> In the 1950s what was the standard recommendation for a planned construction of a Records Center or records/archival storage? 

Rob’s question made me go back to my archives to look at how the vault fit into the records center or general records protection in the business organization or government agency?

The first World Fair took place in London in 1851, in what was called the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. The Fair demonstrated the latest technology of that time and the exhibition demonstrated several models of safes from various manufactures. Even at this point in history, the concept of protecting valuable documents (later referred to as “Vital Records”)  along with currency, jewels and valuables was a concept that the Industrialists and Bankers realized was prudent.  

Document safes were popular in England and Europe.  Rosengrens and others sold safes and vaults to railroads, weaving mills, courthouses, city councils, mining companies, military planning offices credit companies and every sort of business client. 

The mining industry, gold and silver prospecting and protection of claims and property rights propelled document protection. This was long before document management was an issue.

Schwab was founded in 1872 in Lafayette, Indiana   Meilink  1899  Diebold ( 1859) Mosler (1867), LeFebure (1892) and all advanced from safes to vault doors.  

Of interest is that Banks advanced to large vaults in the 1920’s  to withstand angry mobs, and natural disasters. 

The UL 72 Test for Fire Resistance of Records Protection Equipment (1971) was first released as  “Standards for Fire Resistance Classification of Records Protection Equipment” and the First Edition was in 1918.  And subsequent editions were published in 1924, 1929, 1931, 1941, 1947, 1952, 1968 1969 and in the 10th issue release the title was changed to “UL 72 Test for Fire Resistance of Records Protection Equipment" .

The UL 155  Standard for Tests for Fire Resistance of Vault Doors and File Room Doors issued the First Edition issued in 1939, then modified in 1941.  The Standard seem to sit untouched until 1969 when some modifications were made and then it was modified again in 1972.  The fifth edition was issued in 1979.

ANSI played a role in early development of Standards.  The earliest documents began with a requirements that  “Records shall be protected against damage, deterioration, or loss.”  The NQA-1 was one of the documents to reference this phrase.

NFPA became interested in destructive fires that destroyed valuable and often irreplaceable business records after the 1922 fire in the Burlington and Quincy Railway fire in Chicago. The records were destroyed even though the building was deemed fire-resistive.  The Committee on Protection of Records was organized in 1922. Reports were issued in 1923 through 1939 and a separate pamphlet was printed in 1947 where the reports of 1942 and 1946 were adopted. Revisions occurred again and again that confirmed the need for protection of Records.

In 1983 when we first started attending ARMA Conferences, the majority of the well known records manager all seemed to have vital records vaults.  The records manager; and, protecting the most vital assets of the corporation were synonymous in that time period.  I have a copy of NFPA 232  Standard for the Protection of Records from 1986.  How things have changed!!

Ironically history will show that NARA was the culprit in engineering the demise of records manager as the custodian and protector of records.  They engineered the merger of NFPA 232 AM which was the records center and archive standard with the NFPA 232 vault standard and file room standard.  This began the deterioration of records protection as a function of records management and opened the door for cool of records by outside agents.  First the large offsite storage companies which then opened the door for the Cloud.

I believe the first to see the future and post this out to NFPA was Larry Medina who served on the NFPA 232 Standards Committee and predicted the merger would dissolve the value of the records manager, the vault and the file room in the goal of protecting records.

The large storage companies had no interest in NFPA 232 prior to 1998 because it did not apply to them.  They did not offer NFPA 232 qualifying vaults as a standard features in all centers.  ARCUS and others offered climate controlled rooms, and some offered underground storage but the vault was a responsibility of the corporation or business entity to protect their own records.

In 2000 many offsite storage companies started offering media vaults to try to woo tape storage to their facilities as back-up tapes should be stored offsite away from the data center and a whole new industry of secure data storage developed. There are still about 40 companies around the country that still promote that level of protection as the mainstay of their business model.

But I wonder how many records managers today feel that the phrase “Records shall be protected against damage, deterioration, or loss”   is their main role in the organization?

In the past few years, I have disassembled many of our vaults and moved them from large independent offsite storage companies that have been bought out to new service providers.  (Most of them come from NAID businesses that are rapidly growing from just shredding into storage and media vaulting.)

Will a widespread incursion of hacking and ransomware have the same effect as the Burlington and Quincy Railway fire and make corporations start to bring secure records storage back home from the Cloud??

None of us predicted the Cloud. Will the major hacks that have occurred to the Democratic party, the NSA, the IRS, Aetna, Home Depot, Target and on and on make a difference? Russia and China and other nations do not even try to hide their intrusion efforts. America is exposed in a way that has never occurred before and no one seems to be offering solutions.   But in the Golden Age, the records managers protected their corporation’s vital records.

Feel free to correct any of my representations above if you have other facts to add.  

Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM


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