3.4: NASA Records Management
Document all aspects of NASA’s business. Other Information:
Managing NASA’s Records http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/recmgmt/index.html -- Records document all aspects of NASA’s business—its
organizations, policies, decisions, achievements, and operations. Documented records—contained on paper, micrographics, and
audiovisual and electronic media—are managed as information resources. Information in the form of records is a critical resource
necessary to assure the success of the Space program and preserve its history. The objectives of NASA records management are
to: • Make current and inactive records available for employee use. • Preserve significant records for future engineers and
our Nation’s history. • Legally dispose of all other records. Overview Appropriate management of NASA records is vital to
the future success of the Agency as well as for recording many aspects of our nation’s history. Through close collaboration
with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), NASA works diligently to ensure that records are maintained
in an appropriate manner per issued directives. Items of significant historical meaning are transferred to the NARA for permanent
storage, while other records are kept for a prescribed number of years and made available to NASA employees for research before
being appropriately destroyed. Maintaining appropriate records is a responsibility of every employee. Consequently, we created
a mandatory training program for all civil servants, and recommended to contractors, to ensure everyone understands his or
her responsibilities and the procedures for appropriately keeping and disposing of records. Additionally, we instituted a
NASAwide awareness campaign with promotional posters and information to infuse this message into our culture. Electronic records
have brought us a new era of records management. While electronic records make many tasks easier and more efficient, they
also present a difficult challenge for recordkeeping. The trainings ensure employees know proper management practices for
both electronic and physical records. Via successive Agency-wide data calls through the OCIO during FY07 and FY08, the Agency
built an inventory of more than 3,000 electronic systems and applications. Upon analysis with of the systems, 1,330 were found
to contain true records that were subsequently categorized into 54 subject categories drawn from NASA’s Agency Filing Scheme.
We have ensured the existence retention schedules for records in 95 percent of the systems with a projected completion date
of June 30, 2010. We are participating in NARA’s Electronic Records Archives (ERA) Pilot Phase 2. This activity tests agencies’
capability to conduct records management business with NARA electronically through their ERA. We will request new retention
schedule approvals and transfer records ownership to NARA via ERA. How This Fits into Open Government Effective management
of records increases transparency and opportunities for collaboration between various NASA centers, contractors, and public
institutions. Leveraging existing resources to enable quicker and easier access to existing records and ensuring records-management
processes are followed enables the agency to encourage public dissemination of its data and its capture for use by future
generations.
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