There is no question that a chronological file is very important
historically; we've
recently received an intact chronological files from Student Affairs which
runs from
1967 to 1979...and since the University opened in 1967, this tells us the
topical
concerns and issues in each year (especially the protests/Vietname in
1968-1970
period).

As University Archivist, however, I am not in a position to tell offices HOW
to keep
their files.    There are many offices that we get subject files from.   On
our inventories
we can describe these files with ranges of dates and topics (e.g.  Student
Protests,
1967-1974).    We are also able to acquire the annual reports of each office
which help identify the projects and issues at the time.

Whether an office keeps chronological files, subject files, or both is a
decision of the
individual office.    What the archivist and records manager could do is to
produce a
small campus-wide subject guide so that offices have some conformity in
topics they
choose.

Dean




Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections/West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
850-474-2213
850-474-3338 (fax)


-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Leslie Knoblauch
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 8:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: University RM Question

Hello,
I am the first Records Manager at a small private college. I have been
conducting preliminary records surveys of the top administrative
offices. In my interviews/surveys the office staff has told me that they
want to cut down on the duplication of records stemming from them using
a chron file to hold correspondence and then also adding copies of this
same correspondence to the much larger and more heavily used subject
file. They have let me know that they do not find chron files easy to
use, especially for new staff, and are looking at phasing them out. My
initial thought was that they should do away with the chron file and
stick to using their subject files but the university archives
disagrees. What would you recommend in this situation? Should I
recommend that office staff continue to use two systems, one that they
find very difficult to use efficiently so that the archives can document
the history of their office more thoroughly or should I support the
offices transition away from chron files?

Any advice would be appreciated,
LK

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