Scheduling Guides for Document Archiving
New NARA Records Scheduling Guides Set for Release
We're excited to announce that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has planned a series of new Records Scheduling Guides for release in the coming months. The latest addition, Guide 8: Scheduling Records with Intrinsic Value, is scheduled for release in September 2024, with an update in July 2025.
These guides serve as comprehensive instruction manuals, offering valuable advice on common government records and providing considerations for scheduling and appraising records. The upcoming releases in March 2024 include Guide 4: Scheduling Legislative Records, Guide 5: Scheduling Personal Data, and Guide 7: Scheduling Environmental Health & Safety Records.
Each guide is designed to help federal agencies inventory, schedule, and dispose of records according to approved authorities. Proper training of agency staff, careful application of disposition authorities, and adherence to scheduling procedures are crucial for effective records management.
Training is essential for all employees, particularly records liaisons, system owners, and personnel responsible for final record disposition. This training should focus on how to use records schedules correctly, especially when dealing with aggregate item schedules, which require understanding which records fall under each item.
Disposition authorities in schedules apply to all existing records they describe unless otherwise specified. When two authorities overlap, the more recent one applies. Agencies must avoid filing unnecessary duplicates, cut off files regularly, destroy temporary records promptly upon expiration, and maintain permanent records properly before transfer to NARA.
New or revised General Records Schedules (GRS) supersede agency-specific schedule items unless the agency obtains approval from NARA to continue their use. Agencies can request deviations or submit notifications if they want to create items different from the GRS or continue older schedules.
It's important to note that the NARA Records Scheduling Guides are not schedules with disposition authorities. Instead, they offer guidance on how to interpret GRS and agency-specific schedules. The records common to these guides are not suitable for a General Records Schedule.
The value of these common records varies from agency to agency, making it essential to consult NARA's appraisal criteria when proposing the disposition of records. In October 2016, Guide 2: Scheduling Public Affairs Records was published, and Guide 9: Scheduling Records in Electronic Systems is planned for release in July 2025.
The new set of NARA Records Scheduling Guides, including Guide 1: Scheduling Common Permanent Records, Guide 3: Scheduling Legal Records, and Guide 6: Scheduling Research & Development Records, will be released in March 2024. These guides, along with the upcoming Guide 8, are intended for agency records managers and NARA appraisal archivists.
- In the upcoming releases of the NARA Records Scheduling Guides in March 2024, there will be guides focusing on health-and-wellness records, with Guide 6: Scheduling Research & Development Records including medical-conditions research.
- The value of records common to the NARA Records Scheduling Guides can vary significantly from agency to agency, making it crucial for agencies to consult science-based appraisal criteria when proposing the disposition of records, such as those related to health-and-wellness or technology.
