OUR RECORDS CENTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00211R000700310003-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2005
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 24, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000700310003-6
OUR RECORDS CENTER
There are about 1,500 records centers in the
country today. Every State and modem corpo-
ration has at least one. There are about 00
records centers in the Federal Government.
What is a Records Conte? It is a place to
store inactive files# that is these non-current
records and archival materials of an organization.
But,-storage is not enough. A center must also
provide efficient reference to those records.
Also, it must systematically remove and dispose
of non-record files as they become obsolete.
All these functions are performed, not for the
Center itself, but as a service for the Office
putting its inactive files in the Center. There-
fore, the Office informs the Center what material it w
wants stored and for how long. It specifically
states just who has permission to make reference to
that material. The Center keeps track of references
to the material and notifies the office of this aotivity
and advises it when the time for disposal arrives.
Our Organization maintains its on Records Center.
For a few years we used an old garage across the river
as our Center. Finally, however, our Records manage-
ment Program developed enough to warrant constructing
a building specifically designed to house all the
inactive records and archival materials of our Organization,
Some Offices first found it more convenient to keep
their inactive records and provide staffs to service
requests for reference to those old files.
Recently such records storage and archives at head-
quarters were studied and their transfer to the
Records Center was recommended. The recommendation
was coordinated and approved. Today, the modernized
Records Center is used by all-areas throughout the
Organization, without excel.
As you can see in the illustrations, the Center is
a reinforced concrete building. No frills, all utility.
Some of the utility makes for ideal working conditions.
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 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000700310003-6
It is. located beyond the high rents of the city
in apleasant rural countryside. To preserve
the records material, the Center has an efficient ai
air conditioner with humidity control. Also the
building provides greater physical security than
an office safe.
A giant incinerator at the Center consumes obsolete
non-record material at a rate of cubic
feet per hour. But that's oo s]7m- to cope with
our production. Our Offices create papers at a
rate of sheets per hour. The services
of our own special , technics are being used to
devise faster disposal and they already have Jumped
the destruction rate to cubic feet per hour,
There is room in the Center for 100,000 cubic feet
of records. 0,,1y about half the space is occupied
today. But headquarters has over 120,000 cubic feet
of papers in its offices and at least half of these
are inactive records that should be retired to the
Center. That is why the Records Management Staff is
asking all Organization Offices to up-date their
Records Control Schedules to insure an active Records
Disposition Program in each office.
Records Center facilities cost about $600000,
However,. without it these last few years we xould
have had. to q)end more than $2,,500,000 at Headquarters
alone. For example, the thousands of cubic feet of
files transferred to the Center emptied office filing
equipment fal:ued at over a million dollars.
Office space in town costs about _ .....__ per square foot,
At the Center, floor space is per square foot.
A $75.00 file cabinet or a $438.00 safe can store 8 fes+
of records. The Center uses worth of steel
shelving and cardboard boxes off` sore those records.
Our findings are not unusual. Such savings as these
have been proven by every Government Agency or Private
concern that is effectively using records centers,
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Comparing the prices of equipment and space, it costs
about to store a fbot of records in the average
Office ar" i `only in the Center.
All things considered, there is a savings of
for every foot of records transferred from thy`
quarters to the Center.
The savings is even greater for every foot of papers
reviewed by the Office and destroyed imresdiately by
that Office whenever it finds duplicate or non-record
material.
In the early days of microfilming old records we
found that the Center could store the original
record document for 30 years at less cost than to
microfilm them.
Even more important that these cash savings is the
fact that the Center provides better control and
faster reference for our old records. Many officials
have found they can obtain inactive records from the
Center quicker than they could find them in old file
cabinets maintained in their Off'ic es.
Records Center couriers make two deliveries to Head-
quarters each day. A request for reference to inactive
records is filled within the 8-hour workday of its
reeceipt. Most of the time the requests are sent out
the same day.
Last year these couriers processed over requests
for reference to inactive documen stored
at the Center. Mt averages about one reference per
month for each feet of records in the Center.
If looked at in terms of Office files, this means that
a !-drawer safe full of old files is opened about
times a month.
Field Stations Use Center
MwW Field. Stations use the Center. We speak of
Headquarters r records because most of the material
from the Field is put in or taken out of the Center
through Headquarters: chain e .
However, there have been occasions when Headquarters
Offices made special arrangements fbr the Records
Center courier to meet airplanes at the airport for
direct pickup of records from the Field.
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 Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000700310003-6
Traine, hsi. ps, and psotmen have brought records
to our warehouse for redelivery to the Center.
As said$ the Center provides service for all
areae throughout the Organization without
exception.
Approved For Release 2005/07/25 : CIA-RDP70-00211 R000700310003-6