Pumpkin Spice and Records Advice

October is Washington Archives Month

Did you know October is officially Archives Month in Washington State? Take this opportunity to gather any archival records you may have in your office that are past retention (check out this list here) and reach out to the UW Archives to explore setting up a transfer.

You may say, “Why can’t I just keep these records in my office forever if the university is keeping them permanently?” The UW Archives safeguards records identified as having permanent historical, research, administrative, legal, and fiscal value. Their staff are trained to preserve and manage these materials, ensuring these records are protected for the long term. Imagine spilling your Pumpkin Spice Latte on historic photographs or deleting your office’s strategic plan with a flick of the wrist! Keep your long-term records safe by entrusting them to experts in archival care. 

In addition to sending records to the UW Archives, you can also search their holdings. There may be historical materials your office sent to UW Archives in the past. Offices can potentially work with the Archives to use the materials or reproductions for display at receptions, anniversaries, or other events.

If you haven’t explored the Washington State Archives website before, Archives Month is the perfect time to browse their resources and records management trainings.

Upcoming RMS Initiative

Records Management Services will begin an initiative this fall by contacting units across the UW to better understand what third-party applications are being used to store and manage University records.

For our program to manage compliance with local, state, federal and business regulations, we need to know what records are being created and where they are being stored. The product offerings through UW-IT’s uWare software catalog and the transformational efforts made in 2023 with the launch of Workday Finance, have helped units across the academy to consolidate their disparate systems into more centralized platforms. However, we are aware of dozens of unique databases, CRMs, and SaaS applications currently in use to organize work and store information.

Our office wants to ensure that data being stored in those systems is being managed appropriately and that the systems include proper purge functionalities that allow the UW to delete content once the retention period has been met.

If your unit is currently using a third-party system to manage UW records and would like guidance, please contact our office directly for insights and analysis.

If you are considering new software options to store UW records, be sure to check out our resource on best practices and key questions to ask vendors before committing to a product.

Process vs Product Wrap Up

Recently, we held a live Zoom training, and for those who missed it, here’s a recap:

When people create a finalized product, they create a lot of transitory records in the process leading up to that (e.g. drafts, project tracking materials, meeting arrangements in Outlook). At the end of the project is a great time to go back and delete those transitory records – once you have the final product you can clear out your records that were part of the other phases of the project like tracking, organizing, brainstorming, and collaborating.

Another way to put it is to say that your finalized, only copy of a substantive record is like the fancy dish that is created in a restaurant. But there are a lot of food scraps and dirty dishes that were generated to get to that one plate of food. To follow the metaphor, once you serve the dish (save the finalized record in a logical place for long-term retention), you can compost the scraps and wash the dishes (clear out all your transitory records no matter where they are – Google Drive, Teams, your computer desktop, your email – anywhere!)

General Schedule Updates

We have made updates to the following three series to better the align significance of these records:

General Office Administration: Informal Celebrations and Events

General Office Administration: Celebrations, Ceremonies, and Events

Student & Curriculum: Education Events, Forums, and Activities

October is also Biosafety Month!

Since October is Biosafety Month according to UW Environmental Health and Safety, it is a good time to share the following reminder. The UW retention schedules refer to data in any format that it can exist in. To determine the retention of objects that are not expressions of information and are instead actual research products (such as cell lines, biological samples collected for research purposes, synthetic compounds, and organisms) refer to any relevant regulations, laws, or instructions from funding sources. This reminder is also included in the series in the Research Records section of the General Records Retention Schedule where questions have come up related to this topic.