Maarja ... I have to agree with you on this subject.  In deference to my
learned colleagues who are working in the public sector and think they have
everything in their organization in electronic format then I think they may
need to get out of their office and take a walk around their organization.

Unless the organization has removed all printers, restricts the use of
laptops, handhelds, palms, IM, blogs and their local website, only then will
they may possible be able to control documents.

Yes, specific areas of public records can be controlled, if you have
diligent document managers (and I assume some replying to this list are ...
maybe one or two), who can control the input of specific records series into
an electronic documents into their system.  But ....  If you have the
documents in the system and individuals have access to the documents, they
may have the ability to print a copy and have in their desk files.

Why ... because they want to touch and feel the paper.

And yes, as Peter K stated the annotated document is now a new document that
must be preserved.  Unfortunately, many of the litigations that I have work
on during discovery usually caused the most pain from annotations.   And a
Halderman annotation on a document certainly requires archival consideration
considering his part in history of the Nixon administration.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that records of the executive
branch of government do not come under the normal (depending on how you
interpret normal in government) retention guidelines managed by NARA.

Respectfully,

Bob Dalton, CRM
Dalton Consulting
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Maarja Krusten
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 5:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: note to Peter re annotations [was Re: assistance re: electronic
records management presentation

Hi, Peter!

Are you sure you don't have handwritten annotations anywhere any more?
Isn't it possible that a high government official, say in the White
House, might write something of great significance in the margin of a
hard copy document and physically hand it back to the sender, thereby
bypassing electronic capture altogether?  I wouldn't count on every one
using the comments capability in software.  Some people might not want
to leave electronic fingerprints, others might love the feature.  I
don't think anyone can rule out that possibility, old fashioned as it
exists, it still might happen.

I guess as I'm getting older and starting to think about what I'll do
after I retire, the question of the types of records I might be
researching in my spare time really has started to intrigue me.

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