FAQs about RIM

The organization of College records depends heavily on their format, their use, and the nature of the activity or function they support. Arrangement and organization of College records should be established through guidelines and procedures created by your department.

The documents File Naming Standards and Folder Structure Standards, available on the Policies, Guidelines and Recommendations page of the RIM website, are best practices and guidelines that may be useful in helping you (and your department) establish organizational standards and procedures for the records (and other documents) for which you are responsible.

Keeping records safe means storing records securely so that the likelihood of accidental (or intentional) destruction, corruption, misplacement, or inappropriate disclosure or access is minimized. The handling and storage of records should also meet the risk management expectations within LCC’s Information Security Policy.

• For tips and best practices for paper records see the Security section of the LCC Paper Records Storage Guidelines which can be found on the Policies, Guidelines and Recommendations page of the RIM website.
• For guidelines for digital files see the File Storage Guidelines document which can be found on the Policies page of the Information Security website.

Except as restricted by specific provisions in state or federal law, anyone may ask to see College records. Some College records may be viewed by contacting the appropriate office at LCC to request transcripts, degree verifications, employment verifications, or general information about admissions. Other records (and non-records) may be viewed by submitting a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to the College.

To obtain more information about records and information management at LCC:

• Contact the Records Information Specialist at LCC-RIM@lcc.edu.
• Visit the Records & Information Management (RIM) website: https://www.lcc.edu/its/records-management.html. 
• Take the RIM 101 online training, available on the Training page of the RIM website.

Records need to be kept according to the retention period on the appropriate Retention Schedule. The retention periods are mandatory minimum retention periods. Records should not be disposed of prior to reaching the end of their retention period. Once the retention period has elapsed records should not be held for more than one (1) year beyond their listed mandatory minimum retention period.

Each record series has a retention period that is based on an analysis of the operational, fiscal, legal and archival value of the record. It is important to keep in mind that date-based retention periods can vary the retention length of a record. For example, “five years from last term of attendance” may be a different length of time than “five years from the completion of a grant.”

Certain records may be retained for longer periods of time if there is a legitimate business need or if the records are subject to a legal hold, pending legal action or are a part of an on-going review, audit or investigation. If the retention period expires before the issue is resolved, the records must be retained until resolution is reached. (Refer to the Records Management Policy SOP RM.003: Extending Retention of Records for more details.)

LCC employees can view the official document on LCC’s internal O: drive. (Please note: To access these folders off-campus you must be logged into your LCC VPN.) In addition, there are several Retention Schedules on the Retention page of the RIM website where you can also find further information about retention of materials at LCC.

Retention Schedules govern the retention of records. While there is not an official state-approved document for the retention of non-records, it’s still important to have a plan for their retention to ensure that non-record materials are included and managed within LCC’s disposition practices.

Consider how long the non-record materials are truly useful, and establish a department best practice to follow in order to avoid retaining the materials longer than is necessary.

• Usually, one to three years past the completion of a final document is the longest anyone might keep drafts or copies.
• For reference materials, a period of retention could be indefinite with a plan to periodically review and purge materials that were not used in five or more years.

All departments should establish simple procedures to clean up or dispose of non-record materials on a routine basis. If your department does not have an internal procedure for the retention of non-record materials, consult with the Records Information Specialist to create one.

For more information about non-record materials, including examples, see Records vs Non-records at LCC on the RIM website.

Some records are unique to a department or office. If you cannot locate a record series (type of record) in an approved Retention Schedule, please contact the Records Information Specialist for assistance. Provide information about the records, including the name/type, use, and whether your office is the official keeper of this record. The Records Information Specialist will either direct you to the correct record series for the records in question or they may begin the process of creating a supplement to officially add your record to the appropriate Retention Schedule.

Once a final version of a document is completed, the drafts become non-records that don’t have to be retained for the same length of time as the final version. That being said, it is sometimes important to keep drafts for future reference. Departments should establish best practices for retention of drafts, copies, and duplicates (aka non-records).

Each department should have designated storage space and a plan in place for what can be stored in the space and how it should be stored. Once the “where” is decided, the following provides information about the “how.”

Inactive physical records (hard copies) should be:

• Stored in an environment that is appropriate to their format. For example, paper records need a stable temperature.
• Stored in sturdy records boxes and on shelving to prevent damage. The boxes used should be the standard 10” x 12” x 15” Bankers boxes which can be ordered from Office Depot - Item#: 198802.
• Stored in a secure area. Access to the records should be monitored and properly controlled.
• Organized in a way to aid retrieval with a unique box number and label for quick identification.

Best practice for storage of inactive physical records also includes attaching a contents list to the outside of each box, and maintaining a central inventory (or register) of inactive records. The central inventory (or register) is used to track which items are stored in which boxes and which boxes are stored in which storage area in order to enable easy retrieval and appropriate disposal.

The LCC Paper Records Storage Guidelines, on the Policies, Guidelines and Recommendations page of the RIM website, provides more detailed information about storing physical records.

Each records series listed in a Retention Schedule includes a retention period. When the retention period for the records has elapsed they are eligible for disposal.

Once a record is eligible for disposal the process is dictated by several factors:

Archival - Are the records designated as “permanent” retention or for “transfer to the LCC Archives”?
Some retention periods indicate that the record series should be retained permanently and/or transferred to the LCC Archives. For these records, contact the College Archivist to make arrangements to transfer the records once their retention period is complete.

Security - Do the records contain private or confidential information?
Records containing private or confidential information should be disposed of securely (aka shredding) once their retention period is complete.

Format - Are the records hard copy or digital?
Because of the nature of their formats the process of disposing of paper records is different than digital records.

For details and best practices about the different aspects of the disposal process, see the LCC Information Disposal Guide, on the Disposal page of the RIM website.

Note: Non-records should be either transferred to the LCC Archives, destroyed, or purged from electronic data environments according to the internal procedures set by your department. If your department does not have an internal procedure for the retention and disposal of non-record materials, consult with the Records Information Specialist to create one.

The LCC Information Disposal Guide (which can be found on the Disposal page of the RIM website) was created to help departments with their disposal decisions. It includes best practices for disposal of records (and non-records) with different levels of security, information about LCC’s recycling program, and tips for disposing of digital or magnetic media.

Email is a communication tool we all use on a daily basis and it often serves as a primary means of correspondence about the on-going business at LCC. Because of its pervasiveness, some email messages, or information contained within them, are considered records and need to be identified as such. Email messages may be considered records if they verify, authenticate or otherwise support other significant documents or transactions.

Attachments sent with email messages are generally assumed to be duplicate or working drafts of documents and therefore not considered records. This assumption also assumes each person sending attachments has stored the authoritative version of the attachment in their designated electronic storage area. If a message contains contextual information that is essential to an understanding of the attachment, the message and the attachment should be retained for the same amount of time.

Because email systems are not acceptable primary storage systems for College records, email messages that are official records should be stored in a separate system (such as a shared workspace folder on the N: drive) alongside like records, and should be retained according to LCC’s Retention Schedules. 

See LCC’s Email Retention Guidelines on the Policies, Guidelines, and Recommendations page of the RIM website for more information.

There is no exact length of time for the retention of an e-mail. Retention of an email depends on the content of the message. LCC’s Email Retention Guidelines defines the four categories of email and explains their retention:

Email Category	Definition	Retention
(1) Transitory Emails	An email that is of short-term value that can be deleted immediately or after meeting its transitory need.	Should be retained no longer than 30-90 days (according to LCC’s Retention Schedules).
(2) General Emails	An email that is routine in nature and is not related to a specific project, function, matter, or case being handled by the department.	Should be retained no longer than 2 years (according to LCC’s Retention Schedules).
(3) Emails that are Official Records	Email messages may be considered records if they verify, authenticate or otherwise support other significant documents or transactions.	Should be saved outside of the email system, and retained according to LCC’s Retention Schedules.
(4) All Other Emails		All other non-record emails are subject to the uniform retention period of 7 years.

See LCC’s Email Retention Guidelines on the Policies, Guidelines, and Recommendations page of the RIM website for more information.

Keeping your email organized:

• Reduces storage of unnecessary email messages.
• Makes your email easier for you to use.
• Enables efficient retrieval of email messages.
• Reduces the costs and burdens of managing and storing email messages.
• Allows for easier identification of messages that should be retained as College records and/or messages that no longer need to be retained.

Best practice for organizing your email involves setting up subfolders within the Inbox to arrange the messages into logical groupings, making them easier to sort, locate and manage. Think of your Inbox in the way you view a physical mailbox. It’s a location to receive messages, but not a location to store them.

Messages should be read, appropriately acted upon (immediately if possible), flagged for future follow-up if immediate action is not possible, and moved from the Inbox into an appropriate subfolder, departmental system, or deleted.

Subfolders should ideally have an assigned retention period so that non-record messages, which have limited continuing usefulness, are automatically purged when that retention is exceeded. (See LCC’s Email Retention Guidelines on the Policies, Guidelines, and Recommendations page of the RIM website for email retention information.) In addition, folders containing deleted messages should be regularly emptied.

While an email system, such as Outlook or Gmail, is an easy method to transmit records, it is not an acceptable primary storage system for College records. Email messages that are official records should be stored in a separate system (such as a shared workspace folder on the N: drive) alongside like records, and should be retained according to LCC’s Retention Schedules.

See the Email Clean-Up Strategies on the Policies, Guidelines, and Recommendations page of the RIM website for more information about organizing your email.

Records that have been scanned can be destroyed provided that your department has a digitization process that is in compliance with the State of Michigan Standards for Capturing Digital Images from Paper or Microfilm (effective August 15, 2005). Compliance with these standards ensures an acceptable reproduction of the original that can be used in a court of law as evidence.

Completing the Digital Document Imaging document (which can be found on the Policies, Guidelines, and Recommendations page of the RIM website) for records you plan to scan, will assure you are in compliance with the State of Michigan’s standards. For details, contact the Records Information Specialist. 

Your department must have a digitization process that is in compliance with the State of Michigan Standards for Capturing Digital Images from Paper or Microfilm (effective August 15, 2005) prior to destroying original hard copies. Completing the Digital Document Imaging document (which can be found on the Policies, Guidelines, and Recommendations page of the RIM website) for records you plan to scan, will assure that your digitization process is in compliance with the State of Michigan’s standards.

A portion of the Digital Document Imaging document indicates how long you’ll retain the hard copies after they’ve been scanned. This should be decided for each record type you scan, choosing the time period that makes the most sense. For details, contact the Records Information Specialist.