Automated Support of Records Disposition

1
Automated Support of Records Disposition

• Bill Underwood
• Principal Research Scientist
• Georgia Tech Research Institute
• NARA Briefing
• January 6, 2004

2
Overview

• Retrospective Whence it came to be.
• Perspective What it is.
• Prospective What it can be and additional
  research needed.

3
In Retrospect

• W. E. Underwood and S. L. Laib The Language of
  Records Disposition, AIAI TR 95-01, Army
  Research Laboratory, Atlanta, Georgia. Prepared
  under contract DAKF11-93-C-0043, Managing
  Electronic Records in an Army Office, February
  1995.
• S. Laib. Program Documentation for a Disposition
  Language Style Checker and Translator. Technical
  Note AIAI-TN-94-03, Artificail Intelligence
  Atlanta, Inc. August 1994.
• W. E. Underwood, S. Laib and J. Underwood,
  Managing Electronic Records in an Army Office
  Final Report, AIAI 97-06, August 1997.

4
Retrospective

• Analysis of the disposition instructions in the
  GRS and the US Armys Record Schedule.
• Synthesis of a grammar for generic and specific
  disposition instructions.
• Semantics of disposition instructions.
• Tools for syntax checking, translating, and
  carrying out disposition instructions

5
Types of Generic Disposition Instructions

• Temporary Records
• Time (Destroy after period)
• Event (Destroy after event)
• Time-Event (Destroy period after event)
• Permanent
• Permanent
• Permanent-Event
• (Permanent. PIF after event)

6
Specific Disposition Instructions

• Permanent. PIF after completion of Study
• ACTIVE
• PIF after completion of Study
• INACTIVE
• Cut off at the end of the year
• Retire to servicing FRC after 2 years
• Permanent

7
Analysis of Combinations of instructions

• Destroy after 5 years, or 1 year after
  termination of membership, whichever is first.
• COFF 31 Dec 1994
• Dest Jan 2000, or Dest Jan 1996 if membership
  was terminated during the year

8
Second Alternative Meaning

• Destroy after 5 years, or 1 year after
  termination of membership, whichever is first.
• COFF 31 Dec 1994
• Dest Jan 2000, or Dest 1 year after termination
  of membership

9
Third Alternative Meaning

• Destroy after 5 years, or 1 year after
  termination of membership, whichever is first.
• ACTIVE
• PIF after termination of membership or Dest Jan
  2000, whichever is earlier.
• INACTIVE
• COFF 31 Dec 1994
• Dest Jan 1996

10
Combination of Instructions

• Destroy after period, or when events , whichever
  is earlier (later)
• Destroy after period, or period after events,
  whichever is earlier (later)
• Destroy when events, or after period, whichever
  is earlier (later).
• Destroy when events, or when events, whichever
  is earlier (later)

11
Combinations of Instructions

• 5. Destroy when events, or period after events,
  whichever is earlier (later)
• 6. Destroy period after events, or after
  period, whichever is earlier (later)
• 7. Destroy period after events, or when events,
  whichever is earlier (later)
• 8. Destroy period after events, or period after
  events, whichever is earlier (later)

12
Are combinations of Basic Instructions Needed?

• All the combinations of basic instructions
  discovered in MARKS, also appear in the GRS.
• The Federal statutes and regulations upon which
  NARA and Federal agencies base disposition have
  different retention requirements.
• Different offices within an agency may have
  different operational retention requirements.
• If its possible to simplify the combinations, it
  should be done, but was beyond the scope of the
  original work.

13
Combinations of Generic and Specific Instructions

• Ex Destroy 20 years after full production of the
  prototype takes place. Retire after 5 years in
  the current files area (FN 702-3b)
• ACTIVE
• PIF after full production of the prototype takes
  place.
• INACTIVE
• Cutoff at end of year
• Retire to FRC after 3 years Retire to FRC after
  5 years
• Destroy 20 years after cutoff

14
Retain, Hold and Keep

• Cut off annually, hold 1 year in CFA, retire to
  WNRC with the next regular shipment. Destroy 25
  years after cutoff. (FN680-31a)
• Destroy 3 years after case is closed. Keep in CFA
  until destroyed. (FN 11-3a)
• Destroy after 75 years. Retain 5 years in CFA.
  (FN 40-5f)

15
Grammar

• Disposition instruction
• Instructions for temporary records
• Instructions for permanent records
• Instructions for working files
• Do not Destroy. Disposition authorization
  pending NARAs approval

16
Grammar

• Instructions for temporary records
• (DestroyDelete) after period
• , (or ((afterwhenupononat) events)
• period after events)
• , whichever is (earlierearliestlaterlatest)
  

17
Grammar

• period
• numeral years and (36) months
• (136) months
• (306090) days

18
Grammar for Specific Instructions

• Cut off (at end of (CYFYmonth))
• , or (afteronwhen) events,
• whichever is (earlier earliest)
• after period
• (whenafteron) event

19
Perspective Tools

• Style Checker
• Translate Generic to definite, dated disposition
  instructions
• Automated Support for Carrying out Disposition
  Instructions

20
Tool Style Checker

• Lex lexical word analyzer
• Yacc (yet another compiler compiler) syntactic
  analyzer and translator.
• The grammar was described in Lex and Yacc and
  used to construct a style checker for disposition
  instructions

21
Example Style checker

• Destroy 5 years after close of fiscal year.
• ltlt 11. REPHRASE USING Cut off gtgt
• Destroy after 5 years. Cut off at the end of the
  FY

22
Translating Generic to Specific Instructions

• Generic Instruction
• Destroy after 30 days

• Parameterized Instruction
• COFF end_of(month,year)
• Dest months_after
• (1, month, year)
• Specific Disposition
• COFF Jan 31, 2004
• Dest Feb 28, 2004

23
Tools Carrying out Disposition Instructions

• Enterprise RMAssistant
• Used by Agency to create Records Schedule,
  Normalize Disposition Instructions
• Office RMAssistant
• Supports creating office file plan from Agency
  records schedule, Creating Specific Disposition
  instructions from Generic, Carrying out Records
  Disposition, including transfer.
• Filing Assistant
• Supports filing, creation of case folders,
  retrieval, and indicating disposition events.

24
Support of Disposition Actions

• Cutoff
• Transfer
• Retire
• Destroy
• ------------------
• Transferred
• Retired

25
Prospects

• Standard Syntax and Semantics for Disposition
  Instructions
• Standard Software Tools for Syntax Checking and
  Translating Generic to Specific Disposition
  Instructions
• Standard API to Support Carrying out Disposition
  Instructions

26
Needed Research

• After creation of the grammar, it was realized
  that media refreshment and prescription of
  preservation actions might be needed in the
  disposition language or in a preservation
  language.
• Additional testing and refinement of the grammar,
  translation rules and semantics is needed.