Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> Thank you for joining us for Permanent Records Issues Series Number 1
Access Restrictions.
This is a records management seminar delivered by the United States National Archives
and Records Administrations National Records Management Training Program.
In this session Jack Kabrel and Michael Baimbridge discuss access restrictions,
their importance and impact on the transfer of permanent records to the National Archives.
Now let's join the seminar.
>> Now let's pass it over to Jeff to get us started.
>> Okay thank you Paulette.
This is Jeff Benson, Paulette and I, are with the training group
at the National Archives and Records Administration.
Today's session is part of the series
that the permanent records capture folks are doing for us.
Today's topic is an encore on access restriction.
For those of you who are familiar with the National Archives
and Records Administration you know that we have let's call it the archives,
the part that makes us the National Archives.
And the whole purpose of having an archives is to bring in the permanent records
of the Federal Government and make them available to researchers.
Sometimes as you will hear from Michael and Jack, sometimes it's important
that the National Archives work with their customers agencies.
Develop any access restrictions that there might be.
And they'll talk about that in this particular session.
The best part about the session is that both Jack and Michael have been practitioners
in records management for many, many years.
They worked for a lot of different organizations.
Jack for example, very much active in the state of New Jersey.
He was at Rutgers University where he got his library science degree.
He worked processing with some congressional papers and archival selections there.
He started a records management program in the large municipality of New Jersey.
Eventually he became a member of the National Archives several years ago and now he works
at the Permanent Records Capture Team.
So that's Jack.
Michael on the other hand you'll be able to pick up right away is not
from New Jersey, he's from Texas.
Michael is a Senior Records Analyst here at the National Archives, prior to coming here,
if I was to read his resume it would take the full 60 minutes so I'm not going to do that.
But he holds accommodations the Houston airport system, University Texas Medical Branch,
FEMA certified master continuity practitioner, tons of qualifications on Michael as well so.
They're great presenters, I think you're really going to enjoy the session
with that I'm going to turn it over to Michael.
>> Thanks Jeff.
And again welcome everybody, permanent records this is Series Number 1.
Why are we here?
Well the National Archives is an independent agency under the executive branch
of government responsible for the protection and preservation of historical records.
As a by-product or product of your agencies operations you'll either create
or you'll receive records.
Some records are temporary meaning at some point
and time you'll have legal authority to dispose of them.
And some records are permanent which means at some point
and time you'll have a legal responsibility in order to be compliant obligation to turn
over those permanent records to the National Archives where we bring them in,
we process them, we put them into a preservation type environment.
We make them ready for public consumption for use for historians,
genealogists, researchers, what have you.
However, by virtue of what we do on our various agencies sometimes we have certain access
restrictions that must go along, coincide with the nature of the records themselves.
So we're going to be talking about that.
Jack and I are a part of the permanent records capture section here at the National Archives.
We have both internal and external customers.
Our internal customers are going to be the people on the archives side of the house
who so desperately seeking to bring your historical records in.
And then you know the opposite side of the house is
where the customer agency you have permanent records
but you don't know if I can get rid of them yet.
How do I get rid of them?
How do I turn them over to you guys?
Are there any kind of special requirements.
And what we're doing here is trying to make things just a little bit easier for both you
and for us when it comes to turning over permanent records with these restrictions so.
We are here to help educate you as records managers.
It's about with permanent records.
And the issues that we at National Archives are confirming with and the point
and time the records are being transferred from the federal records center side of the house
or upon direct to offer to the national archives.
Currently clearly sits the records are being transferred as open, that's one problem
or has everybody heard of that FOIA?
Okay, freedom information Act Request.
Essentially anybody in the world can request information from the federal government
and so there's certain things that we do or we create data information record wise
that not just anybody can have access to.
So what we're seeing is a lot of folks
and agencies well it's got one exclusion it's got one exemption.
I'm going to put every provision down possible.
I'm going to cite it off.
Well I'm not going to cite anything yet off.
So if improper identification class records as well doing the transfer
which is creating a backlog for the term
that we use accessioning permanent records in the archives.
Accessioning simply means bringing them in, processing them,
getting them organized and ready for consumption.
And they classify records being transferred in unclassified series.
Now there's a security violation and we will and do report that to the national archives.
So we have a variety of things going on here and we're going to touch on all of those.
So post 9-11 we had an increase in sensitive records being sent to the National Archives.
We started looking at things a little bit differently
in the federal government entities that we are.
A lot of agencies had started transferring younger records it's not just stuff that sits
on the shelf for 20 or 30 years they're offering it a little bit sooner.
So after 9-11 the National Archives route considered what should be defined as records
of concern, personally identifiable information, addresses, phone numbers, building designs,
drawings laid out of lithographs, things along those lines.
As a result a greater percentage of incoming in our sessions we find contain sensitivities
and should not be served to the public prior to screening.
Well you know your records better than we do.
You're the ones that build, design, include engineers.
We're the historians.
We're the preservationists.
So identifying what records you have, understanding their sensitivities,
or their classifications, or their restrictions.
They're crucial on your part which is once it comes to us we're relying upon you
to tell us you know what these restrictions are
and potentially how long they should be in effect.
So it's helping us to help you, a little life cycle.
I create the record.
I use the record.
I'm going to box it up and make sure that it says sensitive and then I'm going to ship it off
to the records got it, packed it up sensitive and I've got it
in a commercial records center or I've got it in the archives.
It's a six step process and we're going to see these,
this process, look up and read it later on.
But essentially step 2 is the standard form 135.
If you go to www.archives.gov/frc you're going to see a pdf of a 135.
For those of you who are kind of old school like me,
the 135 was a hardcopy it had it on the front and back.
Electronically it's two separate files.
So you would find the restriction codes and classifications on the actual back of the form
or in the second digital document that's posted on the website.
Another thing that we're going to be looking at a little bit later on and Jack's going to jump
in and help me out with this is we're going to look at transfer request.
Transfer request is looking at electronic records archives.
So we're talking about the places where you would find the restrictions
and Jack will show you where you can find the restrictions as well.
So moving on.
Show of hands how many have transferred classified records or access restricted records
to a Federal records center or to the National Archives?
Did you identify them on the on the 135 or the transfer request appropriately?
Or at least you think you did?
How did you know that they were classified?
So Nancy says content.
Was that based upon something that the appropriate manager told you,
the project manager somebody that FOIA officer told you?
Although Nancy I know you're very familiar with your records.
Did you look at your retention schedule?
How did you know?
You didn't just wake up in the morning and poof I know.
A stamp by a classified military person now that's pretty indicative okay.
Family accuracy files.
For the rest of you do you put on their stamps on their folders?
FOIA. With whatever their exclusion is?
Person's task okay.
Let's give you some scenarios coming up.
We have three different scenarios.
The good, the bad or the gray.
Bob Jones is six months from retirement and needs to transfer five boxes
of permanent records to Federal Records Center
that would eventually end up at the National Archives.
He's not sure exactly what's in the boxes but was told to they were confidential.
Jenny who's his coworker created the boxes and works in the Admin office,
but she's on six months maternity leave and will not be back into the office before Bob retires.
Bob decided to go ahead and fill out the 135 and check off C for confidential
because he doesn't know the security classification and has nobody to ask.
So he figures better safe than sorry.
What else could Bob have done please respond in the chat box.
Yes he could talk to general counsel.
Could have consulted with the National Archives.
Could've looked in the box.
Could've called Jenny.
Yeah. Consulted with the records officer.
All good answers.
Okay so what else could he had done?
You hit a lot of them right on the nail.
He could've looked up Jenny and called her.
There's nothing to, no protocol on her while she's on maternity leave.
Hey Jenny what are these records I'm getting ready to retire?
Could've contacted his manger or also contacted the B classification person.
Yes especially if you have national security records.
He could've searched in ARCIS, that's the records center platform for all your transfers
for previous records that were retired under the same disposition number.
He could've been a little more accurate on the 135.
If your records pertain a national security information you have
to complete the restrictions section on the 135.
He could enter C for confidential or T for top seeker.
Well note that the coach QRW which are listed back on the 135 should no longer be used.
If you designate a national security classification you must also indicate whether
the records is designated as Code E I'm sorry, restricted data or formerly restricted data.
If you have questions on that in the handout
that we have we have some links to some executive orders.
EO 1235 and 13292.
At the agency's request federal record centers can store non-national security classified
records at the end vault storage for an additional fee
and if there are no special restrictions on the record you can designate code N or just leave
that section blank so we pretty much hit it really well.
So the steps for properly transferring restricted records pre review transfers
for the upcoming cycle in ARCIS.
So you know what's on them in the pipeline ready to go.
Your reports for the Federal Records Center account reps on holdings
and future transfers or the August spreadsheet.
Identify your records to be transferred using your agency record schedule.
Review the accompanied or make sure that you have a box list completed or 135.
Check that the records that you want to identify for transfer either restricted or non-restricted
by referring to your agency records officer in Washington D.C.
or wherever your headquarters is located.
Talk to your agency FOIA officer.
Make sure you have all pertinent information.
Are there any kinds of exclusions I want you to keep in mind any type of penalties
or we can talk to general counsel.
And if you suspect that classified records might be part of the transfer do a physical inspection
of the boxes or sample box request.
Because once it comes to the records center back in the day we used
to have vaults that regional record centers.
Now we only have two locations.
So if you've got classified materials that you sent in
or that are comingled and we don't know about it.
And you know let's pretend that it's 10, 15, 20 years down the line and you're ready
to do a transfer and one of our [inaudible] technicians GS2,
GS3 just walked pulling your records out for you to help facilitate that transfer
from your agency to the National Archives.
They open up the box and they see classified materials.
It's like the wheels fell off the wagon.
Everything comes to a complete screeching halt.
They have to go through and contact [inaudible].
We have to go through a report to you guys and let the investigations
on your side, investigations on our side.
So we want to make sure we're all sending the appropriate kind
of records to the record center.
And when you transfer the records number A to the archives in giving that ERA beware
of the access restriction section.
And Jack will highlight this for you in some upcoming slides.
Make sure you choose the appropriate access restrictions from the dropdown menu.
And when in doubt don't guess.
Just in case for those of you who have been in some of my records management trainings before.
It's not a retention period and in just in case it's not an excuse
for highlighting every single classification and/or exception, exclusion or exemption.
Know what your records are.
Talk to the folks that create them.
So another little scenario, the gray after doing a pre review query in ARCIS Kathy realizes
that 20 boxes of permanent records will be eligible for transfer
from the Federal Records Center to the National Archives.
The records are 20 years old and contain a subject level box list that has 2 entries.
Box 1 subject file 1989.
Box 2 subject file 1990.
Complimenting her agencies impeccable management program and the well written and extensive 135,
Kathy determines that the 20 boxes of records that are
up for transfer did not contain classified or access restricted information.
Please type in into the chat what else could she have done.
I've got a couple of folks that said check the box.
And yes Nancy only certain agencies and offices can handle national security information.
Check with the department of the files.
Review the content to verify.
Look through the 2 boxes.
Check the box list.
There is no box list.
Look for an inventory list.
Okay. Yeah.
So kind of preemptively I'm going to put a flag in we will be having Series 3.
Is it 3 Jack box list or is it going to be 4?
I believe that probably going to be 4 yeah.
Okay so forthcoming hopefully before the end of the fiscal year or if not before the end
of the fiscal year, the new fiscal year we will be having a free briefing box lists
for permanent records.
That's the thing subject files, subject files don't tell you anything.
What if there was a bunch of personnel records, okay subject personnel records A
to Z you don't have any idea until you go through and look
at every single folder who's in there.
So she should have created a folder level box list.
And she could have went to FRC to check the boxes or she could've had the boxes pulled back
from FRC for review of her location.
Got a good proper index inventory and you're ready to go.
She did two of the key things that we're talking about for the break and we'll make sure
that they're classified in access restrictions and the next thing is we need
to have a good detailed list of what's in the boxes, 1989 that was a good year so was 1990
but I don't recall everything we did.
And for those of you who put check with the program office, project office.
Yes, yes you definitely should.
Okay. So access restricted records common to most agencies typical year records of the head
and deputy head of the organization or agency.
Any type of records containing PII, Personally Identifiable Information that could be name
and social, name and employee number, name and phone number, home addresses.
Criminal civil litigation case files you know counsel inspected general records.
And we send a business or regulatory litigation, confidential business information, grant files,
civilian contracts and civilian R and D files.
Is this list complete?
No. This is just an example of some of the ones that we see common in most agencies
that come into the National Archives.
So a show of hands how many people recognize these series types?
Now if you can think of any other types of classified kind of records that you may have
or that might exist go ahead and type those into the chat box real quick.
There's no confidential trade -- .
Yes. Water well information.
Yes. What is?
Okay, we live in a world of acronyms.
What is EPI and PHI?
Personal Health Information.
Yes medical DE received, solicitation.
Protected Health Information.
Yes. So there's a variety of things out there and if you see any applicant data.
Yes. Anything that can associate or tie back to the specificity of the individual.
Personally identify the information you know a lot of stuff that may be accurate
like all the people from age 35 to 45 that probably wouldn't be personally identifiable
because there's usually a pool of folks from 35 to 45.
Environmental protection information okay.
Cute little cartoon.
Here's the government.
Private. Go Away, yet we're trying to celebrate 30 years of access from freedom of information.
Private. Go Away, don't restrict everything if the restriction is not supposed to be there.
Don't slap that classification on there if it's not applicable.
We've all heard of open government.
Yes, yes. Manual time cards and social security numbers will be classified
as personable identifiable information.
Moving ahead we've got a lot to get examples.
So let's talk real quick about some of the exemptions that we see.
I don't want to put one importance over another
but the most important citations are the ones that we have highlighted in red.
B1, national security information and confidential, secret, topic secret,
secret compartment information, RD, FRD, [inaudible] agency rules and practices,
exempted records, disclosure by statute, grand jury, tax information, wiretap information.
You'll see these like in the FBI, [inaudible], secret service, IRS and most components of DOJ.
The next, B4 trade seekers and commercial or financial information, business regulation,
litigation, case files for EPA, the FCC,
Food and Drug Administration, other regulatory agencies.
B5, inter and intra agency memoranda it's rarely used by the National Archives
but it's delivered it, processed, privileged,
attorney work product privileged, attorney client privileged.
B6, information that would invade the privacy of a living individual.
An example medical files, you guys already get a bunch of these,
social security, financial information.
Personnel files.
Any folder by surname.
Visa, naturalization, adoption information, home addresses if they're less than 30 years old,
you'll see a lot of this within FBI, DEA, HDF some in DOJ Peace Corps., Inspector General,
General Counsel, Head of Agency files things along those lines.
B7, information or illegal law enforcement investigations, privacy, source protection,
techniques and procedures, protection of information that release of the life
of an individual, you'll find these in most of your law enforcement,
you come to an inspector general and general counsel.
You may even find some in the department of education, [inaudible].
B8, information relating to financial institutions, banking information.
B9, geological, geophysical information relating to, somebody said water wells earlier yes.
Okay so next scenario.
After doing a pre review query in ARCIS Matt realizes that 15 boxes
of permanent records are going to be eligible to transfer
to the Federal Records Center to the National Archives.
He's only been on this job 6 months and not aware of previous level of RM quality in agency.
He relies on both the permanent records box list and the 135 for information
since the box list only goes to the subject level
and not to the folder level he can't make an accurate determination
on whether the 15 boxes contain classified or sensitive records.
He decides to visit the Federal Records Center since its located only 25 miles north
of his agency to personally review the records.
Upon personal review of the 15 boxes he determines
that the records contain general counsel and inspector general records in addition
to personally identifiable information.
Matt determines to fill out the access restriction part of the transfer request that's
in ERA that's using B6 and B7 so if we jump back real quick B6,
info that would invade a living person's privacy.
B7, law enforcement, that sounds pretty good.
But what else could Matt have done?
Put it in B5?
Inter Intra agency.
Make the folder title lift very good.
Ask his general counsel, yes.
That very first [inaudible] only six months on the job.
He maybe a savant every piece of knowledge that he needs to know
about that records management he's only been on the job six months.
Yes he needs a good box lift and he needs to talk to staff.
Talk to previous staff.
Ask questions, yes.
He can go through and he make some determinations but ask people.
Talk to the Freedom of Information Act Request people.
Talk to general counsel, talk to the program people, we don't know exactly
where these permanent records are which program they,
but asking questions did not a bad yes it works.
I want to make sure you only cite the specific exemptions that you need to
but pretty much Matt did a pretty good job.
So that's practice, again you know your records better than we do at the National Archives.
You should also know your schedule and know your access restrictions.
You should have a good working relationship with FOIA person at headquarters
and if you're not the FOIA person where you are, where's the FOIA person where you are.
It should be relatively easy.
How many people here have file plans?
Raise your hands or put yes.
We have a file plan for our records, I've got a thumbs up, I've got green, I've got hands up.
A file plan could you not put your fully exemptions on that?
Make it really simple.
You should have file plans and when you're unsure check with your agency records officer,
check with your security officer if classified records are transferred
in unclassified series it's a security violation,
we don't comingle our classified and unclassified.
It's just like when you send boxes
to the records center you don't mix temporary varied retention periods
and you definitely don't mix temporary with permanent.
If a proper folder level box list does not accompany the permanent transfer you're going
to need to create one.
Remember it's my agency the National Archives, well not mine personally I just work for them.
So the national archives responsibility to promote access to records,
that's our mission to make records available.
With that being said we understand that some records are still sensitive
and we will honor those sensitivities when they're documented appropriately.
Once they're transferred NARA is not going to consult
with the agency except for classified records.
All releases are at NARA's discretion.
And NARA doesn't make any kind of separate access agreements.
It costs taxpayers money.
If an agency sends 200 cubic feet of records to NARA that are mixed with classified records it's
up to the agencies responsibility to separate them.
And everybody in here is a taxpayer and everybody in here if your agency receives monies
from tax base so if you classify everything or stamp everything restricted it's going
to take extra time either on your agencies side or on my agencies side
to go through and clean things up.
We're wasting our own money.
Do it right the first time.
Don't want to waste taxpayer dollars.
Okay. So show of hands, how many people have a better understanding of access restrictions?
They need to be adamant about the process when you go through to transfer records.
Make sure that you're documenting them correctly.
Okay some of you folks have given up on me but that's okay.
Not as many hands as we used to have.
I'm now going to turn the briefing over to Jack Kabrel.
He's going to briefly show us some components
within the electronic records archives for when we do TR's.
Jack.
>> Thank you Michael.
I appreciate it.
Hello everybody.
I'm not a mute I hope.
No I'm not very good.
Awesome Michael thank you for that presentation it was very good.
Yes. I'm, not that I'm an expert at ERA because I'm not.
That's not my field but it does come up obviously when we want to transfer
or when the National Archives when accessing those records
from the records center into the archives themselves.
It used to be when we used to fill out an old 258 now we must go through ERA
which is the Electronic Record Archive.
And our 258 is now what we would call a TR which would be a transfer request right.
So that being the case we have a slide up here that gives you an idea and I'm going
to share my desktop with you okay so don't everybody freak out by sharing it I kind
of have control of your computer.
What's the difference between classified and access restriction mean?
Classified usually means the national security type records
like the types of classified records.
Ones that we would be referring to confidential or secret or top secret.
All right that would be considered your classified records
and then you would have the access restricted records.
And the second key term is access restricted.
It's unclassified but sensitive records right?
And I know somebody in the chat box had was had chatted a little bit
about those sensitive records.
And will be controlled as unclassified information which would be CUI and that would be
that thing that Michael was chatting about and mentioning with FOIA right,
personally identifiable information,
confidential business information, CBI stuff right?
Law enforcement, banking information, statutory and record of records of concern,
but just to clarify that I just wanted to mention that before we got into some slides
of Power Point, I mean well PDF slides of ERA that I wanted to show you.
So here what you have is basically a larger version of the slide that you have
as part of our presentation today.
This comes from the ERA manual which I will give you the links to in a brief bit
and I'll show you how to access ERA information.
And what's going to happen is when you're sitting at your desk and you realize
that a notice comes to you saying you have records that are still
in the federal records center that are permanent, that now have to go be transferred
into or sectioned into the national archives.
You will have to go into ERA and you will have to identify those records and you will come
across a screen like this that will have access restriction on it.
And this screen is based on the information that we're giving here today.
And that information will have, you'll come up with this screen
and it will have a dropdown menu right here that'll have access restriction status right.
Now you have a few statuses that you could possibly pass
in that dropdown menu, one would be fully right.
All those records in the transfer are fully accessed or fully restricted.
Then you have partly restricted which are some records in the transfer are restricted
and possibly restricted which means some records
in the transfer maybe restricted either transferring records
from the records center into the National Archives.
So then it'll come up with if you pick any of the top 3, the fully, partly or possibly.
Then you will have a screen that will pop up and that will be specific access restrictions
so it's asking for more information.
Each time it asks for more information.
So here you would actually make a selection and you choose from the list of available options
and may choose more than one restriction here which was a question
that was in the chat box earlier.
And that will be under specific access restrictions right.
And so then if for this field here is security classified that field becomes active
when a specific access restriction over here to the left when you choose
that box is related to a security classification.
So if you picked a security classification of confidential secret or top secret right.
Those classified records that identified under the key terms then this box will come up
and it'll ask you which classification you're referring to.
And so under here you'll see special marking now that box becomes active
when you enter a FOIA B1 national security labelling, when you,
up here when you see specific access.
When it says B1 national security, a special markings box will pop up and then you'll have
to choose from that and you'll choose from the list of available options there as well.
So and then the last one here which will be the statutory citation field becomes active
when FOIA B3 is statute of special access restrictions is selected.
So just so you know that this is what you'll be looking at when you transfer those records
from your FRC into the National Archives.
You'll have this one section for access restriction.
Now I'm just going to, the last thing I'll share with you before we move on because we do want
to get to the Q and A part, is the site where you can copy out a manuals for yourself
which will have this information for you as well as screenshots.
So if you go to archives.gov you can get general information that will lead you
to the federal records and into the national archives
or in our case here, records management.
So I'm going to stop sharing this screen right now and we'll finish up with our presentation.
But this is just to give you an idea of what will be happening when you get to ERA
and the specific access restrictions involved there.
So for more information here is the links here to ERA to the acessessioning records,
agency record officers and ARCIS itself right ARCIS is for the 135.
For information for the records center
and for upcoming briefings okay I included an origin here I didn't have to do that.
I guess I didn't change it right.
But here is some of the information here.
We will be having a special box list that will be actually Series Number 4
because Series Number 3 that we have will be for the presidential memoranda and that will be
in May, but that hasn't been decided yet exactly.
So that will be the upcoming briefing Paulette may want to speak a little more about that.
Who can help you?
FOIA officer of course and your records officer and then we can also help.
A special access group here, we have a representative here from special access today,
David Painter and he'll be helping out with the Q and A section.
So if you do have any specific questions about today's presentation
or about your records David might be able to help you or he will be able
to at the very least point you to the right direction
or possibly get back to with information.
And also the permanent record capture team which Michael has said to you that we are a part of
and it's a great team and we try to get permanent records
into the national archives so that's our function.
So I'll leave it open to Q and A but thanks everybody for coming.
>> Carol let's have the [inaudible] that you have.
You might want to do a sampling if you get like 300 boxes that are ready to be offered
to the National Archives and call back 10 percent, call back 30 boxes or call back 5 boxes
if all 5 boxes look perfect and match up to your box list then you probably should be good to go.
If you've got some problems then you may want to over time go back to try and clean things up.
Okay ERA is used for Access Restriction Records, it's used for all records being sent
to the National Archives and ARCIS is the 135 yes.
>> I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Jack Kabrel,
Mr. Michael Baimbridge for their presentation today.
It was very informative and I really appreciate it.
I would also like to thank all of you for signing on today.
>> Thank you for joining us.
We hope you've found this seminar useful.
For more information about the U.S. National Records Management Training Program please visit
www.archives.gov also our current workshop scheduled for both face to face
and web based training is available online at nara.learn.com.