As a continuation of our series on our 2011 Annual Report, please see a description of our work in Records Management:
In January 2011, we hired Anne Marie Phillips as the first University Records Manager, kicking off the development of a formalized records management program for the university. Anne Marie spent the first three months meeting with administrative and academic department staff to determine what were the most urgent records needs and to provide preliminary instruction to those who wanted to move ahead and implement recommended filing system and records retention practices. These interviews and instructional sessions led Anne Marie to identify financial records as the first group of records to address at a university-wide level, as every departmental manager has financial accounting and reporting responsibilities and the attendant records issues. To make progress in this area, Anne Marie, Dan Linke, and Dan Santamaria met with the Vice President for Finance and Treasurer, Carolyn Ainslie, and her direct reports to discuss the project, and the result has been that Anne Marie has been working closely with finance and treasury staff to clarify central and departmental needs for financial records and creating retention and disposition policies for these records.
Anne Marie has continued to work with departmental staff across the university addressing the management of both financial and non-financial records, conducting individual and group training in the areas of file system development and the application of retention and disposition schedules. She has also begun creating infrastructure for the records management program including creating records schedules, establishing methods of communicating records management information, and building partnerships with university staff with value to add to the records management program development process.
During the first six months of the records management program, Anne Marie:
- Met with thirty academic and administrative departments to gather information and provide advice and training;
- Worked with Finance and Treasury and Audit and Compliance to identify and address the highest priority financial records of the university;
- Created a records management blog, Just for the Records, to disseminate records management information to the Princeton community;
- Delivered a specialized records management presentation to the staff of the Teacher Preparation Program;
- Represented the records management program at a sustainability open house for the residents of 701 Carnegie, discussing the positive environmental effects of good records management;
- Developed a relationship with the PU Storage Facility staff and identified how the records management program will mesh with the records center function of the PUSF;
- Worked with Facilities staff to address records issues raised in the process of a major reorganization in their workflow; and
- In conjunction with the Linke and Santamaria, began planning for an electronic records management program.
Stay tuned for further discussion of our 2011 work involving collection development, exhibitions, and more.