountability for the information
being produced, serving as essential assets in a state agency's strategic information
resources planning, and providing agencies with a valuable resource with which
to respond to information requests under Kentucky's Open Records Law (KRS 61.870-884).
Without an approved records retention schedule, an agency, whether state or
local, does not have the legal authority to destroy any of its records, regardless
of their format, and can incur substantial costs or liabilities if such destruction
does occur.
About
the State Records Branch
The State Records Branch
helps 144 state-level agencies and their subunits, including the state's eight
public universities and judicial offices in all of Kentucky's 120 counties,
and more than 300 boards and commissions, develop and maintain programs to manage
government information from its creation, through its maintenance and use, to
its final and proper disposition as required by KRS 171.680. It provides archival
and records management assistance in support of those tasks, especially through
records identification, description, appraisal, retention scheduling, and records
center storage. With the assistance of other division branches, it prescribes
the policies and principles to be followed by state agencies in conducting their
records management programs.
In cooperation with the
division's Technology Analysis and Support Branch, it carries out the inventorying
and retention scheduling of electronic records systems. The branch also coordinates
division review of formal requests by state agencies for authority to maintain
records in imaged format, without paper or microfilm backup, ensuring that all
records management requirements are met. The branch manages the State Records
Center, the state's central repository for secure, high volume storage of non-permanent
records still needed by agencies, which makes possible significant annual savings
to state government through cost avoidance. The Center houses more than 145,000
cubic feet of records.
State Records Center Operations
The State Records Center
provides centralized storage and retrieval services for records with a limited
retention requirement and for permanent records that are still in frequent use.
Operated on a cost recovery basis, it is located in two large volume storage
facilities in Frankfort, at 851 East Main Street and at 1001 Wilkinson Blvd.,
on the grounds of the Buffalo Trace Distillery.
The buildings feature high
density records storage on special steel shelving, sprinklers and other fire
monitoring systems, and intrusion alarms and other physical security monitoring
systems.
For information about the
current fee or records storage services, contact Diana Moses at 502-564-8300,
ext. 237.
State Records Center services include:
- Centralized storage
of state agency records approved for off site storage on the agency's approved
records retention schedule.
Regular pickups of records at agency locations, for transfer to the State
Records Center.
- Easy access to all forms
needed to initiate a records transfer (records transmittals, box labels, etc.).
- Shelving of records
in designated locations in the State Records Center and subsequent control
and tracking of all holdings.
- Providing agency Records
Officers with a copy of the Records Transmittal which specifies the location
of each item transferred.
- Retrieval of specific
records by file, folder, box or multi-box shipment, using the existing holdings
control system.
- Re-filing specific files
or folders back into the boxes from which they originally came.
- Interfiling records
not previously stored at the State Records Center into existing shipments
already at the State Records Center.
- Destroying records from
the State Records Center when their retention period has expired. The State
Records Center cooperates with the recycling program of the Natural Resources
and Environmental Protection Cabinet. If records are deemed confidential,
special shredding measures are available which assure the privacy of that
material.
Training
and Consultation
The
State Records Branch staff helps agency
personnel establish, implement, and improve records
management programs. This assistance includes professional
instruction and guidance in areas such as records retention
scheduling, disposal or transfer of records, filing
procedures, use of micrographics, equipment selection,
forms management, reports management, and other records
related problems. There is no charge for this assistance.
The Branch staff conducts workshops
to provide current information on standards, procedures, rules and regulations
established by the Public Records Division and instruction in generally accepted
records management techniques and principles. Training can be customized to
the requirements of the agency and can be offered at the department or on site,
at the agency
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