John L. Baines OIT Security and Compliance Retention: Preserving Public Records

Agenda Public Records Background Unit Public Record Retention Management Practices Non-Records Material Save or Delete? - What Constitutes a Public Record? Evidence in Courts Custodian Help for Custodian The OIT Archival Repository of Personal Accounts Handling October 19, Retention Overview

Public Records (PR) Background North Carolina Public Records Act, N.C.G.S N.C.G.S Public Records: Are the property of the people of North Carolina Must be presented upon their request May not be deleted or otherwise altered or disposed of except in accordance with the University General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule and optional Unit Specific Addenda It is everyone’s responsibility to keep all work-related electronic records (including ) 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 3

Unit PR Retention Mgt. Practices Much broader than just Includes electronic records stored on disk as well as . Generally, university units are responsible for: Establishing appropriate record retention management practices Appointing a records manager who ensures that: Unit public records are retained and disposed of in accordance with the University General Record Schedule and Unit Specific Addenda Access to confidential university records and information is restricted Records with historical value are delivered to the University Archivist Accurate records of destruction or transfer activity are maintained 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 4

Non-Records Material Personal records Limited family or personal communications allowed so long as no interference with work No privacy guarantee Delete to protect privacy at user discretion Spam - electronic junk mail Unsolicited and unwanted Filter or delete immediately Unsolicited s Unwanted, but somewhat business related Miscellaneous newsletters Non-work related announcements Legitimate advertisements Etc. Delete in a timely manner 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 5

Retention of Public Records (PR) Short-term records are temporary in nature. Examples include communications received from professional list- servers and broad announcements received by all employees. Can be deleted when no longer useful. Long-term records have significant value to the agency but do not need to be maintained permanently. They are the focus of this presentation. Permanent records are records that have lasting historical value because they document or constitute evidence of state policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions. Physically transmitted to and held by the University archivist. 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 6

Save or Delete? FILE IT Issues policy States decisions Outlines procedures Gives guidance Shows action Processes transaction Is unique If in doubt… TOSS IT Reservations for travel Confirms appointments Transmits other documents without comment Personal messages Spam Unsolicited messages Etc. 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 7

Evidence in Courts has become the primary business communication medium for most organizations: Inside an organization or between organizations establishes the time and date of a written communication between an originator and one or more recipients Often documents are attached to which provides the document version that was transmitted at a specific date and time informal writing style More informal than most other written communications Can lead to inadvertent or unguarded exposure of information 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 8

Custodian Custodian must be able to present all work-related of a non-transient nature: Those you create (to recipients inside or outside university) Those you receive from external sources (outside the university) Individual “custodian” is responsible for presenting records in response to legitimate requests : Public records requests (e.g. press, media or individual citizens) University litigation discovery requests (preparatory to court cases) Subpoenas (e.g. court evidence) 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 9

Help for Custodian Custodian is responsible for retention and presentation, BUT must not go it alone! Coordinate all requests through Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) Establish legitimacy of request Legal aspects Privacy aspects Office of Information Technology (OIT) to assist in accessing archive 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 10

The OIT Archival Repository of Automatic for university (OIT-provided) systems: GroupWise Potentially university GoogleApps Characteristics: Copied as s are: Created internally within the university Received by the university from external originators Unalterable Searchable by name, content, date, etc. s retained for maximum PR retention period 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 11

Personal Accounts E.g. Yahoo, Road Runner, MSN, AOL, etc. Not supported by the University to/from personal addresses is not automatically archived by the university stored on personal accounts not available to the university for records requests All university-business messages must be stored in the University archival repository E.g. Custodian forwards to the university system 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 12

Handling Everyday business purposes Save as you see fit Retrieve from disk copy or on-line folders Delete as you see fit archive – Authoritative source of PR OLA will establish legitimacy of request OIT will provide access for individual custodians to their own s in the archive and facilitate the process Normally, custodian will recover s Unit will recover if custodian unavailable or un-cooperative OLA will handle privacy aspects and present s for specific request 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 13

References Department of Cultural Resources, State Archives (State Government Authority) University General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule Two regulations in process of review and update: Public Records Regulation Proposed Revision to REG University Record Retention & Disposition Regulation Retention Regulation Proposed Revision to REG University Retention 9/30/2009 Retention Primer 14

Questions?