Records retention schedules

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I am studying for a Mlit in Archives and Records management at
Dundee University.

For the records management module we are required to carry out a
review of records management in part of our organisation and I
thought that I might interrogate the team working in our
conservation studio.

My intention is to carry out an audit of their cyclical and project
based records.

As part of subsequent analysis, I was hoping to find, and use as a
tool for assessment, some kind of standard template of a retention
schedule for conservation teams.

This would show the commonplace day-to-day activities typically
carried out in the running of a conservation studio; list the
corresponding records created and the operational or legal retention
periods that are brought to bear on them.

I can find plenty of examples that breakdown these requirements for
other organisations and departments but can't find an example from a
typical conservation team.

If you are not sure what I am referring to then the clearest
example, in my opinion, is the Staffordshire County Councils' Record
retention Schedule for Contractual records, found at the link below.
(It is good because of its clarity: it shows when to start the
countdown to disposition and what kind of authority governs the
length of time a type of record must be kept):

    <URL:http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/
        NR/rdonlyres/1AF03F5E-52A5-4CAB-9B00-AFEA617D4FAB/
        21319/GRS4CONTRACTUALRECORDS.pdf

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    email. There should be no newline.

I imagined that, since you use chemicals in your line of work, you
would be subject to all kind and that that evidential proof would be
more vital for you than other operations?

Does anybody have a good working retention schedule or can anyone
direct me to one on the Web?

Jamie


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:11
                  Distributed: Monday, August 28, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-20-11-026
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