It is good for this topic to come up from time to time.  I cannot add anything to the discussion regarding particulars of the fire-resistant cabinets.  Hugh and others are the experts on this topic.  We have implemented several vault areas to reduce the chances of losing vital documents and evidence.  But these are only stopgaps against loss.  No matter how you store originals, these are only one catastrophic event away from total loss.

The only solution to preventing loss as opposed to reducing the risk of loss is to have more than one copy of any vital record.  And this has been pointed out regarding the practice of duplication.   Now, I might not be willing to bet all of my money on our ability to reconstruct/retrieve every item.  I do sleep well at night knowing that we have processes in place to create redundancy for vital records.

We use imaging to capture digital representations of each vital record in the normal course of business.  Even for objects like wills, confidence is high that the image will be accepted by the court in the event the original is destroyed.  Images also mean that our users rarely access the paper which leads to a significant reduction in missing documents.

Sure, this is a BIG project to back convert.  But start the process on a day forward basis and implement a reasonable plan to get the legacy material into the digital environment.  Even if it is a couple of files a day, you will be better than you were the day before.  And that is our responsibility as Records Professionals.  We should be leaving our environment a little better all the time.  It took years for the problems to grow in most of our organizations.  A reasonable person is going to understand that it will take time to implement change.

David B. Steward
Director of Records
 
HUSCH BLACKWELL LLP
4801 Main Street, Suite 1000
Kansas City, MO 64112
Direct:  816.983.8860
Fax:  816.983.8080
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