Records management is a tough job for any organization of any size, even governmental agencies. Federal News Radio brought this information to us from their article, “Proposed rule clarifies privileges for presidential records disclosure.”
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is at work making sure there are no questions around disclosure of presidential records, and reminding agencies of their own responsibility to archive data during this time of change with a new president and staff.
A proposed rule from NARA clarifies that while the agency maintains electronic records for the sitting commander-in-chief, the president has “exclusive control over the records” during his or her term.
The proposed changes establish procedures for when the NARA archivist decides to release a record to the public. The former and current president must receive prompt, written notification, and they’re allowed 60 days to decide whether or not to claim privilege and prevent the release of all or a portion of the record.
How much data are we talking about here? The Obama administration transferred 12 terabytes of data to NARA. With the quantity of social media being used by the current administration, that number is likely to be more at the end of the term.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
