Maricopa Community Colleges

Maricopa Steward

Guidance on E-mail Records

Jerry Kilpatrick, Records Management Specialist,
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records

In order to provide a better understanding of E-mail Records I have prepared the following:

E-mail can be a record if it meets the definition of a “record” set forth in ARS §41-1350: Definition of records

“In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, “records” means all books, papers, maps, photographs or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, including prints or copies of such items produced or reproduced on film or electronic media pursuant to section 41-1348, made or received by any governmental agency in pursuance of law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by the agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or other activities of the government, or because of the informational and historical value of data contained therein….”

As with any other type of communication, the determination of whether the communication is a record and how long the communication needs to be retained is based upon the content of the communication (e-mail). It is the responsibility of the individaul who received (or sent) the email to retain the e-mail as necessary. Once a public body official or employee determines that an e-mail is a record, then they need to decide how long the e-mail should be retained. Retention is based upon the content of the e-mail, and where that content falls on an approved Retention Schedule. All the General Retention Schedules for Public Bodies can be located at the following link: www.lib.az.us/records/schedules_and_manuals.aspx

If, for example, an e-mail is sent requesting general information on your public body, that would probably fall under “General Correspondence,” and would need to be retained according to that particular records series and retention period. If an employee sends an e-mail requesting time off for bereavement leave, then that e-mail becomes a “Time and Leave Record” and would need to be retained accordingly. E-mails between employees regarding budgets, changes to budgets, etc all become “Budget Records” and would need to be retained accordingly. That being said, it is impossible to have a single retention period for “E-mail Records” since e-mails are used to communicate a vast number of subjects (content).

When it comes to e-mails and Public Records Requests, there are usually three main issues:

  1. We retain all e-mails for X period of time
    This cannot be correct given the fact that retention is based upon the content of a communication, and not all e-mails have the same content. Thus, they cannot have the same retention period. We often learn that Information Technology (IT) may have a practice of auto deleting e-mails left in the inbox after a certain period of time (30, 60, or 90-days) but the expectation is on the employee to move e-mail records out of the inbox for proper retention. This practice will almost always leads to problems since most employees will come to assume that IT is managing their emails, and that all emails have a single retention period.
  2. A printed e-mail is still an “e-mail”
    If I were a conscientious employee, and I knew my inbox was being wiped clean every 30, 60 or 90 days, I would move my record emails out of my inbox and into a sub-folder within the e-mail system, or as a .pst file on my hard drive, or print and file as a paper record. If an employee is printing and filing their e-mail records, and they get a Public Records Request for “email” records, they sometimes do not even think of the printed and filed emails as “email” since the record is no longer in their inbox. But, those printed records would still be “email” records since they originated in email, and would thus be required to be released if the Public Records Request was for “e-mails.”
  3. I didn’t send the e-mail from my work account
    The issue of whether an e-mail is sent from a work or personal e-mail account is not valid when we remember that the content of the e-mail determines whether it is a record, and how long it needs to be retained. If one is a government employee, and is using a personal computer / laptop / blackberry to conduct government business, then that communication is probably a record, and needs to be retained per the correct Retention Schedule and records series.

Questions regarding e-mail, or on Records Management in general, please contact Jerry Kirkpatrict, ASLAPR (see below).

Jerry Kirkpatrick
Records Management Specialist
(Retention Schedules, Imaging Requests, Training)
Arizona Secretary of State’s Office
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records (ASLAPR)
Records Management Division
1919 W Jefferson Street
Phoenix, AZ 85009
602-926-3820 Phone
602-256-2838 Fax
www.lib.az.us/records/

Approved Retention Schedules can be found on the Office of Public Stewardship web.

Maricopa Steward, Fall 2010