Lane Community College is a public institution and its records are governed by the public records laws of Oregon. The Records Management Program assists the college community in systematically managing the appraisal, scheduling, storage, and disposition of college records. This procedure describes and links to the processes used to select, transfer, retrieve, and destroy records college records. It also covers access and confidentiality issues, guidelines for disaster preparedness and response, and organizational changes.
Records Management Procedures
- Selecting Records
- Scheduling Records
- Transferring Records
- How to Send Records to the Archives
- Retrieving Records
- Destroying Records
- Access and Confidentiality
- Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery
- Organizational Changes
Selecting Records
Public record means any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public's business that is prepared, owned, used, or retained by a public body regardless of physical form or characteristics, including, but not limited to, handwriting, typewriting, printing, photographing, and every means of recording, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combination thereof, and all papers, maps, files, facsimiles, or electronic recordings. The college archivist assists departments in evaluating records and selecting appropriate records for transfer to the Archives. Records are evaluated or appraised in order to determine the legal requirements for retention, how useful they are in meeting current information needs, and how historically valuable they will be in the future.
Scheduling Records
A records retention schedule describes records and specifies how long they must be kept and when they can be destroyed. The Oregon State Archivist has the responsibility to authorize destruction of public records and has developed a general records retention schedule OAR 166-450 for all community colleges in Oregon.
Transferring Records to the Archives
In order to qualify for storage by the Archives, the records:
- must be inactive (no longer required by the creating department to carry on its current activities and business),
- must be the official copy of the records,
- must have at least two years remaining on the scheduled retention period,and
- will ultimately be destroyed or permanently transferred to the college Archives.
- How to Send Records to the Archives
Retrieving Records
Departments or offices that have stored records in the Archives may need to recall a file or group of files from storage. Because legal custody of the records temporarily stored in the Archives remains with the office or department that created the records, access to records in storage is limited to the creating department or the Archives staff. Retrieval requests from other departments or persons will be referred to the creating department for authorization. Under normal conditions, the Archives staff will retrieve and deliver records within two days. If there is a special urgency, the Archives staff will make arrangements for quick retrieval and delivery. Campus mail or the courier service is used to deliver records to the Downtown Center or airport in Eugene, Cottage Grove, Florence, or other locations.
Destroying Records
Records are ready for destruction if they have met the legally required retention as defined by the Records Retention Schedule, and they are not involved in any ongoing audit, litigation, or administrative action. The Archives will ask the creating department or office to authorize destruction of records when the retention period has been satisfied. The Archives arranges for the destruction of confidential records in a way which ensures that confidentiality is protected from the time the records leave storage until the time they are destroyed.
Access and Confidentiality
Records stored in the Records Center are in the physical care of Archives and Records Management; however, legal custody of the records remains with the department, office, program, or person who created and maintained the records. The creating department and the staff of Archives and Records Management have open access to the records.
However, every person has a right to inspect any nonexempt public record under Oregon Revised Statute, Public and Private Records; Public Reports and Meetings (see Chapter 192 for definitions of exempt public records). The creating department controls public access to the records and the Archives refers all Public Records Requests to the creating department(s) or an appropriate information officer. Access to public records, especially to student records and personnel records, may be limited because of privacy concerns. The confidentiality of records, access to public records, and the handling of requests for information are governed by several state and federal statutes and administrative rules.
Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery
The college Archives has a Disaster Response and Recovery Plan and the college archivist is trained to handle damage from water, fire, and other natural and man-made disasters on a limited basis.
Organizational Changes
The records of programs, departments, offices, or other academic or administrative units that have been eliminated, reassigned or combined with another unit should be transferred to the Archives for proper retention, disposition, and preservation.
See also Archives, How to Send Records to the Archives and Public Records Requests