Records Management Guidance
From the Office of the Chief Records Officer for the U.S. Government
The Office of the Chief Records Officer develops guidance on creating, managing, and disposing of Federal records in all media. The office also develops Federal records management standards, with an emphasis on electronic records. You can find additional records management information and resources at the records management website.
Different kinds of records management guidance:
Other Records Management Guidance
Superseded / Cancelled RM Guidance
Snippet
Using the guidance table below:
- You can sort the guidance list by title, type of guidance, or date, etc.
- You can also search the list for specific terms that might be in the title, the topic, or the description, to help you find documents on a particular subject.
NARA Bulletins
| Number | Date issued | Title | zRIN | General topic | Summary | Date posted to portal | Status | Date of status change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NARA Bulletin 2005-06 | 08/22/2005 | Additional Requirement for Transferring Permanent Records to the National Archives of the United States Directly from Agencies | Transferring records | Alerts agencies of additional documentation required when transferring records to the National Archives of the United States directly from agencies. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2007-02 | 04/30/2007 | Guidance Concerning the Use of Enterprise Rights Management (ERM) and Other Encryption-Related Software on Federal Records | Encrypted records | Provides guidance on records management implications of using enterprise rights management (ERM) and other software employing encryption technologies. Agencies are prohibited from transferring legal custody to NARA of permanent records with ERM protections and other encryption-related software enabled on the records. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2008-06 | 08/25/2008 | Records Storage Facility Standards | Records storage facilities | Reminds agencies of guidance on obligation to ensure that agency records centers, agency records staging or holding areas, and commercial records storage facilities used to store agency records meet NARA's records storage facility standards in 36 CFR 1234. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2008-07 | 09/10/2008 | Endorsement of DoD Electronic Records Management Software Applications Design Criteria Standard, version 3 | Electronic recordkeeping systems | Advises agencies that NARA endorses version 3 of the Department of Defense (DoD) Electronic Records Management Software Application (RMA) Design Criteria Standard (DoD 5015.2-STD, April 2007) for use by all Federal agencies. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2009-03 | 07/30/2009 | Pre-accessioning Permanent Electronic Records | Transferring records | Defines pre-accessioning of electronic records with archival value and describes the criteria for determining when pre-accessioning is appropriate. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2010-02 | 02/05/2010 | Continuing Agency Responsibilities for Scheduling Electronic Records | Scheduling records | Reminds agencies of guidance on their continuing responsibility to schedule all agency electronic records series and electronic systems, including website content records. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2010-03 | 05/03/2010 | Flexible Scheduling | Scheduling records | Announces additional guidance to agencies that want to create flexible "big bucket" or large aggregation schedules for their records or wish to use flexible retention periods. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2010-04 | 09/10/2010 | Guidance Concerning Notifications for Previously Scheduled Permanent Records | Scheduling records | Addresses using notifications when an agency implements electronic recordkeeping for records covered by a previously approved permanent schedule item. Also provides guidance about disposing of original hard-copy records that have been converted to an electronic format (e.g., by scanning). | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2010-05 | 09/08/2010 | Guidance on Managing Records in Cloud Computing Environments | Cloud computing records | Addresses records management considerations in cloud computing environments. Specifically, it contains Federal agency examples of cloud computing, records management guidelines, and contract language to consider when procuring cloud computing services. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA Bulletin 2011-03 | 12/22/2010 | Guidance Concerning the Use of E-mail Archiving Applications to Store E-mail | Electronic messages | Provides guidance on using email archiving applications to store email. | 02/19/2020 |
Records Management FAQs
| Number | Date issued | Title | zRIN | General topic | Summary | Date posted to portal | Status | Date of status change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NARA RM FAQs 01 | Date unknown | FAQs about Irradiated Mail | Records recovery | Answers questions about how and when irradiated mail should be managed as a record. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 02 | <2007 | FAQs about Instant Messaging | Electronic messages | Answers questions about instant messaging. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 03 | Date unknown | FAQs about Records Schedules | Records schedules | Answers agency records officer questions about records schedules. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 2007-01 | 08/28/2007 | FAQs about Selecting Sustainable Formats for Electronic Records | Transferring records | Answers questions about records management responsibilities when selecting and implementing formats for long-term electronic records. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 2007-02 | 09/01/2007 | NARA's Appraisal Policy | Appraising records | Answers questions about the strategic framework, objectives, and guidelines that NARA uses to determine whether Federal records have archival value, and provides more specific guidelines for appraising certain categories of records. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 2008-01 | 03/19/2008 | FAQs about Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) Recordkeeping | FDMS records | Answers questions about managing records contained in the Federal Docket Management System. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 2010-01 | 05/03/2010 | FAQs about Flexible Scheduling | Scheduling records | Answers questions about how to schedule records based on either aggregation of records or retention periods. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 2010-02 | 08/04/2010 | FAQs about Media Neutral Schedule Items | Records schedules | Answers questions from agency records officers about media-neutral schedules. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 2010-03 | 12/01/2010 | FAQs about Changes to Previously Approved Schedule Items | Scheduling records | Answers questions from agency records officers about "pen-and-ink" changes, which we use to update previously approved schedule items with minor administrative corrections without submitting a new records schedule. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM FAQs 2011-01 | 06/06/2011 | FAQs about Telework | Telework records management | Answers questions from Federal employees about general records management responsibilities they must follow when teleworking. | 02/19/2020 |
Other Records Management Guidance
| Number | Date issued | Title | zRIN | General topic | Summary | Date posted to portal | Status | Date of status change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NARA RM Gdc 2017-03-21 | 03/21/2017 | Records Management Language for Contracts | Contract language | Sets out records management language to include as an agency-specific term and condition in Federal contracts for a variety of services and products. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM Gdc 2017-07-05 | 07/05/2017 | Why does NARA ask for additional metadata for email records? | Transferring records | Provides guidance about the additional metadata agencies should provide for permanent email records. [blog post on Records Express] | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA ERM Reqts 2017 | 08/04/2017 | Universal Electronic Records Management Requirements | Electronic recordkeeping systems | Gathers into spreadsheets the electronic records management program requirements derived from existing statutes, standards, NARA regulations, policy, and guidance. Starting point for agencies to use when developing system requirements. Records management staff should work with acquisitions and IT personnel to tailor any final system requirements. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM Gdc 2017-11-06 | 11/06/2017 | Metadata Requirements for Permanent Electronic Records in the Cloud | Transferring records | Provides guidance about metadata requirements for permanent records agencies create, manage, or store in the cloud. [blog post on Records Express] | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM Gdc 2017-12-04 | 12/04/2017 | Metadata Requirements for Permanent Records on Shared Drives | Transferring records | Provides guidance about metadata requirements for permanent records agencies create, manage, or store in shared drives. [blog post on Records Express] | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM Gdc 2018-05-23 | 05/23/2018 | Email System Features and Records Management | Electronic messages | Provides information about the requirement to ensure new email features such as "confidential mode" are not enabled until the agency has ensured the feature complies with records management regulations and guidance. [blog post on Records Express] | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM Gdc 2018-05-31 | 05/31/2018 | Managing Metadata for Permanent Records: What if the metadata required for transferring permanent records are stored separately from the records themselves? | Transferring records | Provides information on requirements to capture and manage metadata throughout records' lifecycle and to accompany records with their metadata at the time agencies transfer the records to NARA. [blog post on Records Express] | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM Gdc 2018-09-27 | 09/27/2018 | Requesting Authority to Destroy Contaminated Records Constituting a Menace to Health, Life, or Property under Specific Conditions | Records recovery | Provides guidance on contacting NARA to request approval to destroy contaminated records in accordance with 36 CFR 1229. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM Gdc 2005-01-01 | 01/01/2005 | NARA Guidance on Managing Web Records | Web records | Provides guidance on managing web records. | 02/19/2020 | |||
| NARA RM Criteria 2016 | 04/06/2016 | Criteria for Managing Email Records in Compliance with the Managing Government Records Direct (M-12-18) | Electronic messages | Describes existing records management requirements in statutes, regulations, and NARA guidance that apply to email records. | 02/19/2020 |
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