Hello Friends - 

I've googled the topic of .pst files and found the listserv conversation about this subject in 2008. I'm wondering if there's any new information or new thoughts. If nothing has changed as far as the rest of you are concerned, then I'll go with the info I've found.

Here's my situation: Municipal organization, about 1000 employees, Outlook 2003. At a recent dept staff meeting, a new employee reported that during the IT training for new employees, they were told that staff members will be encouraged in the future to store email in .pst files on network drives because of space issues on email servers. After my initial irritation at hearing about it this way, I set up a meeting (for tomorrow) with the IT folks and did a little research. My question to you is whether anything has changed in terms of the concerns about .pst files.

Email in this organization is managed by employees, based on content. Any email that is determined to have retention of longer than 2 years is to be saved on a shared drive (preferably as an .msg file). Less than 2 years retention - employees are allowed to save within Outlook folders. Now it sounds as if IT wants the shorter-term email messages to be saved as .pst files.

The relationship between IT and RM here is very good and I'm grateful that no one suggested the following: a) let's just delete it after 90 days; or b) let's just move it all into to our imaging system.

These are some of the issues I gleaned from the research (nothing more recent than 2008): MicroSoft doesn't support .pst files in shared drives; .pst files get corrupted (can't open) and they take up a lot of room; converting email messages to .pst files changes the format of the file; and .pst files have created havoc with servers. 

I am open to learning from you all as well from the IT folks in my organization. Thanks for helping me prepare!

Sharon G. Blackstock, CRM 
Central Records Administrator 
Lakewood City Clerk's Office 
480 S. Allison Pkwy, Lakewood CO 80226-3127 
Direct: 303-987-7091  Fax: 303-987-7088 
Email: [log in to unmask] 
Website: www.lakewood.org 
Lakewood's records management objectives: 1) Information is available when needed; 2) Records of permanent value are preserved; 3) Non-permanent records are destroyed per approved retention schedules; 4) Discarded paper is recycled.

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