Hi Brian & fellow ListServ-ers,
Wanted to provide some color/context on this since the survey was 
underwritten by Iron Mountain.

The 34% response is not a typo. The question in the survey, asked to 100 
Records Managers, was "What percentage of your agency’s records must be 
kept permanently?  (Range 0% to 100% available to choose). The average of 
34% is the aggregate based on their responses.There were eight "Unsure" 
responses. The balance of responses ranged literally from 0% to 100% and a 
wide range of responses in between. The most replied percentage noted 
was "10%" (19 responses), followed by "100%," "25%" and "0%" at 9 
responses; 28 people responded "50%" or more as a percentage. 

NARA's definition of a permanent record, from their Schedule of Permanent 
Records on the website "Disposition of Federal Records: A Records 
Management Handbook" (http://www.archives.gov/records-
mgmt/publications/disposition-of-federal-records/chapter-
6.html#VI.PermanentRecords), is: "Permanent records are those determined by 
NARA to have sufficient historical or other value to warrant continued 
preservation by the Federal Government, generally as part of the National 
Archives, unless otherwise agreed to by NARA." 

There is a definite disconnect in our survey respondents' understanding if 
NARA is stating a much lower percentage of 2-5% of all records in Federal 
Government being defined as permanent. This tells us that records managers 
are responding to the survey based on what they know, which may not be in 
line with NARA's definition. 

Interestingly enough, in another question of the survey, "What steps would 
enable your agency to better manage records?  Please select the top three 
steps,"  the top response was 43% responding "Better trained records 
management personnel," followed by more funding at 33% and more support 
from agency leadership at 32%. NARA has a great educational opportunity to 
educate agencies on definitions and proper records retention from the top 
down now that the new Senior Agency Officials have been appointed, as long 
as these SAOs look at education and training as an opportunity as well. We 
will see if at least two of the top three can be addressed.

Lisa De Luca
Director, Federal Marketing
Iron Mountain
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