Records Management is the process of managing the records of an organization through it’s life-cycle. This involves classifying, storing, securing, retrieving and the destruction of records whether it’s in a paper or electronic format. Any record, regardless of medium, created by an office or an employee using university resources in the normal course of university business is a state record and must be managed in accordance with state and system regulations.
If you are new to Records Management it may seem like a daunting task, but it’s really not that difficult, you just have to relax, breathe and then follow these simple steps to get you going in the right direction
There are documents/records that are produced by the university that have historical value and are important to the life of the university and should be retained permanently. There are some documents that are listed in the Retention Schedule that are designated as an archival record and they must be placed in the university archives. For those documents/records that are designated to be sent to the archives after their retention period has expired and you think that they have significant histor
Records management is an ongoing process and regardless of having a good filing system, the records will need to be monitored and reviewed. It is highly recommended that departments establish a Records Clean-up Day.
Record destruction refers to the removal of the record from whatever storage system that you use only after the expiration of the state mandated retention period. There are multiple methods of destruction and for paper records, shredding is the recommended method. For electronic records being stored in a document management system, there is a built in methodology that removes the record and ensures that it cannot be reconstructed.
The Records Destruction Form must be completed with all departmental signatures and then submitted for review by the University Records Officer prior to the destruction of any records, with the exception of records that are determined to be Convenience Copies.
Record Retention refers to the time period that a document is kept or “retained” whether in electric or paper format. The time period varies for different types of documents and these periods are all contained in the Records Retention Schedule.
Any written, photographic, or other recorded information created or received by or on behalf of a System member that documents activities in the conduct of the state business or use of public resources (Texas Government Code §441.180). E-mails received on office computers fall under this definition of State Record. Therefore they should be treated as such regardless of the nature of the e-mail content. Examples of records include: