Identifying, Organizing, and Preserving E-mail records

90% of all new records created electronically

E-mail comprises majority of new e-records

E-mail records subject to same laws and regulations as paper records

NOT ALL E-MAIL IS A RECORD!

There’s so much of it!Used for business AND personal reasonsUsed for ephemeral or informal purposesRandom deletion creates legal liability

Example: White House emails; Arthur Andersen

Keeping all email maintains legal liability Example: Enron; Microsoft; Bear Stearns

Must be discoverable (litigation, open records, etc.)

Volume of email received by most people becomes unmanageable Searching difficulty Accidental deletion of important email Exceeded quotas for inboxes

As a State employee, you are responsible for the contents of your inbox!

Identify e-mail records and non-records

Utilize PantherLink and other tools to create and organize e-mails

Determine appropriate retention and disposition of record e-mails

Explore strategies for long-term e-mail preservation

Records: Recorded information, in any format, that allows an office to conduct business Does NOT include unofficial records:▪ Duplicate Copies▪ Drafts and Informal Notes▪ Routing Slips▪ Personal Correspondence

“Does this document help me perform the duties in my job description?”

Does your file:▪ Support or document a transaction?▪ Document the formulation or execution of a policy,

interpretation of a policy, or change of policy?▪ Document Actions taken in response to an inquiry?▪ Relate to the substantive business of your office

or work unit?▪ Provide information regarding the historical

development of UWM programs or people? If “yes” to any of the above, it is a record!

E-mail to contractor clarifying terms: Record!

E-mail from department head to staff giving committee assignments: Record! Sender must retain as record; recipient(s)

may delete as appropriate E-mail asking for draft comments: Non-

Record! If attachment is not record, neither is

‘routing’ email

The official record, for business and legal purposes, of a business transaction If you take any action on a document,

that document becomes YOUR record, even if other copies are maintained elsewhere

EXCEPTION: Convenience copies may be discarded freely

If you create a document as part of your everyday work, you are the record holder

If you manage or lead a committee, project, or program, you are the record holder

If you are holding a received record for reference, you are NOT the record holder Sender usually record holder in these cases

Two Rules of Thumb: 1. Try not to send personal e-mails from

your university account; if you do, though, keep them separate from your work e-mails.

2. Never send work-related e-mails from personal e-mail accounts!

Do not put anything in an email that you would not want made public via litigation!

Incoming Email

INBOX

Private

Delete

University Related

DeleteRetainReply

For Current Use Delete Outgoing Email

Retain Delete

Decision: Is it university-related (work) or private (non-record)?

Decision: Determine the action necessary.

Archive

Decision: Determine the action necessary following retention policies.Decision: Retain previous message in reply.

Decision: Determine the action necessary following retention policies.

Email Management Decision Tree

UW-Madison Archives and Records Management Services (ARMS)

Use descriptive subjects! Bad: “Project Info” Good: “Project XYZ 9/08 Parameters”

Consider your audience! Do you need that cc: recipient?

Include signature block! Assists with ‘paper trail’

Benefits of ‘tagging’ and ‘folksonomy’

Develop office-wide categories to describe documents Working with other users on this allows

categories to work on broader scale, more consistently

From there….?Tag/Categorize documents as they

are created

Keep all emails in your inbox Advantages: Easy; computer-aided

searching Disadvantages: Inbox clutter, manual

searching Foldering Scheme

Advantages: retain context; manual searching; reduces inbox clutter

Disadvantages: Large implementation and maintenance requirement

Delete non-record email as neededManually file emails for

reference/retention, OR set up filters Filter by sender, subject line, recipient,

etc. partially automates filingLeave emails in inbox that require

quick follow-through File appropriately once responded to

Retention Schedule-based (“Big Bins”) Good for dealing with multiple series; ‘fire

and forget’ for retention Low organizational control; bad for day-to-

day Chronologically

Good for activity tracking, financial recs, etc.

Useful for keeping track of disposition Subject

Good for administrative/reference files Most versatile, requires most vigilance

Combining one or more of the filing archetypes to fulfill reference/retention needs

Example: Reference Correspondence▪ FY2006▪ November

Smith, A Smith, K

Be Consistent!!!!

To document the operations of your office

To document important programmatic decisions

To preserve the history of your office and UWM

To provide legal protection for your office

To comply with Wisconsin state law! Wis. Stats. 16.61; Wis. Stats. 36.19

To use less server spaceTo reduce the clutter in your inboxTo avoid confusion about which file

is the record copyTo provide legal protection for your

office

Records Retention and Disposition Authority (RRDA) Retention period (minimum) Final Disposition Record Series description

When followed, RRDAs, or Records Schedules, simplify decision-making process on keeping/destroying records

Required by state law!

Non-record emails (drafts, notes, etc.) may be deleted immediately

Official Records may not be destroyed without a schedule If an e-mail would be part of a series as

a letter, use that series’ retention schedule!

Contact Records Officer to arrange for e-records survey and scheduling

Approved by the Public Records Board in August 2008

Apply to all forms of electronic communication, NOT just email

Provide guidance for correspondence existing outside of established record series

DOES NOT supersede existing RRDAs

Normal communication of transaction of business

No historical value; varying administrative value Examples: decision-making

correspondence; response to inquiries for information; comments on reports

Retain: Six months and destroy

Communication with little value beyond immediate response

No historical value; minimal administrative value Examples: Setting time for appointment;

campus-wide mail received; “ready-reference” requests (hours, etc.)

Retain: Seven days and destroy Why even this long? Liability reasons

Not strictly covered by GRS, but most important category of emails

Set policy, provide evidence of transactions, explain decisions

Consult UWM Archives re: what constitutes “historical value”

Retain: As needed for admin. value, then transfer to Archives

Applied by official in advance of lawsuit potential

If a litigation hold is placed on a record series or email group, no records from that series may be destroyed Supersedes all existing records schedules Records outside scope of hold follow normal

disposition Also applies to Open Records Requests Contact Records Management or Legal

Affairs with questions

Set aside a little time each day/week as ‘purge time’

‘Purge day’ at end of FY or in slow times?

Set up date search for archiving PantherLink can do this via “advanced

search”Consider separate areas for “active”

and “inactive” emailsWhen in doubt, hold on to it!

UWM Archives does not currently have a dedicated E-Records Repository A few ‘stop-gap’ solutions in motion

Preservation problems: Medium CD-ROMs? Magnetic Disks? Server?

Preservation problems: Data Format Obsolescence? Proprietary Formats?

Message: Is the content of the document adequately preserved?

Media: Is the storage medium durable enough to retain its integrity over time?

Metadata: Is there enough supplementary info to contextualize the document?

If you lose even one of these components of an electronic record, you have not adequately preserved it.

Subject Recipient(s) and senderDate/Time sent/receivedAttachmentsSignature blockE-mail headers (usually hidden)

Avoids problems of obsolescence, mutability

Most office managers better equipped to deal with paper records

UWM Archives can accession paper records more easily

Disadvantage: No searchability or reusability; onus to print on user; wasteful

Storing documents as created by applications

Easiest option for most users, particularly if well-organized

Disadvantage: Affects e-mail quota; harms system performance; no backup puts data at risk

UWM Archives is NOT equipped to handle emails directly from PantherLink

Files converted to non-proprietary format (TIFF, XML, PDF/A) and stored remotely PantherFile, Dept. LAN, CD-R

Reduces/eliminates need for migration or emulation

Provides backup and transfer options Disadvantage: Conversion may be labor-

intensive; onus on user for now PantherLink does this to a limited degree;

Zimlet (hopefully) coming soon https://pantherlink.uwm.edu/home/

YourEmail@uwm.edu/Folder%20Title.zip

Why share? Internal Collaboration Project Review Workflow Remote appraisal of records for

retentionSharing Options?

Viewer, Manager, Admin Standard or Customized message Remember to accept if offered share!

Archive your email on your computer or server space, not on the email server Think about it: do you check out books

from the Post Office? Convert archived email to neutral

format TXT files are easiest; XML files preserve

metadata better Keep attachments associated with

email files

Include original message and reply inline when possible Allows for complete documentary record Only need to save last message in thread

Include all relevant information if printing: Header information Body Text Attachments Signature blocks

As much as is possible, consider record e-mails to be ‘normal’ university records, and treat them as such!

Stay on top of managing your emails, and they won’t spiral out of control!

UW System Policy on Use of University Information Technology Resources http://www.uwsa.edu/president/communications/publicat/itpolicy.htm

UITS Short Courses (The Email Management course is particularly useful)

https://www4.uwm.edu/uits/services/training/courses/index.cfm

State of Wisconsin E-Mail Policy and Guidance http://enterprise.state.wi.us/home/email/Default.htm

Wisconsin DOA Electronic Records (See especially the training links) http://enterprise.state.wi.us/home/erecords/

ADM Ch. 12: Electronic Records http://www.legis.state.wi.us/rsb/code/adm/

adm012.pdf

New Records Management Home Page! http://records.uwm.edu Includes links to UWM and UW-System

General Records Schedules, webcasts, this presentation

Or, Contact Records Management directly: houstobn@uwm.edu (Brad Houston) 414-229-6979