Harvard University Library Notes / July 2006 / No. 1332
Managing Your Harvard E-Mail
In the coming months, more than 3,500 Harvard employees--including most of the University's Central Administration—will change their e-mail and calendaring services to Microsoft Outlook. Because e-mail
in particular is such a vital aspect of University records, the planned rollover to Microsoft Outlook is an important reason to think about
managing e-mail—and reducing its volume.
Though many e-mail messages
have little or no value, considerable University business is conducted
via e-mail. For legal, fiscal, and
historical reasons, that e-mail needs to be managed. With the ever-increasing volume of e-mail, managing it can be
a significant task.
"Most of us would like someone to
tell us exactly how long e-mail should be kept," notes University Archivist Megan Sniffin-Marinoff. "But as is
the case with all University records, the content matters more than the form—and we know that the content value of e-mail varies dramatically.
The good news is that, for most of
us, e-mail can be put into a few broad categories, making retention decisions fairly simple."
To provide a practical response to
this growing issue, the records
management staff of the Harvard University Archives will offer several
additional e-mail workshops, which are open to all Harvard staff, over the course of the summer. Workshops will be held in the University Archives
conference room in Pusey Library on the following dates:
- Monday, July 24—10 to 11 am
- Thursday, August 3—10 to 11 am
Light refreshments will be served.
Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register for one of the e-mail management workshops, visit the Records Management web
site at http://hul.harvard.edu/rmo/resources_01.shtml.
<< Table of Contents | << Previous Article | Next Article >>
Links:
Current Issue
Contact Library Notes
Return to the top.