DESCRIPTION

All material pertaining to the senator's office budget and the acquisition, use, and accounting of funds-the Disbursing Office publishes all vouchers in the semi-annual report of the Secretary. Backup materials are not kept by the Disbursing Office, and therefore should be retained in the senator's office for proof of expenditures until the vouchers themselves are audited and destroyed. The vouchers are destroyed when they become twelve years old.

RETENTION

DISPOSITION

Records documenting expendi- Temporary tures of administrative, clerical, and legislative assistance allowances for each fiscal year including Disbursing Office monthly reports of annual salaries and titles, breakdown of allowance and expenditures for current month and projections for the next two months

Records documenting by calen- Temporary dar year expenditures for equipment, books, photo supplies, telephone, telegraph,

etc., including ledgers, journals, and an office budget Vouchers

and accompanying Temporary documentation such as invoices, bills, statements, receipts, or other evidence of expense incurred

All records pertaining to travel, Temporary such as hotel reservations, copies of itineraries, vouchers, per diem, requests for reimbursement, and incidential expenses-original itineraries

should be retained in staff or member's permanent files, as appropriate

Destroy when no longer of administrative use, or when two congresses old.

Current and previous two calendar years-office. Four years-attic.

Destroy twelve years after the close of the calendar year in which the account was paid. Current and previous two calendar years-office. Four years attic.

Destroy twelve years after the close of the calendar year in which the account was paid.

Current and previous two calendar years-office. Four years-attic.

Destroy twelve years after the close of the calendar year in which the account was paid.

Chapter III:

The Management and Disposition of Automated Records

INTRODUCTION

DEFINITION

Automated (machine readable) records represent an increasingly important part of the materials created and maintained by Senate offices. These records, stored on magnetic media, require access to a computer for decoding, processing, and printing. For example, names and addresses stored on the Senate's Newsletter Mail File system cannot be viewed until they have been processed and printed by a computer. Because such records are usually stored in a form that is easy to modify and update, they are sometimes mistakenly considered to have temporary or transitory value. This chapter covers the management and disposition of automated records, and the documentation required to maintain them.

PURPOSE

Within the past few years, many Senate offices have expanded from one or two centralized systems to a combination of centralized and decentralized systems to process office work. Existing centralized systems undergo constant refinements. In addition, many offices are using their own office automation systems. Clearly, Senate use of automation will continue to increase, and with this increase, offices should expect to exercise more control over the maintenance and disposition of the media on which automated records are stored.

OBJECTIVES

Certain automated records may warrant permanent retention for future use by the office or a repository site, such as a library or university. If records become inactive, however, and then are maintained for an extended time, there is a danger that the system or equipment used to create these records will become obsolete. The retrieval of information stored on such media could be hindered by dependence on a specific type of equipment or software package. To manage effectively the creation, maintenance, and disposition of automated records, offices should develop written guidelines that include:

instructions for compiling an inventory of automated files and information, as well as the office computer equipment and software they require. documentation to be saved with each automated record, such as the name of the file, the location of the media, the format and layout of the record. disposition guidelines for automated records that identify permanently valuable information and provide for its transfer to an archival storage medium such as magnetic tape, microfilm or paper. guidelines for deleting and reusing the magnetic media.

requirements for the physical maintenance of magnetic media (AIS, Decentralized, and purchased or contractor-produced files).

This chapter provides necessary information and background for such guidelines.

AUTOMATED RECORDS

IN THE U.S. SENATE

CENTRALIZED

Senate offices use a variety of centralized systems including those designed for retrieval of legislative information, preparation of individualized responses to constituent mail, casework tracking, creation and storage of documents for publication or distribution, and file indexing. The Senate Computer Center (SCC) maintains centralized systems on magnetic tapes and disks. Generally, individual offices do not need to be concerned with the maintenance and disposition of such tapes. Of importance to an office is the information stored on these systems, such as form paragraphs, mailing lists, and drafts of speeches and articles, together with various reports that are available from the systems. Permanent information. stored on these systems may be preserved either on computer output microfilm (COM) or on printouts. (See Chapter V, "Micrographics," for archival storage requirements for microfilm.)

There is one exception to the general rule that magnetic tapes must remain in the custody of the Computer Center. While Senate Rule XL, section 5, would preclude a senator from receiving a tape of names and addresses prepared by the Senate Computer Center and turning that tape over to a nonSenate organization, magnetic tapes from the Automated Indexing System (AIS) are available for transfer to repositories when an office selects a repository for final disposition of the senator's records. Such tapes may contain indexing and other reference codes to a correspondence file. This presents an office and the repository with a choice. Information. stored on AIS may be transferred to the repository on magnetic tape, computer output microfilm, printouts, or a combination of these forms. (Refer to "Dear Colleague" letter from the Committee on Rules and Administration dated October 21, 1982, Appendix D.)

To transfer AIS tapes, the senator's letter to the Sergeant at Arms should include the name and location of the repository and information about the facilities available at the repository to process magnetic media. Necessary technical documentation about the Automated Indexing System will be supplied to the repository receiving the tapes. Contact the Senate Computer Center, Educational Services Division, for more information.

DECENTRALIZED

Automated services traditionally have been provided to Senate offices through centralized computer systems. Recently, many offices have begun to use stand-alone computer systems physically located within their offices. Equipment types for these sys

tems may vary from microcomputers and standalone systems to fully integrated systems using personal computers, stand-alone systems, and mainframe computers. The three approved office automation systems available for Senate offices are Data General, Honeywell, and Prime.

Of importance to records management is the fact that the magnetic media used for storing information on these systems usually consists of tapes, diskettes, and disks that are maintained by the office rather than the Senate Computer Center. The office, therefore, has an added responsibility to ensure proper physical storage and care. Physical maintenance considerations are covered later in this chapter.

In addition, the office should ensure that permanently valuable information stored on such media is preserved. It may be helpful to designate information as permanently valuable as it is entered on a system. The way of indicating this is to use a special filing/document coding scheme which may include special characters as a prefix to the document

names.

To develop a code, it is important for each office to compile a comprehensive list of subject (index) terms that will be used to index each document, preferably as it is entered. It also is important to require that each document entered be dated. (The Legislative Indexing Vocabulary: The Congressional Research Service Thesaurus, compiled by Shirley Loo should prove useful to most offices developing a subject list for the first time.)

Because the media itself is extremely fragile and software-dependent, it is likely to become obsolete because of technological advances. Therefore, offices are advised to transfer permanently valuable information to paper, microfilm, or, when possible, to 9-track magnetic tape, if the tape is software independent, before such information is erased from the media. Guidelines are provided in the Office Automation Section of this chapter.

OWNERSHIP

Offices should address "ownership of magnetic media" in the context of centralized and decentralized systems. Traditional practice has been that all records created and maintained as a result of work performed by a Senate office, regardless of the media on which they are stored, are the property of the senator. In centralized systems, the information is the property of the senator, while the tapes and disks are the property of the Senate. Certain tapes, however, may be donated to repositories upon request (see Appendix D, letter dated October 21, 1982 from the Committee on Rules and Administration). Information on both centralized and decentralized systems should be maintained and disposed of under a disposition plan approved by the senator.