On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 8:53 AM, Gus Harris <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Yes Larry the retention in most cases means really that you're not simply
> maintaining "long term" records, but virtually "permanent" records.
>

Actually, No.  In the Federal realm of record keeping requirements, there
are distinct differences for the requirements of managing "Permanent"
records.. these are long term temporary records.



> So, alot of files are going to be maintained for a very long
> time and that's what we're grappling with here...like everyone else.  My
> good sense tells me that if we're "trusting" all of our other long term,
> valuable and necessary information to electronic systems only....and most
> organizations seem to be doing that these days...then why be retaining all
> of these personnel records in hardcopy?


Let's say you have a 30 year employee... and over 30 years, you've amassed
a wide range of materials in their personnel file.  They may have
transferred form here to there, had different assignments, naturally had
different supervisors and managers and their file will likely be rather
large.  The contents will probably include hardwritten, typewritten,
NCR/carbon forms, single and double sided items, punched and or stapled
items, some on different colors and weights of paper, some in different
sizes... and likely a lot of items that are dog eared and faded.

You have to prep all of these items for conversion/imaging- you can't
simply stick them in a document feeder, push a button and run them all
through at the same resolution for capture.  Some may require you to make
"inter copies" to image from because the  content isn't clear enough to
image from the original source materials... and in some cases (like carbons
and NCR forms), if the source material is thin and there are instructions
printed on the back of the sheet, when you image them the back "bleeds"
through and you can't read the content.  Items of different sizes may need
to be reduced or hand processed on the platen to capture.   AND... you'll
either need to OCR/ICR the items or key in indexing/metadata to be able to
find the contents.


> And that's a good question as well
> considering the advantages of automation with an effective workflow process
> where not only do you get the foremost advantage of automating the complete
> HR/employee process, but as well a long term solution to inactive employee
> file retention.
>

And if all of these items are very infrequently accessed, is there any
value in expending all of this effort to image/convert them rather than
using a robust index to allow you to locate the hard copy files and just
use those?  The cost of storage is going to be much less than the cost of
prep, imaging, post-processing (to allow you to retain the source materials
for one year), along with the cost of periodic conversion and migration of
the images to retain persistent access for 25- 50 years.  So it's it's not
always cost effective to image.

Larry
[log in to unmask]

-- 
*Lawrence J. Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972*

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