Excluded are copies of bills, hearings, and statutes held for convenient reference. Similar records maintained below the departmental level may or may not be permanent depending on their content and relationship to records of the departmental counsel. Formal Directives, Procedural Issuances, and Operating Manuals Relating to Program Functions. Formal directives are distributed as orders, circulars, or manuals announcing major changes in the agency's policies and procedures. Normally these are issued by authority of the agency's head.
Extensive procedures are frequently detailed in lengthy operating manuals.
NARA generally designates as permanent those formal directives, procedural issuances, and operating manuals relating to program functions, but generally not those relating to routine administrative, or housekeeping, functions. Selected Evaluations of Internal Operations. These are studies conducted to determine the effectiveness of the procedures adopted to achieve established policy goals. Audit case files are generally excluded. Only those studies recommending significant changes in policies and procedures merit preservation.