This is a good question and thanks for bringing it to the list.

I, too, am facing the same issue here.  I have the possibility of
declaring myself the final "deleter" for ALL enterprise information,
even electronic.  While on paper it looks great, I have two challenges.

First of my concerns is that the volume of objects (docs, emails,
EVERYTHING!) to delete will overwhelm me. The volume may be such that my
job will simply evolve into a button pushing event with no time for the
other 99% of a records manager's work.

One of the benefits of our EDMS (Livelink) is that objects can be purged
as necessary.  That is, I could get a steady stream of objects for
review on a daily basis. Again, this could be large depending on the
vagaries of the business cycle. So I still am concerned enough to think
of distributing the function back to records coordinators (well trained
by the RIM program, of course!)

Second issue is simply one of manufacturing statistics.  If I choose to
be the one and only "deleter," I basically become an assembly worker
(disassembly may be more appropriate!) and subject to the laws of
statistics. That is, for every 100 objects I delete there will be a __%
of defects.  Granted, I would work diligently to minimize the defects,
but there will be mistakes.

Does distributing the deleting to the rc's reduce such errors? Not
necessarily, but it may provide a level of redundancy that can catch the
errors before they are damaging. They would delete first, then I would
affirm deletion. Still, this puts me back at issue 1 above: volume.


Hmmm.

Happy Monday and Go Patriots!

Chuck Piotrowski
Corporate Records Manager
Information Asset Management Program
Central Vermont Public Service


-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Patti Kraatz
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 11:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: EDMS and distruction approval

In our EDMS system, we will be removing delete capability from end-users
and place it under RIM control. End-users will only have a "qeue" for
deletion option (we'll add a comment box for them to add the reason e.g.
retention reached). We'll run a yearly "qeue" report and notify
appropriate
staff who must then approve our deleting documents. FYI: for audit
purposes
the EDMS Profile, containing file name, content, series, retention,
author
etc., remains, it's only the actual document which is deleted.

We'd like to do use an electronic approval form where various levels of
management only forwards the form to the next level and subsequently us
only if they approve.

Does anyone have a policy and/or methodology for using electronic
approvals
for deleting electronic records? Do you foresee any issues (perhaps
legal)
in doing it electronically?  NOTE:  we'd still want staff to submit
paper
disposal forms for the paper records (the official record).

Many thanks in advance!

Patti Kraatz
RIM Technician, Information Mgmt & Archives
Council & Administrative Services
Regional Municipality of Waterloo

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