Introduction

Welcome to "Managing Your Inbox: E-mail as a Public Record." As a state employee, you create public records in your day-to-day job that are the property of the people. The public expects you to manage these records, in whatever format, to ensure that they are available when requested or required. A discussion of public records laws and the expectations for state employees is on the next page.

This online tutorial takes about 30 minutes to complete and must be completed in one session. Throughout the tutorial, a list of resources or links may appear in the sidebar on the left. These include other publications and guides created by the Government Records Branch, Archives and Records Section of the Department of Cultural Resources, as well as resources created by other states and federal agencies.

When you are ready to start the tutorial, move through the pages using the page numbers at the top of each page, or by clicking on "Previous Page" and "Next Page" at the bottom of the page. Next to the page numbers at the top of the page, move your mouse over TOC to see the Table of Contents as a drop-down box with page numbers and the section titles that can be used to jump to a specific section.

Throughout the tutorial you will find Quiz Me and Self Check icons that you should click to answer short matching or true/false questions. Information about the quizzes you complete will be tracked but will not be reported; at the end of the tutorial you will have the option to print a certificate or your score results, but this is not required. Employees subject to Executive Order No. 18 (EO No. 18) Email Retention and Archiving Policy, issued by Governor Beverly Perdue July 8, 2009, must print the certificate and send a copy to the Human Resources Director of their agency. Also notice in the top right-hand corner, below the title, is a print all link that allows you to print the tutorial for reference.

This tutorial will be updated to give employees more guidance when an E-mail Archiving System is deployed.

Objectives

This tutorial will cover:

what public records are and what they have to do with your e-mail;
the challenges to using e-mail; and
tips on managing e-mail.

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