CHAIRMAN'S REPORT ON THE RECORDS BOARD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00099A000200060006-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 1999
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 29, 1969
• Content Type: MEMO

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MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Support
THROUGH : Chief, Support Services Staff
29 April 1969
SUBJECT : Chairman's Report on the Records Board
1. The Board's quarterly report attached includes a concept
proposing a microform records policy for the next ten years that
seriously alters the hard copy policy of the past nineteen years.
This transmittal briefly explains that concept and two-phase
transition in paragraphs 4 and 5 below.
2. Further, it is important to take this opportunity to
specify that the attached report is provided by the Board about
its progress and its proposals. Likewise, we must appreciate that
the Board was established to accomplish the purging of records in
storage and to study records problems. In that role the Board is
a collection of workers who need to be needled and persuaded in
accordance with their personalities, local supervisors, and the
Agency's policy of "need to know" and decentralized programs.
The members are primarily occupied in getting their jobs done and
think they are doing that with results that are better than can be
expected and that their accomplishments are not understood. They
are not Inspector General analysts doing a self critique. An
unpublished, critical analysis of the Records Program Agencywide
was done for the I. G. by n 1965. As I proposed 25X1 A
last year another survey of the Records Program can and should be
done by an outside consultant or an objective third party, but
cannot be expected from the Board of Officers with a vested interest
in the Program's operation.
3. Concerning the two phases of the concept being proposed, it
utilizes first the modern technology of records storage equipment
and then of microforms to provide greater storage capacity in lieu
of constructing a Records Center addition. Past efforts to provide
storage included an addition to the Records Center in 1957, a five-
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year campaign (FY 1963-67) that purged 55,000 cubic feet from the
Records Center, tightened rules for deposits (1964), and arrange-
ments for 60,000 feet of GSA space (which GSA later shrank to a
temporary 25,000). The Agency storage policy was based on the
Federal policy for providing the cheapest storage possible with
fast, efficient reference service using hard copy stored in an
economical, out-of-town Records Center.
4, With the Agency Records Center filled to capacity, the
first and immediate action recommended is based on four years of
shelving research by of my Staff. During the last two
years he has installed and tested four manual units of movable 25X1 A
shelves in the Agency. Equipment developments in the last year
added motors to this type shelving and installations are being
considered by NPIC and RID. We believe motor driven units costing
$860,000 can be successfully used in the Records Center to increase
its capacity by more than 40,000 cubic feet. Such an approach is
advisable because it will require no additional personnel after
installation. Economically, motorized shelving may be compared with
construction cost of some $600,000 to house 40,000 cubic feet or
microfilming. costs of about $800,000 and 47 positions to film that
volume in three and a half years. Further this motorized shelf
installation will provide the six-year storage capacity necessary
during our next phase which is conversion to microforms.
5? Modern microfilming, communications links, data processors,
and remote terminals have set the stage for better miniaturized
records equipment and systems. But, there is now growing the even
more important willingness, by management and the user, to explore
and accept new types of information media. Consequently, I believe
the Agency can in the next six years successfully convert from the
hard copy media to the several miniaturized systems now available.
Eventually, these systems and media can be-expeditiously transformed
into the more miniaturized and faster records systems of the future.
6. Component use of any of today's microforms (microfilm,
microfiche, apperature cards, and the PCMI/150 to 1/supermicroform)
is progressing much as have other new developments in the Agency.
Components that are imaginative, resourceful, and aggressive have
initiated action. Since there is no totally applicable microfilm
system and no serious incompatibilities among the various types of
microforms today, the different, minor inconveniences can be
tolerated in local operations and their independent development can
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be encouraged without great concern. But the large publications
.nd documents that cross Directorate and Agency jurisdictions require
serious coordination and planning controls. The Board members feel
their loyalty and limited expertise require them to assist their own
offices in establishing small, local, independent microform systems.
I am compelled to agree and have suggested instead that a Panel be
created of high-level, microfilming experts from each Directorate,
Printing Services, and the Office of Research and Development to
study developments in the field of microforms, to identify useful
microfilming equipment, and to recommend certain standards and systems
to be used by the large producers of intelligence publications.
7. Finally, like the automation world, microform technology
requires specialized training for personnel at every level from the
clerk, through the using analyst, on up through all levels of manage-
ment: Again, the alert individuals in the Agency are already well
along in this needed training, whenever and wherever they can find it.
The Agency should not wait, it must establish a requirement in the
Office of Training to provide much more in this field of microfilm
use, whether at internal or external courses.
8. Preparation of the attached Board report is an excellent
example of the problem of Directorate loyalties among the members.
In the past we have reported that the 102,000 cubic foot-volume of
records at the Center comes proportionately from each Directorate
(DDI--43,000; DDP--23,000; DDS--22,000; DDS&T--5,000; DCI--1,000 and
Archives--8,000). ]: was rebuffed in my effort to change this present-
ation and show that 71% of the total volume comes from only five com-
ponents (RID--21,000; OBGI--20,000; Finance--12,000; CRS--11,000; and
NPIC--7,000). I asked the Board to request Top Management to focus
its attention on those five for serious corrective action. I felt
greater time and effort should be given these five areas and to a
lesser degree some eight smaller offices. The remaining 46 depositing
components contribute less than ten percent.of the volume in storage
and deserve much less concern and time. The members explained the
mitigating circumstances at length and reported in detail the
concientious efforts each of these major areas is making and they
insisted that these five should not be singled out. Later, additional
evidence was given the Board showing these same five areas also had
more than half the volume of records now in the Headquarters buildings.
I am convinced that such large problem areas should have a total Records
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Management Programs with two and three high-level Records Officers
rather than a partial program by a low-grade, part-time, title
holder with other "primary" duties. Only in the 16 areas with small
records holdings can we afford to permit a partial effort in records
management . .
9. At the insistence of the members concerning the mitigating
circumstances, the Board report calls for strengthened Programs
overall but excludes specific emphasis. I have included it here and
have attached the details because I feel they are serious enough to
deserve your time, attention and action. My staff and I shall persist
in applying pressure in these areas but I believe the Executive
Director-Comptroller should request a formal response from the DDT
as to the status and progress of Records Managment in DDI/OBGI, CRS,,
and EPIC; also from the Director of Finance; and from DDP/RID. The
reports received by the Chairman from various administrative officers
concerning the records problems have been quite expansive with
explanations and promises but limited in results. The DDP Board
member is especially concerned to explain: DDP has a superior Records
Program and CS Records Committee with the DDP himself as chairman. The
member insists the one large CS central file and the large Records
Center deposits from RID should be understood to represent the holdings
of the entire Directorate and the total volume is somewhat dispropor-
tionate when compared as one Office. Nonetheless, I feel RID is
responsible for the Headquarters and Records Center volumes and is
in fact one point upon which we must focus if we expect better
results in every Directorate.
10. In conclusion, I believe, the attached Board report of
progress is good as ;the removal of 13,06+ cubic feet indicates. The
Agency's work and production are equally good as the new accessions
of 10,750 cubic feet indicate. The reported increased effort in
several areas to manage Agency records'is encouraging and is as
beneficial as the 1,53+ cubic feet drop'in new deposit volumes indicate.
Unfortunately, even the increased effort is not equal to the enormity
.of the records problems and volumes shown in the report. Hence, the
Board.'s proposals appropriately call for an immediate solution via-
motorized shelving, followed by massive microfilming programs, with
simultaneous strengthening of Agency Records Management.
11. I believe the Board's work and contributions are sufficiently
valuable and constructive to warrant its continuance. The original
concept of the Board as I understood it was a body of senior (at least
GS-14's) management professionals, knowledgeable of records systems,
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that would supervise the Directorate and DCI area programs full time,
ar,d would meet with the Board to study and propose solutions to Agency
records problems. Unfortunately, the members today have other duties,
have no staffs, and are unable to provide their own time or other
staff assistance for research and studies into records management
problems. The Board could serve well as a systems developmental
sounding board or a vehicle to coordinate and implement management
efforts for all types of records systems, be they automated, microfilmed,
photographed, taped, laser-bepmed or just old fashioned paper. With or
without the Board iny:Central Staff and Records Center continue their
contacts with individuals actively concerned with any phase of records
management. 25X1 A
Records Management Board
Attachments:
1. Major Records Holding in the Agency
2. Records Management Board Report
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