Resources

• Workshops
• RMO Glossary
• Disaster Prevention and Recovery
• Price Sheet (restricted access)
• Electronic Records Preservation

Disaster Prevention and Recovery

People usually think of disasters as fires, floods or other catastrophic events. Records disasters, however, do not always occur with a bang, but appear as quiet threats in the form of mold, water seepage, theft, progressing technology, and insufficient control of record inventory.

Disaster prevention requires you to consider where you store your records (paper, electronic, audio, video), assessing the environment for potential problems, and creating a plan of action for reducing those threats. Records management staff provide assistance to administrative offices to evaluate and create a plan for disaster prevention.

This webpage offers advice on how your office can minimize a records disaster by focusing on three areas:

• Risk Assessment Site Survey
• Vital Records Identification
• Electronic Records Preservation

The first step in disaster prevention is to assess your office's storage locations and environments. Completing a risk assessment site survey will give you a good idea of where all of your office’s records are kept, their general condition, and their level of risk for getting damaged or destroyed. Records management staff are available to assist you at any point in the process.

1. Risk Assessment Instructions
2. Risk Assessment Worksheet

Key Points

• Basements and attics are not appropriate storage places for university records.
• Materials should always be stored at least four inches above the floor in case of flooding.
• Records should be stored in a steady climate no matter what their format. The recommended climate for spaces shared by people and records is 65-68 degrees Fahrenheit (plus or minus two degrees) with 50% relative humidity. These temperature and humidity requirements are not the same for all media [see Electronic Records Preservation below]. However, we understand that you can’t always meet these standards. A couple rules of thumb:
  • Colder is better than hotter, and not too dry or wet.
  • Most importantly, keep the environment stable because fluctuations in temperature and humidity cause paper and media to expand and contract, accelerating deterioration.

Vital records are records that the university cannot function without and they cannot be easily replicated from other sources. Vital records are original records, not duplicates. Identifying vital records is the next step to complete after the risk assessment survey. You will need to contact records management staff to assist you with this difficult step. By identifying vital records, you will help ensure that the university will be able to recover quickly after a disaster. A staff records analyst will visit onsite to interview your office about the importance of each type of record.

The table below is a sample of vital records:

Once you have identified the vital records in your office, there are two things you need to do:

• Prepare duplicate copies of all your vital records. This may include photocopies, computer backup tapes, CDs, DVDs, or microfilm. Make sure that your copies are stored in a format that will last as long as the copies are needed. Try to incorporate duplication of vital records into your work flow.
• Next, send the copies to locations other than those where the originals are housed. Or better yet, keep the copies for office use and send the originals to off site storage.
• Transfer your records to off site storage, such as the Harvard Depository, where your records will be kept in a stable and secure environment.
• For those vital records remaining onsite, make sure they are being kept in a stable and secure environment. Also, invest in fire-resistant storage cabinets to store your records.

Key Points

• The Association of Records Managers and Administrators, Inc. (ARMA) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) estimate that in most organizations, only 1-10% of their records are deemed vital.
• The length of time a record is kept (retention) does not indicate that the record is vital, nor does a record designated as vital always remain vital.

Think of your electronic records in the same way as you do your paper records. Your office has groups of electronic records that are important to everyday office functions, and are not duplicated in any other form. Disasters with electronic records can occur in the form of damaged or obsolete hardware and software, or malicious attacks.

What can you do to prevent an emergency?

First gather information:

• Where are electronic records stored? Where are copies of these records located?
• When are back-ups performed, where are they kept, and is this often enough for your office?
• Does your office have electronic files that have not been migrated to new software?

Then act upon the information:

• Make sure your office is storing CDs, DVDs, and floppy disks in a stable environment. The ideal environment for storing electronic media is 59 ± 5° F and 35-45% relative humidity (Note: This temperature and relative humidity level is cooler and drier than the ideal environment for storing paper).
• If you have media that contains important information, make a master copy that is kept in a safe location away from the office.
• Electronic records should be backed up on a regular basis and kept long enough to ensure the information can be restored in the event of a disaster. After that time, the backup media should be erased or reused.
• If you find out that your records are not backed up by your system administrator often enough, you should be backing up your own electronic records as often as you think necessary. Consider how much work you would be willing to redo (in terms of days) if your electronic records are lost during a disaster.
• If you discover that the electronic files are not up to date with current software, consider if any relevant information will be lost while migrating all of your files to the new software.

Key Points

• Do not store electronic records on your local drive unless you are actively backing up the records and storing these backups off site. If both your computer and disks are located in the same office that floods, you just lost all of your information.
• Remember to migrate electronic records stored on CD, DVD, or floppy disk when you install new software on your computer. Also update your storage formats, such as moving information off of floppy disks and burning them to CD.