Blog Post Archives
Each term, the Records Management Office assists departments and units across the university improve their record-keeping. This effort is made possible through a partnership between the Work Learn Program; the units who are looking for record-keeping improvement; the iSchool students who bring the program alive; and myself, Barbara Towell, e-Records Manager, student mentor and […]
One of the challenges people frequently talked about in our Records Management survey last year was managing physical records in ever decreasing physical space. Dealing with a large number of paper records can be overwhelming, and the increasing volume of files can bring disorganization, privacy concerns and workflow issues. This post is intended to let […]
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Hi, it’s Liz again! And I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I started here at the RMO! And I was right last year when I said it was going to be great! A lot has been happening behind the scenes here: Last Summer, Jack worked with Barbara to produce the biennial survey, […]
Isn’t it great when you can find the file you’re looking for simply by the title, without having to open several different ones to figure out if they’re what you’re looking for or not? If files aren’t named properly, they become hard to find and confusing. How to know if this “schedule 2025 final (2).docx” […]
In the 2024 survey we asked if people would be interested in having a Work Learn student help their unit conduct records management projects. Many of you were enthusiastic about that idea, in fact, this question received decisive community support, but there were also questions regarding the differences between an Assessment and Governance projects. You […]
It’s easy to think that just because information is stored digitally we have endless space. We don’t. Digital storage, especially cloud storage, is not only increasingly expensive, but it’s negatively impacting nature, with power hungry and thirsty data centers around the world. The National Public Radio reported in 2022 that data centers use 300,000 gallons […]
Survey respondents asked us, what is the difference between Records Management and Privacy, Risk and Security? Great question! The lines between the two functions seem blurry, and it is true, we do share “synergies,” and sometimes coffee! Hopefully after this post the differences will become clear. Records Management, and Privacy & Information Security (PrISM) offices […]
Feedback we received following our 2024 Summer survey suggested that we should do a special blog on transitory records; what are they and when should we get rid of them? Transitory records are information, or data, that have various forms (e.g. reports, emails, chat message, documents etc.) that have short-term usefulness. It is possible that […]
A topic that appeared throughout the survey comments this year was the need for clarity on who exactly is responsible for the records we create. In this post we will be discussing what is the OPR and what they do. When looking at a Retention and Disposition Schedule (RDS), aside from the time-period that units […]
(posted on behalf of Silver Hinckley) Hello! My name is Silver and for the past 11 months I have been the Records Management Student Assistant at the Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL). This project has been challenging, fun, and has helped me grow in many ways. Before beginning this project, I had limited project […]