The art of managing your files

Perhaps you’ve run out of file space. Maybe you can’t find that report you know you wrote last year. Or you’ve completed a grant project and you’re not sure which files to keep and which ones to toss. Each of these three problems – and many others – can be solved by records management. Now, the University’s Records Management Office (RMO) is offering two new one-session training programs that will assist University personnel in managing Harvard’s business records. Each program, offered at intervals throughout the year, is formatted as a brown-bag lunch – with beverages and desserts provided by RMO – held in the Harvard University Archives, located in Pusey Library in Harvard Yard.

The first program, intended for managers and department heads, defines records management and provides an overview of policies at Harvard that govern the management, retention, and destruction of University records. Sessions are currently scheduled for noon on Nov. 20 and Jan. 30.

The second program is a nuts-and-bolts presentation for personnel who are cleaning out an office or who are involved generally in sending records to either the records center or the archives. This program presupposes a familiarity with the concept of records schedules. Accordingly, participants will concentrate on the mechanics of paperwork, packing, shipping, and retrieving records from the records center, and, ultimately, disposing of them. This program is offered at six-week intervals in the University Archives and is set for noon with sessions on the following Thursdays: Nov. 7, Dec. 12, Jan. 23, March 6, and April 17.

In addition, the RMO will schedule additional sessions of either program onsite, or tailor a program to fit the needs of individual University programs or departments with special records management needs.

To learn more about the RMO and the University’s records management program, visit the RMO Web site at http://hul.harvard.edu/rmo or contact the RMO at (617) 495-5961 or rmo@hulmail.harvard.edu.