Thanks, Bob, for the thoughtful reply!  Very interesting and useful!

As to executive branch records, the records of the executive branch
departments and agencies fall under the Federal Records Act (FRA).
Disposition is controlled by records schedules approved by NARA.
Presidential records mostly fall under the Presidential Records Act
(PRA) although there are some agency issues, as well.  NARA receives
permanently valuable records under both the FRA and the PRA.

Here is what the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said about
Presidential and executive branch records records in one of its reports
from 2001, which dealt with management of e-mail in the Clinton White
House:

"PRA, set forth in title 44 of United States Code, chapter 22, requires
the President and Vice President to adequately record their official
acts, maintain certain official records, and transfer custody of such
records to the Archivist of the United States upon termination of their
terms of office. Pursuant to the PRA, both the Office of the President
and the Office of the Vice President are to implement records management
controls and other necessary actions to ensure that presidential and
vice presidential activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies are
adequately documented and maintained. It also provides that presidential
records shall be made available pursuant to subpoena or other judicial
process and to either House of Congress, and prohibits destruction of
records without prior concurrence of the Archivist and notification of
Congress 60 days prior to disposal. The Archivist promulgates standards
and guidance for implementation of PRA; these are contained in title 36
of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). This regulation defines
criteria for access to and disposition of presidential records.

Federal records are subject to the provisions of FRA, set forth in title
44 U.S.C., chapters 29, 31, and 33. FRA requires the heads of federal
agencies to make and preserve records documenting the official
activities of the agency. FRA directs federal agencies to establish (1)
a program for the management of agency records, (2) effective controls
over the creation, maintenance, and use of records, and (3) safeguards
against the removal or loss of records. The Archivist promulgates
standards and guidance for implementation of FRA, which are contained in
title 36 CFR. Requirements for federal records are more extensive than
are those for presidential records, and specify. . . "

To read the rest, check out the GAO report _ELECTRONIC RECORDS: Clinton
Administration's Management of Executive Office of the President's
E-Mail System_, April 2001, at www.gao.gov/new.items/d01446.pdf

Thanks again!

Maarja

>>> [log in to unmask] 04/05/05 9:24 PM >>>
Maarja ... I have to agree with you on this subject.  In deference to my
learned colleagues who are working in the public sector and think they
have
everything in their organization in electronic format then I think they
may
need to get out of their office and take a walk around their
organization.

Unless the organization has removed all printers, restricts the use of
laptops, handhelds, palms, IM, blogs and their local website, only then
will
they may possible be able to control documents.

Yes, specific areas of public records can be controlled, if you have
diligent document managers (and I assume some replying to this list are
...
maybe one or two), who can control the input of specific records series
into
an electronic documents into their system.  But ....  If you have the
documents in the system and individuals have access to the documents,
they
may have the ability to print a copy and have in their desk files.

Why ... because they want to touch and feel the paper.

And yes, as Peter K stated the annotated document is now a new document
that
must be preserved.  Unfortunately, many of the litigations that I have
work
on during discovery usually caused the most pain from annotations.   And
a
Halderman annotation on a document certainly requires archival
consideration
considering his part in history of the Nixon administration.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that records of the executive
branch of government do not come under the normal (depending on how you
interpret normal in government) retention guidelines managed by NARA.

Respectfully,

Bob Dalton, CRM
Dalton Consulting
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf
Of Maarja Krusten
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 5:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: note to Peter re annotations [was Re: assistance re: electronic
records management presentation

Hi, Peter!

Are you sure you don't have handwritten annotations anywhere any more?
Isn't it possible that a high government official, say in the White
House, might write something of great significance in the margin of a
hard copy document and physically hand it back to the sender, thereby
bypassing electronic capture altogether?  I wouldn't count on every one
using the comments capability in software.  Some people might not want
to leave electronic fingerprints, others might love the feature.  I
don't think anyone can rule out that possibility, old fashioned as it
exists, it still might happen.

I guess as I'm getting older and starting to think about what I'll do
after I retire, the question of the types of records I might be
researching in my spare time really has started to intrigue me.

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