I agree with Laura.  I also think Larry's response to Jerry yesterday 
was excellent.

I haven't looked at the NARA rule Laura mentions, I'll have to look for 
a URL.  A couple of observations:

(1) As Larry and Laura mentioned, the way organizations use email is 
likely to vary widely.  Knowledge-oriented institutions and functions 
are likely to generate more substantive emails than ones which use 
email mostly for routine announcements or transmittals.  If you write 
lengthy emails that respond within the message text to inquiries about 
history, policy, organizational re-alignments, etc., you are likely to 
save the emails so you can copy and paste from them should similar 
reference inquiries recur.  Or if you send substantive comments that 
reflect policy formulation, those also are likely to warrant 
preservation.  If you mostly use email to announce "today's staff 
meeting is cancelled" or to say, "here is the form you requested," you 
are much less likely to need to save messages for any length of time.

(2) NARA is a subordinate agency of the executive branch.  In 
considering the positions taken in court in the PROFS email litigation 
(Armstrong v. Executive Office of the President), don't assume that 
they always reflect an archival perspective.  The Department of Justice 
(DOJ) speaks for NARA in court and, as Acting U.S. Archivisit Trudy 
Peterson once noted, "in litigation, the government speaks with one 
voice."  (Trudy also noted that public access issues sometimes are 
resolved "through the fires of litigation."

DOJ's position likely will reflect White House interests above all. 
Knowing how these things work, as a former NARA insider, it's hard for 
me to tell what the Archives' real position is on email.

For an early (1998) assessment of the PROFS case, see David Wallace's 
paper at
www.ercim.org/publication/ ws-proceedings/DELOS6/wallace.pdf .

Maarja

-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Bell <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent:         Thu, 9 Mar 2006 08:34:59 -0500
Subject: [RM] What percentage of emails are records

This discussion reminded me of NARA's new policy on Emails and
Electronic records.  It seems their new rule on Email (announced in Feb
in the Federal Register) stands by the belief that most emails are only
for convenience and most are records of temporary value - 180 days or
less to be exact.  Some of the emails received by some of our folks are
the starting point to where we answer questions where research is
required, contractual matters are proposed, questions from the public
are answered, etc.  It always depends on the content with the email as
to how long you keep it.



Ms. Laura F. Bell

DOT Directives & Records Management

Office of the Secretary of Transportation

[log in to unmask]

202-366-9761




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