(518) 456-1011
November 30, 2010
Military records being moved
According to a recent news release from the St. Louis Economic Council, the National Archives and Records Administration’s National Personnel Records Center will relocate more than 100 million records to a new $112 million modernized facility.
Preservation and Digitization
While we advocate the preservation of historical items, there may be a better way to ensure that archival documents will endure through the ages. Of course, we would never suggest that the Constitution be scanned and shredded, but documents that provide an account of an individual’s career probably should not left only to the mercy of a records storage warehouse, no matter how advanced.
But sometimes those in charge of the records are bound by higher authorities.
Bound by Regulation
by Lisa R. Brown
More stringent storage requirements are spurring the replacement of two U.S. National Archives and Records Administration facilities in the St. Louis region. Combined, the new facilities will total nearly 1 million square feet and could cost $65 million to build.
The bigger of the two projects is a replacement for an existing 1.5 million-square-foot facility at 9700 Page Ave. in Overland that, among other things, houses the National Archives’ National Personnel Records Center. It is the primary holding facility for millions of military personnel, health and medical records for veterans from the 20th century, both discharged and deceased, from all branches of service.
Construction of new facilities is intended to improve the protection of records that can never be replaced. In 1973, more than 16 million Army and Air Force personnel files were destroyed in a fire at the Overland facility, one of the largest losses of archived records in United States history. “There is a vault where all of the records from movie stars were held in a special area,” said St. Louis researcher Alonzo Bouie, who worked at the facility from 1968 to 1998. “When the fire happened, those records were not destroyed.”
Shortcomings of Past Structures
The Overland facility, built in 1956, is not fully air-conditioned or humidity controlled. “By moving these historically important records in climate controlled spaces, NARA will guarantee that the records will be available for historians, genealogists and researchers for hundreds of years,” said National Personnel Records Center Director Ron Hindman. Hindman, a retired Coast Guard officer, was appointed director of the Overland facility in 2000. He said the Overland and South County NARA facilities combined receive 1.5 million requests for records annually.
Crews broke ground on the 474,000 square-foot facility last November. Located in North St. Louis County, Mo., the facility will open its doors next May, which is also when the work force of 800 will start moving in. The entire move of personnel and records will take about 17 months.
Lots of Space to Store
The new location will store approximately 2.3 million cubic feet of records currently housed at three different St. Louis area facilities. The building will be certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design program and will also be compliant with the stringent Federal standards for archival and non-archival records.
Records will be housed in climate-controlled stack areas designed for long-term preservation. Archival storage bays will have particulate and ultraviolet filtration. Paint, sealants, caulking and the powder-coated finishes for the shelving will be certified for minimal off-gassing of volatile organic compounds.
Consider the cost of providing indefinite preservation of your paper records.
The facility also will offer new research rooms, meeting rooms equipped with the latest video-conferencing technology and tenant office space for other area Federal agencies.
Ensuring a Smooth and Complete Transfer
Several move teams are working to ensure that each and every record is accounted for during the move and that important services to veterans continue with little delay. Many of the records are currently stored on 10-high shelving units in an old 1950s facility in Overland, Mo., which was ravaged by a 1973 fire that was one of the worst in U.S. history.
The fire destroyed the building’s sixth floor and an estimated 16-18 million individual military personnel records. The records lost include those of Army personnel discharged between Nov. 1, 1912, and Dec. 31, 1959, and Air Force personnel discharged between Sept. 25, 1947, and Dec. 31, 1963, with names alphabetically following Hubbard, James.
Restoration After Disaster
Some records were salvaged from the disaster; these fire-damaged records have been stored in a climate-controlled area where specially trained preservation technicians treat the records for mold and delicately piece together whatever they can save. Despite the very fragile state of the burned records, preservationists have been able to retrieve valuable information in an effort to reconstruct portions of a service member’s personnel file.
At the current facility the Preservation Branch also treats several thousand records that have been exposed to the harmful rays of the sun and to other contaminants that shorten a record’s life span.
The National Archives at St. Louis is only one of 44 NARA facilities located throughout the United States. However, unlike other collections, these records impact nearly every family in the country. These holdings represent a priceless piece of history and are a critical source of information for genealogists, family members, scholars, veterans and researchers.
To learn more about the various types of military records available through NPRC and how to request copies of them, visit their website at www.archives.gov/veterans or call 1-866-272-6272 for more information.
Source:
The Leaf Chronicle
SLEC.com
November 29, 2010
Nearly 80 percent of agencies are at risk of illegally destroying public records
You think texting and Twittering are challenging? Some write off the whole social trend with a condescending portmanteau like TwitFaceTube or MyTwitterBook. But even as government agencies embrace the Web 2.0 tidal wave, great challenges are presented, not to mention the weaknesses in the current federal records management system.
NARA’s Bulletin for Compliance
NARA released a bulletin on October 20th to help guide agency staff involved with Web 2.0 technologies and social media content toward compliance with current record management laws, regulations, and policies.
Previously, NARA had released bulletins Guidance on Managing Records in Cloud Computing Environments and Guidance on Managing Web Records. However, while guidance is good, cooperation is golden—these bulletins alone cannot resolve the challenges without the responsible support of staff within each agency:
“Agencies must determine the most appropriate way to incorporate recordkeeping requirements into their business process and identify the specific means by which their agencies will fulfill their responsibilities under the Federal Records Act.”
But just as NARA guidance cannot be expected to solve all of the problems, agencies cannot be expected to perform more effectively with increased guidance and oversight alone.
Some Surprising Studies
To prove this, we need look no further than the results of two studies. A 2009 self-assessment by NARA revealed 79 percent of the more than 200 agencies responding were at moderate or high levels of risk due to their records management practices.
A Government Accountability Office audit released in October revealed that nearly 80 percent of agencies are at risk of illegally destroying public records.
FederalTimes says it’s naïve to believe agencies will be more successful managing records residing in social media and Web 2.0 technologies, because social media is a disruptive technology, especially when hosted outside the agency. It is not standards-based; tools and technologies change constantly; records are under the control of third-party providers; and information stored on network-based systems can be spread virally.
Sources:
Archives.gov
FeteralTimes.com
November 26, 2010
Small-town corruption? Prove it.
Darby Township solicitor’s own company collects the township’s taxes
If your documents are in a filing cabinet, you could find that they're tied to the tracks.
Source:
Philly.com
November 25, 2010
Record-breaking Record Loss
We’ve heard many stories of records centers getting destroyed in fire, flood, and other natural, or criminal, events. Fortunately, many of them have had portions of the documents scanned or the extent of the damage was minor, the resultant damage serving, if nothing else, as a stern warning to have your important business documents stored electronically.
But there are less fortunate examples. Granted, this fire occurred when technology to store information was nowhere near today’s standards, but what if they had the necessary contingency plans?
The 1973 Fire at the National Personnel Records Center (St. Louis, MO)
On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at NPRC (MPR) destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. The affected record collections are described below.
| Branch | Personnel and Period Affected | Estimated Loss |
|---|---|---|
| Army | Personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960 | 80% |
| Air Force | Personnel discharged, September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964 (with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.) |
75% |
No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed in the fire were maintained, nor was a microfilm copy ever produced. There were no indexes created prior to the fire. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. Therefore, a complete listing of the records that were lost is not available. Nevertheless, NPRC (MPR) uses many alternate sources in its efforts to reconstruct basic service information to respond to requests.
Source:
Archives.gov
November 24, 2010
Shredded Records Key to Tax Case
Where is just as important as what, in this case. Following up on exactly where a sales took place so that the municipality could collect its share of taxes, they found that many documents had been destroyed.
Source:
PJStar.com
November 23, 2010
Sanitation District Violates Open Records Act
Amanda Van Benschoten
A judge has found that Sanitation District No. 1 willfully violated Kentucky’s Open Records Act and destroyed e-mails in an apparent violation of both state archiving standards and a federal consent degree regulating sewage overflows.
In an order and judgment, Kenton Circuit Judge Martin Sheehan also criticized a lawyer for the construction company that brought the open records lawsuit for seeking reimbursement of $154,000. Sheehan only ordered the district to reimburse the construction company $38,133.78 of those fees.
The dispute arose when Coppage Construction Co. of Independence filed a series of open records requests starting in 2008. It was seeking records to use against the district in contentious civil litigation stemming from upgrading a sewer line for the multimillion dollar Manhattan Harbour development on Dayton’s riverfront.
Sheehan found that the conduct of the district, which provides sewage service for most of Northern Kentucky, woefully fell short of the standards demanded by the Open Records Act.
The act was created to hold government accountable even if it may cause “inconvenience or embarrassment to public officials or others,” Sheehan wrote in his Oct. 15 order.
“(The district), however, expended much effort hedging and parsing Coppage’s requests, and delaying in an attempt to circumvent the very purpose of the act,” Sheehan wrote. “Such conduct cannon be condoned.”
The district didn’t turn over “countless” e-mails that Coppage requested until this year, two years after the initial open-records request, according to the order. The district originally claimed the e-mails didn’t exist.
Sheehan wrote the delay in turning over the e-mails were because the district didn’t search the hard copy files or computers of six district employees involved with the Ohio River development, including Executive Director of Jeff Eger.
In defending its actions, the district “has adopted what can fairly be described as a ‘shotgun’ approach, asserting any and all explanations for its conduct which it could conjure up,” Sheehan wrote.
One of the defenses the district “conjured up” was that open record requests must be in writing and e-mails don’t qualify as writings. Others were that Coppage asked for the incorrect documents or addressed their requests to the wrong person.
“Upon analysis of the totality of the circumstances, including but not limited to inadequate searches, inordinate delays, implausible explanations, insufficient and incomplete production of records, and possible illegal record destruction, there is but one conclusion that can be reached,” Sheehan wrote. “(The district) repeatedly and willfully violated the Open Records Act.”
The district released a written statement that its employees had spent more than 300 hours gathering more than 26,000 pages of documents for seven separate open records requests. Sheehan acknowledged in his order that some of the early requests were vague and overly burdensome.
“While we agree with the Court that some of Coppage’s open records requests were overly burdensome causing (the district) to devote hundreds of hours responding, we strongly disagree with any implication that (the district) acted in any manner whatsoever to frustrate Coppage’s ability to obtain records under Kentucky’s Open Records Act.,” Lyn Hils Mathews, an attorney for the district, said in the written statement.
Judge Sheehan also chastised Coppage’s law firm, Frost Brown Todd, for the legal fees the firm said it was entitled to collect from the district because the utility willfully violated the law.
Sheehan said that the amount of time that Coppage’s attorneys spent on the open-records litigation was not only extraordinary, but “outrageous,” adding that the court cannot place its “judicial imprimatur on such gluttony.”
Judge Sheehan said the request for attorney fees was “so outrageous that it even seeks attorney fees for calculating attorney fees.”
Frost Brown Todd’s lead lawyer on the case, Scott Gurney, said there wouldn’t have been any lawyer’s fees had the district followed the law.
“We did what we needed to do to obtain those records,” he said. “Coppage prevailed and our fees were justified in response to the sanitation district’s failure to comply with the law.”
Source:
Cincinnati.com
November 22, 2010
Join the party: E-BizDocs sponsors holiday event
E-BizDocs is proud to announce we are sponsoring the holiday party that CAYP (Capital Alliance of Young Professionals) will be holding on December 10th.
Jason Abare, our Director of Technology and CAYP member, is looking forward to the event.
Relax in luxury, in the heart of New York’s historic State Capitol, at the Crowne Plaza Albany – City Center. Fully renovated accommodations, exceptional meeting facilities, and superior features make this downtown Albany hotel the preferred choice for travelers in the know.
On December 10th the Crowne Plaza Hotel will play host to the See-and-Be-Seen Holiday Event of the Year, the CAYP Holiday Party. Eager young and young-at-heart professionals will ham and glam it up in Downtown Albany, in what some people are calling the greatest thing ever… Networking.
Will your medical records end up in the trash?
A story of trampled trust as a gynecologist is called out on a dumpster full of medical records. If you’re a medical practitioner who is moving offices, make sure all of your documents are handled properly or taken with you.
Source:
WSBTV.com
November 19, 2010
The Lost Boys of Sudan: Records of Childhood
By Amanda Lee Myers – Associated Press
When a humanitarian worker asked Ajak Dau Akech in 1988 why he fled civil war in Sudan and walked 1,000 perilous miles to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, the boy answered with words few 8-year-olds would know.
“We ran away from massacring and butchering of the people,” the boy said.
More than 20 years later, Akech had no idea he had spoken those words until he read them from a document he didn’t know until recently even existed.
Photo from lostboysreunited.com showing Lost Boys searching through the database at the San Diego conference last year.
Akech and other Sudanese war orphans, known as the Lost Boys of Sudan, are starting to receive eight-page records that include their family histories, the names of people they traveled with on their flight from war, the names of those who died along the way, medical information and observations about their well-being and photographs of themselves.
For many of the Lost Boys, the roughly 13,000 documents are the only record of their childhood and families, the photos the only ones taken of them as children.
The records were a project by Radda Barnen, the Swedish branch of Save the Children International, and were meant to document the histories of the boys who arrived at the refugee camp without parents in hopes they could be reunited later.
But the war lasted 21 years, nearly 2 million people were killed and many villages were destroyed, leaving reunions virtually impossible.
The civil war between Sudan’s Arab and Muslim, northern-dominated central government and rebels in the mainly Christian and animist south ended with a 2005 peace agreement establishing an autonomous southern Sudan. Southerners are scheduled to vote in an independence referendum in January that could split Africa’s largest country in two.
The Lost Boys’ records had been moved repeatedly, were nearly destroyed by another agency intent on throwing them out, and were languishing in a Radda Barnen warehouse in Ethiopia when Kirk Felsman learned of them.
Felsman was a senior research scholar at Duke University and was working on a children’s rights project with Radda Barnen when he saw the documents in 2004.
Felsman obtained a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and a team of anthropologists and others scanned more than 100,000 pages over four months before giving them to the Arizona Lost Boys Center in Phoenix, where about 600 Lost Boys have resettled.
It took the center and a team of mostly volunteers six more years to sift through the scanned documents, but all are now digitized and searchable online at http://www.lostboysreunited.org.
Source:
WashingtonPost.com
November 18, 2010
Introduction to Electronic Records Management Webinar
E-BizDocs will be hosting a webinar, Tuesday, December 7th at 11:00am.
To be demonstrated:
Kodak’s Capture Pro software – Scan your electronic documents to electronic images, with cropping, image adjustment, orientation, and many other features.
Cabinet NG’s CNG-SAFE – Manage, view, and track your documents in this robust file management environment. Easily supports scanned images and digital-born files, and integrates with Outlook, QuickBooks, and many other popular programs.
For more information, read our blog and website, or call (518) 456-1011.
To sign up for our newsletter and get a reminder, visit http://ebizdocs.net and complete the form.
To join the webinar, click on the following link about 10:50am EST, on December 7th:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/302092537
