MEMORANDUM FOR: (Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2006
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: January 15, 1971
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
15 January 1971
Storage facility and Records Program using persuasion, instruction, and
assistance for the components as well as to conduct research, adaptation,
and implementation of sound paperwork practices with qualified personnel,
economical equipment, and efficient procedures. I have continued and
expanded his policies, philosophy, and practices.
3? But, the first order given to me by the DDS Executive Officer
in January 1957 was that I was not to be a "records management czar"
and that the Records Regulation "will not be strengl~hened." "You will
use a soft sell in Records Management." Although as ST
inclined to a stronger, more centralized Records Program if we could
find some unobtrusive way to make it palletable and acceptable to the
Directorates, everyone in the Agency has repeatedly and emphatically
insisted that all records operations were and would continue to be
under decentralized authority and practices. This position has been
regularly proven each time our staff has challenged an instance of bad
paperwork procedure. We persist and we succeed from time to time, but
we have experienced rejections of our efforts to correct poor forms
creation, supply, and distribution; in correspondence improvement; in
reports management; in equipment purchases; in secure area construction;
in neglected vital records,; in records control scheduling; and in
destruction of important historical documents as well as holding of
unimportant files. The new technology of microfilm procedures and
equipment as well as computer tape storage have joined the trend.
Office of the Inspector General
1. I thank you for the opportunity to read the section on Records
Management in the first draft of your current study. In ruminating on
your analysis I agree with your findings and your criticisms of certain
paperwork conditions that exist in the Agency. I find I cannot agree
with a few conclusions which endeavor to place responsibility for those
conditions. I believe this difference of opinion is because of a
difference in our views of basic policies related to paperwork management.
This difference in viewpoint is not between you and me, it is between
the Records Program as it is required to exist because of unique management
practices necessary within the Agency and the theoretical concepts of
ideal Records Management principles and procedures which are known and
available.
2. The orders followed by my predecessor, has
Agency Records Manager for some 15 years was to operate a Records
Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
 Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
e. Similar details can be provided of proportionate problems
and accomplishments in the field of records scheduling
which has controlled the moving of a quart:-,r million cubic
feet of records out of the offices and the destruction of a
and even greater amounte,
f. Likewise, the availability of records management guidance
in our staff expedited the recent survey of Agency reports
which was requested by the President through the 0MB.
This last survey reported the Agency had some 3,000 reports
that cost us more than four million dollars per year.
Our urgings for an Agency Reports Management Program to
control and improve these reports continues to go unimplementede
g. At my insistence we continue to preserve some 4,000 boxes
of vital records. This is an unpopular decision but the
components whose records are being protected support the
action. Recently O/PPB has expressed concern to the
Information Processing Coordinators that vital records on
magnetic tapes are not property protected. This too has
long been urged by this Program but is neglected for want
of records keeping policies and Records Managers in the
Computer Centers. I feel other vital records need protection*
he The problem of Agency files has been only partially solved by
our Agency HandbookI or a Subject Numeric Filing System.
This guide focuses on Administrative files that are common
to all components. The specialized files are treated where
necessary in special guides by the individual components.
These are usually developed locally with our staff assistance
Control of file equipment and supplies are in our HHB
which requires Records Officer certification of the requisitions
for safes and special supplies and equipment for records.
i. The Agency Records Center operation responds to requests from
components with an average of 500 reference actions per workday.
(A reference action may be a phone call, one document, or several
boxes.) This averages to some ten thousand actions per month
or about 120,000 per year which supports the contention that
the records are stored for future use and are not merely
relocated and unwanted by indecisive officers. No records
are accepted without a positive records schedule with a date
for disposition action. We feel the Center should not be
responsible for storing and handling extra distribution copies
of Agency reports, publications, and maps. We service 15,000
cubic feet of supplemental distribution material and can only
insist on disposition schedules from the publishing components.
Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
 Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
storage to provide threet.times greater storage capacity per square
foot of floor space used for file equipment. This campaign
continues to be ignored officially, is unpopular and resisted
by logistics warehouse operators who fight shelling equipment
Mich requires more handling than a safe, and is decried by
management-level security officials. Today about half the
Agency's 200,000 cubic feet of records are on shelves instead
of safes. The shelves cost about $100,000 and 30,000 feet of
floor space. Otherwise those files would require eight million
dollars worth of safes (12,500) and 100,000 square feet of floor
space. This and the shelving developme nt below come primarily
from the efforts of a man with the Agency since OSS in 1941.
His dedication, resourcefulness, and expertise is hailed
throughout the Government records cites that repeatedly ask
to borrow his for training sessions. Today's limited office
space has taken over from us some of the task of applying
pressure for greater use of shelving*
c. Five years ago the Staff introduced movable shelving to further
increase the density of records storage per square foot of floor
space. We quickly succeeded ninth several units throughout the
Agency. The firts motorized movable shelving unit in the Federal
Government weds installed in the Agency more than a year before
any other Agency. To date we have committed more than a half
million dollars to movable shelving installations. We encourage
its use where justifiable and are ready to assist those that
want it. We can not and would not ask top management to order
every office to install it. Neither do we broadcast it universally.
We have recommended it where advisable.
d. In 1963, after several refusals, the central staff decided it
was dangerous to wait any longer for an Agency policy on Archives
protection. The function was informally instituted using the
standards employed by National Archives. We urged Agency
components to particippte and use the archives. Some 16,000
boxes of records are indexed and are now in the Agency Archives
collection. Via staff persuasion, top management today acknowl-
edges the need and Agency Historians bemoan the loss of old
documents. We are ready and waiting with personnel, policies,
procedures, and plans for an Agency official archives function.
We estimate there is another 20,000 boxes of archives documents
intermingled with some 50,000 boxes of temporary records scheduled
for eventual destruction.
Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
 Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
!t. Nevertheless, we continue to introduce ideal and practical
records procedures, reinforced by success and undaunted by rejection.
The Central Records Program is manned by dedicated managers, knowledeable
in the science of records management and focused on the long term
requirements of the Agency. Our objective ian an overall records
stability and long range pro gram of records systems. We aim to help
current operations and establish a soundly based records program ready
to operate effectively, efficiently, and economically in any area that
accepts it today or in the future. Good management must be desired before
it is practiced. Good management procedures are a command responsibility
and must be available when command seeks them. We strive to accelerate
that eventuall$ty. But good management cannot be forced onto an Office.
The office must be educated to want it and seek it and use it. Unacceptance
and passive resistance will kill the most noble and beneficial program.
5. Consequently, the Central. Staff has focused its energies on
creating a Program and six sub-Programs to improve paperwork operations
in any segment of the Agency. These are spelled out in We have STA
continually improved and up dated the Program in keeping tin a changing
office technology. With considerable success the staff members have been
zealous missionaries in spreading the gospel of good records management
and its regards now and in the future. Most importantly, the staff has
demonstrated a professional prescience which has kept the Agency in the
vanguard of records advances instead of its being buried long ago under
its own paperwork. That significant foresight and its results are
readily demonstrated in the following:
as Forms management--In the advanced field of Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) for several years we designed the forms and
printing specifications in our staff because no one else in
Government or Private Industry tasldvailable to do it. Today
National Archives and National Bureau of Standards phone our
forms staff for technical details and briefings on OCR techniques.
We were no less than five years in front of the rest of GovernmeriL.
The Marine Corps was in such desperate need for OCR help they
offered our expert a grade advance to transfer. She stayed
out of loyalty. The benefits of our OCR are excellent in the
components that use it. We preach OCR to others, but the final
decision is theirs. We are ready and persist.
b. Another area of records policy foresight and the practical appli-
cation of prescience is in records keeping equipment. Fifteen
years ago this staff vigorously struggled against the firmly
held "status quo" position in Logistics and Security that
insisted on continued use of safes. The staff pushed for shelf
Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
 Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
storage to provide lees greater storage capacity per square
foot of floor space used for file equipment. This campaign
continues to be ignored officially, is unpopular and resisted
by logistics warehouse operators who fight ahelfing equipment
which requires more handling than a safe, and is decried by
management-level security officials. Today about half the
Agency's 2003000 cubic feet of records are on shelves instead
of safes. The shelves cost about $1003000 and 30#000 feet of
floor space. Otherwise these files would require eight million
dollars worth of safes (12,500) and 1003000 square feet of floor
space. This and the shelving de velop ie nt below come primarily
from the efforts of a man with the Agency since OSS in 191i1.
His dedication, resourcefulness, and expertise is hailed
throughout the G vernment records ciedies that repeatedly ask
to borrow him for training sessions. Today's limited office
space has taken over from us some of the task of applying
pressure for greater use of shelvinge
c. Five years ago the Staff introduced movable shelving to further
increase the density of records storage per square foot of floor
space. We quickly succeeded tltith several units throughout the
Agency. The firts motorized movable shelving unit in the Federal
Government op installed in the Agency more than a year before
any other Agency. To date we have committed more than a half
million dollars to movable shelving installations. We encourage
its use where justifiable and are ready to assist those that
want it. We can not and would not ask top management to order
every office to install it. Neither do we broadcast it universally.
We have recommended it where advisable.
d. In 1963s after several refusals, the central staff decided it
was dangerous to wait any longer for an Agency policy on Archives
protection* the function was informally instituted using the
standards employed by National Archives. We urged Agency
components to participlte and use the archives. Some 16,000
boxes of records are Indexed and are mw in the Agency Archives
collection. Via staff persuasion, top management today acknowl-
edges the aced and Agency Historians bemoan the loss of old
documents. We are ready and waiting with personnel, policies,
procedures, and plans for an Agency official archives function.
We estimate there is another 20,000 boxes of archives documents
intermingled with some 50,000 boxes of temporary records scheduled
for eventual destruction.
Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
 Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5
e. Similar details can be provided of proportionate problems
and accomplishments in the field of records scheduling
which has controlled the moving of a quarter million cubic
feet of records out of the offices and the destruction of a
and even greater amounto
S. Likewise, the availability of records management guidance
in our staff expedited the recent survey of Agency reports
which was requested by the President through the C4B.
This last survey reported the Agency had some 3,000 reports
that cost us more than four million dollars per year.
Our urgings for an Agency Reports Managewent Program to
control and improve these reports continues to go unimplowntede
g. At my insistence we continue to preserve acme 4,000 boxes
of vital records. This is an unpopular decision but the
components whose records are being protected support the
action. Recently O/PPB has expressed concern to the
information Processing Coordinators that vital records on
magnetic tapes are not proper3y- protected. This too has
long been urged by this Program but is neglected for want
of records keeping policies and Records Managers in the
Computer Centers. feel other vital records need protection,
h. The problem of Agency files has been only partially solved by
our Agency Handbook 0 for a Subject Numeric Filing System.
This guide focuses on Administrative files that are cannon
to all components. The specialised files are treated where
necessary in special guides by the individual components.
These are usually developed locally with our staff assistance.
which requires Records Officer certification of the requisitions
for safes and special supplies and equipment for records.
is The Agency Records Center operation responds to requests from
components with an average of 500 reference actions per workday.
(A reference action may be a phone call, one document,., or several
boxes.) This averages to some ten thousand actions per month
or about 120,000 per year which supports the contention that
the records are stored for future use and are not merely
relocated and unwanted by indecisive officers. No records
are accepted without a positive records schedule with a date
for disposition action. We feel the Center should not be
responsible for storing and handling extra distribution copies
of Agency reports, publications, and maps.. We service 150000
cubic feet of supplemental distribution material and can only
insist on disposition schedules from the publishing components.
Control of file equipment and supplies are in our
Approved For Release 2006/09/25 : CIA-RDP72-00038R000100270006-5