Records Storage Has Gone Digital!

• Most present day workflows create electronic records.
• Paper is cumbersome to back up properly.
• Physical records are not accessible remotely.
• There is no search function for paper.
• Paper is more susceptible to natural disasters: fires, floods, and earthquakes.
• Physical records are more difficult to locate, copy, and share.

• Because you want to keep all of the records on a particular person, project, or matter together in one place -- going digital is the preferred practice over printing everything.
• Because you have paper records to share with colleagues.
• Because your office is moving, has run out of, or has found better use for your current storage space.
• Because you are leaving your position and you possess paper records that have continuing retention or value to the office that you do not want to be lost or forgotten in the shuffle.
• Because scanning and recognizing text in Adobe Acrobat makes the content of scanned documents easy to find and is far more efficient than reading every piece of paper to determine the contents of a record.

• If your records have a retention of under 7 years, you can store your records using Google Drive or One Drive. Each year you will need to review these records and destroy any that have met their minimum retention length.
• If your records have a lengthy retention over 7 years or require you to hold on to them for a very long time because of contractual obligations, please reach out to rm@ewu.edu to set up Etrieve for you.

There are several factors which must be met before records subject to retention can be destroyed:

1. Does it meet the requirements in the retention schedule?
2. Is it still needed for business needs?
3. Is there an active audit for which it is needed?
4. Is there a litigation hold / public records request currently on the record?

Note:  records that have minimal retention value (transitory records) only need to be retained until they are no longer needed for university business.

A record that has met its retention cut-off is considered inactive for its retention period.

At this time, we are not scanning archival records. If you're not sure if your records are archival, ask the University Records Officer for help. University Records Storage will still be accepting archival records. Once records have met their cutoff, they can be transferred to Records Management using this Form (ewu.edu).

These are records needed, in the event of a disaster, to continue operations.  The university needs these records to resume its core functions following a disaster.

A Disposition Authority Number is a code used to systematically identify a Record Series in a legal document that defines retentions and disposal of records.

Examples: GS 01001 (General State DAN which applies to university financial transactions) and 74-07-05577 (EWU specific DAN which applies to student admission applications).

The law broadly defines what constitutes a “public record.”  According to RCW 40.14.010 it is defined as being “made by or received by [the university] . . . in connection with the transaction of public business” and “regardless of physical form or characteristics”.  According to RCW 42.56.010 it is “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of government or the performance of any governmental or proprietary function, prepared, owned, used, or retained by [the university] regardless of physical form or characteristics.”

For the purposes of these laws, public records include:  emails, text messages, social media posts, voice mail, art, maps, photos, video and sound recordings, documents (paper and electronic), and so much more!  Additionally, if university business is conducted on personally owned devices like laptop computers, cell phones, the resulting records constitute public records.

A Record Series is the type or “genre” of a collection of records which are used for a specific function.  For example, some records series that apply to the university include:  Human Resource Management (records related to the university’s workforce); Student Administration (records regarding the administration and management of students from application for admission, to enrollment, to completion/discontinuation); Teaching and Learning (records designed to facilitate learning including curriculum planning and development, delivery, assessment, and evaluation); etc.