The Division of Archives and History recommends that North Carolina
state and local agencies undertake a yearly inventory of their
public database holdings. This inventory represents both a good
records-management practice and a tool for ensuring compliance
with the new database indexing requirements incorporated into
the state's public records law (NCGS Chapter 132).
The Records Services Branch has developed a beta inventory worksheet and
recommendations for its use. These can be used as is but it is recommended that you develop a form customized for your use.
The worksheet offers individual agencies a basic tool for
database indexing management. Use of the worksheet alone does
not constitute compliance with the database indexing requirements.
This worksheet is intended for use by the individual agency's
Electronic Records Officer (ERO) or designee.
EROs should feel free to copy, modify, and distribute this worksheet
as they see fit.
You or your designee should schedule and administer a yearly inventory
of agency databases. The provided worksheet is useful for capturing
and collating the inventory data. Note that, because our client
agencies vary tremendously in size and organizational structure,
we can provide only general guidance; you will need to write your
own specific instructions for the use of the worksheet.
The first step in the inventory process is to decide how you want
to distribute copies of the worksheet so that, ultimately, each
work group or position title assigned responsibility for the contents
of particular databases (the database Owner) will complete
one or more worksheets listing those databases.
The "Handle" and "Owner" boxes (top left of
worksheet) provide data-source identification, and can be pre-filled
at the time of distribution. You will need to provide your own
definitions for these terms as you see fit. The Owner box
is normally used to list the owner's name-a particular division,
section, branch, unit, or other work group or position title in
your agency or the name of an individual; the Handle
can be either the code for a particular set of worksheets or the
code equivalent of the Owner name, or both.
You might, for example, decide to send worksheets to each division
of the agency, pre-filling only the division code in the "Handle"
block and instructing divisions to make copies, complete the "Owner"
blocks for these copies, and distribute the copies accordingly.
Note: The worksheet's "Status Code" column (extreme
right) is normally completed only at the ERO level (see later description).
List an identifier for an individual database. This can be simply
a sequential number (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4…) local to the Owner
or a more complex code (e.g., A_H1, A_H2, A_H3, etc.) global to
the agency.
Provide the full name of the database or spreadsheet or the name
of an overall system (e.g., "DCR E-mail System"). Generally
speaking, the Records Services Branch recommends that owners be encouraged to enter all "databases," whether or not these fall under the
definitions and conditions described in the indexing database
guidelines.
List the acronym, if any, for the database or database-like system.
The ERO may opt to have this name suffixed by a version number,
if one is applicable.
Provide a short description or note for the entry, e.g., "Division
master list of addresses; contains ~ 3,000 recs.; on SQL server."
EROs may wish to require that a specific format be followed or
that specific information be included. As indicated by the dotted
lines on the worksheet, multiple lines can be used for a single
entry.
The owner should check this box if they know or believe that public
access to any portion of the information in the database
is restricted. Additionally, they may wish to list a legal citation
closing the data to public inspection.
This column is made available for assigning internal, agency-wide
codes. For example, an "I" might indicate that the
database is subject to indexing, a "P" that the database
is used only for personal productivity, etc.
Once completed by Owners and returned to appropriate divisional
or departmental personnel, the worksheet data should be verified,
corrected, edited as necessary, and collated or copied to one
or more centralized documents or databases (or both) and made
available for public inspection. Until this last step is taken
(assuming there is an effort to complete the inventory within
a reasonable time) the worksheet data must be viewed as unverified.
The completed inventory (or inventories) serve(s) as both a general
public listing of the agency's public databases and a guide for
determining which agency databases must be fully indexed to comply
with the indexing guidelines.
