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 EU-
funded 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 ConnectTM 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.”
