Managing records can be confusing when involving multiple people within an organization who have different ideas about what records are important, how to manage and keep records, and how to get rid of records. These tips are intended to provide some easy-to-understand quick best records management practices tips and records terminology definitions to help you fulfill your obligations to UHCL under the University of Houston System Records Retention Schedule. The following list has been reviewed and approved by the UHCL Office of Compliance and the UHCL Archives.
Records Management Dos:
- Organize your records into files with understandable labels (and dates if you can!)
- Store records in such a way that any other user can readily find relevant information
- Keep your version(s) or copy(s) of records until they meet the retention schedule
- Ensure that work done at home is added into your OneDrive
- Ensure that someone other than yourself can access your records when you are away
- Mark personal material clearly as such (create a folder “Personal Materials” or “Personal Records”)
- Remember that every e-mail is a University record—it is considered correspondence and is a public record
- Store important email information with the relevant file(s)
- Clear out your ‘sent items’ e-mail box periodically
- Ensure that your “Deleted Items” folder is emptied automatically every time you close down your e-mail program
- Put web information on the publicly accessible section of the website whenever possible
- Save as a master copy kept by the creating office of any documents put online
Records Management Don’ts
- Keep records for any longer than they are needed—follow the retention schedule for desctruction, retention, and sending to the archives.
- Don’t assume another office will keep their copy of a record.
- Keep files that duplicate information held elsewhere in your area (except to meet short-term operational requirements)—these are called working copies
- Keep University records on personal drives unless it is highly confidential
- Keep sensitive University information on your home computer
- Store information on your C: drive; use OneDrive or approved UHCL networked, backed-up drive
- Name folders on shared drives after yourself
- Encrypt or password-protect electronic information unless you ensure that your colleagues have access to the key/password
