Government Records Branch of North Carolina

Introduction

The identification of electronic records in an approved records retention and disposition schedule is required. This includes electronic databases, electronic mail, and all other records created and maintained in electronic format by all state and local offices in North Carolina. Please contact your agency's Records Management Analyst for assistance in identifying electronic records within your section.

The Government Records Branch offers a workshop on the management of electronic public records. The presentation covers such topics as public access, legal acceptance, security, and backups.

Related Links

• Protect Your DVDs and CDs (pdf)

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Electronic Records Guidelines

General Guidelines

• File Formats Guidelines for Management and Long-Term Retention of Electronic Records (pdf)
• File Formats for Transfer of Electronic Records to the State Archives of North Carolina (pdf)
• Best Practices for Cloud Computing: Records Management Considerations (pdf)
• Best Practices for Digital Preservation (pdf)
• Best Practices for File-Naming (pdf)
• Digital Preservation Tutorials - Digital Preservation Education for North Carolina State Government Employees
  • Naming Digital Files, Part 1: Why is File Naming Important? (YouTube video)
  • Naming Digital Files, Part 2: How to Change a File Name (YouTube video)
  • Naming Digital Files, Part 3: What Not to Do When Naming Files (YouTube video)
  • Naming Digital Files, Part 4: Best Practices for File Naming (YouTube video)
• Human-Readable Preservation Duplicates (pdf)
• North Carolina Guidelines for Managing Public Records Produced by Information Technology Systems
• Public Database Indexing Guidelines
• Security Backup Files as Public Records In North Carolina: Guidelines for the Recycling, Destruction, Erasure, and Re-use of Security Backup Files (pdf)
• Managing Electronic Public Records: Recognizing Perils and Avoiding Pitfalls (online tutorial)
• Metadata as a Public Record in North Carolina: Best Practices Guidelines for Its Retention and Disposition (pdf)

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Data Transfer Guidelines

• Bagger GUI User Guide (pdf) – A user-friendly alternative to the command line BagIt tool
• BagIt User Guide - SAN Bagging: How to Install and Use the BagIt Library to Create and Validate Bags (pdf)
• BagIt Quick Summary (pdf)
• YouTube Videos (Complete YouTube Playlist for BagIt Tutorials):
  1. BagIt Tutorial #1: Introduction (1 of 10) - 10 minutes
  2. BagIt Tutorial #2 (2.1-2.2): Installing BagIt: Intro to Installing BagIt, Installing JRE (2 of 10) - 11 minutes
  3. BagIt Tutorial #2 (2.3): Installing BagIt: Configuring the JAVA_HOME env variable (3 of 10) - 9 minutes
  4. BagIt Tutorial #2 (2.4): Installing BagIt: Installing the BagIt Program (4 of 10) - 9 minutes
  5. BagIt Tutorial #3 (3.1): Creating/Verifying Bag: Introduction (5 of 10) - 5 minutes
  6. BagIt Tutorial #3 (3.2): Creating/Verifying Bag: Demonstrate Create/Verify a Bag (6 of 10) - 15 minutes
  7. BagIt Tutorial #3 (3.3): Creating/Verifying Bag: Verification errors, Transfer a Bag, Conclusions (7 of 10) - 9 minutes
  8. BagIt Tutorial #4 (4.1): Retrieving/Verifying/Unpacking Bags: Introduction (8 of 10) - 7 minutes
  9. BagIt Tutorial #4 (4.2): Retrieving/Verifying/Unpacking Bags: Demonstrate Retrieve/Verify a Bag (9 of 10) - 15 minutes
  10. BagIt Tutorial #4 (4.3): Retrieving/Verifying/Unpacking Bags: Verification errors, Unpack a Bag, Conclusions (10 of 10) - 12 minutes

Electronic Communications (E-mail, text messaging, etc.)

• E-mail as a Public Record in North Carolina: A Policy for Its Retention and Disposition (pdf)
• Guidelines for E-mail as a Public Record in North Carolina: Tips and Tricks for Using Microsoft Exchange Software to Manage E-mail (pdf)
• Managing Your Inbox: E-mail as a Public Record (online tutorial)
• Best Practices for Electronic Communications Usage in North Carolina: Text and Instant Message (pdf)
• Best Practices for Electronic Communications Usage in North Carolina: Guidelines for Implementing a Strategy for Text and Instant Messages (pdf)

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Web Site Guidelines

• Program, Standards and Procedures Documents
  • Best Practices for Social Media Usage in North Carolina (pdf)
    1. Best Practices for Local Government Social Media Usage in North Carolina (pdf)
    2. Best Practices for State Agency Social Media Usage in North Carolina - Revised March 2012 (pdf)
    3. Tutorials: Social Media Usage in North Carolina State Government (YouTube videos)
       1. Introduction (Tutorial 1)
       2. Implementation (Tutorial 2)
       3. Acceptable Use (Tutorial 3)
       4. Security (Tutorial 4)
       5. Preservation and Records Retention (Tutorial 5)
  • Collection Procedures for State Government Web Sites Using Archive-It (pdf)
  • Program for Maintaining and Preserving Records of Web-Based Activities (pdf)
  • Standard for Automated Web Site Capture (pdf)

• Procedures for Manual Collection of Web-Based Activities (pdf)
• Web Site Content Assessment Table (pdf)
• Web Site Description Form (pdf)
• Web Site Description Form Instructions (pdf)

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Digital Imaging Systems Guidelines (pdf)

1. Project Planning
2. Technology Assessment and Selection
3. System Implementation
4. Suggested Reading
5. Scanning Glossary

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Last Modified: 09/13/2012