Organizing Shared Drive

By Shan JinRecords Analyst

Queen’s University Archives

July 2012

Contents An Administrative Assistant’s First Day Nightmare Shared Drive – Pros & Cons Assign Responsibility Establish Guidelines Classification Plan Naming Conventions Version Control University Records Retention and Disposition Implementation and Migration Maintenance Training Contacts

An Administrative Assistant’sFirst Day Nightmare

Shared Drive – ProsElectronic records are easily accessible to those who need to refer to them, and can be easily reused.

Electronic records are backed up and recoverable in the event of system failure.

Users can refer to electronic records in a central location rather than managing or emailing duplicate copies, saving storage space.

Shared Drive – Cons

It is difficult to locate, retrieve and use information if the drive has not been structured or titled appropriately.

Electronic records accumulate and are rarely deleted, leading to volumes of storage that are costly to maintain.

In absence of a robust Electronic Document and Record Management System, while some security measures can be added, most records on shared drives can be easily edited or deleted and there are no audit trails.

Assign ResponsibilityMaintain an administrator role. The administrator is responsible for

establishing / updating guidelines

creating / maintaining a classification plan

o Creating new top-level folders

o Preventing ad-hoc changes to at least the top two levels without serious consideration or controlled process

o Reorganizing, adding or removing folders on according to the University’s Directory of Records and Records Retention and Disposition Schedules

monitoring a shared drive

Regularly review folders and records to ensure they meet the guidelines.

overseeing a periodic disposal of electronic records

The administrator can also serve as a Records Custodian of the unit.

Establish Guidelines To ensure that shared drives are used in a manner that maximises the benefits and minimum the risks and costs, guidelines should be created to standardise common practices. The guidelines should be in line with the University’s Records Management Policy and Procedures.

The guidelines should address following issues:

Classification Plan

Naming Conventions

Version Control

Retention and Disposition

Classification PlanThe classification plan of a shared drive shall mirror the Directory of Records developed by the University’s Records Management Program. Map the folders and subfolders using that classification scheme.

Naming Conventions (1)File name should contain enough information to properly describe the contents for easy retrieval and sharing of information. Some of the elements of a file name include title, version number, date, author or creator, unit name, type and file extension.

Here are some tips of naming a file:

Select and consistently use one standard name for office, committee, topic or people.

Keep file names short by using common abbreviations, e.g. using “rpt” instead of “report”.

Maintain a key of all abbreviation used.

DON’T use texts for dates.

Select and consistently use one standard format for dates, e.g. YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM.

2010-04-13 Staff Meeting Minutes, Final2010-08-10 Staff Meeting Minutes, Draft2010-09-09 Staff Meeting Minutes, Draft

2010Apr13FINAL2010Sep9Draft2011Aug10Draft

Naming Conventions (2)

Numbers in a file name will be sorted from the left so "zero filling" may be required. This will maintain the numeric order in the file directory.

Naming Conventions (3) Order the elements in a file name in the most appropriate way to

retrieve the record.

Avoid descriptive terms regarding format or version at the start of file names.

Naming Conventions (4) When including a personal name in a file name, give the family name

first followed by first name and middle name, e.g. Smith, John A.

A standard delimiter should be adopted to separate elements of a file name. Some common delimiters include: underscore(_), dash (-) or space.

Different systems have different file name requirements, in particular different characters that they do not recognize in document names. Avoid using non-Alphanumeric characters such as forward slash (/), backslash(\), greater than sign (>), less than sign (<), asterisk (*), question mark (?), quotation mark ("), pipe symbol (|), colon (;) or semicolon (;).

Capital letters can be used to delimit words in a file name, e.g. FocusGroupNotes.doc.

Version Control

Save the modified version as a new document.

The version number of a record should be indicated in its file name by the inclusion of “V” followed the version number and, where applicable, “Draft” or “Final”.

EGEE-II-DJRA2.1-331457-v0-0 (Draft)

EGEE-II-DJRA2.1-331457-v1-0 (Draft)

EGEE-II-DJRA2.1-331457-v2-0 (Final)

University RecordsUniversity Records are information created, received and maintained in the course of conducting university business and kept as evidence of that activity.

For example, a copy of Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is reference material, but not a University Record.

Ideally, university records should be managed in an Electronic Document and Record Management System (EDRMS). In absence of an EDRMS, University Records should be managed in separate network location, which does not allow changes or deletion without proper authorization, e.g. only users on an access control list have full access.

Retention and Disposition

A Records Retention and Disposition Schedule defines how long to retain certain records and what to do with the records at the end of their retention. Most of the university records will be destroyed after they are no longer needed for current and future business or compliance with legal requirements. University records designated as “AR” in the schedules should be transferred to the archives for permanent retention.

Electronic records should be deleted regularly according to schedules developed the University’s Records Management (RM) program.

Check the University’s RM program website for schedules.

http://archives.queensu.ca/rm/Retention.html

In case of doubt, please contact the University’s RM staff. Contact information can be found at the end of the presentation.

Implementation and Migration (1)The first step to reorganize a shared drive is to conduct an inventory of the current

shared drive. The purpose is to

identify folders and files that have passed their retention date or subject to a legal hold

DO NOT delete any record during the inventory process. Just indicate the proposed action on an inventory form, e.g. any record with an expired retention, outdated reference material, duplicates, superseded records, records subject to a legal hold.

create a classification plan

o A classification plan shall mirror the University’s Directory of Records.o Assign classification number for folders.o Rename the folders using agreed upon naming conventions.

assign Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR) to each folder

o The OPR is responsible for authorizing deletion or transfer of records.o Designated OPR information can be found in Records Retention and Disposition Schedules.

Implementation and Migration (2)

Based on the result of the inventory, a unit can create a new shared drive, then

Migrate all documents to the new shared drive, or

Migrate the current year, plus one or more previous year, or

Migrate on a go-forward basis, or

Migrate older documents into the new system as used

If the current shared drive structure is not very complicated, a unit can just modify the current drive using the classification plan created in the inventory process.

Implementation and Migration(3)

Once the migration decision is made, it is time to

Rename / Move Folders and Records

o Rename and move folders to conform to the classification plan and naming conventionso Move records to the right folders. All records should reside within a folder.o Rename records using naming conventions and version control guidelineso Delete empty folders

Implement Disposition

o Records designated as AR in Records Retention and Disposition Schedules are to be transferred to the archives. Please contact the University Archives to arrange a transfer.

o Prepare an Authorization for Destruction of Records Form and have it signed by the Officer of Primary Responsibility.

o Unless a record is subject to a legal hold, delete any record with an expired retention, outdated reference material, duplicates, superseded records.

o Records involved in litigation and/or potential litigation should be kept until the legal hold is released, then they can be disposed according to the schedules.

MaintenanceIt is important that regular ‘housekeeping’ is conducted to keep shared drives in good order and promote ease of retrieval.

An shared drive administrator should periodically check the folders and records in shared drives to ensure they meet the guidelines.

Guidelines and Classification Plan should be reviewed regularly.

All employees need to review their files (both paper and electronic), identify records that have reached their retention period specified in the University’s Records Retention and Disposition Schedules and either destroy them or arrange for them to be transferred to the University Archives. Authorization should be obtained before disposition actions are taken.

TrainingThe University’s Records Management (RM) staff will offer various training programs to meet the recordkeeping needs of the university community.

The University’s RM staff have developed policies, procedures and guidelines on best recordkeeping practices. For more information, please visit

http://archives.queensu.ca/rm.html

Class-room and web-based RM training programs are being planned, including courses tailored to the needs of particular groups of staff or topic. These courses will become available in the future.

Contacts

Gillian Barlow, University Records Manager

Shan Jin, Records Analyst

Deirdre Bryden, Archivist (University Records)

Please contact us at (613) 533-2378.