1. Caring For Historic Government Records

2. Agenda Part 1: What Records Need to be Preserved
Part 2: Organizing Historic Records
Part 3: Preserving Your Records
Part 4: Providing Access to Historic Records
Summary

3. PART 1 What Records Need to Be Preserved ?

4. The Life-span of Records
Temporary Records
Permanent Records
Records Retention

5. Records Appraisal
Appraisal is analyzing the fiscal, administrative, legal, and historic value of a group of records and their relationship with other records.

6. Records Appraisal
Value
Fiscal
Administrative
Legal
Historical *
Intrinsic

7. Records Appraisal Examples: Department Annual Reports
City Council Minutes
Parking Tickets

8. Two Fundamental Questions
Do the records have permanent value?
Do the records still have administrative value in the office?
Ownership of government records
State Archives is the end-of-the-line repository

9. Records Appraisal
Proper records appraisal tells you which records need to be preserved permanently

10. Retention Schedules
General Retention Schedules
Unique Retention Schedules –
Consult with the State Archives

11. General Retention Schedules

12. Comments and Questions?

13. Part 2 Organizing Historic Records

14. Organizing Records
Physical Control
Intellectual Control

15. Arrangement Fundamental Concepts: Provenance Original Order
Ease of Access
Arrangement involves organizing records to reveal their content and significance. It involves figuring out how a person or organization filed the records when they used them and then restoring it.
Use two fundamental principles when arranging records:
Provenance
Original order (Collections / Series)
Provenance is the practice of keeping groups of records together based on who created them.
Do not re-organize into collections based on subject or classification schemes created by someone else.
Archivists don’t organize their collections to reflect the creator of the records.
Example
Suppose you decided to organize the records of a local environmental group by the subjects they worked on: air pollution, water pollution, chemical dumping?
Slides / 10: :50 
The practice of keeping groups of records together based on who created them.Slide 39
SLIDE 39
It would make it easier for a researcher looking for information on toxic waste but you could not easily look at:
Community lobbying activity
Environmental action in a given decade
The effectiveness of the organization
Original Order
Original order is the second major principle of arranging records:
Records should be maintained in the order in which the creator maintained them.
Correct obviously misfiled folders, but leave the basic organizational structure intact.
With modern “office” types of records, original order refers to the original order of the whole filing system not the original order that individual documents were placed in file folders.
Other collections, such as diaries, personal papers and photographs often aren’t filed in this “office” like way. In these cases original order is most often chronological – the order in which the materials were created.
Maintaining original order helps archivists present a collection to the researcher that shows how the creator used the records.

16. Arrangement Examples: Cemetery Burial Permits Parks Department photos
Planning Commission minutes
Arrangement involves organizing records to reveal their content and significance. It involves figuring out how a person or organization filed the records when they used them and then restoring it.
Use two fundamental principles when arranging records:
Provenance
Original order (Collections / Series)
Provenance is the practice of keeping groups of records together based on who created them.
Do not re-organize into collections based on subject or classification schemes created by someone else.
Archivists don’t organize their collections to reflect the creator of the records.
Example
Suppose you decided to organize the records of a local environmental group by the subjects they worked on: air pollution, water pollution, chemical dumping?
Slides / 10: :50 
The practice of keeping groups of records together based on who created them.Slide 39
SLIDE 39
It would make it easier for a researcher looking for information on toxic waste but you could not easily look at:
Community lobbying activity
Environmental action in a given decade
The effectiveness of the organization
Original Order
Original order is the second major principle of arranging records:
Records should be maintained in the order in which the creator maintained them.
Correct obviously misfiled folders, but leave the basic organizational structure intact.
With modern “office” types of records, original order refers to the original order of the whole filing system not the original order that individual documents were placed in file folders.
Other collections, such as diaries, personal papers and photographs often aren’t filed in this “office” like way. In these cases original order is most often chronological – the order in which the materials were created.
Maintaining original order helps archivists present a collection to the researcher that shows how the creator used the records.

17. Intellectual Control Know what records you have Create inventory lists
Conduct periodic inventories

18. Inventory List Title of records Dates Arrangement Basic description

19. Comments and Questions?

20. Part 3 Preservation of Historic Records
Threats to Records:
Water
Heat
Light
Dirt and Pollutants
Rodents and pests
Handling
Fire
Theft or Loss

21. Preservation of Historic Records
Physical Housing
Storage Facilities
Reformatting

22. Preservation of Historic Records
Physical Housing – Archival Supplies
Acid free file folders
Archival storage boxes
Mylar enclosures

23. Loose Paper

24. Bound Volumes

25. Bound Volumes

26. Maps, Drawings and Oversize Materials

27. Reformatting Microfilm Digital copies Reformat and Retire
Microfilm is an eye-readable format
Master copy is off-site back-up copy
Reproducible
Requires little storage space
Digital copies
Primarily for access
Reformat and Retire

28. Records Storage Space
Make an assessment of your building

29. Preservation of Historic Records
Threats to Records:
Water
Heat
Light
Dirt and Pollutants
Rodents and pests
Handling
Fire
Theft or Loss

30. Preservation of Historic Records
Storage Facility
Dry
Climate controlled
Dark (protected from UV light)
Clean
Locked and secure

31. Preservation of Historic Records
Storage Facility
Avoid storing historic records in the basement or the attic
If you must . . .
Store in archival quality boxes
4-6 inches off the floor
Monitor for pests and rodents
Routinely check for water problems

32. Record Storage Equipment
Shelving
Oversize cabinets

33. Physical Security Well constructed doors
Deadbolt locks for all storage areas
Secure windows
Alarms
Key tracking

34. Preserving Your Records
Create a basic disaster plan
Have disaster response supplies on hand

35. Comments and Questions?

36. Part 4 Providing Access to Historic Records

37. Access to Historic Records
Considerations
Public Right to Access
Protection of Restricted Information
Protecting the Records

38. Access to Historic Records
Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA)
Public right to view and take a copy
Protection of private, controlled, and protected information

39. Protecting Records Maintain a sign-in log for records users
Don’t allow food, pens, or other items that could damage records
Don’t allow unsupervised access
Don’t check out records
Use reformatted copies for access to fragile materials

40. Take Home Concepts

41. What Records Should Be Preserved?
Understand appraisal principles
Rely on established retention schedules when available
Consult the State Archives for unusual cases

42. Organizing Records Physical Control Provenance Original Order
Ease of Access
Intellectual Control
Create a records inventory

43. Storing Records
Water, light, heat, pests, theft, etc. can threaten records
Threats can be minimized with proper storage containers and proper storage space
A disaster preparedness plan can help minimize damage

44. Public Access Right to access must be balanced with legal restrictions
Access should be provided while still protecting records from damage or theft

45. Contacts and Links Utah State Archives: www.archives.utah.gov
State Archives Research Center:
National Archives:
Northeast Document Conservation Center:
California Preservation Program:
Conference of Intermountain Archivists:
Gaylord Supplies:
Metal Edge Supplies:

46. Utah State Archives
Alan Barnett