I have been reading the list exchanges for a few years and find them very educational.
Today I am jumping into the pool to ask my first question of the list membership*

I would like to know if others on the list have/use a survey form to capture information about databases at your organizations. I plan to design and use a survey tool to document databases as part of our department's retention schedule process.

Googling, I have found the following survey form examples:

University of Aberdeen
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/central/records-management/formexample.php

USGS
http://edc2.usgs.gov/government/records/tools.asp

South Carolina Dept of Archives and History
http://www.state.sc.us/scdah/arm01.doc

Wisconsin Department of Transportation http://enterprise.state.wi.us/home/erecords/DOT%20Inventory%20Form.htm

These online examples have been very helpful, as has the 2002 archived list serve exchange "Retention Language for Databases".

Based on the above examples, there appears to be 5 main topic areas that a survey should address:
*..Program & contact identification
*..Description of the database
*..Record access/security
*..System description
*..Retention/disposition

What are members of this list doing to document their organizations databases on retention schedules?

Would you be willing to share/exchange survey forms with me?

Thank you,

Diane Voll
California State Parks
Archives-Records Office
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