18.1 City hall

“What people tell me is that they’re not worried about their building plans because somebody else has copies of them,” says Brian, a construction contractor with 30 years of experience across North America. “Departments connected to a municipality assume that city hall keeps vital records and is prepared to share them at short notice. But often those records are lost, or misplaced, or simply unavailable. I’m obliged to work without them, and my company has to spend more time—and more of the customer’s money—figuring out what’s in the plans so that we can proceed with our project. I’d advise libraries not to take the storage of their records for granted.”

Your trustees will suggest that your valuable files need better storage. You ran out of space in your branch basements years ago, so you need an off-site storage vendor who will treat your information with respect. But first, what about your records management?

If you want to control costs by cutting down on useless paper, you’ll need an inventory of the records in all of your locations. Your inventory should contain the most basic data regarding the kinds of documents you keep, their inclusive dates, quantities, and current storage location. If you compile an inventory from scratch, you’ll probably discover tons of material that you don’t really need. Your inventory can turn out to be an effective cost-saving tool, since it will indicate opportunities to free up space and reduce storage expenses.

Next, you need a records retention schedule, which tells you how long you must retain various documents. Does your accounting department already have a retention schedule? That’s good, but is it up to date? Does it indicate retention periods for all of your library’s documents? You must audit and update your retention schedule regularly so that documents from all departments are controlled. Without a well-maintained retention schedule, you’ll pay a lot for the storage of paper that should have been sent to a recycler.

18.2 Procrastination

“People often neglect to keep their retention schedules up to date,” says Lauren, a records manager and corporate librarian in Toronto. “There’s simply too much to do, and some tasks are more urgent than others, and the retention schedule can be ignored for another week, or month, or year. And eventually it’s so out of date that you must spend a lot of time updating it. But without it, managing your records—particularly in off-site locations—can be more difficult and a lot more expensive.”

When you decide to store records off-site, make sure that your off-site vendor is reputable. It’s amazing how often organizations in all sectors send sensitive information to vendors with questionable backgrounds. You should know better than the Attorney General’s office that stored sensitive records concerning criminal investigations in a warehouse owned by mobsters. Or the trust company that kept its mortgage files in the basement of an office tower managed by an offshore company that specialized in shady property development. Or the insurance company that sent confidential medical files to a paper destruction company that sold the files to a movie production company.

You should know better, but do you? Have you actually checked out the reputation of your off-site vendor, asked for references, interviewed the warehouse manager, and made inquiries about the vendor’s reliability? If not, you might be keeping people like me in business. If your confidential files are used for unscrupulous purposes, you might never find out. Worse, the illicit use of your records might be exposed, and you’ll have a crisis to deal with. Your trustees will not like the idea of your sensitive information falling into the wrong hands. How would you and your coworkers like the idea of your HR files falling into the wrong hands? You might stop doing business with me, but I won’t suffer much. I may deal with a lot of paper, but I never leave a paper trail. Moreover there are always new customers for a vendor who has storage space for paper.

18.3 Pigeons unacceptable

You should also inspect any off-site space in which you intend to store records. Be sure that the warehouse is well maintained. Look for signs of water ingress and moisture damage. Check the security procedures and fire control systems. And examine the shelving: is it stable, moored to a supporting surface, and rust-free? Do you see any sign of rodents or pigeons? Don’t put up with sloppy warehouse maintenance or substandard security, and don’t accept a vendor’s promises that a warehouse’s weaknesses will be rectified soon. That vendor might assume that you intend to visit the warehouse only once. Usually he’s right, since many customers don’t even make an initial visit.

An off-site warehouse may be in top condition, with state-of-the-art security, but what about the vehicles that transport your documents to and from your sites? Some customers prefer unmarked vans with alarms and advanced locking systems. Others will tolerate any old truck that pulls up to the loading bay. Do crooks in your area break into vehicles? Do they steal anything on wheels? If so, ask your vendor to use an inconspicuous and fully alarmed vehicle when transporting your files.

“There are numerous cases in which boxes of documents go missing in transit,” says Drew, a records manager in Western Canada. “I’ve heard about boxes flying out through the back doors of vans on the way to storage warehouses. The boxes hit the highway and paper flies everywhere and spreads for miles. That is a literal paper trail as well as a records manager’s nightmare.”

To ensure that your files aren’t misplaced in an off-site location, check the vendor’s indexing system. A responsible vendor won’t accept your materials for storage unless they are clearly labeled with your library name and other identifiers. Large vendors use bar coding to track each document box. Ideally the vendor will be able to tell you exactly where your records are at any time. Some customers use their vendor’s indexing system to compile a records inventory, and work with the vendor to develop retention schedules.

18.4 Additional services

Once you find a vendor whom you can trust, consider the ways that you can work together to manage your company’s records. Vendors can often provide a lot more than storage space for documents. Some will destroy and recycle old paper, or arrange for its conversion to digital formats. Some will assist you with your business continuity planning, and set up hot-sites and alternative space in case your administration offices are damaged or inaccessible. Many offer records management auditing services to discover any inefficiencies or security weaknesses.

Large vendors maintain data storage systems for clients who need to back up their electronic information off-site. Beginning in the 1970s, customers would store their tapes and disks in the vendor’s vaults, and some still do. But the current trend is to transmit data electronically to an off-site system in a secure location. That location may be in the same city as the client, or across the country, or on another continent. These days, collocation technology and the Internet allow clients to have multiple backup sites at a reasonable price.

Off-site storage of electronic data demands comprehensive security measures. Your firewalls and encryption must be current, high quality, and frequently audited if you are to avoid losing data to hackers. Your off-site data security systems should be strictly confidential, and known to only your senior IT managers. Materials related to security—for example, manuals—should be carefully locked away. You can be sure that hackers would enjoy browsing through them.

18.5 Contract or con man

Whatever you demand from an off-site vendor, include your terms in a contract. If you’re a new client, feel free to sign a contract for no more than one year, to see how well your vendor performs. Don’t agree to a longer period until you’re satisfied with the vendor’s service, facility maintenance standards, and prices. Insist on a cancelation clause. Above all, don’t compromise your library’s standards just because a vendor won’t agree to improving security measures at a warehouse or testing an electronic backup system. Remember that you and your vendor should work together so that you can derive the greatest benefit from your off-site storage agreement.

Or you can take your chances with a vendor like me. You’ve never visited my warehouse or asked me about its security systems. You don’t care about the water stains on the ceiling, or the rats, or the occasional loss of a document box. It doesn’t matter if a few records go missing, especially if they’re garbage. But sometimes they’re worth their weight in gold. Look at these borrower records you sent me accidentally. I’ve got a friend who puts together mailing lists—but you don’t want to hear about that.

Note: The names of persons quoted in this chapter have been changed to ensure privacy. And no, Mr. Robertson has not spent time in a Federal penitentiary. He remains at large.