Email messages, sent and received, can be evidence of an organization’s decisions, business transactions, and activities, and thus may be considered official University records. IU’s campus archives actively solicit the email of directors, deans, and upper-level administrators (i.e., the National Archives “capstone approach”) to better document the activities of the university. However, employees at all levels will likely have university records in their email and can apply the guidance set forth in this document.
These guidelines set forth archivally acceptable methods of managing email, and may be adopted, in whole or in part, by offices and individuals. Before implementing these email guidelines, please review your record-keeping policies with your campus archives. While these guidelines are intended to apply to records retained for historical research purposes, offices and individuals should consider their applicability to other information retained for short or long-term reasons.
The basics
- Emails can be a record; review the Records Retention Schedule Database or contact your Records Coordinator for guidance on disposition.
- Employees should be consistent in managing their email, such as using standard subject heading and Inbox file folder naming standards to be sure that email can be accessed and retrieved in the future.
- Before employees retire, leave, or change work units, consider transferring or extracting any departmental or university records that may be stored in their email to the campus archives or departmental server for administrative use. Contact your IT Pro for guidance on exporting messages to a .pst file.
- Establish a “hold” policy for email that may be pertinent to a known or expected legal case or investigation. Read more about Exceptions to Following the Records Retention Schedule.
What to keep
In cases when email has been replied to multiple times, the record copy is usually the last one if all the previous messages are included. The content of an electronic message determines its status, just as it does when the communication is transmitted on paper.
Affirmative answers to the following tests may suggest that an email is a record:
- Proves a business-related event or activity did or did not occur;
- Demonstrates a transaction;
- Identifies who participated in a business activity or had knowledge of an event;
- Has legal or compliance value;
- Addresses a topic specifically covered by University requirement, law or regulation.
Examples of email that could be considered records include:
- Agendas and meeting minutes including management teams, committees, and governing body
- Appointment calendars of executive-level daily appointments and activities
- Business transaction documentation
- Correspondence related to official business communications at the director level to and from others inside and outside the organization
- Documentation of departmental and organizational decisions and operations
- Drafts of documents circulated for comment or approval. Those reflecting evolution of policies or programs and key factors in those decisions may have historical or legal value.
- Final reports or recommendations
- Grant proposals, approvals, reports
- Legal and financial records
- Organizational charts
- Policy, program, and procedure directives issued by the organization’s director-level staff addressing organizational operations, key functions, mission goals, or issues of public interest such as manuals, bulletins, orders, rules, directives, policy statements
- Press releases
Emails generally not considered records include:
- Announcements of social events, e.g. retirement parties
- Drafts of documents without substantive changes
- Duplicate copies of messages
- Inter or intra-organization memoranda, bulletins, etc. for general information
- Emails from listservs
- Personal messages not related to conduct of business (however, these could have historical value depending on the correspondent and subject)
- Portions of documents sent as reference or information-only copies
- Published reference materials
- Requests for information
How long to keep it
In consultation with your Records Coordinator and/or the Records Retention Schedule, each department or unit should determine how long to keep which records based on its particular mission and legal, financial, and regulatory requirements.
It may be useful in making retention decisions to sort types of information into three categories – no value, limited value, and enduring value – and establish time periods to keep each group regardless of their form (paper or electronic). Remember to consider email messages and attachments as one document.
Category 1: Email messages of no value
Retain: 0-30 days
Examples:
- Spam
- Personal
- Messages to/from distribution lists (Listservs) not business related
- Copies of publications
- Routine requests for information or publications
- Informational e.g. holiday closings, charitable drives
- Copies of internal messages if the recipient is not the primary addressee
Category 2: Email messages with limited value
Retain: As long as necessary for business
- Reference use--delete when no longer needed
- Legal use--until litigation is settled and appeal time expires
- Administrative use--until administrative need is satisfied
Examples:
- Routine correspondence
- Drafts or working copies of publications or reports for which a final version exists
Category 3: Email messages with enduring value
Retain: Permanently
Examples:
- Administrative planning
- Policy and program use
- Press releases
- Reports
- Directives
If you have email that needs to be transferred to your campus archives, contact your campus archivist or records manager.