Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 6, Protection of Privacy. Updated 27 February 2023. 327 such as these are called ‘transitory’ meaning that they are only useful for a short and temporary amount of time. These types of records may be used for simple tasks and have their own records retention schedule that allows them to be destroyed. In developing and implementing RIM practices, it is vital that government institutions clearly define the difference between transitory records and non-transitory records and establish protocols for deleting transitory records. When an access request is received, staff may need to search through a multitude of record holdings. This task can be made significantly easier if transitory records are destroyed appropriately. The following considerations can help government institutions define transitory records: • Was the record produced by your organization. • Does the record document your organization’s business. If the record contains information pertaining to your work, it is more likely to be a record that should be kept. If, however, the record pertains to internal social events, or external news clippings, it may not have a lasting value. • Are there multiple copies of the same record. It is important to save the official copy of a record, but duplicates may not be needed. Transitory records should be kept only for as long as they are needed. Destruction of transitory records that no longer have value reduces the amount of material being stored and the resources associated with storing and searching through unnecessary records. In addition, transitory records are subject to access to information requests and legal holds. For these reasons, government institutions should destroy transitory records on a regular basis. For more information on transitory records, check out the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan’s Guidelines for the Management of Transitory Records. 8. Email management As described above, records can be in any format. Even though email is one of the main forms of business communication, many people see emails as inherently transitory. However, business decisions, key communications and important information are regularly shared by email, and as a result, emails must be managed as any other record in accordance with the government institution’s policies, legislative requirements, and records retention schedules. Managing email records can be challenging, especially given the volume of emails received and sent. The following tips can help government institutions and their staff organize and manage their email records:
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