RECORDS RETENTION SCHEDULE LEGEND
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OFR (Office of Record): The department that keeps the original or “record copy.” Usually it is the department that originates the record, unless the item is for a City Council meeting (then it is the City Clerk.)
Records Description: The record series (a group of like records).
Transitory Records not retained in the ordinary course of business , that do NOT have substantive content : Preliminary drafts, notes, or interagency or intra - agency memoranda and records having only transitory value. Examples: Telephone messages, meeting room reservation schedules , logs, source records entered into a computer system that qualifies as a “trusted system”, etc.
Non-Record: Documents, studies, books and pamphlets produced by outside agencies, preliminary drafts not retained in the ordinary course of business.
Retention/Disposition: Active: How long the file remains in the immediate office area (guideline) Inactive: How long the file is in off-site storage, stored on Optical Disk or Microforms (guideline) Total Retention: The total number of years the record will be retained
For file folders containing documents with different retention timeframes, use the document with the longest retention time.
P = Permanent
Indefinite = No fixed or specified retention period; used for databases, because the data fields are interrelated.
Vital? = Those records that are needed for basic operations in the event of a disaster.
Media Options (guideline) – the form of the record: Mag = Electronic Computer Magnetic Media (Hard drives, Networks, USB Drives, Cloud, etc.) Mfr = Microforms (aperture cards, microfilm, microfiche, or jackets) Ppr = Paper
OD = Optical Disk, CD-r, DVD-r, WORM, or other media which does not allow changes
Scan / Import (guideline): “S” indicates the record should be scanned into the document imaging system; “I” indicates the record should be electronically imported into the document imaging system; “M” indicates the record should be microfilmed
Destroy Paper after Imaged & QC’d / Trustworthy Electronic Record: “Yes” indicates the electronic record may serve as the OFFICIAL record (and the paper version may be destroyed, or the record may be electronically generated and never exist in paper format;) IF the document has been imaged (electronically generated, scanned or imported and placed on Unalterable Media – DVD-R, CD-R, or WORM, or microfilmed), and both the images and indexing Quality Checked (“QC’d”). The electronic record or image must contain all significant details from the original and be an adequate substitute for the original document for all purposes, and other legal mandates apply. Includes all electronic records which are to serve as the Official Record.
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