Guidance for Flexible Scheduling

1
Guidance for Flexible Scheduling

• David B. Brown, Special Assistant
• Office of the Archivist Washington, DC

2
What is a traditional schedule?

• Basic unit for organizing and controlling files
  is a series or electronic system
• Agency records series and systems
• are shown as separate items
• Usually arranged primarily by organization or
  function

3
NARA Guidance

• NARA Bulletin 2005-05 Guidance for Flexible
  Scheduling
• Issued as Memo to Agency Records Officers NWM
  18.2005 on April 22, 2005

4
What is flexible scheduling?

• Provides for concrete disposition instructions
  that may be applied to groupings of information
  and/or categories of records
• The difference from the traditional scheduling
  approach is that the unit to be scheduled is not
  the individual records series or an electronic
  system

5
What is a big bucket or large aggregation
schedule?

• Type of flexible schedule
• Allows disposition instruction(s) to apply to
  multiple series or systems
• Supports the business needs of agencies
• Provides the documentation necessary to protect
  legal rights and ensure government accountability
  

6
How do you develop a big bucket or large
aggregation flexible schedule?

• Determine if a big bucket or large aggregation
  flexible schedule meets agency business needs
• Review reliable existing schedules to determine
  if existing records series can be grouped into
  big buckets or large aggregations
• Contact your NARA appraisal archivist for
  consultation and guidance.

7
How do you develop a big bucket or large
aggregation flexible schedule?, Contd

• Conduct functional or business process analysis
• Identify records series that come from work
  process(es)
• Determine values for records series and/or larger
  groupings of records

8
How do you develop a big bucket or large
aggregation flexible schedule?, Contd

• Group like record series/systems into larger
  aggregations or buckets
• Name these larger aggregations or buckets
• Determine the value of records within each
  aggregation, bucket, or series

9
How do you develop a big bucket or large
aggregation flexible schedule?, Contd

• Submit schedule to NARA along with any
  documentation accumulated during the schedule
  development process
• Crosswalks to previously approved schedules
• Materials that document the agencys business
  process
• Information concerning the specific file units
  subsumed under each aggregation, bucket, or
  series

10
What assistance is available from NARA?

• NARAs Life Cycle Management Division provides
  assistance and advice to agency records officers
  in the Washington, DC, area http//www.archives.go
  v/records_management/policy_and_guidance/appraisal
  _and_scheduling.html
• The Records Management staff in NARA's regional
  offices provides assistance to records officers
  across the country http//www.archives.gov/facilit
  ies/index.html