The new reports are in! Records management officials at all federal agencies have submitted their annual Senior Agency Official for Records Management (SAORM) reports to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It’s clear from the reports that many agencies were still struggling to meet the deadline. For example, the Department of Defense writes, [...]

The final deadline for federal agencies to begin submitting all temporary and permanent in electronic format has come and gone. The date set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)—June 30, 2024—is now well in the rear-view mirror. So, does that mean the end of [...]

In our first article in this series, we looked at a serious challenge facing government agencies: falling success rates in producing records in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Between 2010 and 2022, these requests went from successfully yielding records about half the time to only about 10% of the time. One of [...]

Open government is a doctrine which holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its ideal form, open government promotes transparency, accountability, and public participation. Transparency, in particular, is crucial as it reduces corruption, enhances public trust, and ensures that members [...]

In the complex and always-changing landscape of federal records management, the need for comprehensive training has never been more acute. Despite a common perception among managers that they are well-versed in the fundamentals of records management, a disconnect remains between confidence and competence. A revealing study from the Government Business Council highlights this gap. Fully [...]

As government bodies increasingly digitize their records under the direction of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), it’s imperative to make electronic records both accessible and user-friendly. Accessibility in the context of federal electronic records refers to the design and dissemination of information in a [...]

The exchange of information and records within and between government entities can significantly enhance operational efficiency and policy implementation. For example, research published in Government Information Quarterly found that “inter-organizational information sharing improves efficiency by reducing the cost from shared development, pooling resources and shared technical expertise, and reducing redundancy in terms of multiple data [...]

In the digital era, federal agencies are increasingly turning to cloud solutions for records management. This shift represents a significant departure from traditional, on-premises data storage, but it shouldn’t be surprising. “Cloud storage … can improve access to and sharing of records and data, increase security, increase potential for long-term preservation, take advantage of economies [...]

In the complex world of government records management, the ability to track who has accessed and what has happened to individual records is invaluable. An audit trail—a step-by-step record that chronicles the life cycle of a document or record, capturing every interaction and modification made to it—lets you do just that. Audit trails work by [...]

Disaster-proofing your records management program is critical to ensuring business continuity and records retention in the face of catastrophes and emergencies. Yet government agencies are typically unprepared in this area, with only ad hoc and piecemeal strategies that make the process of protecting records against disasters unnecessarily complicated and difficult. To be fair, this isn’t [...]