For what it's worth.  After seeing a link to the retention requirements for 
the state of GA on one of these lists, I found out that the GA Archives is 
not too far from me.  I set up an appointment with the Assistant Director 
to see the facility and learn about how they handle electronic records.  It 
should be quite interesting.  I had noticed that some of the statements in 
the retention schedule said "permanent".  I asked him about that.  He said 
that while they may debate about what should be permanent, permanent means 
forever.  He was very definitive about it.  I thought that was 
interesting.  I'm not sure anyone quite knows how to store records forever, 
particularly electronically.

Sincerely,

Ron

At 11/8/2006 10:27 AM -0500, you wrote:
><So I've found that the term "long-term" works a lot better.    "We're
>saving these records for the long term."
>No one ever asks me to define long term which of course is eternity.>
>
>For years, ANSI and ISO standards defined longevity as "short term" -
>less than 10 years, "medium term" - more than 10 years, "long term" - up
>to 100 years, "permanent" - more than 100 years or forever.  I haven't
>looked at them recently to see if the definitions have changed.
>
>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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------------------------------
Ron Frazier - owner of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/futureenergynow/ , 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/futureenergyproducts/
http://c3energy.com/ --- http://c3energy.com/alt_energy/
http://c3energy.com/computersecurity/ --- http://c3energy.com/health/

I am an independent researcher / consultant specializing in Alternative 
Energy and Data Security.
I am particularly interested in exploring ways to archive data over long 
periods of time.

Ron Frazier
4050 Dorothy Dr.
Cumming, GA  30041
770-205-9422 (O)     404-431-5472 (C)
Email: rwfrazier AT c3energy DOT com  (replace the AT and DOT by hand)

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