Background

Bowling Green State University provides desktop and laptop computers to almost all of its office employees. Thousands of BGSU computers are used to create a significant portion of the university’s electronic records. BGSU employees need to have clearly defined procedures in regards to recordkeeping in this digital environment.

This tutorial will cover some general guidelines and recommendations for BGSU offices to effectively manage their electronic records. For strategies specific to your office, contact the University Records Management Program for assistance.

What are Electronic Records?

Before defining electronic records, let's start with the definition of a record. A record is any information, regardless of format (paper, electronic, microform, etc.), created or received by a BGSU office that documents the functions, policies, procedures, decisions, operations or other activities of the office. An electronic record is a record that is machine-readable instead of human-readable; in other words, you need a device, such as a computer, to be able to access the information in the record.

BGSU employees use computers, tablets, smart-phones, and various other devices to create documents, send emails, maintain databases, and perform a multitude of other work-related tasks. These born-digital materials are considered records - and the vast majority of them are considered public records according to the Ohio Revised Code. Electronic records need to be managed throughout their lifecycle (from creation to disposition) to satisfy various administrative, fiscal, legal, and historical requirements to avoid the risks of information loss, disclosure of confidential information, and creating an inefficient work environment.

General Principles

Records are assets. Electronic records created, received, or maintained by BGSU may contain information essential to the university. Like other assets, this information needs to be managed using formalized policies and practices (i.e. the office’s records retention schedule).
Ownership of records. BGSU owns all electronic records created, received, and/or maintained by company employees. These records are subject to retention and disposition requirements as defined in your office’s records retention schedule.
Format is irrelevant. A record’s format (paper, electronic, microform, etc.) does not affect their retention. For example, an invoice will be kept for the same amount of time regardless if it is a PDF, a paper document, or on microfilm.

Personal Responsibilities

All employees who create and use electronic records/information are responsible for the following:

Maintaining all electronic records that reside on their hard-drive, shared drive, or any other storage medium in a manner designed to ensure their accessibility, by organizing and indexing all electronic records in a logical manner, in the same fashion paper records are arranged in a filing cabinet. See User Requirements on the Managing Electronic Records page for more information on organization methods.
Determining within the office where official electronic records should reside (the shared drive, isolated hard-drives, management systems [such as FMS, PeopleSoft, OnBase, etc.], DVDs, etc.). It is recommended that electronic records only exist in one location (i.e. one copy on a shared drive is preferable to ten copies on ten different PC hard-drives). Shared drives and management systems are preferable storage locations as they are backed-up regularly by ITS.
Following the retention periods according to the office records retention schedule and in turn regularly and systematically disposing electronic records. Disposition can either require the user to permanently delete the records, or to contact University Archives to appraise the records for historic value. The records retention schedule will let BGSU employees know exactly how to dispose of every record they work with. If it does not or it is not clear what to do with a record, contact the University Records Management Program.
Halting promptly the disposal of electronic records upon notification of a litigation hold. Electronic records are subject to document discovery searches ordered by subpoenas.