The Remarkable Records Series was created to highlight our favorite, weird, and wacky record series found in the retention schedules. We’ve covered the quirky and funny, but it’s time to complain contribute a lesser favorite: Complaints. Recently we received a record clarification question from a Local Government (LG) that seemed to fit under the umbrella of complaints, violation reports, or environmental investigations. Starting with Complaints, a keyword search brought out roughly 12 different Complaint series across the 12 retention schedules! And no, it was not one Complaint record series ..read more

By: Ellen Gleason & Sierra McGee. As a Records Management Officer (RMO) for a state agency, at some point you will need to send your records to TSLAC for transfer or review. This means your records have met retention and their record series has an archival code of “A” or “R”. But then what? What are the differences between archival codes “A” and “R”? Who do you notify and when? What kind of information do you need to provide? To answer these questions and more, State and Local Records Management (SLRM) and Archives and Information Services (ARIS) staff have teamed up in this post to walk y ..read more

In the records and information management (RIM) field, a file plan is a tool you can use to keep track of what and where records live in your organization for their entire lifecycle, from creation or receipt to disposition. Think of it as a roadmap that marks important landmarks regarding a record: where and in what format it is stored, how long it needs to be retained, and other considerations you may not find on a retention schedule. The benefits of using a file plan are that you can better ensure compliance with records management laws and rules, create efficiencies around organizing and ac ..read more

Per Local Government Code, 203.041 (LGC)(a.)1. local governments are required to manage an internal schedule. Some local governments have asked, “can I get the Texas State Library and Archives Commission’s (TSLAC) local retention schedules in a spreadsheet?” Now we can do you one better! All of TSLAC’s 12 local retention schedules have been uploaded into Department of Information Resource’s Open Data Portal (ODP). This means that you can now download all retention schedules that your entity adheres to into one spreadsheet that can be manipulated and customized to your heart’s content! (With th ..read more

When facing the task of recertifying or amending a state agency or public university records retention schedule, whether it is annually, biennially, or most often, quinquennially, there are different metaphors Your Helpful Government Information Analyst may use to think about how the assignment can be approached. Some of the metaphors an analyst might consider are planning a trip, preparing for a meeting, moving to a new home, arranging a party, or writing a recipe. What do all these things have in common? They involve planning, organization, notes, lists, research, time, and a little creativi ..read more

You are cordially invited to the annual Local Government Records Management Officer meeting. Calling all records management officers and records professionals serving local governments across Texas! Texas State Library and Archives (TSLAC) wants to meet with you. Due to the size of this meeting and geography, this event will be held via Zoom. When: Thursday, April 25, 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Where: Online via Zoom We will send the Zoom link prior to the meeting. Registration is limited to Texas local government entities. Due to Zoom capacity limits, we ask each local government to register no ..read more

Last year, for Valentine’s Day, two analysts in the Records Management Assistance Unit wrote an article titled: 10 Things We Love About Records Management. We wanted to acknowledge ten things that made our hearts flutter as analysts. This year, however, in honor of all the broken hearts this Valentine’s Day, let’s discuss five things that break an analyst’s heart and how our hearts can be mended! Keeping Everything Just in Case Some governments decide to keep everything “just in case.” Governments oftentimes believe that keeping everything is better than destroying something important, but th ..read more

This could be you. We are excited to announce that we will be hosting local government classes on: Wednesday and Thursday, March 27 – 28, 2024 Each class is $20 per person, per day. Class size is limited to 24 people, so register today! Classes will be held at the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building, 1201 Brazos St., Austin, TX 78701. Course Descriptions Introduction to Records Management – Full Day Workshop Learn the basic concepts of records management: legal obligations, definitions, and how to read a retention schedule. We will also cover the disposition process for h ..read more

In a criminal justice system, records and information are necessary to support operations and functions. In a television show like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, our old friend RIM-Brain often pops in to say, “Hey, that’s not proper records and information management (RIM).” These are their stories. DUN-DUN. As always, spoilers ahead! “Game” (Season 6, Episode 14) A woman is killed after a car runs up on the sidewalk and, save for a cryptic phone message, there are few clues and seemingly no motive. When Detective Elliot Stabler’s son notes the similarities between the incident and a v ..read more

You may have heard of TSLAC’s Local Government Retention Schedules when you started your new position with a local government. However, perhaps you have not been given much guidance in what they are or even how to use them. So, you find yourself asking this question: “How do I, as a beginner in records management even begin to understand, much less use, records retention schedules?” The answer to this question is the subject of this post: Retention Schedules 101! What are TSLAC’s Retention Schedules? Records management is a constant act of rebellion against the forces of entropy. Through crea ..read more