What is a Record

Background

In the course of daily work routines, the creation, receipt, and management of official university records should be undertaken with great care, using well documented procedures to provide consistency and transparency. Such practices will benefit campus departments by making access to information easier and less time-consuming, and will also help to support the mandates spelled out by the State Records Act and the University of Illinois' General Rules Concerning University Organization and Procedure.

Records that are no longer of use to a particular university department or unit must be transferred the Archives or destroyed in accordance with these statutory and University mandates. To do this effectively, it is helpful to understand what an official university record is or might be, and find methods of managing these key sources of information in a consistent and coherent manner across campus units.

What is a university record?

In the process of daily work, data is created and transmitted in various formats through various distribution channels. Some of this information is critical in documenting specific actions and transactions made by those working for or with the University. When pulled together to represent such actions and transactions, this kind of information represents official university records. Examples of university records include but are not limited to:

• Documentation of policies
• Correspondence via email
• Documentation of administrative decisions such as campus planning, development of programs, tuition rates, reorganization or consolidation of departments, and changes to admission requirements
• Course catalogs and timetables
• Student grades and transcripts
• Payroll summary reports of employee earnings
• Financial records, such as purchasing and procurement transactions and vouchers

How are university records transmitted or received?

University records can be transmitted and received in many ways. Examples include:

• Reports generated through database inquiries
• Email messages
• Email attachments
• Departmental websites
• Campus Mail or the U.S. Postal System (for paper-based documents)

How are university records managed?

The methods by which university records are managed vary across campus. Some employees keep all documents or information in the original form in which they were sent or created regardless of who is responsible for the official university record (called the "record copy" or "copy of record"). They may keep these materials as attachments to email messages in a folder on their computer's hard drive, or perhaps in an "inbox" folder on a departmental network's shared space. Other employees print out all documents considered to contain critical information and file them in drawers or file cabinets.

In all cases, there is an assumption that university records are managed by department or office personnel, specifically assigned responsibility for their safekeeping and oversight.

Who is responsible for what?

Quite often, the record copy of a university document is not formally identified, leading numerous individuals to save their copies for an indefinite length of time--much longer than they have use for them. While there are good reasons to have more than one copy of a university record, it is important to clearly identify where the official version is stored and who is responsible for its management.

University Administration

Ultimately, the management of university records is the responsibility of the University Administration team. This responsibility is indicated by the State Records Act in naming the "Head of the (State) Agency" as responsible for the execution of a Records Management Program. (5 ILCS 160/9) (from Ch. 116, par. 43.12) Sec. 9. The head of each agency shall establish and maintain an active, continuing program for the economical and efficient management of the records of the agency. At the University of Illinois, through the General Rules Concerning University Organization and Procedure, Article VI Section 4, the University Archivists are named as stewards of the disposition process for records no longer actively needed.

Department or Office Personnel

It is assumed that every department on campus takes prudent steps to secure and responsibly manage records created or received in the course of departmental business. Best practices for sound records management include naming a person as the designated departmental records liaison. This person should be charged with coordinating inquiries from departmental offices and units regarding best practices for records creation, receipt, and management with a designated person from the campus Archives. Records liaisons may be administrative assistants, file clerks, IT staff, mid-level administrators, or department heads, depending on the content and format of the university records. Departments or offices may even have more than one records liaison, depending on the types of functions, work flows and size of the unit.

Archives Personnel

As noted above, records that no longer have use to a university department or unit must be transferred to the University Archives or destroyed in accordance with the mandates of the State Records Act and the University General Rules Concerning University Organization and Procedure. It is the responsibility of the University Archivist to designate a person or team of persons to work directly with departmental liaisons with the goal of meeting these mandates. In addition, the Archives personnel are interested in assisting departments as they develop better, more effective records and information management practices.

Need more information?

Contact Joanne Kaczmarek, Archivist for Electronic Records, 333-6834 jkaczmar@uiuc.edu

References

Archive Resources: http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/services/records.php
Campus Administrative Manual pertaining to records: http://www.fs.uiuc.edu/cam/CAM/iii/iii-6.html
Records Scheduling Handbook: http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/recsched.htm