As it has been a while since my last post, let me reintroduce myself.  I am a Public Records Archivist with the Office of the Public Records Office at the Connecticut State Library.  This office is responsible for overseeing a records management program for the 169 towns in Connecticut as well as 58 executive branch agencies, 21 colleges and universities, and certain quasi-public entities as well as a grant program for local records and the state records center.  We have 4 professional staff and 3 support staff.  I began my career as an archivist and shifted to records management after a "mommy break."  I have held this position since 2006.  I love the challenge and reward that the records management profession offers.

We have been asked by the Department of Administrative Services to assist in the relocation of approximately 7 executive department agencies to newly purchased space.  The move is expected to take place in February and the new space will be significantly smaller per employee.  The agencies involved would like to scan all the paper records in order to move little to no hard copy to the new workspace.  We are strongly, strongly encouraging them to conduct a records inventory of all hard copy and network files prior to implementing any scanning.  We want to avoid scanning of records past their retention periods as well as scanning of duplicate records because, as is often the case, many employees have to have their own copies and there are usually electronic and paper versions of the same file. (Just in Case).

An agency head has asked if we have any metrics on the amount of employee time necessary to conduct a full inventory.  I am aware of only one attempt to inventory agency records and that involved one department within a large agency.  I was not involved in the project and the colleague who was has since left.  I spoke with the agency liaison on the project.  She was able to share what she could recall including that the process lasted about two weeks.

She stated that an average employee with a reasonable amount of control over his/her workspace and files usually completed the form in 2-4 hours.  The amount of time depended on the job function and the records involved.  More detailed oriented individuals who retain only active files required less time; those who "pile" rather than "file" obviously took much longer.  Units that had centralized files took less time to complete the inventory as they had some type of indexing and metadata already in place allowing them to produce their list quickly.  If there was no centralized system in place or no administrative control over unit records, it took significant staff time.

I am hoping that someone can provide me with some better statistics to share with the agencies regarding the time commitment.  We will also try to compare staff time to conduct the inventory against the staff time that will be required to search and manage records that were unnecessarily scanned.  Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Lizette Pelletier
Public Records Archivist
Office of the Public Records Administrator
Connecticut State Library
231 Capitol Ave.
Hartford, CT 06106

(860) 757-6662

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www.cslib.org/publicrecords<http://www.cslib.org/publicrecords>

"Freedom of Information doesn't mean anything if you can't find the records." - Dr. Anne Thurston, OBE, director of the International Records Management Trust.

"The backbone of a transparent and accountable government is good records management" - David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States


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