Last week, our office released two NARA Bulletins for Federal agencies. The first, NARA Bulletin 2020-01, is the guidance answering common questions and providing clarifications to the OMB/NARA Memorandum M-19-21: Transition to Electronic Records. This Bulletin is the additional guidance required by the Memorandum.
We have received many questions from agencies, including general questions, exception process questions, records storage facility questions, and scheduling and transfer questions since M-19-21 was issued. Bulletin 2020-01 answers some of these questions and provides clarifications to the requirements in the Memorandum.
The second NARA Bulletin, NARA Bulletin 2020-02, provides guidance on scheduling the early or late transfer of permanent records. This Bulletin supersedes NARA Bulletin 2015-01. In 2015, NARA issued guidance for scheduling permanent records with retention periods less than 15 years. This updated Bulletin covers those records and adds guidance on scheduling permanent records with retention periods more than 30 years.
We would also like to remind you that we recently issued two FAQs. First is an FAQ on Records Scheduling and Appraisal which provides answers to common questions asked by people who are unfamiliar with or new to the records scheduling process. Using plain language, the FAQ answers questions such as why NARA doesn’t keep all records created by the federal government, what scheduling is, and how appraisal works.
The other one is an FAQ on the Agency Records Officer Credential (AROC) Training and Renewal policy. This FAQ provides answers to common questions our Records Management Training program has received over the past year about the AROC.
We will certainly be discussing these guidance products in more detail over the coming weeks, including at our October BRIDG meeting.