REVIEW OF AGENCY RECORDS STORAGE PROBLEM.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00450R000100160005-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 3, 2001
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: March 20, 1968
• Content Type: MF

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F
LO March 1968
MEMOR\NDUM FOR: Assistant Deputy Director for Support
THROUGH Chief, Support Services Staff
SUBJECT Review of Agency Records Storage Problem
1. As requested, we have recapitulated several points from the
Records Program Briefing of Wednesday, 13 March 1968 and attached
them to this memorandum as Background details. The following is a
summarized list of the 1,4 recommended actions divided into two problem
areas as presented at the Briefing:
A. RECORDS PROGRAM PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
(1) THE AGENCY HAS AN ACTIVE RECORDS RETIREMENT
EFFORT WITHOUT A COMPARABLE EFFORT TO CONTROL THE
RECORDS CREATION \ND MAINTENANCE.
A revitalized, full-time, and Total Records Program as
prescribed in HR = must be the re-stated Agency policy. This
admonishment should come from as high in the management struc-
ture as possible.
(L) THE PRESENT RECORDS (MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL
ACROSS THE AGENCY INCLUDE TOO MANY PART-TIME y.ND
INADECUATELY TR,dINED INDIVIDUALS FOR SO ENORMOUS,
EXPENSIVE, AND SERIOUS AN AGENCY PROBLEM.
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The requirements and responsibilities for component
participation as stated in HR_ paragraph Id (2) should be
reiterated to all of Agency management. The responsibilities
and duties of a records officer for a Total Records Program
are full-time. The benefit of his effort will be in proportion to
his records or management knowledge and the scope of the
Records Program in his component.
(3) PROJECT PLANNING DOES NOT GENERALLY INCLUDE
PLANS OR FUNDS FOR RECORDS RETENTION.
All Planning, Organizing, and Budgeting must be extended
to include provisions for active and inactive records. A Records
Officer should be included as early as possible in the re-organiza-
tion or development work concerning projects, offices, or other
activities that will generate or involve any bulk of records or paper-
work.
(4) THE AGENCY IS EXPANDING TECHNOLOGICALLY WITH
A RESULTANT INCREASE IN RECORDS PRODUCTION.
To improve our control of records disposition we must
establish stricter standards and greater management for records
creation and filing systems.
An Agency Records Committee composed of the Agency
Records Administration Officer and the Senior Records Administration
Officers of each Directorate should be established to study Agency
records problems and to exchange and develop better records
techniques.
The planning of new automated records systems should include
the component Records Management Officer. He should be informed
of the development and objectives of such proposed automated systems
that will have a bearing upon the component's records.
(5) ANY PROGRAM NEEDS THESE THREE ELEMENTS:
AUTHORITY, IMPLEMENTATION, AND FOLLOW-UP. OUR
RECORDS PROGRAM HAS EACH, BUT EACH NEEDS GREATER
ACCEPTANCE TO FUNCTION SUCCESSFULLY.
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Our Regulation~is authoritative and encompasses the
Program -- but it needs periodic reiteration and endorsement.
Our Implementing Personnel need some satisfying recogni-
tion and a Records Career Service or specified position standards
to equalize the requirements and rewards in proportion to the
component workload.
The Decentralized Records Program needs an official
follow-up procedure such as an annual review of component Programs
with reports thereon. Semi-annual meetings, periodic visits, and
day to day support by the Central Records Staff must have greater
significance to be considered Program Management.
B. RECORDS STORAGE PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
(1) The Records Center is filled to capacity and additional storage space
must be provided. The following six alternatives were studied in an
effort to avoid building construction:
WPM
(a) Installing motorized shelving in the existing Records
Center. Equipment now on the market could increase the
capacity 28% (or 27, 290 cubic feet), at a cost of $772, 000.
This was considered too costly and the capacity gain inadequate.
(b) Use of other buildings or facilities of the Agency. All
were found either unavailable or unsuitable. Consideration
included the Headquarters basement,
(c) Rental of new space. This rental and necessary security
alterations is more expensive than construction and will fragment
the operation, thereby requiring more guards and additional
service personnel.
(d) Accelerated records disposal. The 55, 000 cubic feet
removed from the Center during the past five years leaves an
average of 1, 200 feet now scheduled for each of the next five.
Further disposal review by each component is recommended in
(2) (b) below.
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(e) The possibility of microfilming a selected half of the
Records Center contents. This was calculated as a 3-year
project that would cost as much as construction.
(f) The possibilities of relocating or transferring portions
of the records were considered and rejected as follows:
(1) Send the 6, 000 feet of Archives to National
Archives. In 1959 the Director ordered all Agency
Archives removed from National Archives.
(2) Send 9, 000 feet of Vital Records to the
is the Agency Relocation Site
where the Vital Records are to be used in an
emergency.
(3) Return Z0, 000 feet and the Supplemental
Distribution function to DDI or Printing Services.
Neither component has the space or manpower
necessary and the transfer would not benefit the
Agency.
(4) Store 66, 000 cubic feet of inactive Office
files in the Federal Records Centers as do the
Department of Defense, Department of State, and
Atomic Energy Commission. The difficulty ex-
perienced with the Special Compartmentation,
Security, and personnel arrangements required
for our temporary use of Suitland demonstrated
the unlikelihood of a general transfer of our Office
records to the custody of GSA Federal Records
Centers .
(2) THE RECOMMENDED RECORDS STORAGE ACTIONS ARE:
(a) The Director should be requested to announce his interest
in better Records Management in all Agency components with
particular and immediate attention to their deposits of inactive
records in the Center.
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(b) The Deputy Director for Support should transmit computer
listings of current Records Center deposits to each Directorate
requesting their close scrutiny to eliminate obsolete papers and
to tighten disposal time schedules for other files.
(c) The Central Records Staff should conduct an orientation
conference on the requirements of records retention with emphasis
on historical and archival record keeping. Invite all Agency
historians and Records Officers. This will require from top
management policy and procedure statements concerning our
historical requirements.
(d) The Central Records Staff should implement a "Records
Retention Plan" announcing "Offices of Record" and stipulating
the various types of documents and records for which specific
offices are responsible. thereby releasing others from filing
and making duplicate records retirement deposits.
(e) The foregoing can be expected to extend only temporarily
the capacity-life of the Records Center. Further, the storage
arrangements with the Federal Records Center at Suitland will
expire in December 1970, at which time we must recall some
25, 000 cubic feet of Agency records located there. Finally, no
immediate technological records storage relief can be expected
in the near future. The state-of-the-art of the micro-miniatur-
ization technology does not promise any practical application
within the next five years. Neither may we expect the component
use of computers to reach sufficient sophistication to eliminate
quantities of paper records within the next five years. Therefore.
it is recommended that construction of additional storage space,
possibly contiguous to the Records Center at- be considered,
programmed, and budgeted for no later than Fiscal Year 1970.
(f) The Office of Logistics should be requested to proceed
immediately with a Feasibility Study and to provide details and
cost comparison estimates for various methods of such construc-
tion. The findings should inclu 'e such other construction alter-
natives in the Headquarters area or at hat
appropriately relate to the provision of space to store Agency
records.
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(g) Funds should be set aside as soon as practicable for
the Logistics Feasibility Study ($6, 000). Also, funds will be
needed and should be set aside for the Architect and Engineer-
ing Contract, Title I--Design ($36, 000) if the Study findings
recommend a construction proposal that is approved. Finally,
the 1970 Budget should include approximately 1. 2 million dollars
to provide for the storage of Agency records.
CIA Records Administration Office
Records Program Background with
TABS A through K as indicated
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TE V,