Reconciling retention and destruction
Ensuring a smooth relocation meant finding a dependable partner to rehouse the University’s substantial archives. Formed from five individual colleges, two of which date back to the 1800s, BCU was determined to preserve its rich history, while maintaining an effective record management and destruction policy.
For example, BCU might be contacted by a historian or family member to confirm which subjects an ex-student took. Similarly, it could be an auditor looking into EUfunded research projects which must adhere to strict rules, or the HR department seeking call transcripts or files to satisfy requirements for students travelling abroad as part of their courses.
“We get lots of different enquiries,” said Records Manager, Claire Parker. “The trick is knowing which documents you need to hold on to and for how long, to keep storage costs as low as possible.”
On-demand digitisation
BCU relocated its archive to a nearby highly-secure Iron Mountain® storage facility in just three weeks. The initial transition involved around 6,000 boxes, all carefully collected, logged, and given individual barcodes for tracking.
The solution includes Iron Mountain Connect™ for easy file retrieval. “The portal is very user-friendly and great for quickly searching and pulling up reports,” added Parker. “For example, we can see when files reach the end of their legal retention period and ask for them to be securely destroyed for surer risk management.”
Iron Mountain specialists are also supporting the University’s move to online records and have produced over 875,000 images. They prepare, scan, quality assure, and index all digital records.
“Our departments can engage and work directly with Iron Mountain,” said Parker. “A recent project involved converting old microfiche files that were extremely delicate and in danger of perishing. Now, those records are preserved for posterity.”
