I think what Ginny was referring to in her original note on this topic is the distinction between natural dispersion and improvised dispersion.  Natural dispersion is a natural redundancy; somebody else has a copy for their purposes.  Improvised disperion is to intentionally provide a copy (any media) in another area strictly for vital records purposes and business resumption...; for those records that truly meet vital criteria.  

Those are terms and logic/theory learned some 25 years ago when I was new in this profession.  Here is the good part; with electronic information management it is easy and inexpensive to have a redundant and improvise a dispersed copy.  I even do some of that with my personal vital records between servers at work & thumb drives, and my PC and assets at home; and my daughter's PC 2,000 miles away.   

Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno

>>> [log in to unmask] 6/18/2007 10:40 AM >>>
Elizabeth and Carrie are correct.  We have learned a great deal about
our vital records practices from the tragedy of Katrina.  In addition to
the accessibility of duplicate records they already discussed, I've also
noted that the old procedures of disaster recovery based on getting to
damaged records within 24 - 48 hours just does not apply.  Too many
folks were not able or not allowed to access damaged records for up to 6
weeks following the event.  Established salvage and recovery tasks based
on the old procedures just do not work under those conditions.

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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