Records Management

Records management is the administrative term for the process of:

  • the maintenance of currently-active, administratively-useful, public records;
  • the disposition of public records that no longer serve administrative, legal, fiscal, or historical purposes; and,
  • the preservation of those records that have historical value or that must be preserved by law or for other reasons.

At Virginia Commonwealth University records management is governed both by the state's records management program mandated by the Code of Virginia ( Chapter 7, Public Records Act), and by university policies and procedures. Responsibility for the state records management program under the Public Records Act is given to the State Library Board which delegates the operation of the program to the staff of the Library of Virginia, Richmond. Each state agency is required to designate an official to be responsible for the operation of the records management program in that agency.

At Virginia Commonwealth University (Agency 236), Scott Davis, is the Agency Records Administrator. He may be contacted by email at rsdavis@vcu.edu.

The Public Records Act mandates state control over the "public records," and defines them as:

recorded information that documents a transaction or activity by or with any public officer, agency, or employee of the state government or its political subdivisions. Regardless of physical form or characteristic, the recorded information is a public record if it is produced, collected, received, or retained in pursuance of law or in connection with the transaction of public business. The medium on which such information is recorded may be, but is not limited to paper, film, magnetic, optical or solid state devices which can store electronic signals, tapes, mylar, linen, silk or vellum. The general types of records may be, but are not limited to books, papers, letters, documents, printouts, photographs, films, tapes, microfiche, microfilm, photostats, sound recordings, maps, drawings, and any representations held in computer memory.

The Act goes on to state:

Nonrecord materials, meaning reference books and exhibit materials made or acquired and preserved solely for reference use or exhibition purposes, extra copies of documents preserved only for convenience or reference, and stocks of publications, shall not be included within the definition of public records as used in this chapter.

In practical terms, the provisions of the Public Records Act govern the majority of materials created in or received by university offices other than the reference materials exempted, and the law madates further that no material that falls under the definition of public records may be destroyed without permission. There are penalties under the law for persons destroying records without authorization, and the university can be held liable should a court discover that public records needed in a trial were destroyed without permission.The university requires that all faculty and staff adhere to the provisions of the Public Records Act, the regulations of the Library of Virginia and of the university concerning public records.

General Records Schedules

Anyone in a university office who wishes to destroy records should contact the appropriate agency records administrator to learn the procedure to be followed, but this process might begin with a review of the state's General Records Schedules to determine if the state has established a minimum period of retention for the type of record that is being considered for destruction. The Library of Virginia has prepared schedules for various types of records such as correspondence and financial records that are created in many state agencies. In each schedule, there is a brief descriptive title of the type of records, and information about the period for which these records much be retained. Records series are listed alphabetically within each General Schedule and are easy to locate.

The following General Schedules are presently in effect:

University Policies and Procedures

For university policies concerning its records, consult Section "Records Retention And Disposition." For procedures, including statements of university requirements for periods for which types of records must be maintained, see Procedure 2-30: Records Retention: General Requirements.

For most fiscal records that are public records, for instance, the university requires retention for the current fiscal year, and five back fiscal years, or until audited, whichever is longer, while the general state requirements for these records are for shorter periods. For fiscal records that are information copies, the university retention requirement is for the current and the past fiscal year. The agency records managers can be of further assistance.

Destruction of Public Records

To ensure that public records are destroyed only after their administrative usefulness to the office that created them has ended, and that there are no legal, fiscal, or historical reasons for the preservation of the records, the Library of Virginia (LVA) has established a procedure for review of records that are being considered for destruction. You may wish to read the LVA's general discussion of this procedure. A form (RM-3) must be completed by the office that wishes to destroy records. An official in the office must sign the form certifying that the records described on it are no longer needed in the office, and that "the records listed above have been retained for the scheduled retention period, that required audits have been completed, and that no pending or ongoing litigation involving these records is known to exist." The RM-3 form and its instructions are available on the university's forms site on the Web. The RM-3 form is in .pdf file format which requires the use of Adobe Acrobat. The form is also in .doc format which requires the use of Microsoft Word. Adobe Acrobat can be downloaded if you do not already have this free software on your computer. If the form has been printed as a blank form, it is easily completed on a typewriter and may be handwritten if the handwriting is legible. The form may be filled in online, and printed from Adobe Acrobat.

Completing an RM-3 form takes only a few minutes. The name of the agency (Virginia Commonwealth University), the "Division/Department" (the University vice president under whose jurisdiction the office falls), and the "Section/subunit" (the name of the office) are entered. The information that must be entered on the RM-3 form for each series of records considered for destruction is: the applicable General Schedule and Series numbers; the "Records Series Title" taken from the General Schedule; the date range covered by the records; and the volume of records expressed in cubic feet. (This link is to a table that translates file drawers of material into cubic feet.) The physical location of the records is optional.

Send the original RM-3 form to the appropriate Agency Records Manager after the responsible official in the office has signed it. The records manager will check the records proposed for destruction against the General Schedules' required periods of retention. If he agrees with the proposed destruction, he will sign the RM-3 form approving the destruction and send a copy of the form back to the office approving the destruction. Upon receipt of an approved RM-3 form the office may proceed with destruction of the records. Non-confidential records approved for destruction may be recycled. Confidential records may also be recycled, but must be kept in a secure place until they are picked up by a bonded recycling firm. Offices may wish to consult Facilities Management's Recycling Division for assistance.

Destroying Records After Reformatting

If you need to destroy records that have been reformatted to microfilm or electronic storage media, consult the information available on this topic on the Library of Virginia's website.

Recycling and/or Records Destruction

VCU Environmental Conservation provides recycling and document destruction services. For more information about available services, contact Steve Heinitz at (804) 828-2487 or contact the FMD Customer Services Center at (804) 828-9444.

Remove All Data from a Computer

Go to the following site to register for access to WipeDrive: Technology Services Download Site
Click on the Download link to go to the software registration page. Once you have registered, select WipeDrive from the software list, and click on Register Software. You should then click on the link "WipeDrive" to run the WipeDrive installation program. An executable file named MakeDisk.exe will be created. Run this program, click on the "Make a WipeDrive Boot Disk" button and follow the prompts. You will then need to insert the diskette you created into the floppy drive of the computer to be disposed of, reboot and follow the prompts to erase the hard drive contents.

 

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