Records Management

Overview

• Your Records Management Responsibilities
• What is a Record
• Why do we need records
• Managing Paper Based Documents
• Managing E-Mails
• Managing Electronic Documents
• USE OF P: S: D: & C: DRIVES

Your Records Management Responsibilities

As an employee of Charles Sturt University you must:

• Decide whether or not the transaction being under taken needs to be documented and if so, make records to support the conduct of the University business activities.
• Create records that may be needed to document activities which do not by themselves result in the creation of records (i.e. meetings, telephone conversations, conferences and oral decisions).
• Ensure both paper based and electronic records are forwarded to your unit's TRIM Administrator for registering in TRIM.
• Learn how and where records are kept relevant to your area.
• Seek approval from the University Records Manager for destruction of records
• Protect University records against unauthorised use.
• Safeguard records against loss.

Staff are therefore accountable if they fail to follow system standards.

What is a Record?

A record comprises recorded information in any form, created or received and maintained by the University in the transaction of business activities and kept as evidence of such activity. Records may be (but are not limited to) forms, maps, e-mail, audio tapes, telephone calls, photographs and videos.

Why do we need records

Records provide evidence of what happened, what decision and/or action was taken, when, why, how and by whom.

Inadequate records and records management can contribute to accountability failures through:

• Failure of individuals or systems to make records in the first place;
• Making records that are inadequate to meet accountability and other organisational requirements;
• Failure to capture records into records management systems;
• Failure to identify and retrieve the authoritative version of a record where multiple versions exist;
• Failure to maintain records during the time necessary to meet specific accountability requirements;
• Failure to assign responsibility for records management.

The State Records Office (NSW) has a General Disposal Authority (GDA 4) which allows imaged paper records to be destroyed if their retention period is 30 years or lee, once it is scanned and captured within TRIM.

Therefore all paper documents that have a retention period of 30 years or less will be scanned and registered into TRIM, then boxed according to date scanned and destroyed after a two week period. Documents that become State Archives and/or have a retention period of more than 30 years may require physical folders.

Paper Based Documents

Charles Sturt University records management program is a mixed system in that both paper and electronic documents are registered and captured. It is expected that the majority of documents being added to the system will be electronic, but for the foreseeable future there will still be paper based documents to add.

All paper based documents that require capturing in TRIM should be forwarded to your units TRIM Administrator for scanning and registering.

E-Mails

E-mail has become the primary means by which we communicate for business both internally and externally, as such it is important that all electronic records are captured within the University's records management system.

E-mails that should NOT be captured in TRIM

Example of documents that would NOT be necessary to capture into TRIM include:

• Personal messages and announcements not related to official business
• Notifications of social events such as retirement or Christmas parties
• What's New and news on the WWW
• Courtesy or ‘Information Only' copies received in your office
• Advertising copy, brochures, flyers and other promotional materials
• Copies of invoices, vouchers, requisitions, receipts, and other accounting documents (where originals have been processed through the accounting system)
• Unsolicited publications
• Unsolicited job applications
• Office reference copies of publications and reports
• Information delivered from other records systems such as the Student, Finance and HR Systems.

If you are unsure contact your TRIM Administrator or the University Records Manager for guidance.

E-Mails to Capture in TRIM

Under the State Records Act, the University and its employees are required to keep full and accurate records of its activities. Generally speaking, electronic messages should be captured into TRIM if they are documenting a business transaction.

Here are some useful rules to follow in deciding whether it is up to you to capture a record of an e-mail.

When you send a message:

• It is the responsibility of the initiator of a message sent either internally or externally to keep a record of that message if it is appropriate.
• Outgoing messages should only be captured once they have been sent

When you receive a message:

• If you receive a message from a colleague within the University, it is their responsibility to capture the message as a record if necessary
• You are responsible for capturing messages as records that you receive from outside the organisation
• Where you are CC'd a message (i.e. you are not the main recipient), you should check whether the main recipient is a University colleague, or is from outside the organisation. If the latter, you will need to capture a record of that message
• If there are several main recipients of a message, the person who is mainly responsible for the matter or project should capture the message as a record. In cases where you can predict the group of people who will be receiving emails on the matter or project, it may be helpful to agree on one person as being responsible for the capture of messages relating to that matter or project.

The Division of Information Technology regularly archives and backs up users e-mail folders. Initially e-mail should be managed in your inbox within folders you have set up, until the matter is finalised especially if reply's are sent using reply with history. This will minimise the duplication of e-mails in TRIM. Once an e-mail is ready to be captured in TRIM you should notify your TRIM Administrator. The management of e-mails within your inbox is for SHORT TERM storage only; all corporate e-mail is required to be captured within TRIM.

Managing Electronic Documents

There are a range of electronic documents other than e-mails which may require capture as records in TRIM. These electronic documents include documents created in Word such as file notes, training notes, forms, reports, letters and faxes, PowerPoint presentations and HTML documents, to name a few. The same rules apply to the capturing of electronic documents as the capturing of e-mails. You should forward any electronic documents to your TRIM Administrator for registering into TRIM.

Use of P: S: D: & C: Drives

The P: S: D: and C: drives of your computer should be used as set out below:

• The P: drive is for the storage of administrative documents that an individual requires to complete their job but the documents are not necessarily to be shared i.e. spreadsheet on staff flexi time. P: drive records have a short term value are not captured in TRIM.
• The S: drive is for the storage of University documents that have long term value and are of interest to many people, they may be documents in draft mode, sharing mode or they may not have a need to be captured in TRIM but are needed to be shared.

The D: and C: drives should not be used for the storage of University records.