HOW TO INVENTORY AUTOMATED RECORDS

OBJECTIVES

To ensure that information created and maintained on magnetic media is retained accurately and in compliance with an office disposition plan, it is important to develop a current inventory of these media. The inventory can provide a basis for assigning disposition. All files in an office should be inventoried. The following descriptive elements are necessary:

The names and titles of the people using the files.
The titles of the systems and files.
Purpose in creating the file.

Description of the information in the file.
Inclusive dates of the records.

Special prefixes, suffixes, or special characters to
indicate historically valuable documents.*
For records of long-term value, certain technical
information to be supplied by the vendor. This will
be necessary for future use by the office or the
senator's designated repository (if the file is to be
preserved in automated format).

FREQUENCY OF INVENTORY

The inventory should be kept up to date and should cover all automated systems in use including electronic mail. It must be kept current so that appropriate disposition of the files and/or the information can be assigned before it is erased and determinations concerning reuse of disks and diskettes can be made. The following inventory form is provided for your convenience.

*Note: When establishing a filing scheme, it may be helpful to create a special coding scheme to indicate historically valuable documents as they are entered into the system. For example, special characters such as a symbol or letter placed in front of a speech or schedule file in the index would be an easy method of identifying these documents as historically valuable. These characters also could be used to indicate certain subject (index) terms as permanently valuable for files containing "ad hoc" letters or replies to issue mail. Files containing staff memos to or from the senator should also be coded for permanent retention and indexed.

PHYSICAL DOCUMENTATION AND MAINTENANCE OF AUTOMATED RECORDS

TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION

Automated records must be electronically processed for decoding and printing before they can be viewed by people. For the computer to accurately process these records, certain technical documentation must be provided to the staff of a repository responsible for processing automated records. The technical documentation should include:

The type of magnetic media being used by the office, either diskette, disk, or tape.

The size of the media, such as a 51⁄4" or 8" diskette.

If disk or diskette-the brand of machine, name of system operating the machine, and if appropriate, the name of the software used to create the records.

The layout and format of the information on the media. The layout indicates where information is located on the media, and the format indicates how the information is stored on the media.

MANUFACTURERS GUIDELINES

Magnetic media are extremely fragile and, without special precautions, may easily become damaged or destroyed. To avoid damaging records within the office's automated files, it is imperative that office management establish standard procedures for handling these media by consulting with the vendor about the manufacturer's suggestions for physical maintenance. These procedures should be developed before the office begins using any stand-alone system. Many manufacturers will provide paper jackets and storage boxes for diskettes.

OFFICE GUIDELINES

Once manufacturer's guidelines for media maintenance have been obtained, the office management should establish procedures for handling and storing magnetic media within the office. Consideration should be given to:

Library for Storing Diskettes and Disks-It is important for each office to establish a library for storing magnetic media. Ideally, this library should be located in a room with a constant temperature of around 70 degrees and a humidity factor of 50 percent.

Location of Library-The library should be located in a central location within the office to allow for easy access by all staff to the diskettes and disks. Depending on what is stored on the media,

it may be necessary to consider security measures for the diskettes and disks. One way this could be accomplished is to store the media in a locking file cabinet or desk drawer. Because several staff may need to use the diskettes and disks, it would be helpful to maintain an index to the file cabinet or desk drawer. The record inventory form could be used as the index to the information.

Guidelines for Use-For the staff who operate the system, there are some general guidelines that should be observed when handling the diskettes or disks:

When not in use, keep the media away from other electrical equipment in the office.

Avoid placing diskettes or disks near metal and magnetic objects. Even the slightest contact with a magnetic object could cause the information stored on the media to become altered or erased.

Do not put rubber bands, paper clips, or adhesive tape on the media. The manufacturer should provide special labels for marking the diskettes and disks.

Do not place the media in direct sunlight or close to a heating outlet. Heat may warp the diskettes or disk, and possibly damage the information contained on the media.

Avoid drinking, eating, and smoking around the equipment and the storage media.

Remember to put the diskettes back in their jackets and boxes after use.

Do not place anything heavy or dusty on the diskette or disk. A bent or scratched diskette will be of little use to the office.

At the end of the day, file the diskettes or disks vertically in the office library.

GUIDELINES FOR USE OF PRIVATE SOURCES

CONTRACTING

As a general policy, members of the Senate are not able to employ consultants in their own offices. However, senators' campaign committees frequently hire a consultant to assemble and operate complex data bases containing data that identifies voters, contributors, or key interest groups. These data bases, which are the property of the campaign committee, can be rich sources for statistical research and quantitative studies. Every effort should be made to preserve such records for eventual deposit with the senatorial collection.

To help ensure the preservation of these records, which are not part of the senator's office collection*

*Standing Rule XL prohibits members from storing, maintaining, or processing a data base at the Senate Computer Center which

but which strongly complement the collection, campaign committees should be advised to consider the following points when they contract for the creation of the data base. Such contracts should:

Establish the campaign committee's right to access the data base, including the individual records used to create the data base.

Establish the campaign committee's right to receive the magnetic tapes in a code and format specified. This is particularly important if the files are judged to have long term (over five years) or historical value. Preferably, the magnetic media should be in a standard format, and it should be software independent.

Establish proper storage conditions for any tape to be maintained permanently. In addition to ADP standards routinely used by all processing centers, contractors should be instructed to:

1) Test and certify the storage media no more than six months before using them to record information designated for archival retention.

2) Verify newly written tapes as error free. 3) Label tapes externally so valuable information can be easily identified. These should include general information such as file title(s), dates of coverage, and date the tape was created. Technical information should include the recording density; type of internal labels, if applicable; data set name, if applicable; volume serial number; and reel number, if the file is part of a multi-reel set.

would identify names listed on the data base as campaign workers, contributors, members of a political party, or by any other partisan designation.

4) Store tapes vertically in clean protective canisters.

5) Maintain adequate and up-to-date technical documentation with the file. Minimum documentation should include a narrative description of the file(s); physical file characteristics; recording mode information, including the coding structure (code books); recording system information; and a record layout. The layout should break down the file by fields. Each field will have a name, starting position, and a description of the form of the data (alphabetic, zoned decimal, packed decimal, or numeric).

6) Keep a duplicate copy of the data at an offsite location for security backup.

CONVERSION TAPE PURCHASES

If offices decide to purchase magnetic tapes from a commercial or non-commercial source for purposes of adding names and addresses to their mailing lists, they should contact the Senate Computer Center, Educational Services Division, before purchasing the tapes. Educational Services Division staff provide consultations on the technical specifications required by the Computer Center to process any tape from an outside source.

LEASED ELECTRONIC MESSAGE SYSTEMS

Compatability of hardware, software, and communications must be considered by offices considering leased electronic messaging systems. Software from many messaging systems is usually compatible, or can be made so, to operate on a particular system.