NARA Bulletin 2006-02 Attachment 2

Policy for Effective and Comprehensive Management of

Electronic Records

December 15, 2005

ATTENTION! This page has been superseded. The information listed 

below is no longer accurate. For NARA's current guidance please visit 

 http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2010/2010-02.html. 

Please note that this page is available only as a technical and historical 

reference. 

Introduction

The Federal Records Act directs the Archivist of the United States to provide 

guidance and assistance to Federal agencies to ensure adequate and 

proper documentation of the policies and transactions of the Federal 

Government.

The E-Government Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-347) further directs the 

Archivist to issue policies to ensure that the Federal Records Act is applied 

effectively and comprehensively to Government information on the Internet 

and to other electronic records.

Existing Policy

To fulfill its statutory responsibilities, NARA regularly promulgates records 

management policy to ensure adequate and proper documentation of the 

policies and transactions of the Federal Government. Current records 

management policy is available at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/

The following are links to significant records management policy and 

practical guidance for electronic records, including web records.

Web Records:

NARA Guidance for Managing Web Records (January 2005) 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/managing-web-recordsindex.html

Other Electronic Records

• Enterprise-Wide ERM 

• Methodology for Determining Agency-unique Requirements 

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mgmt/policy/requirements-guidance.html

• Coordinating the Evaluation of Capital Planning and Investment 

Control (CPIC) Proposals for ERM Applications (June 23, 2003) 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/cpic-guidance.html

• Recommended Practice: Evaluating Commercial Off-the-Shelf 

(COTS) Electronic Records Management (ERM) Applications 

(November 30, 2005) http://www.archives.gov/recordsmgmt/policy/cots-eval-guidance.html

• Guidance for Building an Effective Enterprise-wide Electronic 

Records Management (ERM) Governance Structure (available 

December 30, 2005 at http://www.archives.gov/recordsmgmt/policy/governance-guidance.html) 

• Electronic Information Management Standards 

• NARA Bulletin 2003-03, Endorsement of DoD Electronic Records 

Management Application (RMA) Design Criteria Standard, version 2 

(January 15, 2003) http://www.archives.gov/recordsmgmt/bulletins/2003/2003-03.html

• Transfer permanent electronic records to NARA 

• Transfer Instructions for Permanent Electronic Records: Web 

Content Records (September 17, 2004) 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/web-contentrecords.html

• Transfer Instructions for Permanent Electronic Records: Digital 

Geospatial Data Records (April 9, 2004) 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/digital-geospatialdata-records.html

• Transfer Instructions for Permanent Electronic Records: Digital 

Photographic Records (November 12, 2003) 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/digital-photorecords.html

• Transfer Instructions for Permanent Electronic Records in Portable 

Document Format (PDF) (March 31, 2003) 

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• Transfer Instructions for Existing Scanned Images of Textual 

Records (December 23, 2002) http://www.archives.gov/recordsmgmt/initiatives/scanned-textual.html

• Transfer Instructions for Existing E-mail Messages with 

Attachments September 30, 2002) http://www.archives.gov/recordsmgmt/initiatives/email-attachments.html

• NARA Guidance on Electronic Signatures 

• Records Management Guidance for Agencies Implementing 

Electronic Signature Technologies http://www.archives.gov/recordsmgmt/policy/electronic-signature-technology.html

• Records Management Guidance For PKI-Unique Administrative 

Records http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/pkiguidance.html

• Records Management Guidance for PKI Digital Signature 

Authenticated and Secured Transaction Records 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/pki.html 

Future Tools, Policy, and Requirements 

Toolkit for Managing Electronic Records (ERM Toolkit). The ERM Toolkit 

will be developed as an organized portal where a collection of proven ERM 

guidance tools such as case studies, best practice documents, process 

models, policies and directives, tips and techniques, training programs, 

lessons learned, presentations, and other practical tools that can be used by 

Federal agencies to promote and implement effective management of 

Government information on the Internet and other electronic records.

An initial proof-of-concept will be deployed in March 2006, with subsequent 

tools and capabilities added thereafter. NARA-developed guidance outlined 

below will be available in the ERM Toolkit. 

Records Management Profile and Records Management Service 

Components With a wide variety of stakeholders, NARA will develop policy 

and conceptual products to support Federal agencies in building records 

management requirements into IT systems creating electronic records. 

These include: 

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• Records Management Profile. The Records Management Profile is a 

framework that overlays, or cross-cuts, the inter-related Federal 

Enterprise Architecture (FEA) reference models: the Business Reference 

Model, the Service Component Reference Model, the Technical 

Reference Model, the Data Reference Model, and the Performance 

Reference Model. The Records Management Profile explains how the 

reference models provide a context for embedding effective records 

management practices into agency business processes.

Developed in concert with the Office of Management Budget (OMB) and 

other stakeholders, this guidance will be available in FY 2006. 

• Records Management Service Components (RMSC). In FY 2005, 

NARA led an effort with records management, counsel, IT, and program 

management leaders from eighteen Federal agencies that identified 

functional requirements for records management within a componentsbased architecture. An RMSC is a piece of software that provides 

services that support the creation, management, transfer, and destruction 

of electronic records within a components-based or service-oriented 

computing environment.

In FY 2006, NARA will invite back representatives from the eighteen 

participating agencies to review industry responses to a Request for 

Information (RFI) about the seven components currently identified to 

support records management in a components-based architecture and to 

finalize the requirements. The results of this activity will eventually be 

registered in the CORE repository and may be used by integrators 

assisting agencies deploying component-based or service-oriented 

architectures.

Increasing Awareness of Records Management Considerations in the 

Professional Services and IT Services Community. Although OMB and 

NARA have issued policies and guidance on statutory records management 

requirements, in further clarification of 36 CFR §1222.48, NARA will broaden 

and increase records management considerations in professional services 

and IT system procurements by: 

• Providing professional services providers (GSA Schedule Mission 

Oriented Business Integration Services (MOBIS) providers) criteria and 

standards to ensure statutory and regulatory Federal records 

management requirements are accounted for in the business solutions 

they provide to Federal agencies that affect or result in the creation of 

Federal electronic records. This work will be completed by October 1, 

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• Providing IT service providers (GSA Schedule 70 providers) criteria 

and standards to ensure statutory and regulatory Federal records 

management requirements are accounted for in IT systems creating 

electronic records in the transaction of Federal Government business. 

This work will be completed by October 1, 2008. 

Identification, Preservation, and Continued Access to Permanently 

Valuable Electronic Records. To ensure the identification, preservation, 

and continued access to Government information on the Internet and to 

other electronic records, NARA will develop policy for managing permanent 

or potentially permanent electronic records generated in Federal agencies. 

In addition to developing the tools outlined above and continuing general 

work on NARA regulations and guidance, NARA will develop:

• Concise, public-use versions of criteria in NARA 1441, Appraisal 

Policy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

• Concise articulations of NARA's permanent records priorities based on 

our government wide resource allocation results, identifying the Federal 

Enterprise Architecture, Business Reference Model, Services to Citizens 

areas (Lines of Business) that NARA is most concerned with.

• Self-analysis checklists for Federal agencies to use to identify and 

report on:

• the major government information systems resources that they 

are responsible for that generate permanent or potentially 

permanent electronic records; and 

• the general, high-level technical requirements Federal agencies 

must meet to manage their permanent or potentially permanent 

electronic records.

The agency self-analysis would include the NARA 1441 and the resource 

allocation criteria, as well as technical evaluation based on the Records 

Management Profile. 

These tools will allow agencies to help Federal agencies and NARA identify 

and manage the electronic records that need to be preserved for access and 

use by future generations. This work will be completed by October 1, 2007. 

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NARA Bulletin 2006-02

NARA Bulletin 2006-02 - Attachment 1

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