Buckets are back for discussion

Seems it happens http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/flexible-scheduling.html couple of years, but no time like the present, right? Recently, the Records Management Listserv, a community of over 1500 RIM professionals has been batting the topic around as if it's something new. Take a look at the two links above, and you'll see the National Archives has been formally discussing the concept since 2004... and has been actively applying it since 2002.

What's different now is the press is coming from the IT side of the house, who insists the concept of applying retention periods to records based on content "is just too complex for electronic records".

There may e some validity to this argument if you have an overly complex retention schedule with multiple hundreds of record series, but few organizations are that broad in their mission and structure. Most well crafted retention schedules are functional based (organized to match the functions the content of the records support rather than to match the organizational structure) and this can serve to greatly simplify how users declare records and select retention "buckets'.

By performing a business functional analysis, it is possible to link the "roles" of staff to "rules" that match the required retention periods and then limit the selection of periods for users to ONLY those record series they create or receive.

This doesn't mean that an organization shouldn't attempt to decrease the number of record series in their schedule, but it does mean thee isn't a reason to make a knee jerk reaction to change the entire schedule without analyzing how difficult it REALLY will be for users to apply it.

First, users will have to declare a document as a "record", based on policy and purpose. Then, they will need to use a pull-down menu crafted to include the types of records they may potentially work with, and select the one best suited to the record.

Generally, this pull-down is limited to the fewest number of items (series) possible, which essentially is a "personal bucket" based on the role of the individual and the rules of the organization.

Give it some consideration- it may work for you!