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Our Records Management Services

Our Records Management Program staff in Chicago, Illinois and Dayton, Ohio have extensive archival and records management experience. We can help you in the areas listed below, often at no cost to your agency.

Identification and Appraisal of Records

Not sure whether something is a record? (For example, your website content, directives from your HQ, or non-solicited contract bids.) If many people have copies of a file in multiple computer drives, which one is the "real" record—if any? We can help you get to good answers.

Records Retention Schedules

Do you need help interpreting or using your agency schedule? Do you have records not covered in the schedule? Does the schedule contain retention periods that don't seem "right"? Are you uncertain what the law requires of records managers?

Records Schedule Implementation

Does your office have difficulty turning the theory of a records schedule into reality in the front line of business? We can help you with file plans and other tools to ensure your office is in compliance with agency recordkeeping requirements.

Records in Special Media

Not all records are on letter-size paper. Photographs, negatives, film, sound recordings, posters, maps, prints, and microfilm are just a few examples. We can offer advice about properly storing, protecting and scheduling these often overlooked records.

Records in Electronic Media

Many agency records are created digitally and never become paper. Are yours being kept for their full legal retention? Are they being kept too long, and leaving you open to FOIA burdens? Do you know where they are? Does digital imaging of your paper look attractive? We can help you sort through these problems and find the best solutions.

Records Management Training and Education

Check out our list of records management training courses, offered around the Great Lakes Region and the nation throughout the year for nominal fees. Any of these workshops can be tailored to your agency and its specific records management issues, and taught in the location of your choice.

Management Briefings

We can come and talk to your management staff about their records management responsibilities and ways they can ensure compliance with records management regulations.

Program Evaluation and Promotion

Would fresh eyes and ears be useful in helping you identify weak spots in your records management program? Could you use some ideas in marketing recordkeeping principles to your own staff: a "spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down"?

Disaster Preparedness

Are you ready if disaster strikes? Are your records protected? Will your business function come to a dead halt and will your office history be lost? Are your emergency plan and continuity of operations plan up to date? We can help.

Vital Records

If tonight a water main broke and tomorrow your office was under two feet of water, would you be able to continue agency business quickly? Your chances will be better if you have a good vital records program. We can help you craft one.