RELATIONSHIP OF RECORDS PROGRAM AND INFORMATION PROCESSING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00390R000300440010-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 2, 2001
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: March 16, 1971
• Content Type: MF

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CIA RECORDS MANAGEMENT BOARD
MEMORANDUM FOR: Members of Records Management Board
SUBJECT Relationship of Records Program and
Information Processing
1. Attached is the 8 March 1971, memo from the
Chairman, Information Processing Board. He asks our
Board to consider several ADP and Records related
problems and advise him of our findings. We will
discuss this at our next regular meeting on Tuesday,
23 March at 10 a.m. in Room 4E-31 Hqs. The following
is my position on this question and can be used as a
starting point for that initial discussion.
2. To determine where Records Management and
Information Processing impact on each other, I would
start by establishing the scope of Records Management
as prescribed by the Federal Government and this
Agency:
(a). The Federal Records Program started in:
The Records Disposal Act of 1943 (Attached)
The Federal Records Act of 1950 (Attached)
(b) Those legal requirements are interpreted
for action in?
The Federal Property Management Regulations
(Index Attached -- Details available)
(c) The Agency Records Program is set forth in:
Headquarters Regulation-(Attached) 25X1A
3. The Agency Program is consistent with the
Federal requirements and encompasses the complete
life-cycle of all information processing and document-
ation. The Agency Regulation specifies seven major
fields for the Records Management Program:
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(a) Forms analysis, design, and control
(b) Correspondence improvement and standards
(c) Reports analysis and control
(d) Records keeping systems, files, equipment,
and supplies
(e) Records Scheduling for disposal or preservation
(f) Vital Records identification and protection
(g) Facilities for temporary storage, retrieval,
and disposition of semi-active office files
and long-term preservation and service for
permanent, Agency records of continuing value.
In addition, the Federal Records Program, in the attached
FPMR's, also requires the Agency to provide for the
management of microfilming, directives, mail, and ADP
Records.
4. Agency Regulation - defines a record
this way:
"Records material is defined as: All books, papers,
maps, photographs, films, recordings and other
documents and material regardless of physical form
or characteristics, created or received by any part
of the CIA pursuant to Federal law or in connection
with the transaction of public business . . ."
5. There is no area of data collection and informa-
tion processing that is outside the Records Program
regardless of the equip,nnt or system employed. For
example:
(a) The ADP input and output media are forms or
reports or correspondence.
(b) The file, the system, and the equipment and
supplies are all related to Agency transactions and
information received or created regardless of physical
form.
(c) The Agency paper files are systematically identified
and scheduled for periods of office activity and semi-
active storage. The scheduling of these periods of file
life and eventual disposal or preservation is coordinated
to ensure the needs of operating officials and the
established legal requirements. The erasure of tapes
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like the destruction of papers or microfilm
should not depend upon only the operating need
of the immediate office, an analyst's opinion,
or available file space. The requirements of
the Agency Systems, the Office, and the law must
be considered. The Records Program has scheduled
the Agency's 300,000 cu. ft. of paper files and
has legally destroyed more than 100,000 feet from
its storage center. The scheduling and systematic
storage and retrieval or disposal of the Agency's
28,000 tapes (4,000 cu. ft. at 7 tapes per cu. ft.)
is a comparatively small collection of Agency files.
(d) The existence of Vital Records within the ADP
Information Processing Systems is undeniable.
Currently the ADP systems do not protect their Vital,
irreplacable data, documentation, or information
within the Agency Vital Records Program or Emergency
Planning Program. Computer Centers are storing some
material outside the tape library but conveniently
nearby, within the same building. This procedure
is seriously opposed by me and contrary to the
Agency Records Program. There are procedures and
space to accommodate ADP Vital Records within the
existing facilities and Program.
(e) The Agency Archives and Records Center facilities
are readily available to the Information Processing
Systems. The two couriers per day put these facilities
within a few hours of each Computer Center. Their use
for the preservation of temporary, inactive tapes and
related documentation are essential to relieve the
shortage of office space in the Computer Centers and
the Systems Analyst areas. Likewise the Archives is
available to preserve permanent documentation and
information or policy files on the development of
Information Processing Systems. Protection standard
there are continually reviewed by Security and CI
Staff. Also the environment controls and problems
are similar to those existing in the Tape Libraries.
6. Each of the seven Sub-Programs of the Agency
Records Program is designed to provide for the efficient
and economical operation of all types of records systems
regardless of the media employed. The data processing
impact today is but a variation of past activities.
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The Records Program has routinely experienced and
coped with information processing that used paper
records and various kinds of record copies whether
carbon, Xerox or Thermofax. The flood of Microfilm
brought some 90,000 reels to storage and even more
in the offices. Similarly, the microfiche and aperture
cards were routine additions. The arrival of punch
cards developed many specialized forms, files systems,
and equipment demands. Further, these tab cards filled
office space and the Records Center with tens of millions
of cards. This was no more disconcerting than the
storage of 2,000 reels of'tape in the Center and the
special file equipment for 27,000 reels in the office
areas. The unique storage requirements of NPIC films
and models are systematically scheduled, stored, and
retrieved in the Records Program. The special file
systems, forms, equipment, and supplies for X-rays,
EKG tapes, language and security tapes, and Optical
Character Recognition Systems are regularly served
by the Records Program and its network of Records
Managers.
7. The arrival on the scene of 4,000 cubic feet
of data processing magnetic tapes are no more disconcerting
than the probable requirements to cope in the future with
the metal data strips from the Laser devices to be used
for data storage. The Records Staff and its storage
facilities will continue to remain current in their ability
to assist and serve new technological development in the
fi
ld
e
of information processing.
8. I believe the Records Program will cope with
information processing records as soon as the related
officials recognize that their product and documentation
are official records of the Agency and their work is not
personal papers or unique non-record materials
Ever
.
thing
into the fiolc~_.,,s~.f Information Processing conve""enTi-eenT
tly
tll.e existin,gRecords Program and its established
systemat~._,procedures. There is no justification to
create a duplicate program for the storage and retrieval
of Information Processing material. Neither is there
justification to distort the Agency Records Program to
focus primarily or exclusively on information processing
material. I believe the objectives of the Information
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Processing Coordinators can be quickly and simply
accommodated with an authoritative pronouncement by . OK
the IPC B e effect that all ADP material
will be accommodated asrecords within esdope of
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s Manag
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er
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-eacn component can meet with their Systems Analysts fO ,)`I G 4
to Schedule systems tapes and programs for routine 25X1A
transfer to the Records Center, Vital Records
Depository, Archives, or disposal facilit
Attachment:
Records Disposal Act
Federal Records Act
FPMR Index
to C/RMB 8 Mar. 71
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men facilitating the use of the collections shall have prece-
dence ver detailed calendars and textual reproductions.
This Co mission shall meet at least once a year, and the
members s 11 serve without compensation except repayment
of expenses tually incurred in attending meetings of the
Commission.
SEC. 6. That t re is hereby further created a National
Archives Council co posed of the Secretaries of each of the
executive departments f the Government (or an alternate
from each department to named by the Secretary thereof),
the Chairman of the Senat Committee on the Library, the
Chairman of the House Co mittec on the Library, the
Librarian of Congress, the Sc etary of the Smithsonian
Institution, and the Archivist of the 'nited States. The said
Council shall define the classes of n 3terial which shall be
transferred to the National Archives B ]ding and establish
regulations governing such transfer; and ? )rail have power
to advise the Archivist in respect to reguh 'ons governing
the disposition and use of the archives and r cords trans-
ferred to his custody.
ject to statutory limitations and restrictions are tranl\-. red
and restrictive statutory provisions with respect to the c:xal
ination and use of such records applicable to the head of the
agency having custody of them or to employees of that
agency shall thereafter likewise be applicable to the Archivist
Archives Establishment respectively.
and preserve motion-picture films and sound reco.d/.._s per-
taining to and illustrative of historical activities of se Z nited
room for showing such films and reproducig such sound
recordings for historical purposes and study.
seal which will be judicially noticed.
The Archivist of the United S tes may make or repro-
duce and furnish authenticated unauthenticated copies of
any of the documentary, pho graphic or other archives or
records in his custody that re not exempt from examination
as confidential or protec d by subsisting copyright, and may
charge therefor a fee fFlcient to cover the cost or expenses
thereof. All such es shall be paid into, administered, and
expended as a rt of the National Archives Trust Fund
created by see on 5 of the National Archives Trust Fund
Board Act ''here shall be no charge for the making or
authentic ton of such copies or reproductions furnished to
any d artment or other agency of the Government for
offrc' use. When any such copy or reproduction furnished
the United States, or in his name attested by the head of
office or the chief of any division of the National Ar 'ryes
designated by the Archivist with such authority, it zul be
admitted in evidence equally with the original fro which it
was made.
Src. 8a, Any official of the United Stat Government
who is authorized to make certifications or terminations on
the basis of records in his custody is h ?eby authorized to
make certifications or determinations the basis of records
that have been transferred by him his predecessors to the
custody of the Archivist of the Ut ' ed States.
SFC. 9. That the Archivist s all make to Congress, at the
beginning of each regular se Ion, a report for the preceding
fiscal year as to the Nati al Archives, the said report in-
cluding a detailed state ent of all accessions and of all re-
ceipts and expenditur s on account of the said establishment.
He shall also trap it to Congress the recommendations of
the Commission on National Historical Publications, and,
on January 1 each year, with the approval of the Council,
a list or de ription of the papers, documents, and so forth
(among e archives and records of the Government), which
appea to have no permanent value or historical interest,
cghcerned, and subject to the approval of Congress, shall
e destroyed or otherwise effectively disposed of.
SEC. 10. That there are hereby authorized such appro-
pri ions as may be necessary for the maintenance of the
Natio 1 Archives Building and the administration c the
co}lectio s, the expenses, and work of the Commission on
National istorical Publications, the supply of necessary
equipment a expenses incidental to the operations
said, including ansfer of records to the Archives Building:
printing and bin ing; personal services in the Dist: ct c'
diem in lieu of subsist . cc, notwithstanding the provisions of
any other Acts; stenogr, hic services by contract or ethtr-
wise as may be deemed n essary; purchases and exchanzc
of books and maps; paymen in advance when aut _cr:zed
by the Archivist for library me .berships in societies whose
publications are available to me . hers only or to rm,.__..oers
at a price lower than to the gener public; purchase. ex-
change, and operation of motor vehic'1s; and all absa:a