OUTLINE OF MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR AN AGENCY'S DOCUMENTARY PROTECTION PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00211R000300090003-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2005
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 31, 1950
• Content Type: OUTLINE

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GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE
October 31, 1950
Outline of Minimum Standards
for An Agencys ocumentary Protection Program
This program is limited to the protection of documents indispensable
to the operation of the Government in a national emergency. While plans for
protecting documentary materials valuable or irreplaceable for non-emergency
administrative, research, or cultural activities should also be formulated by
the agencies having custody of such materials, higher priority should be given
to indispensable materials, which are restricted to the relatively small core
of documents that would be needed to carry on eemer e--n2yy aerations under
emergency conditions. The problem of developingng plans for protection rests
basic y on two questions: (1) 'What documents would be indispensable to an
agency in order to resume essential emergency operations, if all its records
were destroyed or rendered useless by enemy action, and (2) what can be done
most economically to insure the availability of these documents?
1. Identification of Indispensable Documents
(a) Standards for the determination of indispensable documentary
materials cannot be established categorically. Records selected for protection
must be of such character that their loss would seriously imperil the perform-
ance of functions essential to the maintenance of the U. S. Government under
emergency conditions.
(b) Priorities as to indispensability are suggested as follows:
(1) Records vital to the military effort of the nation-
the operations of the Armed Forces.
(2) Records vital to the mobilization and protection of the
material and manpower resources of the nation.
(3) Records vital to the maintenance of public health,
safety, and order.
(4) Records vital to the protection of the rights of
individual citizens.
(c) The protection plan should include provisions for the selection
in the future of recurring types of documents of an indispensable character
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and for the periodic replacement of the documents originally selected with
later, more current documents.
(d) Attention should also be given to identification of indexes,
etc., essential to the use of documents earmarked for protection.
(a) The most positive practical means of insuring the availability
of essential documents is to provide for the storage of security copies at
some point judged to be safe from the hazards of modern warfare.
(b) The need for protective measures for essential records should
be coordinated with overall security planning. The decentralization of
activities to safer areas, or "fringe dispersal" in the National Capitol area,
will not necessarily obviate the need for storage of security copies of
indispensable records at another alternate location.
(c) Cost factors should weigh heavily in the determination of the
protective measures chosen.. Security copies may be obtained by:
(1) Assemblying, in the case of duplicated material, extra
sets of documents.
(2) Providing for the production of extra copies of
documents, in the case of currently accumulating material.
(3) Microfilming and paper print photocopying, especially
in the case of existing documents where no extra copies are
available.
Note: It is advisable that plans for security microfilming be coordinated
wi-M U e National Archives and Records Service which is establishing
ted facilities for centralized microfilming in the Washington area.
(d) Storage space for security copies, in addition to being located
in a less critical target area, should meet the minimum requirements for the
housing of records, i.e., safety from fire and other hazards.
3. Organization of the Protective Plan
(a) Responsibility for planning should be definitely assigned to an
official appropriately situated to obtain necessary coordination and compliance.
(b) Accurate account of the materials selected for protection and
of the point of storage of security copies must be maintained. These records
in turn should be included among those given protection.
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Restricted
3.
(c) Certain limited facilities for the storage of paper records and
microfilm are being established by the General Services Administration.
Agencies not having adequate existing facilities are advised to consult the
National Archives and Records Service.
(d) Measures are needed to guarantee that personnel will be on hand
who adequately understand the protected collections or who can readily be
trained to give service on them.
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