| So far you have learned that the new NARA regulations
have made you, as the e-mail user, responsible for properly retaining and
deleting e-mail records. So exactly what, you may be asking yourself, is
a record? And what is not a record. Federal records are defined in 44 U.S.C. 3301 and further clarified
in 36 CFR 1222.12 as follows:
All books, papers, maps, photographs, machine readable materials,
or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or
received by an agency of the United States Government under federal law or in connection
with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by
that agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions,
policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the government or
because of the informational value of data in them.
Whew! What a mouthful.
|
