No record is forever, at least in terms of the Records Management facility. Very few records are retained beyond 15 years, and most retention periods are much shorter. Some records process into the College Archives (in Baker Library) for permanent historical retention, but most eventually end up being recycled or shredded. As discussed in Section 3, this entire disposition process is governed by the Retention Schedule, negotiated between the Records Custodian, the Records Manager, and the Records Retention Committee. (See The Scheduling Process in Section 3 for more information on this process.)
How a Retention Schedule works.
Upon cataloging, each accession is assigned a disposition date. This date is calculated automatically by adding the retention period to the last date of the material in that accession. For instance, a record with a last date of 6/30/2000, and a five year retention period, would be disposed on 6/30/2005.
| NOTE: Retention periods and disposition dates are always calculated from the date of the material itself, not from the date the material is transferred to Records Management. |
Twice each year (usually beginning in July and January) Records Management conducts a round of disposition. In order to be eligible for disposition, a record accession must meet the following criteria:
- It's disposition date is past.
- The retention schedule for that series has been approved by the Records Custodian, the Records Manager, and the Records Retention Committee.
- No preexisting holds have been assigned to the accession.
If an accession meets all of these criteria the system will automatically make it eligible for disposition.
| NOTE: As a rule, partial accessions are not disposed. The entire accession is either disposed or retained. |
Notification and review.
The Record Custodian will periodically receive a Blitz that details all material currently eligible for disposition. Typically this notification will arrive in late June and/or December (assuming there is material eligible for disposition during each round). It will be sent with a return receipt attached, that is returned to Records Management to indicate the Records Custodian has read and been informed of the pending disposition.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a five working-day "grace period" on record disposition that begins when the return receipt is received by Records Management. This means that once the Records Custodian has read the disposition notice they have one week to stop a scheduled disposition from occurring. If the Records Custodian does not contact Records Management within five days of reading the disposition notice, the disposition will be put into effect. Remember, this five day period only begins after the Records Custodian has read the message and the return receipt has been generated. By this safety net no records will be disposed due to the Records Custodian being on vacation or otherwise inaccessible to Blitz Mail. |
| NOTE: A disposition method of "Archives" does not guarantee that the material will be retained in the historical collection of the College. The Archives may elect to dispose of some or all of a particular group of records, if it duplicates existing holdings or is otherwise not suitable for permanent retention. For this reason, no record should process into the Archives until its administrative value is completed. |
Holds.
Records Management realizes that circumstances may demand that a particular record accession must be held beyond it's scheduled disposition. This is normally due to an audit or pending project. Should placing a hold become necessary, the Records Custodian must contact Records Management either before a scheduled disposition, or before the end of the five day grace period (see note above). The accession can then be placed on hold, and the Records Custodian will be contacted again at the next scheduled disposition round to review the status of the material.
In addition, the Records Custodian should specify a time period for the hold. Al though this period is not binding, and the hold will remain in effect until it is specifically removed, this helps in the Records Management planning process.
Records Management asks that material only be placed on hold for valid and specific administrative reasons. It is important from a legal standpoint, should Dartmouth's retention practices ever be challenged, that the institution can document a high level of consistency in applying disposition. If a specific reason cannot be found for holding a particular accession, and the Records Custodian is still not comfortable with the disposition, then that may indicate that the retention period needs to be revisited and extended.
Updating the computer catalog after disposition.
The final step in this process is to update the Records Management computer system to reflect the disposed material. Even though material may process out of the facility, it remains in the data system, flagged as disposed. This means that Records Management can tell you not only what is currently in storage, but also all files which have been disposed. (The exception to this are those records disposed before June of 1994. Box and File data on those records was not retained.)
Methods of disposition.Not all disposition is created equal, and not all disposition means "destroy." When the Records Custodian receives a notice of impending disposition this may include a variety of disposition method codes. For reference, here is a complete glossary.
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