VitalRecordsV7

8/6/2019 VitalRecordsV7

1/13

Vital Records v7

Vital Records

For whom is this guidance intended?

This guidance is intended for the Universitys freedom of information practitioners

who are setting up records management systems in their sections. It will also be ofinterest to heads and administrators of sections.

What is the purpose of this guidance?

This guidance is intended to give freedom of information practitioners advice on

managing vital records, that is, those records which are essential to the running of an

organisation. It explains the role of vital records, how to recognise them, how to

protect them, and the vital records procedures that should be implemented. It cannot

identify the vital records of your particular section, but it does give you a toolkit to

help you identify them.

What are vital records?

Vital records are those records that are necessary for an organisation to continue to

operate in the event of disruption or disaster. Examples of disruption include being

unable to enter the building for a few hours or days (in the event of, for example, a

bomb scare) or being unable to access the University network for a few hours or days;

disasters include fire, flood, and the loss of electronic data through malicious

electronic intervention. Vital records enable the organisation to continue functioning

in the event of a disaster or disruption, and contain the information needed to re-

establish the organisation in the event of a disaster that destroys all other records. In

the case of the University, vital records may apply to the University as a whole or to a

specific part of it.

Examples of vital records will vary across the University, and more guidance on how

to identify vital records is given below. However, a few examples are: current

contracts (the loss of which would make dealing with personnel issues extremely

problematic); research information for an ongoing project (the loss of which might

necessitate restarting the project from scratch, and would consequently obstruct one of

the Universitys core business functions, namely the pursuit of research); and records

of conferment of awards (which are needed as evidence of one of the Universitys

core functions, the awarding of degrees and other awards; the loss of these recordswould result in the University being unable to confirm that it had fulfilled its

obligations either to the student body or to the students of the University, not least by

being unable to confirm whether or not an individual had an award from the

University).

Vital records may be held in any format, including paper, audio tape, microfiche, and

electronic formats.

Why should I care about my sections vital records?

Identifying your sections vital records and taking measures to protect them and toensure that they are always available when needed will help improve your business

1


2/13

practice, saving you considerable inconvenience in the event of disruption or disaster.

A clear policy on vital records is part of good Records Management practice, and

should also tie in with your sections business continuity planning. Your business

continuity planning should consider what the consequences for your area of

responsibility would be if you were unable to access your records for a few hours or

days, and the vital records backup measures that you install should reflect howurgently you would need access to your records.

The impact of the loss of vital records should not be underestimated. In the event of

major disasters such as the destruction of a business property through fire, the loss of

the building or equipment generally matters less than the loss of vital records; after

all, buildings and equipment can be rebuilt or purchased again. Over 70% of

businesses whose paperwork and computer programs are lost in fires go out of

business within 3 years.

Although it is tempting to assume that major disasters will never affect your own

school or section, the fire which destroyed the School of Informatics building onSouth Bridge in December 2002 shows that disasters can and do happen. Fortunately,

no-one was hurt in the fire, but the Artificial Intelligence Library was destroyed, with

the loss of some irreplaceable materials, and many researchers lost their personal

archives. However, most of the Schools then current research data was stored

electronically, and was not lost which demonstrates the importance of keeping

backup copies of important data, discussed further below. Equally important to the

School was the ability to have day-to-day information (particularly information on

students, room bookings, classes and grants) up and running as soon as possible.

Instituting a vital records programme as part of your sections records management

systems will also help ensure your compliance with the Freedom of Information

(Scotland) Act 2002. The s 61 Code of Practice issued by the Scottish Executive

under the Act specifically requires organisations subject to freedom of information

legislation to protect their vital records. Although compliance with this Code is not

mandatory, it is seen as indicative of whether or not an organisation has complied

with the legislation.

Who is responsible for my sections vital records?

Freedom of information practitioners are responsible for identifying vital records and

maintaining vital records procedures, although you may of course delegate the bulk ofthe work to another member of staff. However, ultimately it is your Head of School

or Section who is responsible for your sections vital records, so your vital records

plan should be at a minimum discussed with and approved by your Head of School or

Section.

All staff also have day-to-day responsibility for working sensibly with vital records

(for example, not accidentally deleting them!) and so it is advisable that all staff have

some knowledge of your sections vital records and vital records procedures.

How do I tell which records are vital?

Working out which of your records are vital should be part of a broader analysis of


3/13

Vital Records v7

your sections record keeping requirements. There is no definitive list of vital

records, and what constitutes a vital record will vary from section to section across the

University. This guidance cannot tell you exactly which of your records are vital, but

it does give you a toolkit to help you identify your sections vital records.

When identifying your sections vital records, begin by considering the followingpoints:

1. Identify the key functions and business processes of your section

What are the core functions and business processes of your section? They may

include teaching and research, student registration, dealing with personnel issues,

or handling accounts, depending on the section of the University to which you

belong.

2. Identify the records that are needed to support or document these functions

and processes

What records do you need to enable you to perform these core functions, or to

provide evidence that you have done so? Records relating to the key functions

and business processes might include teaching timetables, student records,

committee minutes, RAE submissions, and staff contracts.

3. Identify which of these records are vital

Can thefunctions these records relate to be re-established in the event of the loss

of these records? If so, the records are not vital although in some cases you may

still consider their importance to be sufficient that they are worth protecting. If

not, the records are vital. When considering which of your records are vital, bear

in mind the following three points:

Not all records are vital. Around 2-10 % of an organisations records are

likely to be vital, although this will vary from case to case. Setting up special

protection measures can be expensive, so do not be tempted to include

everything, although, at the same time, do not omit a record that is genuinely

vital.

Vital Records are vital for varying lengths of time. A record is not necessarily

vital forever; for example, records of the marks a current student has obtained

are vital, as this information is needed to know whether or not the student cangraduate (and the conferring of degrees is a core business function of the

University), while records of a students marks from one hundred years ago

are less important.

Records may not fall neatly into vital and non-vital categories. It may be

more helpful to divide them into 4 different categories, as in the table below.

You will need to exercise your judgement in deciding how vital (or non-vital)

a record is. Some records might not be strictly vital in that the University

could continue to function without them - but the effort of replacing them, or

their historical value, might be such that you wish to afford them the same

level of protection as records essential to the current business of the

University. (On historical records, see also Annex A.) You will need toperform a risk assessment of how vital the record is, considering how serious

3


4/13

the impact would be if the record were lost, and soon you would feel it.

When identifying which of your records are vital, it may be helpful to divide them

into the following categories. Please note that the examples are not exhaustive, and

will vary from section to section.

1. Vital Records

Records without which an

organisation cannot function. These

records are essential to the core

business of the organisation.

Examples:

records which give evidence of the

legal status of the University;

records which protect the assets and

interests of the University;

minutes of board meetings, especially

where major policy decisions are

taken;

current and recent staff contracts; current accounts payable and

received;

the Universitys business plan;

graduation records;

research information, including

ongoing research and reports of

research projects;

records which are subject to a legal

requirement to be kept for a certain

amount of time;

historical records if needed forevidential or other legal purposes

(see also Annex A).

2 Important Records

These records are important to the

continued operation of the

organisation. They can be

reproduced or recreated from original

sources, but only at considerable time

and expense.

Examples:

Procedures;

Training manuals;

Teaching materials;

Curricula;

Teaching timetables; Minutes of some meetings;

Current RAE submission

3 - Useful Records

Loss of these records would cause

temporary inconvenience to the

University, but they are replaceable.

Examples

most correspondence;

records of old curricula.

4 - Non-Essential Records

These records have no value beyond

the immediate purpose for which they

were created

Examples:

staff and student circulars about one-

off events which are now completed;

advertisements.


5/13

Vital Records v7

I have identified my vital records: what now?

Once you have identified your vital records, you should take practical steps to

preserve them. A range of events could occur, disrupting your work and endangering

your vital records. These include, but are not limited to:

Network server crash resulting in inability to access electronic files for a fewhours to a few days

Inability to access building for a few hours or days

Loss through carelessness

Theft of materials

Pest infestation and environmental conditions, such as excessive humidity,

which cause damage by e.g. mice eating documents, or mould destroying

documents.

Loss of electronic data through malicious behaviour

Fire

Flood

There are various ways of protecting your vital records, ranging from extremely

expensive options that offer a high degree of protection (for example, fire-proofing a

room), to simpler options offering a lesser degree of protection (for example, storing

vital records in stout cardboard boxes). Your choice of protection will depend on

varying factors, including the format of the records, their importance, your

environment, your resources and whether a copy already exists elsewhere. Expensive,

high-security options may only be appropriate in extreme cases.

How do I protect my vital records if they are electronic?

In general, it is easiest to protect records if they are electronic. It is simple to make

backup copies (for example, you can copy your records onto the University server, or

onto a cd-rom or memory stick), and has little cost implication in terms of either

money or time.

It is good practice to include the word vital in the document or folder title, as this

will make them easier to search and secure, and thus help speed up the retrieval

process.

If you are on the University network, by far the easiest way of preserving a vital

record is to put it onto the University computer network. Ideally, it should already be

stored on the network; storing records on your personal computer or laptop's local

hard drive is notrecommended, as the record may be lost if the computer crashes or is

stolen. The benefits of storing the record on the server are that backup copies are

regularly made and stored off-site, and you do not need to worry about particular risks

(such as fire and flood) as the protection of the server and backup copies are dealt

with by EUCS, MIS, your school or unit. Another benefit is that should the record be

accidentally deleted, it may be restored from the backup copies of the server.

Backup regimes and procedures, including the length of time needed to restore lost

data, vary depending on whether you are supported by EUCS, MIS, your school orunit, and what server you use. It is therefore recommended that you contact your

5


6/13

local computing support person to find out what the procedures for your area are, and

include these in your vital records procedures. MIS have a prioritised plan for the

restoration of information in MIS supported systems (eg RELP, eFinancials, e-mail

and information stored on shared drives) in the event of a disaster, so if your

information is stored in one of these systems disaster recovery arrangements are

already in place. For EUCS back up services, see http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/a-z/indexB.html.

If you are not on the University network, you should make backup copies of your vital

electronic data (on, for example, a cd-rom). These should notbe stored with your

computer (in case you cannot access your normal place of work, or all the copies are

stolen or lost in a fire), but in a separate location, preferably a separate building (as

this minimises the risk of all of the copies being lost or unavailable). It is not advised

to store your only backup copy on a floppy disk, as these are not particularly robust.

If you are making backup copies that are not stored on the network, please make a

note of these so that, when you come to delete your records, you remember to deletethe backup copies as well. For advice on disposing of records (both hard-copy and

electronic), please see the forthcoming records management guidance on disposal,

which will be available to download from the Records Management Sections

website.

No storage method is entirely secure although the risks of storing vital records on the

server are far fewer than storing the data only on a personal computer or laptop's local

hard drive. While the Universitys computer systems are generally secure, there

remains a very small threat of corruption of data from, for example, viral attack, or

data may be accessed externally; accidental loss is also possible (especially if this is

not noticed for a long time, and the original data is no longer held on the server or the

backup copies of the server). While there is a risk that the server itself could be

destroyed (in for example a fire), copies of the data from the server from the previous

week are normally kept off-site.

It should also be noted that vital electronic records held in the longer term may be

subject to their originating application no longer being available and therefore the

record unreadable. Conversion to a recognised format such as plain text or rich text

format may help avoid this situation. Where the format of the document is also

critical then currently the University recommends that documents are stored in

Portable Document Format (PDF).

How do I protect my vital records if they are in hard copy?

For vital records that are not electronic for example, paper or microfiche there are

a variety of backup options. Deciding which to adopt is about balancing what is

practical, given your location, environment and resources, with what is desirable,

given the nature of the records. You should aim to provide reasonable protection for

most records, and extreme protection in a small minority of cases. Weigh up the costs

of different levels of protection against the potential cost of the loss of the records. It

is also helpful to consider the volume of records that need to be protected now, and

how that may change in the future; what the retrieval rate is likely to be; and whetherany special environmental conditions are needed for storage (e.g. for antiquarian
http://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htmhttp://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htm


7/13

Vital Records v7

books, or microfilm).

Scan and save electronically. This is a simple and fairly effective measure, especially

if the records are stored on the University computer network. The benefits of this

method of backup are discussed above. If you have a considerable quantity of vital

records, the costs involved in converting them to an electronic form may besubstantial, but the benefits of storing them electronically may outweigh this

drawback. However, please be aware that the legal admissibility of electronic records

(that is, whether they would be accepted as a piece of evidence by a court of law) is

not straightforward. The records management guidance document on Electronic

Records and Legal Admissibility, available to download from the Records

Management Sections website (http://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htm),

can give guidance on this.

Check the environment for potential hazards. If however you decide to keep your

vital records in hard copy, you should look for different types of environmental threat

to the area where they are stored. These could include water (water damage is themost common form of environmental hazard to records), damp, fire, and pests.

Sources of water damage include flooding from either outside the building (e.g. a

nearby river) or inside the building (e.g., a burst water pipe or leaking roof), or from

fire hoses or sprinkler systems in the event of a fire (in fires, much of the damage is

caused by water used to extinguish the fire). Sources of fire include wiring,

overloading of sockets and failing apparatus. If there are pests, or excessive humidity,

mechanisms such as traps, poisons or a de-humidifier may be needed. Pest infestation

is likely to be repeated so traps and poisons need to be checked and renewed as

necessary. Either steps should be taken to protect the records from these potential

hazards, or alternative accommodation should be sought.

Consider whether there are any particular security risks. Are your recordsparticularly sensitive might they attract theft or bomb threats? (For example,

records of animal experimentation may be considered to be sensitive.) Do you need

more than your sections standard security measures? If the records are sensitive to

theft, it may be appropriate to give each box a number, and include a breakdown of

what is in each numbered box in the vital records programme.

Do not store records on the floor or on an unprotected top shelf. Raise the bottom

storage shelves at least 5 cm above floor level, and neverput records on the floor, in

case of flooding. Fit top storage shelves with metal covers to protect from watercoming from above.

Do not store records in the top floor of a building with a leaky roof, or in a dampbasement.

Obey extant safety precautions, as you would routinely in any case.

Duplication and dispersalacross at least two locations within the University: this

affords a fairly low level of protection, but is relatively cheap. It may be considered

adequate especially if there is more than one building across which copies can be

spread. Copies can be made in a variety of media, including paper, microfilm, andcd-rom (for electronic records not stored on the University network).

7
http://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htmhttp://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htmhttp://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htmhttp://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htmhttp://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htmhttp://www.recordsmanagement.ed.ac.uk/index.htm


8/13

Remote storage: Copies may be stored with a commercial storage companyspecialising in secure storage; in a bank vault (if the quantity of records is not large);

or in an offsite facility that has the necessary security features such as fireproofing.

Keep records in boxes. Stout cardboard boxes will offer some short-term protectionfrom fire and water. Paper tightly packed in cardboard boxes is less likely to burn,

and cardboard boxes offer a reasonable protection from water. In addition, boxes are

far easier to move speedily in case of emergency than filing cabinets. Do not keep

vital records in loose files stacked on shelves, as these will be unprotected from fire

and water, and harder to move in the event of an emergency.

Prioritise which records should be saved in an emergency and record this in your vital

records procedures and/or your sections Disaster and Contingency Recovery Plan.

Store these records somewhere where they can be removed from the building quickly

in the event of emergency, and ensure key staff know where these are.

Fireproof rooms: these are expensive, but very effective if set up properly with fire

resistance for a minimum of four hours, a fire detection system, temperature and

humidity control, dust-free conditions, and a secure locking device or some controlled

access systems.

What method should I adopt?

When deciding what reasonable methods you need to adopt to backup and protect

your vital records, it is necessary to balance the financial cost, time and practical

implications of the methods against the seriousness of the damage that would result if

your vital records were unavailable for a period of time, or destroyed. Thus there is a

risk assessment involved in deciding what measures are required. These

considerations can be represented in the following matrix:

High Medium Low Very low

How serious would the consequences be

if the records were destroyed or stolen?

How serious would the consequences be

if the records were unavailable for a few

hours?

How serious would the consequences beif the records were unavailable for a few

days?

What is the cost of the backup and

protection measures?

What is the volume of records that need

to be protected now?

What is the volume of records likely to

need protection liable to be in 10 years

time?

How likely is it that another copy already

exists elsewhere?


9/13

Vital Records v7

The matrix will not provide you with a simple answer but is intended to help you to

consider the issues involved. For example, if the consequences of losing access to

particular records for a few hours are very low, but the consequences of losing access

to the same records permanently would be very high, then you might decide on some

form of off-site storage. If the consequences of theft or destruction would be

extremely high, then you may need to adopt stringent security and protectivemeasures.

The University Records Management Section can assist with the assessment of the

risks associated with vital records protection and backup measures, while your local

computer support person can advise on the options for electronic information.

How do I ensure that other staff in my section know about our vital records?

There is no point in categorising your records and making particular arrangements for

your vital records, if the information is lost when you leave the University, or if you

are not there on the day that disruption or disaster strikes. It is therefore heavilyrecommended that some simple procedures are developed, and a vital records

schedule be created and maintained. These can be circulated around key staff. They

will help ensure institutional continuity and memory, and also help identify those

records which were previously vital but are so no longer.

The vital records schedule (set out in a template in Annex B) should include:

Name of record;

Category of record;

Where it is stored, and information on where copies (if any), are held Reasons for protecting;

Method of protection;

Supporting records / applications (to aid in finding the record), if needed to

access or interpret the record;

Box number (if held in numbered boxes);

A deadline for the next review (to consider whether the record is still vital).

In the vital records procedures, you should include the following (set out in a template

in Annex C):

The person or persons responsible for maintaining the vital records

programme;

Procedures to ensure that new vital records are identified and included in the

programme;

Procedures for transferring the records or copies to a secure storage area, if

used;

Details of who has access to the secure storage area, if used.

How do I maintain my vital records?

In order to maintain your vital records you need to ensure that new vital records areidentified, backed up and protected as necessary, and equally that records that are no

9


10/13

longer vital are removed from the vital records programme. If they are in hard copy,

the new vital records should be stored appropriately, and records that are no longer

vital may be removed to less secure storage, to make space for new vital records (or

destroyed, in line with your sections retention plan).

The vital records plan should include procedures for the early identification of newvital records, and the vital records programme should include a deadline for the next

review, to consider whether a record is still vital.

What help is available?

The University Records Management Section provides advice, guidance and training

on data protection, records management and freedom of information issues. We can

be contacted at [email protected]. Although we cannot identify your

vital records or set up protection measures for you, we can provide training, facilitate

workshops, give you detailed advice on work in progress, and serve as expert advisers

on records management project boards.

EUCS and MIS can provide help and advice on the facilities within EUCS/MIS

supported systems and software that could be used to help with implementing the

guidance contained within this document. The Audit and Security Section of EUCS is

able to provide advice on data security and related issues.

The University Archive within the Library is able to provide advice on the Archives

collection policy and transferring records to the Archive.

Antonia Kearton & Susan Graham

February 2005
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


11/13

Vital Records v7

Annex A: Note on Historical Records

Historical records that help understand a part of the Universitys development (such

as a Principals speech at the inauguration of a new site) but which are not essential

for the day-to-day running of the University would not be considered as vital.

However, their value for a wide range of historical research might be such that theyare worth preserving. One means of doing this would be to transfer them to the

University Archive, at which point the records would be covered by the University

Archives disaster plans.

Please see the University Archives guidance on identifying records with potential

archive value (http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/eua.shtml).

The following documents are of particular relevance:

Special Collections Policy of the Universitys Archives

(www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/euacp.shtml)

Archival Selection Criteria

(http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/criteria.pdf)

Guidance on Transferring Records to the University Archive

(http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/transfer.pdf)

Some of the examples cited in this document as vital records, such as minutes of

important board meetings, are also liable to hold archival category. It is therefore

especially important that they are covered by sections vital records programmes

while they are still also of current administrative value.

11
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/eua.shtmlhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/collections.pdfhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/euacp.shtmlhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/criteria.pdfhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/transfer.pdfhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/transfer.pdfhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/eua.shtmlhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/collections.pdfhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/euacp.shtmlhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/criteria.pdfhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/transfer.pdfhttp://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/specdivision/transfer.pdf


12/13

Annex B: Template for Vital Records Schedule

VITAL RECORDS SCHEDULE UNIT:Record Location Protection Identifying information Review

Record

Name

Category

of record

Storage

location

Location of

copies

Reasons for

protecting

Method of

protection

Supporting

records

Box no Date of next

review


13/13

Vital Records v7

Annex C: Template for Vital Records Procedures

VITAL RECORDS PROCEDURES

Section: Date last revised:

Person/s responsible for maintaining the vital records programme:

Procedures to ensure that new vital records are identified and included in the

programme:

Procedures for transferring the records or copies to a secure storage area (if used):

Details of who has access to the secure storage area (if used):

13

VitalRecordsV7

Documents

Transcript of VitalRecordsV7