Good morning.

I'm trying to find a solution for an ongoing (and in my opinion, a very serious) problem. Let me try to explain, without getting into too much detail.

In my agency there are 88 record coordinators (for 31 departments) and only 2 records management associates. We have 28k boxes in offsite storage. I want to identify boxes in storage that have met retention but it's difficult to do b/c the record coordinators aren't using meaningful descriptions when they put their boxes in storage. Sometimes they don't even include a date range. You can imagine how much fun it is trying to find something! Insane, right?

I've provided 2 examples:

Instead of incorporating the record series title in their descriptions like this: "contracts/leases/agreements: capital improvement: 46-15114; C-860042; ML0637; CP0430" they might only enter this description:  "46-15114; C-860042; ML0637; CP0430".
Instead of incorporating the record series title in their descriptions like this: "litigation case files: ev box #169" they might only enter this for the description: "ev box #169". (No seriously, I wish I was kidding!)
I want to find a way that ensures every record coordinator starts using the record series titles and entering date ranges to describe their records. Someone suggested the record coordinators should submit their paperwork to me before any boxes go offsite and I haven't ruled this out but I have a lot of other work that needs to be done and I can't imagine how I'll be able to get it done if we were to implement this.

Here are some ideas I've considered but I would like to hear from others if they've implemented something that works! Personally, I think an automated system that forces the record coordinators to choose a record series title based on specific criteria, etc. would fix this problem but I have serious doubts that this agency would consider implementing such a system. (Hey, an excel spreadsheet might even do the trick!) The vendor's online system has the option of selecting a record series but it would have to be selected manually for each individual record and I don't know if management would approve the time and effort to do this. And of course, there's always training and that has proven to be beneficial (when it occurs) but I want to take the guesswork out of the equation for the record coordinators - they're not real familiar with the retention schedule/record series.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem at their agency? Is there a solution?

Kind Regards,
Julie Collier



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