[IARA - State Agency Records Managers] Monthly Bulletin and Chat Invitation for July 28, 2022

Indiana Archives and Records Administration sent this bulletin at 07/15/2022 08:20 AM EDT
Indiana Archives and Records Administration logo  

State Agency Records Management
402 W. Washington St. Rm W472
Indianapolis, IN 46204
e-mail: rmd@iara.in.gov
phone: 317-232-3285
web: http://www.in.gov/iara

 

🎆🧨✨ Happy July, Records Managers! ✨🧨🎆

We hope you had a safe and happy Independence Day, and that you're staying as cool as possible in an Indiana summer.

Last Month's Chat

On MS Teams, we had our June Records Managers Chat. We met with 18 Records Managers from 15 agencies!

Attending from IARA were Amy Christiansen (County/Local RM Liaison), Amy Robinson (State Records Analyst), and Jeannine Roe (Electronic Records Archivist).

We discussed June's bulletin topics, which were improvements to the process of transferring electronic records to the State Archives, and the differences between records and nonrecords. Then we played the Is It a Record? game, and everyone's answers made me very proud! (More training game shenanigans  will definitely be forthcoming. At some point. In some month when I'm not just getting back from vacation the day before the Chat meeting. Shh, spoilers.)

I've posted a link to the YouTube video of the June chat in our RM Bulletins and Chat Archive, where you can also find all of the previous bulletins we've sent out. 

 

News You Can Use

I'll be on vacation next week! Which is mostly only of interest to me, my family, some nerds I met on the internet 18 years ago, and Delta Airlines, but it does mean that if you have records management questions between the 18th and the 27th, you can either:

  • Send me an email and I'll respond as soon as possible once I'm back in the office. (If your question is about an ongoing retention schedule update project, definitely do this.)

  • Contact our Deputy Director for RM, Meaghan Fukunaga, for general or electronic records management advice; you can reach her at mfukunaga@iara.in.gov.

 

     

The Witch Is... On Vacation

 

News You Can't Use

I'll be in San Diego. Because for some reason I want to travel to somewhere hotter than Indianapolis in the middle of July.

 

 

  

Amy and some nerds she met on the internet 18 years agoOh, right. That's why.

 

RM Topic of the Month: Record Series Numbers

What are they?

A Record Series Number (often abbreviated as RS# or just RS) is a unique, permanent identification number, assigned to a Record Series when it's first approved.

It's used when we store records in boxes, film, scan, transfer, or destroy them, and it's the main way to identify agency records within the catalogs of the State Records Center and the Indiana Archives.

Okay, but what do those numbers and/or letters mean? Is it a code for the kind of records the series covers?

This is a little different for the State General Retention Schedule (the one that has letters) than for agency-specific schedules, but the overall answer is "Nope; they don't have special meaning at all."

 

State General Retention Schedule

The letters before the dash do loosely identify the schedule they came from (GR: General Retention) and the section of that schedule where you'll find them (ADM = Administrative, ACC =Accounting, PER = Personnel, and so on).

The numbers after the dash, however, are just consecutively assigned as new Record Series are added to the section. (1, 2, 3, etc.)

Format: GR[Subject Abbreviation]-[order of creation within subject].

Example: GRACC-3 was the third Record Series added to the Accounting section of the General Retention Schedule.

 

Agency-Specific Retention Schedules

The Record Series Number says absolutely nothing about the content of the Record Series, or even which agency it belongs to. It's purely a consecutively-assigned ID number - like a social security number for your Record Series!

Record Series Number Card

Format: [2 or 4-digit year created]-[order within that year].

Examples: 86-368 was created in 1986, and it was the 368th new Record Series approved that year. 2010-53 was created in 2010, and it was the fifty-third new Record Series approved that year.

All Record Series Numbers for state agencies created in or after the year 2000 will have four digits before the dash.

And that's all there is to it: the RS Title and the description will tell you what kind of records are covered; the RS Number is just a number!

July Records Managers Chat

Our next Records Managers Chat will be happening on July 28th. 

Meeting Information 

Date: 2022-07-28
Time: 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  EST
Place: Microsoft Teams

About the Meeting

This 30-minute meetup is an informal setting in which to ask questions or talk about records management concerns; normally I'll begin by introducing any IARA colleagues attending, talk a bit about the topic of the monthly bulletin and make any announcements, then open things up for questions and discussion.

I've included an agenda to help keep me us all on topic, so there'll be plenty of time for your questions and records management discussion once Amy remembers to click Mute!

Adding Yourself to the Meeting Invite List

✉ Desktop Outlook

  • Save the attached Monthly State Records Managers Chat.ics file to your desktop.
  • Make sure Outlook is open.
  • Double-click the .ics file.
  • Outlook will open it up as a traditional meeting invitation.
  • Click "Accept" to add it to your calendar.
  • Because this meeting is recurring, you should never have to add yourself again.

✉ Outlook on the Web

  • Save the attached Monthly State Records Managers Chat.ics file to your desktop.
  • In your web version of Outlook, go to the Calendar page.
  • Choose "Add Calendar," then in the left pane, "Upload from file."
  • Click "Browse" and find the .ics file, then click "Open."
  • Choose a preferred calendar from the dropdown list. (Even if you only have one.)
  • Click "Import."
  • Outlook will add the meeting to your calendar.
  • Because this meeting is recurring, you should never have to add yourself again.

Meeting-Up in MS Teams

Are you new to using Microsoft Teams? No worries, IARA can help you navigate.

MS Teams is a collaboration app that many state agencies are now using to stay organized and have conversations with colleagues inside and outside of the agency.

But if your agency doesn't use Teams? No worries. You don't need to have the software installed on your computer to participate in a Teams call. 
 

To Join the Meeting By Phone

    1. Dial 1-317-552-1674 at the designated meeting time, then enter this PIN when prompted: 
      707 553 068#

    2. We'll let you into the meeting.
       

To Join the Meeting by Computer

    1. Click here at the designated meeting time. 

    2. A new tab or window will open in your default web browser. From there:

      • Choose the option to join on the web if you don't normally use Teams, then click "Join now."

      • Join through your desktop or mobile application if you're familiar with using Teams and would prefer that to the web version. 
         

If you have other questions about how to use Teams, or about the meetup, just contact me and we'll figure things out together!

. . .

Looking forward to seeing you,

Amy A. Robinson  (CIP) | (she/her)
State Government Records Analyst
Indiana Archives and Records Administration

o: 317-232-3285  |  f: 317-233-1713
e: arobinson@iara.in.gov |  w: www.in.gov/iara
a: 402 W. Washington St., Room W472, Indianapolis, IN 46204