FY2006 Annual Report
Records Management
Electronic records
The State Records Management Program's mission is to promote the efficiency and continuity of state government, document the rights of Missouri citizens, hold state officials accountable for their actions and preserve our state's heritage by providing state agencies with the necessary instruments to develop effective and efficient information control. Organizationally, the Records Management Program consists of three components: Records Analysis and Consultation, the State Records Center, and the Imaging Services Section.
Records Analysis and Consultation
Sound records management programs consist of a planned and coordinated set of policies, procedures, and activities to manage recorded information. The Records Analysis staff, comprised of records analysts and electronic records archivists, is an invaluable resource to state agencies. Analysts help to develop records management policies and guidelines, and they provide the expertise and knowledge to help agencies design and implement efficient records management programs.
Records Retention and Disposition
Active office files
A key to managing records is determining how long to keep them and when they can be destroyed after their active use has diminished. Records retention is based on the life-cycle concept: like other resources, the value of most information tends to decline over time. Records need to be kept for as long as they are needed to support administrative, legal, and fiscal functions, but no longer. A few records (typically less than one percent of those created in a given year) should be retained permanently because of their historical significance.
The Records Management staff works closely with state agency officials to identify categories of agency records and document their decisions in a Records Disposition Schedule. The Records Management analysts and archivists meet with agency officials to determine how long the records are needed to meet their business needs; they research statutes, regulatory codes, and similar records series in states across the nation. The analysts work with the agency to develop disposition schedules that clearly identify the records series, describe the records and how they are used, and tell how the records are to be retained or discarded after the records become inactive.
Approved Agency Records Disposition Schedule
After reaching consensus with the agency, the analysts take the proposed Agency Records Disposition Schedules before the State Records Commission for discussion, necessary revisions, and approval. Once approved by the Commission, the schedule serves as the legal authority for the agency to destroy obsolete records and transfer historical records to the Missouri State Archives. The staff currently maintains more than 950 records retention and disposition schedules.
In addition to agency-specific schedules, the staff continues to expand the General Records Schedule (GRS), which lists series of records that are common to all agencies and provides retention and disposition instructions. Any state agency may use the authority of the GRS to dispose of records listed on it.
Staff Training and Development
The staff continued developing their knowledge and understanding of records management concepts and new developments, particularly related to electronic records and technology. As agencies increasingly turn toward electronic records technology such as email, scanning, instant messaging, and Web-based transactions, the records analysts and electronic records archivists remain prepared to work with agency managers and information technology specialists to evaluate the record-keeping requirements of new systems and work processes.
Statewide Electronic Records Training Initiative
The Missouri State Archives received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to conduct a two-year training program on electronic records management and preservation for state and local government officials. In FY2006 the Missouri Electronic Records Education and Training Initiative – MERETI – continued to conduct a series of day-long workshops on electronic records issues. The initiative was jointly coordinated by the Records Management and Local Records Divisions.
MERETI brought nationally recognized experts on electronic records issues to Missouri to conduct presentations and workshops for government officials, archivists, and records managers. Knowledge gained from these workshops has been posted to the MERETI website for wider distribution, along with other useful tools and electronic records links.
State Records Center
Many records may be used for many years after they are no longer current, and therefore must be retained. The inactive life of a record can range anywhere from two years to 75 years or more after its period of active use. Some historical records must be maintained permanently. Records that are on a Records Disposition Schedule and have reached an inactive status may be stored within the State Records Center.
The State Records Center saves the state money by providing offsite storage at a much lower cost per cubic foot than storage in agency office space. The storing agency can retrieve records whenever they are needed, and return them for re-filing. Records are stored in a secure facility, protected against unauthorized access, environmental hazards, pests, and fire. The Records Center also tracks the retention periods of stored records, ensuring that records that no longer have any value are destroyed when they are eligible.
While the Records Center is the physical custodian, the transferring agency maintains proprietary control over its records. Thus, only the agency has access to its records while they are stored in the State Records Center. State agencies with an approvedrecords retention and disposition schedule are eligible to store records in the State Records Center.
Facilities
Records stored at KSIC
The State Records Center operates in three separate facilities. The Kirkpatrick State Information Center (KSIC) is the main facility. The KSIC’s climate-controlled environment was designed for the protection and preservation of long-term records (those with a retention of more than ten years) and permanent records. The facility can hold 151,800 cubic feet (or boxes) of records. The KSIC has been at near capacity since 1995. KSIC can only accept new records into the facility as eligible disposable records are removed.
The Records Services Division operates two off-site facilities that do not have air-conditioning, so records stored in them experience the extremes of Missouri’s temperature and humidity changes. Therefore, every effort is made to store only short-term records (those with a retention period of ten years or less) at these facilities. However, some long-term records that cannot be accommodated within the KSIC are stored in the offsite facilities.
Annex 1, located off Missouri Boulevard in Jefferson City, houses 76,500 cubic feet of records. Annex 2, located on Jaycee Drive in Jefferson City, opened in July 2001. Annex 2’s current shelved capacity is 84,100 cubic feet of records, bringing the current total State Records Center capacity to 312,400 cubic feet. Additional shelving is being added to Annex 2 as funds become available, bringing the Records Center closer to its maximum potential capacity of 336,000 cubic feet in the three buildings.
Holdings
During FY06, Records Management accepted 25,504 cubic feet of records from state agencies. Records Management staff disposed of 13,369 cubic feet of records that had met their retention requirements. Thus net growth – accessions of new records minus destruction of obsolete records – was 12,135 cubic feet.
At the end of fiscal year 2006, the State Records Center held 280,166 cubic feet of records, of which more than 132,633 cubic feet are permanent and will not be destroyed. While Records Management maintains more than 950 Records Disposition Schedules, only 217 state agencies take advantage of the Records Center’s services. The following chart illustrates the volume of records stored by the sixteen most active state departments.
Cost Comparison
It may be helpful to illustrate the cost savings of storing records in the State Records Center. Assume, for example, the retention period for the 12,135 cubic feet of records accessioned in FY06 is five years. Based on the average cost of a four-drawer letter-sized file cabinet, the floor area required to place and access files in cabinets, and a statewide average cost of leased office space of $11.50 per square foot, the estimated annual cost of storing one cubic foot of records in an office environment is $14.29.
On the other hand, the average annual cost to store a cubic foot box of records in the State Records Center is $1.06. In the first year, processing, supply, and transportation costs make the costs higher, at $4.60. The cost to process and destroy a box is $0.58. The following table compares the costs of storing FY06 accessions for five years in the Records Center versus storing them within the agencies’ offices.
Cost Comparison: Storage in the State Records Center vs. Agency Office Space
Costs |
State Records Center |
Agency Office Space |
Year 1 |
$4.60 |
$14.29 |
Years 2-5 |
4.24 |
57.16 |
Destruction |
0.58 |
0.58 |
Total Cost per box |
$9.42 |
$72.03 |
|
|
|
Cost to store 16,200 boxes five years |
$152,604 |
$1,166,886 |
Savings over five years |
$1,014,282 |
|
Courier Services
Records Center personnel schedule pick-up and delivery services for agencies within Jefferson City. Agencies outside of Jefferson City are responsible for arranging for their own records shipments. Records Center personnel can assist out-of-town agencies in locating transportation services.
State Records Center delivery truck
Servicing the Records
Agencies retain full access to their records in the State Records Center. If an agency needs files from its boxes, a Records Center clerk retrieves the file and sends it to the agency. When the agency returns the file, a staff member re-files it in the appropriate box. This process is referred to as Pull Requests. On average, Records Management processes 66,500 pull requests each year to support state agencies’ performance of their missions.
Records Center Growth
The requirement for economical paper records storage will continue throughout the next 40 years. Computers and electronic forms of communicating and transacting business have been common in offices for over 20 years. At one time it was thought that the advent of computers would lead to the ideal of the “paperless office,” where paper files and records could be eliminated or greatly reduced.
In fact, the widespread use of PCs and inexpensive printers in the workplace has led to rapid growth in the creation of paper records. According to a December 12, 2005, article in The Christian Science Monitor, “In the early to mid-‘90s, a booming economy and improved desktop printers helped boost paper sales by 6 to 7 percent each year. The convenience of desktop printing allowed office workers to indulge in printing anything and everything at very little effort or cost.”
As the amount of information contained in electronic systems continues to increase, so too does the amount of paper records generated in relation to that electronic data. The following graph illustrates storage growth of holdings in the State Records Center over the past 8 years.
State Records Center Holdings:
FY99 through FY06
The Records Management staff has worked diligently to limit the rate of growth in Records Center holdings by destroying eligible records as expeditiously as possible and by reviewing agency disposition schedules to shorten retention periods when appropriate. Nevertheless, holdings are growing at a rate of over 6% per year over the past 8 years. The Records Center had to add Annex 1 in 1995 and Annex 2 in 2001 to accommodate this growth, and at the present rate, Annex 2 will run out of room by FY2009.
The most effective means to deal with this problem is to plan for a dedicated records storage facility, designed specifically for the efficient and economical storage of records in all media, and providing room for expansion to accommodate future growth. A new State Records Center would allow consolidation of records from the Kirkpatrick State Information Center and the two leased annex facilities in Jefferson City into a single location, greatly reducing operating costs and increasing staff efficiencies. The Missouri State Archives, whose holdings of permanent historical records have outgrown their current storage space, would be able to expand into the environmentally controlled KSIC storage area. During FY06, Records Management initiated formal planning for additional storage space.
Imaging Services
Microfilm is an ideal storage medium for the preservation of long-term and historically significant records. The Imaging Services Section operates a full-service microfilm laboratory. Services include source document microfilming, microfilm processing and duplication, rigorous quality assurance testing, and storage within a state-of-the-art environmentally controlled vault. Imaging Services employs a high-speed digital scanner and Kodak Digital ArchiveWriters to scan important records for easy access while ensuring their long-term preservation on proven microfilm media.
Source Document Conversion
Some records are better suited for microfilming than others. A general rule of thumb is that if a records series must be retained for more than twenty years, it may be more cost-effective to store microfilm than paper. However, there are other factors to consider, including how often the records are referenced, if they must be updated, and the quantity of the records. The Record Management division assists agencies with these sorts of considerations. During FY06, Imaging Services filmed 1,571 cubic feet of paper records, producing 5,183,503 images.
Processing, Duplication, and Quality Assurance
In addition to processing and duplicating film that the unit has created, staff processes and duplicates film created by state agencies. Technicians visually inspect each roll of microfilm and conduct tests for density and resolution. If defects are found during this inspection, the film is rejected and the project is re-filmed. During FY06, technicians processed 6,966 rolls of microfilm and duplicated 18,134 rolls.
Vault Storage
The microfilm vault is kept at a constant temperature of 58° (plus or minus 2°) with a constant humidity level of 35% (plus or minus 2%). If either the temperature or the humidity level fluctuates past the plus or minus 2 mark, an alarm sounds and service technicians are immediately dispatched. Properly stored film, such as that within the vault, should have a usable life of 500 years. Currently, more than 150,000 rolls of archival microfilm are stored in the vault.
State Records Commission
The State Records Commission was created by state statute (RSMo 109.250). The Commission determines how long state agency records must be maintained in order to serve the needs of government and the public. Once the records have met their retention requirements, the Commission determines their proper disposition either by destruction or transfer to the Missouri State Archives.
State Records Commission Members
Robin Carnahan, Chair |
Senator Gary Nodler |
Kenneth H. Winn, Secretary |
Representative Robert Behnen |
Ken Kuster, Designee for |
Brett Berri, Designee for |
Dan Ross |
Gary R. Kremer |