Hi Roger,

First, I can't understand why HR would want it done that way. Except for
the fact that they really don't realize what they're asking and how much
labor intensive extra work it would entail.

I agree with Ginny's response. Especially the last sentence: " It became
clear that keeping records in the offices until they were truly inactive
or rethinking how they could file or box (i.e. by termination dates for
some records, by fiscal year for some records, relying on a more
detailed index to search for record location before requesting
retrieval, etc.) was less expensive than dumping everything into storage
and using records box storage as extensions of the file cabinets. "
And, as Julie basically stated, you will have to re-box AND re-index
over time. Not only that, your inactive records center becomes an active
& inactive records center. 

The software you have should easily add the additional documents to the
end the file. I can see retaining the source documents for a while, at
least until all of the QC is done but that's it. When storing the source
documents they will be indexed and easily located, if need be, until the
process is complete.



Steve Morgan
C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, Records Manager
[log in to unmask]
(714) 438-3228 phone
(714) 546-9835 fax

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Roger Hamperian
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 12:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: active personnel files

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Roger Hamperian and I am the
Senior Records Manager for the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government
in Lexington, KY. I am relatively new to RM having made a career change
last fall after working 4 years at the Univ. of Kentucky as a
reformatting librarian and archivist. I have been monitoring the
listserv for about 5 months. Needless to say, I have a lot to learn
about RM, but the listserv has been very helpful in giving me a
jumpstart.

 

My first query to the listserv pertains to personnel records. I should
begin by saying Lexington employs approx. 3,500 people and maintains its
own off-site storage facility for inactive records. Recently I was
informed by Human Resources that they were beginning a scanning project
to digitize all of their active personnel files. They want to send all
of these active files to the Records Center after they have been
scanned. To this point I didn't foresee any problems. Wrong! I have
since learned that HR expects to be able to send additional documents to
the Records Center after they are scanned to be added to the files
already in storage. This seems unfeasible to me given the amount of
documentation created by HR. Even if the files are boxed so as to allow
room for future expansion, it seems inevitable that at some point they
will reach their capacity and need to be reboxed. This would no doubt
require a great deal of time and effort with the actual files as well as
revising the inventory, not to mention the additional labor required to
continually add documents to these files. I find these expectations
unrealistic given our current budget and staffing (1.5 FTE in addition
to myself).

 

Has anyone out there faced a similar situation? Any suggestions on how
to respond? Thanks.

 

 

Roger Hamperian

Records Management Analyst Sr.

L.F.U.C.G. Records Center and Archives

1306 Versailles Road

Suite 180

Lexington, KY 40508

 

859/425-2071

859/425-2073 fax 

 


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Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance