Electronic records management falling short, not a priority

Electronic records management is not a high priority within the federal government despite the fact that it needs improvement, according to public testimony from the Government Accountability Office. What's more, agencies could be tempting litigation or risk losing important historical information, according to a National Archives and Records Administration self-assessment survey which found that 80 percent of agencies were "at moderate to high risk of improper disposition of records," according to the GAO.

The volume of electronic information is growing, the formats of electronic records are wide-ranging and it is decentralized across individual desktops at numerous agencies. "Automation will not solve the problem of lack of priority, which is of long standing," said Valerie C. Melvin, director of Information Management and Human Capital Issues at GAO, in a report presented at a hearing held by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on June 17.

Melvin recommended that NARA strengthen its oversight and guidance on electronic records management. She also recommended senior-level attention to records management at federal agencies.

GAO identified email management and records scheduling--which, when done correctly, makes information findable during its useful life and disposes it when it's no longer needed--as glaring problems at federal agencies. User-driven classification of email will not succeed and should be left to trained records managers who can set a uniform retention period for employee emails, according to the GAO. "All email created by key senior officials...[should be] permanent," said Melvin.

For more:
- here's the GAO report (.pdf)

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