TASK FORCE REPORT ON RECORDS MANAGEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04718A002700210006-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 54
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 2, 2001
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: January 1, 1949
• Content Type: REPORT

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TASK FORCE REPORT ON
Records Management
Appendix C
PREPARED FOR
THE COMMISSION ON ORGANIZATION
OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH
OF THE GOVERNMENT
January 1949
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Records Management in the
United States Government
A REPORT WITH RECOMMENDATIONS
P R E P A R E D P O R
THE COMMISSION ON ORGANIZATION OF THE
EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT
by
Emmett J. Leahy, Executive Director, National Records Management Council. Consultants to
the Commission and the Council: Herbert E. Angel, Department of National Defense; Robert
H. Bahmer, Assistant Archivist of the United States; Frank M. Root, West-
inghouse Electric Corporation; Edward Wilber, Department of State
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Letter of Transmittal
WASIIINGTON, D. C.
13 January 1949.
DEAR SIRS : In accordance with Public Law 162, approved July 7,
1947, the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of
the Government has undertaken an examination into the operation
and organization of the executive functions and activities. In this
examination it has had the assistance of various task forces which
have made studies of particular segments of the Government. Here-
with, it submits to the Congress a study prepared for the Commis-
sion's consideration of the Role of Records Management in the Fed-
eral Government.
The study of each task force naturally is made from its own par-
ticular angle. The Commission, in working out a pattern for the
Executive Branch as a whole, has not accepted all of the recommenda-
tions of the task forces. Furthermore, the Commission, in its own
reports, has not discussed all the recommendations of an adminis-
trative nature although they may be of importance to the officials
concerned.
The Commission's own report on records management is submitted
to the Congress separately as part of the volume of its report titled
"Executive Services."
The Commission wishes to express its appreciation to the National
Records Management Council, its executive director, Emmett J. Leahy
who wrote the report as a whole, and to Robert H. Bahmer, Herbert
E. Angel, Edward B. Wilber, and Frank M. Root, for the prepara-
tion of this task force study.
Faithfully,
The Honorable
The President of The Senate
The Honorable
The Speaker of The House of Representatives
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Table of Contents
Page
1
II. General Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
III. Detailed Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
IV. Supporting Statements for All Recommendations . . . . . 13
V. Summary of Anticipated Economics and Improvements . . 39
Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Charts
1. Total Cubic Feet of Federal Records (1930-1948) . 3
II. Yearly Savings of Contents of One File Cabinet . . . . 16
III. Results of Records Screening in Five Naval Records Man-
agement Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
IV. Cubic Feet of Records in Selected Records Centers . . . 22
V. Management and Disposal of Army and Air Force Records 37
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RECORDS MANAGEMENT
1. INTRODUCTION
Objectives
Record making and record keeping in the Federal Government
represent:
1. Indispensable tools in the conduct of the Government's operations.
2. The greatest consumers of salaries, space, and equipment of all the house-
keeping activities of the Federal Government.
3. The sum of the recorded obligations of the Federal Government, at home
and abroad.
4. An invaluable store of hard earned experience recorded in our national
effort to sustain a system of democracy and private enterprise.
The objectives of this report with recommendations are balanced
accordingly :
1. To sharpen the efficiency of these management tools.
2. To eliminate excessive costs in salaries, space, and equipment.
3. To safeguard the essential record of our obligations.
4. To capitalize on our invaluable store of recorded experience.
Operation of This Task Force
This is the first time that the Federal Government has undertaken
a balanced appraisal of its massive record-making and record-keeping
operations. The Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch
of the Government and the National Records Management Council
have taken care to insure that its advisors on this project, whether
from Government or industry, fully represented tested experience in
each of the four components of such a balanced appraisal.
The consultants to the Commission and to the Council reached full
agreement on the general and detailed recommendations included in
Parts II and III of this report. The report as a whole was written
by Emmett J. Leahy.
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The consultants to the Commission and the Council, Robert H.
Babmer, Herbert E. Angel, Edward B. Wilber, and Frank M. Root,
were unstinting with their time and experienced counsel. They join
with. Emmett J. Leahy in acknowledging the full support and splendid
cooperation extended to this task force by Messrs. Sidn3y A. Mitchell,
Pearson Winslow, Herber J. Miller, Robert L. L. McCormick, and
Henry Luce III of the Commission's staff.
Staff assistants to Mr. Leahy, John F. X. Britt, Joan Hawkinson,
and Helen Miller, were most helpful.
The cooperation and assistance of many_Goverm:nenr: officials made
this report possible. Outstanding in this :respect were Wayne C.
Grover, Archivist of the United States; Herbert E. Angel, Director of
Office Methods, Department of the Navy, and his :staff members,
Everett O. Alldredge, Paul Bishop, Diana Erseg, and :Betty Barnett;
William O. Hall, Director of Budget and Planning, :Department of
State; Leonard W. O'Hearn, Director of Administral_:ive Planning,
Federal Security Agency; Thurman T. Beach, Chief, Records Man-
agement Branch, Atomic Energy Commission ; and W. E. Reynolds,
Commissioner, II. G. Hunter, Assistant Commissioner, and John L.
Nagle, Deputy Commissioner, Public Buildings Administration.
Gwilyn A. Price, President, Westinghouse Electric Corp., and Henry
IV.. Lynch, General Assistant Comptroller, E. I. duPo:utde Nemours
& Co., Inc., gave the task force full cooperation.
Scope of the Problem
This study gives ample proof of the fact that record making and
record keeping are the greatest consumers of salaries, space, and
equipment of all the housekeeping or service activities of the Federal
Government.
Salaries.-In 1940, an estimate was made of 340,000 employees,
with annual salaries of $680,000,000, engaged in handling records then
accumulated or being created at that time. A much greater figure
would apply were employees engaged primarily in :record making
ackled to these in record. keeping. No actual count being available,
an estimate of over I billion dollars is justifiable. Salaries of no other
housekeeping or service function including Government- accounting or
personnel management remotely approaches this figure.
Space.-Approximately 18,500,000 cubic feet of Federal records,
(see accompanying Chart I, p. 3) occupy more than 18,D00,000 square-
feet of Federal space. This is equivalent to six Pentagons. Space
costs are not less than $27,000,000 annually. Actual surveys and offi-
cial estimates carry this volume of records up to 17,000,000 cubic feet,;
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CHART I
Total Cubic Feet of Federal Records (1930-1948)
(The average standard file drawer contains 11/2 cubic feet of
records)
Holdings of the National Archives - Actual
Holdings of Selected Federal Records Centers - Actual
3
816291?-48---2
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18,500,000 cubic feet is a weighted current estimate .for the purposes
of this study.
Operation and .maintena we.-Space occupied by records is oper-
ated and maintained consistently at a cost close to the actual rental
paid. Annual expenditures for this purpose are not less than
-$20,000,000.
1. quipment.---Records in such a quantity are equivalent to 3,080,000
standard four-drawer filing cabinets costing $154,000,000 at current
prices.
Approximately $1,200,000,000 for record making and record keeping
apportioned over the departments and agencies in Washington and in
the field have compelled a few departments and agencies to aggres-
sively attack these excessive costs. In the last decade, programs and
facilities have been developed with excellent results. Similar pro-
grains and facilities have been developed in industry. These signifi-
cant and highly profitable efforts represent management's first effective
attempt to reduce excessive costs in record making and record keeping
horizontally or clear across an agency. Previously, management's
efforts were only vertical or following restricted patterns. These in-
eliuded the more or less common procedures control, methods studies,
organization analysis, job analysis, and work improvement programs.
The largest single cost factor represented by record making and record
keeping per se, however, was not provided for as such in these attempts.
Determining Factors In Modern Records Management
Apace with industrial progress, there has been a revolutionary
mechanization, specialization, and duplication in record making and
record keeping. .Asa result, modern records accumulate in admittedly
fantastic quantities and are maintained only at excessive costs.
.Mechanization of the office began with the introduction of the type-
'writer around 1875. Adding, bookkeeping, calculating, tabulating,
and recording machines rapidly followed. Mechanization of offices
is expensive but it saves more expensive labor or gives a better result.
There is an extensive backlog of improvements and new developments
in the laboratories of the office machine industry. Further mechaniza-
tion is assured. Widespread use of this equipment by spectacularly
expanding public agencies and private enterprise in the United States
is producing records in quantities wholly unapproachedi in the past
and unparalleled abroad.
Specialization in record making and record keeping has resulted
from the mighty American drive to get things done faster, cheaper or
better. Several records wholly comprising a single operation such as
bookkeeping in the last century has been divided and subdivided into
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anywhere from a score to hundreds of component records. Countless
specialized, single purpose records are the result.
Duplication in record making and record keeping also gets things
done faster, cheaper or better. Labor and expense limited the clerk
in the past to one or a few handwritten or press copies of a record.
Carbon paper was introduced just prior to 1900. The mimeograph,
photo lithography and chemical processes followed and acknowledge
little or no limitation on copy making.
Record making and record keeping up to the beginning of this
century were controlled by simple physical factors. Writing and
copying by hand or letterpress was slow, laborious and costly; record
making therefore was limited. Records to be filed were also limited.:
The mechanization, specialization, and duplication in modern record
making have no comparable controls. Proof follows of the urgent
need for new controls applicable by modern management.
This problem is further aggravated by (a) the increasing size and
(b) the increasing complexity of an enterprise whether it be a Federal
or county government, a small or large manufacturing company. The
following data compiled under the auspices of Harvard's Graduate
School of Business Administration illustrates this point :
VARIATIONS IN THE APPROXIMATE PERCENTAGE OF NECESSARY RECORD-
KEEPING EMPLOYEES TO TOTAL EMPLOYMENT
Simple
processes
Moderately
complicated
processes
Complicated
processes
Percent
Percent
Percent
50 employees or less______________________
3
41%
634
51-100 employees________________________
4
572
772
101-200 employees_______________________
434
63
834
201-300 employees_______________________
5%
734
10
A much higher percentage of record keeping employees in larger and
more complex enterprises is in a sense one of the curses of bigness.
The Federal Government is, of course, one of the very largest and
most complex operations.
The conclusions and resulting recommendations in this report com-
prise a program which is restricted solely to elements which have been
tested, approved, and applied by agencies of the Federal Government,
some State governments, many of the larger corporations, and some
foreign governments. Bringing these elements together by means of
detailed recommendations, providing them with the required support
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and accountability, and widening their applications ate the principal
contributions of this study.
The recommendation that a Federal Records Administration be
established provides the only practical and operational!, sound organ-
ization to (1) consolidate and reduce the records centes now in exist-
ence at the same time broadening their services to assist all depart-
ments and agencies; (2) coordinate the management of the great
quantities of records in Federal records centers with the objectives
and requirements of the National Archives; (3) develop and sponser
a Government-wide, program for improvements and economies in
records management as the agency best equipped and most concerned
in the development of such a program.
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II. GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
A. That a Federal Records Administration be established, and that
the existing National Archives establishment become an integral part
thereof.
B. That a law to be cited as the "Federal Records Management Act
of 1949" be enacted to provide for the creation, preservation, manage-
ment, and disposal of records of the United States Government.
C. That a minimum program for records management be required
in each department and agency of the United States Government.
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III. DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS
Central Agency
A. That a Federal Records Administration be estabb~hed and that
the existing National Archives Establishment become a,% integral part
thereof.
1. That the Federal Records Administration establish and. operate
Federal records centers in Washington and in the field for the storage,
servicing, security, and screening of all Federal records which must
be preserved for a. time but need not be retained in office equipment
and space. It is recommended that this be accomplished by :
a. Transferring records centers selected from among the mo: e than 100 now
opera ted by individual departments and agencies to the Federal Records Admin-
istration by negotiations with the departments and agencies concerned.
b. Operating records centers so transferred and centers otherwise provided
to service all departments and agencies.
c. Effecting a consolidation and a reduction of existing and rapidly increasing
duplication in records center facilities.
d. Adapting as records centers, selected surplus war plants or some of the
100 war plants which have been placed in the industrial reserre and are now
under the jurisdiction of the Public Buildings Administration.
e. The construction or procurement of such other records centers as may be
authorized from time to time by the Congress.
f. Selecting all centers by location and size to insure (1) continued decentral-
ization of Federal records in the interest of efficient servicing and! use of records ;
and (2) dispersal of vital records in the interest of national security.
2. That the Federal Records Administration evolve and promote
Government-wide improvements and economies in records manage-
ment through :
a. Standards and controls for record making and record keeping, selective
records preservation, scheduled records disposal, and transfer of records to
records centers.
b. Discriminating application of tested methods, practices, materials, equip-
ment, and machines to record making and record keeping.
c. Authorization by law to inspect Federal records and to require reports as
to their management.
d. Training programs directed at improving the effectiveness and the tech-
nical knowledge of personnel assigned to record making and record keeping.
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e. Standards and controls for physical, legal, and security safeguards of all
Federal records.
3. That the Federal Records Administration make special provisions
for preserving, studying, and servicing Federal records having per-
manent value and historical interest by :
a. Continuing the National Archives as an integral and vital part of the
Administration.
b. Continuing to maintain for this purpose an adequate professional staff
of trained archivists.
c. Placing such records and the professional staff under the general direction
of an outstanding archivist selected in accordance with Civil Service Regula-
tions on the basis of his professional attainments in a highly specialized field.
Legislative Action
B. That a law to be cited as the "Federal Records Management Act
of 1949" be enacted to provide for the creation, preservation, manage-
ment, and disposal of records of the United States Government.
1. That when used in this act the word "records" includes any paper,
book, photograph, motion-picture film, microfilm, sound recording,
map, drawing, or other document, or any copy thereof that has been
made by any agency of the United States Government or received
by it in connection with the transaction of public business and has
been retained by that agency or its successor as evidence of its activities
or because of the information contained therein.
2. That the head of each agency shall make, cause to be made, or
file only such records as in his opinion are necessary to provide for
the continued effective operation of the agency of which he is the
head, to constitute an adequate and proper recording of its activities,
and to protect the legal rights of the Government of the United
States and of the people.
3. That proposed legislation provide not only that (a) Federal
records are the property of the United States Government; (b) such
records be delivered by outgoing officials and employees to their suc-
cessors (U. S. C. Title 18, secs. 234 and 235) ; and (c) such records
must not be otherwise unlawfully destroyed or removed; but also
fix responsibility on a Federal Records Administration for (d) estab-
lishing safeguards against removal or loss of Federal records and
(e) initiating the recovery of Federal records which have been un-
lawfully removed.
4. That the act provide for the establishment of a Federal Records
Administration in accordance with Recommendation A of this report
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under the direction of a Federal Records Administ:-ator appointed
by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.
5. That there also be established a Federal Records Administra
t:ion Council superseding the existing National Archives Council (48
Stat. 1122 and 60 Stat. 812) and comprising the same membership as.
The National Archived Council with the addition of the Administra-
tor of Federal Records. The Council should be responsible for :
a. Formulating regulations governing record making, record keeping, and
records disposal.
b. The classes of records to be transferred to the Federal Records Adminis-
tration.
c The use of :records so transferred by public officials, scholars, and the
people.
d. The loan or transfer of records from one agency to another..
C. Standards governing the reproduction of records by inhotographlc (or
microphotographic) processes for the purpose of disposing of the original records-
Such regulations when approved by the President anad promulgated
by the Federal Records Administration shall be binding, on all agencies
of the United States Government.
6. That the head of each agency of the executive, ]legislative, and
judicial branches of the Federal Government design:tte or appoint
within 6 months after the passage of the proposed act, a records
management officer for the agency, and that the Federal Records
Administration be :notified of such designations. Records manage-
menu officers should plan, develop, and put into opera~.ion a compre-
hensive records management program in the agency and serve in
a liaison capacity with the Federal Records A.dministr,ation.
'7. That no records of the Federal Government shall be destroyed
or otherwise disposed of without the approval of (a) the Federal
Records Administration and (b) the Congress of the United States,
as provided by law and regulations of the Federal Records Adminis-
tration Council.
8. That the Congress consider revising present legislation govern-
in ; the disposal of Federal records (44 U. S. C. 366-3,30) to provide
for an automatic records disposal authorization 45 days after a re-
quest for authorization has been submitted by an agency to the Federal
Records Administration, provided that the Congress is in session
during the last 15 days of the period and provided further that
neither the Federal Records Administrator nor the Congress direct
that the proposed disposal or a part thereof is disallowed or that it
be delayed pending further study.
9. That recent legislation (H. R. 6293, Report No. 1138, 80 Cong.,
2d. sess.) establishing a trust fund for receipts from photographic
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services rendered by the National Archives be continued for similar
services rendered by the Federal Records Administration.
10. That the National Archives Trust Fund Board (U. S. C.
300aa-300jj), the National Historical Publications Commission
(48 Stat. 11.22-1124), and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (53
Stat. 1062) be continued as a part of the National Archives within
the Federal Records Administration, and that the Federal Register
(44 U. S. C. 301-314) be continued as a separate unit of the Federal.
Records Administration.
11. That the draft of a Federal Records Management Act included
in Appendix A be considered as a basis for the recommended legisla-
tion. Past legislation which is effected in part by the proposed act
is listed in Appendix B.
Agency Program
C. That each department and agency of the Federal Government
be required by law, or by resolution of the Federal Records Admin-
istration Council approved by the President, to appoint or designate
a qualified records management officer to plan, develop, and organize
a records management program. The minimum content of a records
management program should include tested controls on record mak-
ing, record keeping and selective records preservation.
1. Controls on record making with a high degree of effectiveness
are:
a. Elimination of widespread and unessential duplication of files and filing
through files and filing analysis.
b. Discriminating application of modern office machines and equipment to
record making.
c. Streamlining and reducing voluminous correspondence through the use
of form letters, pattern letters, limitation or elimination of copies, pattern para-
graphs, procedural guides, automatic typewriters, and other labor-saving
equipment.
Controls on forms and reports are essential and should include:
d. Controls on the development, issue, standardization, and use of forms with
a view to simplifying and improving forms in size, design, and function, reduc-
ing the number of forms and determining their use, method of filing and ultimate
disposal.
e. Controls on requirements for and submission of reports, eliminating obso-
lete reports, unessential copies, too frequent reporting, and unessential filing of
reports, coordinating all reporting to eliminate overlapping and duplication in
fact gathering.
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2. Controls pn record filing should include :
a. Organization of files in efficient and practical locations considering factors
of physical proximity and administrative necessity, successful eliminating wide-
,spread maintenance of duplicate files.
b. Discriminating installation of labor-saving devices such as modern micro-
filming, tabulating equipment, etc., to simplify filing, the accumulation of re-
corded data and to reduce :filing space.
C. Efficient and effective work flow patterns for mail roomN and file-room in-
stallations, including effective layouts and lighting.
Z. Standards and criteria for systems and methods of handling, classifying,
indexing, and filing, and for filing supplies and equipment.
e. Review of requisitions for filing equipment to control purchases, allow
for interchange of equipment, and to provide guidance as to the best equipment
available.
f. A training program in all phases of records management regularly being
brought up to date by the addition of new developments in records-management
practices, equipment, and supplies.
8. Controls insuring selective records preservation require:
a. Periodic inventory of all records.
b. Development and installation of comprehensive schedules providing for (1)
prompt disposal of valueless records, (2) periodic transfer to records centers of
records which need not be kept in expensive equipment and' office space, (3)
periodic transfer of records of permanent historical value to tho Federal Records
Administration for deposit in the National Archives, (4) conlrols to effect rec-
riously handicap the Government.
ord turn-over in conformance with schedules.
c. Applications of microfilming to conserve space and equipment and to pro-
vide security microfilm copies of vital documents, the loss of which would se-
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IV. SUPPORTING STATEMENTS FOR ALL
RECOMMENDATIONS
A. That a Federal Records Administration be established and that
the existing National Archives Establishment become an integral part
thereof.
Less than 5 percent of Federal records are deposited in the National
Archives. This institution accessions all Federal records of per-
manent value and historical interest. Holdings, nevertheless, are
close to the total capacity of the existing building.
The bulk of Federal records, more than 95 percent or approximately
17,500,000 cubic feet, represents a large-scale management problem.
The extent of the problem is measurable by the great costs tied up in
space, equipment, and personnel as reported in Part I of this report.
The experience, particularly during the last decade, of a few de-
partments and agencies of the Government and of large companies in
industry prove conclusively that prevailing large-scale problems in
records management lend themselves with surprising ease to equally
large-scale solutions.
This study confirms for the first time that more than 50 percent of
the total records of the average organization can be eliminated from
office and plant equipment and space. Such a spectacular return was
not fully anticipated. The critically accurate appraisals and meas-
urements conducted during this study, carefully checked against the
results obtained by representative companies in industry, now make
it possible for the first time to guarantee such results given a basic
minimum of low-cost conditions.
These appraisals and measurements were applied to accomplishments
and not potentials in successful records management programs in gov-
ernment and industry. The results appear under the appropriate
sections of this report.
Elimination of over 50 percent of all records from office and plant
equipment and space is easily attainable in a relatively short period of
time by :
1. Destruction of up to 35 percent of valueless or duplicated records with a
continuing annual turn-over by destruction of 10 percent or more of the remain-
ing records.
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2. Initial transfers to storage in records centers of more than 20 percent of
records that must continue to be preserved at least for a time, with continuing
transfers each year thereafter of an additional 10 percent or more of the re-
maining records.
3. An annual turn-over of between 10 percent and 25 percent of the holdings in
records centers by destruction of records which have served out their time.
Still more important but less adaptable to measurement and fore-
casting are the economies and improvements which have been made
and can be made on a much greater scale in current records manage-
merit. Splendid if sporadic progress is reported in the following sec-
tions of this report in such areas as birth control on record making,,
elimination of unessential filing and duplication of files, more efficient
and more economical organization. of records, and progressive appli -
cations of ' office machines, equipment, and systems to record making
and record keeping. Wide extension of these scattered instances of
improvements and savings in current records management is a primary
objective.
Uniformly in Government and in industry there are three essentials,
in records management programs which have yielded these large-scale
savings and improvements :
1. Fixing responsibility for records management on a qua] [fled individual, staff?
or organization.
2'. Developing and applying a program of controls in record making, record
keeping, selective records preservation, and records disposal.
3. Providing records centers for the storage, servicing, security, and screening
of records which must be preserved for a time but need not be retained in
expensive office or plant equipment and space.
This report presents a program to provide these three essentials at
the level of the Federal Government as a whole and at the level of each
department and agency.
The establishment of a Federal Records Administration is recom-
mended to take place of the National Archives as an independent
agency. If at this time or in the future, a department of general
administration is established, the inclusion of the Federal Records
Administration therein should be considered. It is recommended
further that the essential function of the National Archives be contin-
ued as an integral part of the new agency.
A Federal Records Administration is essential primarily to operate
Federal records centers in addition to the National Archi res. Federal
records centers are required for the storage, servicing, security, and
screening of approximately one-third, or 6,000,000 cubic feet, of rec-
ords. More than 4,000,000 of these records are now stored in more
than 100 duplicating and overlapping records centers established in the
last 10 years by less than a score of the departments and agencies. A
minimum of an additional 2,000,000 cubic feet of records continue to be
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unnecessarily housed in expensive office equipment and space in the
hundreds of agencies which have not established records centers and do
not have access to those established by other agencies.
Some central agency is necessary to operate fewer records centers to
;serve all departments and agencies, instead of the more than 100 exist-
ing records centers serving only a score of the departments and agen-
cies. The justification for records centers and their operation by the
Federal Records Administration is given in Section 1 which follows.
The reasons why it is not recommended that the operation of these
centers be simply added. as a new duty to the National Archives are
given in Section 3 of this part of the report.
Some central agency is necessary to tie in the line function of operat-
ing the Federal records centers with the line function of administering
the National Archives. Both functions are but two phases of the
single problem of managing Federal records and steadily screening
them down to the relatively small core of records having permanent
value and historical interest.
A central agency is also needed to evolve and promote Government.
wide improvements and economies in records management through
the development of standards, technical guidance and assistance, and
training programs, to establish physical, legal, and security safe-
guards of records; and to insure a follow through by all agencies in
improvements, economies, safeguards and the use of available facili-
ties. The Federal Records Administration must for its own purposes
develop a high degree of responsibility for and technical knowledge in
records management on the part of its own staff members. Through
this recommendation, it is assured that this responsibility and technical
knowledge has an effective channel into the individual departments and
.agencies. Further justification on this point is given under Section
2 of this part of the report.
FOR RECORD CENTERS
1. That the Federal Records Administration establish and operate
Federal records centers in Washington and in the field for the storage,
servicing, security, and screening of all Federal records which must
be preserved for a time but need not be retained in office equipment
and space.
Savings of more than 90 percent in the cost of records equip-
ment, space, and maintenance are easily obtained by a transfer of
records out of office equipment and space into a well-planned records
center. The accompanying chart IT, page 16, illustrates these savings.
The Army and Navy alone in the last 6 years have transferred more
than 21/2 million cubic feet of records. This represents the contents
of more than 400,000 four-drawer filing cabinets with a replacement
value of over $20,000,000. The Westinghouse Electric Corp. has trans-
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CHART II
on CONTENTS o ONE
FILE
CABINET
I (File Cabinet @ $50.00
(Amortized 19 years)
;;$ 5.00
6 aq.ft. of space o $2.50
::$15.00
Overhead and maintenance
for 6 sq. ft. a $1.50
I/10 steel stack section
a $32.00 a $3.20
(Amortized Ili years) z$0.32
6 cardboard cartons
o $0. 15 : $0.90
(Amortized 10 years) =$0.09.
1/10 of 17.5 sq.ft of space
a $0.50 per ? . ft., e$0.87
Overhead and maintenance for
1/10 of 17.5 sq. ft. 0$0.60.$0.87
11'.5 sq. ft. of SPACE
loalds the con tents of
10 FILE CABZNE73
:;iii;?.'.st:,? ^f~~ ~b ~??
YEARL Y
_......- Me CAB/NET ors
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ferred over 140,000 cubic feet of records. This represents the contents
of more than 20,000 four-drawer filing cabinets with a replacement
value of $1,400,000.
Despite the savings to be realized and the need for release of space
in crowded offices and installations, the majority of departments and
agencies do not now have access to records centers. It has been care-
fully estimated by this task force of the Commission that in such
departments and agencies there are now 2 million cubic feet of records
available for transfer to records centers were centers available. These
records occupy 2 million square feet of space, which is close to the
capacity of the Pentagon, and represent the equivalent of more than
330,000 four-drawer filing cabinets with a replacement value of
approximately $17,000,000.
Transfer of records at the earliest practical date to responsible
custody in a records center not only drastically slashes equipment,
space, and maintenance costs, but it insures an audit or a check on
unessential records preservation. In addition to sharply reduced
costs, the resulting minimum cost, which is not a new cost, is in turn
isolated, measurable, and controllable. Valueless records can be
screened out. Records which have served their time turn over
promptly. Chart III, page 18, illustrates the importance of records
screening.
Stress must be laid on the fact that records centers to be profitable
cannot be dumping grounds for dead records forgotten and inacces-
sible. It is true that only minimum building and equipment require-
ments are justified. But the management of such facilities must
clamp controls on records retention, provide continuous screening of
valueless records, and give prompt, efficient service.
It is significant that Navy records centers directed by experienced
civilian records administrators have achieved a 25.5-percent records
turn-over. One Army records center also directed by an experienced
records administrator has achieved a 37-percent records turn-over.
a. Transferring records centers selected from among the more than 100 now
operated by individual departments and agencies to the Federal Records Admin-
istration by negotiations with the departments and agencies concerned.
b. Operating records centers so transferred and centers otherwise provided
to service all departments and agencies.
For the purpose of this study, 99 records centers, all of which have
been created in the last 6 years to meet an obvious need were selected
for study. It is apparent that a comparatively small number of agen-
cies operate such centers and for their own purposes only. The large
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CHART III
Results of Records Screening in Five Naval Records
Management Centers
18 25.5% turnover of records
by destruction and transfer
to the National Archives'
33% more records can be
received and processed
because of screening
Thousands of Cubic Feet
Gross and net savings
through release of Records
Center space by screening
XXXI
,:AT
OF
Recovery of records lost or
misfiled is an important
by-product of screening
11
More efficient servicing
of records is another
by-product of screening
June 16, 1948
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number of these facilities multiply overhead and maintenance costs.
Selected centers from among those now in operation should be
transferred to the Federal Records Administration and their facilities
made available to all departments and agencies. Twice before the
question has been raised, "Will an agency readily transfer records
to a center operated by some other agency?" This question was first
raised in the mid-thirties after the establishment of the National
Archives. In a few short years, by 1940, record transfers to the
National Archives were filling available space with totally unantici-
pated rapidity. In the early 1940's a few departments established
records centers to serve all bureaus and divisions of the departments.
Again it was thought that nearly autonomous bureaus would not
relinquish their records. Since 1943, over 11/2 million cubic feet of
records have been transferred to Army centers and over 1 million
feet have been transferred to Navy centers.
Two factors press for transfer of records. Expanding government-
al operations because of the New Deal, the last war, or for whatever
reason, create such a_ scarcity of space that any relief, and particularly
record transfers, are resorted to extensively. Conversely, reduced
appropriations during periods of retrenchment yield similar results
for different reasons. Although in periods of retrenchment, office
space is much less critical, management withholds funds for the main-
tenance of large quantities of records which need not be retained in
expensive equipment in offices with a high overhead, thus forcing
record transfers.
c. Effecting a consolidation and a reduction of existing and rapidly increasing
duplication in records center facilities.
Overhead costs are multiplied in the maintenance of a large number
of relatively small centers. For security, as well as for more efficient
service, over centralization in the storage of records is not advisable.
But the expense of maintaining three or four medium-size centers in a
single locality, such as is now the case with the Maritime Commission,
the Army, and the Navy in the vicinity of New York City, is waste.
Until recently General Accounting Office records were maintained
in 16 different buildings in Washington with an annual maintenance
and operation expense of $1.32,400 in addition to a $76,500 rental for
non-Government-owned buildings, or a total of $208,000. Consoli-
dating these records in Government-owned space in Cameron, Va.,
cut annual costs to $90,000 for a yearly savings of $118,000. Fur-
thermore, the records scattered through many buildings occupied
305,000 square feet whereas when consolidated they occupied only
267,000 square feet of space.
Further argument for consolidating and at the same time reducing
the number of existing centers is the present necessity of large-scale
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record shipments. For example, even though there is a large Navy
records center at San Bruno, Calif., Veterans' Administration records
on the West Coast must be shipped to Philadelphia., Maritime Com-
mission records to Hoboken, and Army records to S1, Louis. To
move G. A. 0. records the short distance to Cameron, Va., while jus-
tified, cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Thousands of tons
of records crisscrossing the country is expensive and unnecessary.
d. Adapting as records centers, selected surplus war plants or some of the
:100 war plants which have been placed in the industrial reserve and are now
under the jurisdiction of the :Public Buildings Administration.
e. The construction or procurement of such other records centers as may be
authorized from time to time by the Congress.
f. Selecting all centers by location and size to insure (1) continued decen-
traliz.,ition of Federal records in the interest of efficient servicing and use of
records and (2) dispersal of vital records in the interest of national security.
Selected surplus -war plants or some of the 100 war plants which
have been placed in the industrial reserve are in many cases idle and
readily adaptable to records centers. The War Assets Administration
has used more than one-half dozen of these plants for temporary
storage and screening of the Administration's large quantity of field
records. Whatever the likelihood of any future urgency for the im-
mediate availability of such plants, the bulk of the War Assets Ad-
rninistration's records retirement program seems to be well over the
hump through the temporary use of these facilities.
It is expected that there will be good reason for the construction
or procurement of one or more buildings for records center purposes.
For the most part, it is expected that new construction for records
centers as well as most; other public purposes will be included in longer
range Public Works programs. An exception might well be a records
center in the vicinity of Washington but not in the city proper to ease
the space shortage in the Capital. -
Greater decentralization of Federal records is effected by the Federal
Records Administration's operation of general purpose centers serv-
iug,a11. departments and agencies. A Federal Records Administration
center on the west coast for example would retain Veterans' Adminis-
tration records on. the west coast. The same will be true of Federal
Records Administration centers elsewhere around the country. For
the most part, agency records are now being centralize>d in one or
a few' centers far removed from the offices which must use the records.
Such decentralization is an important component of dispersal of
Federal records in the interest of national security.
FOR CENTRAL SUPERVISIO7IT
2. That the Federal Records Administration evolve and pro-
mote Government-wide improvements and economies in records
management.
20 -
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A single central source to sponsor improvements and economies in
records management is one of the three essentials of all existing,
successful programs. Fixing this responsibility in the Federal Rec-
ords Administration gives direction, support, and a medium of ac-
countability. This direction, support, and accountability are not now
provided.
The Budget Bureau and the National Archives have made some
attempts in program sponsorship. Beginning in 1942 with a supple-
mental appropriation specifically for the development of a Govern-
ment-wide program in records management, an effort was made by the
National Archives. This effort in time became sharply limited to the
few phases of records management that most directly effect the iso-
lation and eventual transfer of the small percentage of records which
have permanent value and historical interest.
Shortly after the National Archives' effort, the Budget Bureau
assigned a staff member full time to records management. The prin-
cipal result nod to be minimized was a policy decision in the Bureau
that every agency should have fixed responsibility for an agency-wide
records program. Executive Order 9784 of September 25, 1946, added
Presidential approval of this bureau policy.
The Federal Records Administration through primary interest and
technical experience is a more fitting central agency to undertake
this staff function of developing a program, providing experienced
counsel and expert assistance, and sponsoring training programs.
These staff services are a vital supplement and a support to the facili-
ties and line service provided in the Federal-records centers.
At negligible cost a small staff, initially not more than a half a dozen,
can promote, assist, and fill in the programs at the department and
agency level. In the unanimous opinion of this task force of the
Commission, the return from this small staff function will annually
exceed the large scale savings to be gained through the establishment
of records centers. The character and extent of these improvements
and economies are illustrated in Part IV, Section C, of this report.
This staff function in the Federal Records Administration must
be carried through in close collaboration with other staff and service
functions of the Government, including particularly the Bureau of
the Budget. Major programs and Government-wide regulations must
be cleared through the Federal Records Administration Council and
receive Presidential approval. This guarantees clearance and coordi-
nation with the Executive Office of the President, and with the major
departments through their representatives on the Council.
The content of this staff function should include:
a. Standards and controls for record making and record keeping, selective
records preservation, scheduled records disposal, and transfer of records to
records centers.
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Cubic Feet of Records in Selected Records Centers
(The average standard file drawer contains 11/2 cubic feet of
records)
200,000
ARM)' AND AIR FORCE
GENERAL ACCT. OFFICE
NAVY DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
SELECTIVE SER. SYSTEM
MARITIME COMMISSION
WAR ASSETS ADMIN.
VETERANS ADMIN.
WAR PRODUCTION BOARD
INTERNAL REVENUE
TENN. VALLEY AUTHORITY
OTHER SELECTED CENTERS
22
600,000 1,000,000
I, 400, 000
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b. Discriminating application of tested methods, practices, materials, equip-
ment, and machines to record making and record keeping.
c. Authorization by law to inspect Federal records and to require reports as
to their management.
d. Training programs directed at improving the effectiveness and the tech-
nical knowledge of personnel assigned to record making and record keeping.
e. Standards and controls for physical, legal, and security safeguards of all
Federal records.
FOR PRESERVING PERMANENT RECORDS
3. That the Federal Records Administration make special provi-
sions for preserving, studying, and servicing Federal records having
permanent value and historical interest by :
a. Continuing the National Archives as an integral and vital part of the
administration.
b. Continuing to maintain for this purpose an adequate professional staff of
trained archivists.
c. Placing such records and the professional staff under the general direction
of an outstanding archivist selected in accordance with the Civil Service Regu-
lations on the basis of his professional attainments in a highly specialized field.
The National Archives performs an essential and an important
function in receiving, organizing, preserving, and making available
to the Government, to scholars, and to the people the core of per-
manently valuable records of the Government. This is an indispen-
sable service of all. mature governments. It should, therefore, con-
tinue to be sustained by the Government of the United States..
Serious consideration was given to adding the functions recom-
mended in 1 and 2 above, namely the operation of Federal records
centers and the development and promotion of Government-wide im-
provements and economies in records management to the existing
National Archives. The three reasons favoring such a recommenda-
tion are :
a. The National Archives is a going concern.
b. It is the only agency primarily in the records field although in a specialized
and limited segment of that field.
c. It has won recognition and standing in the 14 years of its existence.
To do so, however, would change the character and scope of the
National Archives so radically as to create, in fact, a new kind of
agency. The potential change in size is shown in Chart IV, page 22.
Not to change the name and concept as well would dodge the issue
and contribute to a confusion of objectives and programs.
The following comparison between the National Archives and
selected departmental centers, as of June 18, 1948, is significant:
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Number of
Number of
Volume of
records, cub 0.
Square feet
of space
centers
employees
foot
Departmental record centers-__.
99
6, 259
4,78 7, 49:.
6,171,958
National. Archives -----------------
-2
350
860, 000
845,647
Percentage National Archives to
2
0%
5. 6%
17. 9%u
13.7%
other centers--------------- ------
.
For compelling reasons it is recommended that a Federal Records
Administration replace the National Archives as an independent
agency and that the latter be continued as an integral part of the new
agency. These reasons are
a. The essential specialized.. function of The National Archivee is limited to
only 5 percent of Federal records.
b. The archival function requires a comparatively small pro sessional staff
and optimum storage facilities.
c. - The 95 percent of Federal. records outside The National Archives present
primarily a management rather than an archival problem.
d. Operation of Federal records centers require competent management as-
sisted for the most part by clerical and administrative employes rather than
professional, archival assistance. - -
e. Records centers to be effective require mass handling of a great volume
of records with minimum conditions for storage, space, equipment, containers,
and types of service.. Techniques are administrative rather- tha:a archival.
f. The development and promotion of a program for Goverritnent-wide im-
provements and economies in records management require modern management
techniques rather than archival science. - -
Since the preponderance of the proposed program is a management
function, and since the National Archives is now performing an
essential, specialized function, blowing up the latter to include the
former would gain nothing and very probably detract from the -ef-
fectiveness of the two separate functions. Transferri-rig the ablest
of the personnel: operating existing departmental records centers
with or without their center facilities, would be- a better source of
talent for Federal records center operation and for the most part at
no new cost to the Government.
Transfer of experienced personnel from the most effective records
:management stail's in the departments and in industry would also
be a better source for the small staff responsible for developing and
promoting a program for Government-wide improvement and econo-
mies in records management.
It is fair to conclude that the National Archives has been under
pressure from departments and agencies seeking assistance in attempts
to bring massive and burdensome accumulations of records under con-
24
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trol. Such pressure has of necessity frequently diverted the Na-
tional Archives from its prime purpose although such diversion was
in the public interest.
This report makes more effective provisions for the assistance re-
quired by the departments and agencies. At the same time and as
a result of such provisions, the staff of the National Archives can
concentrate on the objectives for which it was created. Foremost
among these objectives is to preserve, explore, and make available
the invaluable store of hard-earned experience recorded in the per-
manent records of our national effort to sustain a system of democracy
and private enterprise.
The foregoing recommendations in this Part (IV A-1-3) of the
report are essentially similar to that made in 1947 by the Advisory
Committee on New York State Records System and in 1948 by a
Planning Staff on the Los Angeles City Government Records System.*
Other States are contemplating similar programs.
For Legislation
B. That a law to be cited as the "Federal Records Management Act
of 1949" be enacted to provide for the creation, preservation, man-
agement, and disposal of records of the United States Government.
Existing legislation covering Federal records consists primarily of
the act establishing a National Archives, an act covering the disposal
of records and sections of the Criminal Code prescribing penalties
for unauthorized removal, destruction, or falsifying of Federal rec-
ords. More comprehensive and constructive legislation is required.
In addition to establishing the Federal Records Administration in
accordance with Recommendation A, legislative action is required
to change the status of the National Archives, the National Archives
Council, and the Federal Register ; to clarify the definition of Federal
records; to prevent the removal of official records by outgoing officials
and provide for the recovery of such records which are removed;
and to simplify the disposal of valueless records.
BASIC STEPS
1. That when used in this act the word "records" include any paper, book,
photograph, motion-picture film, microfilm, sound recording map, or other docu-
ment (of any physical form or character whatever), or any copy thereof that has
been made by any agency of the United States Government or received by it in con-
nection with the transaction of public business and has been retained by that
*It is noteworthy that the New York Advisory Committee consisted of the Archivist
of the United States at that time, the Librarian of Congress, and the Archivist of Illinios.
Each of the three members of this committee also have served either as President of Vice
President of the Society of American Archivists.
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agency or its successor as evidence of its activities or because of the information
contal aed therein.
2. That the head of each agency shall make or cause to be made only such
records as in his opinion are necessary to provide for the continued effective
operation of the agency of which he is the head, to constitute an adequate and
proper recording of its activities and to protect the legal rights of the Govern-
ment of the United States and of the people.
3. That proposed legislation provide not only that (a) Federal :records are the
property of the United States Government; (b) such records be delivered by
outgoing officials and employees to their successors (U. S. C. Title 18, sees. 234
and 235) ; and (c) such records must not be otherwise unlawfully destroyed
or removed; but also fix responsibility on a Federal Records Administration
for (d) establishing safeguards against removal or loss of Federal records and
(e) initiating the recovering of Federal records which have been unlawfully
removed.
It has been necessary since the establishment of the National Ar-
chives to define and redefine what is meant by Federal records. Any
definition to be helpful to Federal officials should be both inclusive and
exclusive. Consideration should be given for purpose:.. of clarifica-
tion to adding to the definition in B-1 above the following:
There are excluded from this definition library material acquired by an
agency solely for the information and use of the staff and. the public and not
created or received, by it incidentally to the transaction of public business ;
museum material acquired and preserved solely for exhibition ; documents
submitted for copyright ; models submitted in connection with application of
patents; extra copies of documents preserved solely for conve:aience of refer-
ence. and stocks, publications and processed documents Upon the request of
any agency, the Administrator of Federal Records shall have authority to deter-
mine whether any particular body of materials falls within or without this
defi:nltion.
Legislation (U. S. C. Title 18, secs. 234 and 235) and departmental
regulations, such as pre-World War II Navy Regulations, have jus-
tifiably been interpreted by Federal officials to require filing of all
papers produced, or received. The impact of the World War II
expansion made the continuance of this costly practice impossible.
Great quantities of valueless or duplicated papers are iweived by or
produced by Federal agencies. It is important. to -!Legalize birth
control not only on the production and receipt of such. material but
also on the unnecessary filling thereof. Early in the war, the Archi-
vist of the United States provided some relief by a new definition of
"nonrecord materials." Many agencies, with the Civil Service Com-
mission taking the lead, conducted an intensive review of their filing
practices and drastically but safely eliminated a great volume of
unessential filing.
While there is legislation against the unlawful destruction, removal,
or falsifying of Federal records, there is no provision for safeguards
against such destruei:ton, removal, or falsifying, nor any :machinery for
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initiating action when destruction, removal, or falsifying of records is
threatened or for the recovery of records which have been unlawfully
removed.
Records removed by officials leaving the public service present a
specially critical problem. Many and varied measures to prevent
such removal have been adopted by other governments. For the most
part, the removal of records is confined to high-ranking officials. As
a result, most of the records removed are important or valuable.
While it is important that records be defined by law as the property
of the Federal Government and there be penalties for unlawful de-
struction, removal, or falsification of such records, it is equally impor-
tant that the Congress set up the machinery to forestall such loss, to
effect recovery in the event of such loss, and provide that records so
removed are recoverable at no cost to the Federal Government. The
papers of some Presidents and Cabinet officials have had to be pur-
chased back by the Federal Government.
FOR CENTRAL AGENCY
4. That the act provide for the establishment of a Federal Records Adminis-
tration in accordance with Recommendation A of this report under the direction
of a Federal Records Administrator appointed by the President with the advice
and consent of the Senate.
The details covered by this recommendation and the justification
therefor are given in Section III-A of this report.
FOR RECORDS COUNCIL
5. That there also be established a Federal Records Administration Council
superseding the existing National Archives Council (48 Stat. 1122 and 60 Stat.
812) and comprising the same membership as the National Archives Council
with the addition of the Administrator of Federal Records.
A Federal Records Administration Council is needed to replace the
present National Archives Council. The membership can be the same
as that of the National Archives Council with the addition of the
Administrator of Federal Records. .
Authority should be granted the Council to appoint advisors from
other agencies of the Federal Government, and from industry and
other organizations outside the Federal Government. A vitalized
and more aggressive council representing the major departments and
with authority to appoint advisors from other agencies of the Govern-
ment and from private industry should serve as an effective advisory
body and, in a sense, a regulatory body for the management of Federal
records. In the last analysis, record making and record keeping is an
essential function of each agency of the Government. These agencies,
therefore, should have a voice in planning the regulations and policies
governing record making and record keeping.
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It is doubtful if the departments and agencies of the Executive
branch would or should acquiesce to the assignment of responsibilities
so closely affecting their record making and record keeping direct to
the Federal Records Administrator rather than to a .,,ouncil in which
they were represented. The council should be responsibl for formu-
lating regulations governing:
a. Record making and record keeping, records protection and records disposal.
b. The classes of records to be transferred to the Federal Records Adminis-
tration.
c. The use of records so transferred by public officials, scholars, it nd the people.
d. The loan or transfer of records from one agency to another.,
e. rho standards governing the reproduction of records by photographic (or
microphotographic) processes when the purpose of such reproduction is to dispose
of the original records.
It is recommended that regulations formulated by the Federal
Records Administration Council require the approval of t]te President.
With _ Presidential approval, such regulations when pro inulgated by
the Federal Records Administration Council shall be binding on all
agencies of the United States Government.
FOR AGENCY OFFICER
6. That the head of each agency of the executive, legislative-, and judicial
branches of the Federal Government designate or appoint within li months after
the passage of the proposed act, a records management officer for the agency,
and that the Federal Records Administration be notified of such designations.
Records management officers should plan, develop, and put into operation. a com-
prehensive records management program in the agency and serve in a liaison
capacity with the Federal Records Administration.
The importance of fixing responsibility in each department and
agency for a minimum program of records management and the con-
this report.
tent; of such a _program are described in Section III-C of %
Affirming the principle by legislative act strengthen:, the attempt in
this respect made by Executive Order 9784.
Other provisions of the proposed legislation assure an accountability
for both conformance and performance by the depart mer.ts and agen-
cies in following through on this requirement.
FOR CONTROL OF IDE5nwcTION
7. That no records of the Federal Government shall be destroyed or otherwise
disposed of without the approval of (a) the Federal Records Adm'Lnistration and
(b) the Congress of the United States, as provided by law and regulations of the
Federal. Records Administration Council.
Legislation governing the disposal of Federal records are more than
adequate at the present time. They can be simplified to advantage.
In addition to the National Archives Act, subsequent legislation under
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pressure of the vast quantities of Federal records which should and
must be disposed of have frozen into statute provisions and procedures
which can much better be covered by regulations of the Federal Records
Administration Council. Such regulations can be more easily modified
to meet changing conditions. Essentially, it is necessary to prescribe
by law only that no records of the Federal Government shall be de-
stroyed or otherwise disposed of without the approval of (a) the
Federal Records Administration and (b) the Congress of the United
States.
With millions of feet of valueless Federal records turn-over by dis-
posal annually, it is imperative that the turn-over be orderly and
prompt. Millions of dollars in space and equipment are involved by
unnecessary delays or reporting routines. Some question has been
raised about the delays incidental to present legislation requiring the
approval of all records disposal by both the National Archives and the
Congress. The United States Government, like all other governments
without exception both in the States and abroad, finds it necessary to
place a brake and a control on the disposal of public records.
It is true that there is a costly delay in the turnover of valueless rec-
ords when the Congress is not in session but Federal officials consulted
in connection with this point, feel they need both the assurance and the
protection inherent in congressional approval of all records destruction
or disposal they undertake.
If the Congress should confine legislation on this score to the provi-
sion that no records be destroyed except with the approval of the
Federal Records Administration and the Congress, or in accordance
with planned programs, approved by the Federal Records A dministra-
tion and the Congress, there will be adequate safeguards on this score
and maximum latitude to the Federal Records Administration in the
programs, procedures, and routines effecting such disposal.
FOR AUTIIORIZATION OF DESTRUCTION
8. That the Congress consider revising present legislation governing the dis-
posal of Federal records (44 U. S. C. 366-380) to provide for an automatic records
disposal authorization 45 days after a request for authorization has been sub-
mitted by an agency to the Federal Records Administration, provided that the
Congress is in session during the last 15 days of the period and provided further
that neither the Federal Records Administrator nor the Congress direct that the
proposed disposal or a part thereof is disallowed or that it be delayed pending
further study.
In 1941, the average time required by a typical agency to obtain
disposal authorization for its great quantities of valueless records was
13 months and 28 days. Intervening legislation has speeded up this
procedure considerably; nevertheless, a check in the course of this
study showed a lapse of 101 days between the date of the average
request for disposal authorization and receipt of actual authorization.
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The change now proposed will not only cut the lape of time to less
that one-half. It will further require formal action by the Federal
Records Administration and the Congress only on less than 2 percent
of the items listed in requests for records disposal authorization.
Consistently over the years, less than 2 percent of the items have
been questioned by the National Archives or the Congress. Ninety-
eight percent of the items requested for disposal authority will be
approved automatically without any formal action.
FoR' TRUST FUND
9. That recent legislation (H. R. 6293, Report No. 1938, 80th Cong., 2d sess.)
establishing a trust fund for receipts from photographic services rendered by
the National Archives be continued for similar services rendered by the Federal
Records Administration.
This legislation of the ]Eightieth Congress authorizes a useful serv-
ice on a self-sustaining basis at no cost to the Government and should
be continued.
Fo:R CONTINUED CONSOIJDATION
10. That the National Archives Trust Fund Board (U. S. C. 3AOaa-300jj), the
National Historical. Publications Commission (48 Stat. 1122-1124), and the
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (53 Stat. 1062) be continued as a part of the
National Archives Within the Federal Records Administration, and that the
Federal Register (44 U. S. C. 301-314) be continued as a sepa-ate unit of the
Federal Records Administration.
The National Archives Trust Fund Board, the National Historical
Publications Commission, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
perform useful functions as they are now constituted and should be
continued as a part of the function of the National Archives.
The Federal Register has ably performed a valuable service in the
regular publication of Federal regulations that have general applica-
bili.ty and legal effect, and also in publishing the Cocle of Federal
Regulations. The Federal Register should be contintied but as a
separate part of the Federal Records Administration rather than as
a part, of the National Archives.
The
Congress might well consider the assignment ofahe publication
of the "Statutes at Large" and the. "United States Code" to the
Federal Register. The "Statutes at Large" are now compiled by
the State Department and. the "United States Code" is compiled by
private companies under contract to the Government. But the Federal
Register should be able to undertake these additional duties success-
fully. as indicated by the fact that the "United States C-ode" is about
one-fifth the size of the "Code of Federal Regulations" now compiled
by the Federal Register.
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FOR BASIS OF LEGISLATION
11. That the draft of a Federal Records Management Act included in Appendix
A be considered as a basis for the recommended legislation. Past legislation
which is affected in part by the proposed act is listed in Appendix B.
For Agency Program
C. That each department and agency of the Federal Government be
required by law, or by resolution of the Federal Records Administra-
tion Council approved by the President, to appoint or designate a
qualified records management officer to plan, develop, and organize
a records management program. The minimum content of a records
management program should include tested controls on record making,
record keeping and selective records preservation.
There are extraordinarily effective records management programs
in a few agencies of the Federal Government. These programs are
directed by capable records management officers. Outstanding are
the Department of the Navy, Department of Agriculture, the Atomic
Energy Commission, the Federal Security Agency, and the Depart-
ments of the Army and Air Force. Other successful programs have
been conducted in the Office of Price Administration and the War
Assets Administration.
The urgent need for a records management officer in every agency
is not now recognized for the first time. In 1942, the Society of
American Archivists proposed to the Bureau of the Budget that each
agency be required to appoint a records management officer. In the
same year, the National Archives endorsed this proposal and issued
a statement on the proposed functions of such officers in the Federal
Government.
Executive Order 9784, issued September 25, 1946, required that an
active continuing program for effective current records management
and disposition of records be established in each agency. Only some
agencies responded to this Executive order. Many others failed to
comply with the order or undertook only a token compliance.
The need for implementing this Executive order is uniformly
acknowledged.
The experience of the few Federal agencies with highly effective
programs and of companies in private industry with similar pro-
grams, such as the Westinghouse Electric Corp., the Denver & Rio
Grande Western Railroad, and Standard Brands, underscore the in-
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dispensability of a fixed central responsibility in an agency or company
at a sufficiently high level to insure an aggressive, effective, and coor-
Jinated program. The staffing of records management offices is readily
determinable and controllable on the basis of the size of the agency
and the scope of its records problems. In smaller agencies, the assign-
ment of the records management function on a part ,rime basis to
some existing staff member is adequate.
In some agencies, it has been assumed that the existence of more or
less well-equipped planning offices, methods and procedure units, or
management-control staffs will in time at least provide the required
,economies and improvements in records managemen?, within the
.agency. This assumption is not warranted by the experience in the
Government to date, nor is it warranted by experience in industry.
Exceptions are sufficiently limited to underscore the fact that this
assumption is honored more in the breach than in the observance.
It is recognized that in some agencies responsibility;- for records
management will be assigned to existing planning, methods and _proce-
dures, or management staffs. As recommended in this report a specific,
practical program is assignable, and for the first time there is a
vehicle providing an accounting for and a measuring of performance
in the execution of. the program.
Sheer cost factors of personnel, space, and equipment assigned to
record making and record keeping require (a) a well-defined pro-
.grarn and (b) a fixed responsibility for planning, developing, organiz-
ing, and following through on a reduction of these costs, and the
creation of a more effective agency-wide records system.
CONTROLS SUGGESTED
1. Controls on record making with a high degree of eff>ctiveness are :
a. Elimination of widespread and unessential duplication of files and -filing
through files and filing analysis.
As pointed out in the supporting statement to recommendation B-3,
there. is a widespread belief that every record made or received must
be filed. This belief proved untenable during the tremendous increase
in work load during World War II. Millions of documents which
in the past have been religiously filed and preserved had a new form
of birth control clamped upon them. The resulting redaction in work
loads and in personnel, filing, and equipment costs we:rye spectacular.
In the Civil Service Commission, savings reached as high as 80 percent.
In: several divisions of the Bureau of Naval Personnel in the Navy,
savings reached as high as 30 to 40 percent. CompariLble savings in
the War Manpower Commission and in the Veterans' Administration
were realized.
15. 'Discriminating application of modern office machines and equipment to
record making.
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Available figures of the office machine and equipment industry give
factual proof that the Federal Government lags well behind private
industry in the utilization of labor-saving devices in clerical opera-
tions. Efforts of the Bureau of the Budget in recent years through
its business-methods program and office-equipment showings, both
acknowledged this fact and attempted to do something about it. These
efforts, however, have been relativley short-lived and incommensurate
with the size and importance of the problem.
The sharp contrast between the utilization of microfilming equip-
ment in the Federal Government and its use by private industry il-
lustrates this point to a startling degree. More than 90 percent of
the microfilming equipment and supplies in the Federal Government
is used to reduce and preserve existing old records on 16 and 35 milli-
meter film and permit the destruction of bulky original records. On
the other hand, more than 90 percent of the microfilming equipment
and supplies in private industry is used as a record-making device.
Copying and recording by microfilm instead of by hand or by other
manually operated office machines is primarily a labor-saving device
and only secondarily a space-saving device. To illustrate, checks
passing through a bank, interline tickets and bills exchanged by trans-
portation companies, and customer billings in retail stores are copied
or recorded faster, better, and cheaper through microfilming.
c. Streamlining and reducing voluminous correspondence through the use of
form letters, pattern letters, limitation or elimination of copies, pattern para-
graphs, procedural guides, automatic typewriters, and other labor-saving
,equipment.
The massive quantities of Government correspondence is most suit-
able to streamlining because of the volume and the repetitive character
of the subject matter. One department between 1943-45, reports a
savings of 800 man-years and over $1,000,000 in salaries and equipment
through such streamlining. During the same period, the production
and filing of over 2,000,000 carbon copies were eliminated. This and
similar programs in a few other agencies have not only saved money
but reduced backlogs, more sharply defined policies and procedures,
and simplified training of personnel.
d. Controls on the development, issue, standardization and use of forms with
a view to simplifying and improving forms in size, design, and function, reducing
the number of forms and determining their use, methods of filing, and ultimate
disposal.
The Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey estimates that it has saved
one-half a million dollars a year for the last 10 years as a result of a
forms control and standardization program installed in the company.
Comparable savings are vouched for by other companies, and by some
Federal agencies. A full program of this type cannot only simplify
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and improve the size, design, and function of forms, hut can also
drastically reduce the number of forms, control their filing and the
time and method of their ultimate disposal. The Farmers Home Ad-
ministration of the _Department of Agriculture has an outstanding
program of this type.
e. Controls on requirements for and submission of reports, eliminating obso-
lel.e reports, unessential copies, too frequent reporting, and unessontial filing of
reports, coordinating all reporting to eliminate overlapping ind iluplication in
fact gathering.
Less progress has been made by the Federal agencies in the control
of reports and reporting than has been made with forms control. A
few agencies have introduced a new accountability in reporting. The
Department of the Army, for example, within the last t, years elim-
inated 2,000 reports. Through such a program in an organization the
size of the Army, a single :report may be submitted by thousands. of
comparable organizational units. It is a commonplace that a report
tends to perpetuate itself. The success of the few current reports con-
trol programs assure wide-scale benefits from their extens'.on through-
out the Government.
2. The minimum content of a program at the record-keeping level is.
a. Organization of files in efficient and practical locations considering factors
of physical proximity and administrative necessity, successfully eliminating
widespread maintenance of duplicate files.
The rapid growth of agencies of the Federal Government has re-
sulted in obsoleting thousands of central filing units and in. the wide-
spread duplication and triplication of filing operations for those cen-
tral filing units whicti continue to satisfy an essential. need. For the
most part, however, a majority of the obsoleted central file units sur-
vive. Individual offices supposed to be served by such central filing
units have long since established more accurate but less "official" files
of their own.
It is not the purpose of this report to endorse decentralized or cen-
tralized correspondence files. It is the purpose of this report to set
up machinery that, will eliminate the widespread and 'cos>tly duplica-
tion now existing.
The Public Health Service of the Federal Security Agency recently
undertook a reorganization of its record-filing structure for, among
other purposes, the elimination of duplication in files and filing. In
the course of this study, 1'5 percent of all files were found to be fully
duplicated. The initial follow-through on this study eliminated dupli-
cation costing $18,000 a year. Ina second agency, a large-scale corre-
sponde.nce file supposedly served many offices. Invest igat ion revealed
that 38 of these offices maintained a more complete file of their own
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activities. Elimination of the duplication here resulted in a savings
estimated at $51,000 per year. These are only two illustrations of the
savings that have been made and the much greater savings that can
be made in this area.
b. The installation of labor-saving devices such as modern microfilming, tab-
ulating equipment, etc., to simplify filing and the accumulation of recorded data
and to reduce filing space.
Developments to date in the office.-machine-and-equipment industry
and impending postwar advances can slash clerical costs by perform-
ing clerical operations better and cheaper. The application of much
of this equipment is increasingly varied and complex. More fre-
quently in government than in industry the types and applications
of these machines are beyond the experience of supervisors whose
projects obviously require such machines and equipment. Also in
government somewhat more than in industry, such machines and
equipment are too often grossly misapplied.
The spectacular growth in the number and complexity of office equip-
ment and machines demands specialized training and experience on
the part of personnel responsible for appraising the application of
such machines and equipment. Personnel so qualified attract sub-
stantial salaries in private industry. To attract or hold such person-
nel in the Federal Government will be impossible without adequate
compensation.
c. Efficient and effective work-flow patterns for mail-room and file-room instal-
lations, including effective layouts and lighting.
d. Standards and criteria for filing systems including methods of handling,
classifying, indexing, and filing records and for filing supplies and equipment.
e. Review of requisitions for filing equipment to control purchases, allow for
interchange of equipment, and to provide guidance as to the best equipment
available.
Work flow, physical conditions of work, organization and proce-
dures, and equipment control are essentials of records management
or records engineering as they are of industrial and management
engineering. The Department of Agriculture assumed an early lead
and has sustained that lead in this area of the Federal Government.
It is estimated that its coverage in the Department in this respect is
80 percent complete. The Department of the Navy dispatched teams
of specialists throughout the Department and Shore Establishments
during the past year for work simplification and improvement and
has effected savings of more than $1,100,000 by a reduction in person-
nel, space, materials, and equipment costs.
The Bureau of Federal Supply, Treasury Department, has empha-
sized the need for control of filing equipment purchase. The Federal
Security Agency has developed a filing-equipment control system
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which has reduced purchases over 80 percent. Reassignment of equip-
ment has resulted in over 1,000 filing cabinets being provided in 6
months without new purchases. The Department of the Navy has
had a long-standing program. In the past year, $165,613 was saved
in equipment and space through cancellation of filing equipment
requisitions or satisfying requisitions through reassignment of
-equipment.
f. A training program in all. phases of records management regularly being
brought up to date by the addition of new developments in records management
practices, equipment, and supplies.
Despite large scale expenditure of Federal funds for training, very
little of these funds have been utilized for training in records manage-
ment. Two outstanding exceptions are the Department of Agricul-
ture and the Atomic Energy Commission. It is noteworthy that each
of these agencies in. the opinion of the records management consultants
to the Commission has one of the most effective records management
programs in the Federal Government.
The Atomic Energy Commission's in-service and on-the-job, train-
ing in. records management warrants special commenc.ation. This
program is readily expandable to all agencies of the Federal Govern-
ment.. of the most constructive results of this study would be
an extension of the Atomic Energy Commission program throughout
the Federal Government under the sponsorship of the :f!`ederal Rec-
ords Administration working through the Federal records manage-
ment officers in each department and agency.
CONTROLS FOR PRESERVATION
3. Controls insuring selective records preservation.
As reported in Part IV-A of this report, over 50 percent of all
records in the average organization can be eliminated from office
equipment and space by destruction of up to 35 percent of valueless
and duplicated records and by transfers to record centers of more
than 20 percent with a continuing annual turn-over of approximately
20 percent through both destruction and transfer. Chart V, page 37,
geographically illustrates this fact.
Despite the tremendous expansion and scope of Army and Air
Force operations in the 2 years reported, the net inventory of records
in offices and operating areas actually decreased. Controls insuring
selective records preservation, records disposal and records transfer
cleared 54 percent of all records out of office equipment and space in
a 2-year period. Adding the third year's experience, the total results
were 2,534,000 feet of records, or 37.3 percent destroys?.d; 1,649,000
feet of records, or 24.2, percent transferred to Records ce niters leaving
only 2,619,000 feet or 38.5 percent in current inventory of records in
office equipment and space.
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CHART V
Management and Disposal of Army and Air Force Records
(Excluding overseas theaters)
1945 - 1946
Linear Feet
Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Nov
'44 '45 '45 '45 '45 '46 '46 '46 '46
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Elimination from Army and Air Force offices of a total of 4,183,000
feet of records released over 4,000,000 square feet of space for critical
wax' purposes and the equivalent of 666,000 four-drawer filing cabinets
with a replacement value of $33,300,000.
The experience of the Navy and the Westinghouse Electric Corp.
are comparable and sustain the findings in the Arm; experience.
Results in many other departments and agencies, however, are by
no means comparable.
Such excellent results are obtainable through:
a. Periodic inventory of all records.
b. Development and installation of comprehensive schedules providing for (1)
prompt disposal of valueless records, (2) periodic transfer to records centers
of records which need not be kept in expensive equipment and dice space, (3)
periodic transfer of records of permanent historical value to the Federal Records
Administration for deposit in the National Archives, (4) controls to effect record
turn-over in conformance with schedules.
The millions of dollars tied up in records equipment, space, and
maintenance make a records inventory as indispensable a management
tool as inventories of stock and raw materials in industrial operations.
An inventory of all records is essential to and the first step in a pro-
gram of selective records preservation.
On. the basis of the inventory, records appraisals are made and a
planned program schedules records disposal and record transfers.
Controls or audits have been successfully devised which insure con-
formance to schedules.
c. Application of microfilming to conserve space and equipment and to provide
security microfilm copies of vital documents, the loss of which would seriously
handicap the Government.
Microfilming is an excellent adjunct to a program of selective records
preservation. It greatly reduces space and equipment costs for those
records which can be readily filmed and which a careful appraisal
reveals must be kept for a substantial period of time. Microfilming,
however, is an unsatisfactory and costly substitute for it program of
selective records preservation.
Microfilming of vital records for security provides protection other-
wise unobtainable for all practical purposes. Used widely to this end
during the war, microfilming is again being wisely resorl.ed to in view
of the threatening situation abroad.
A.n experienced. records management officer can and should apply
:microfilming to the records in his agency with discrimination and with
a resulting economy and insurance.
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V. SUMMARY OF SAVINGS
1. The most tangible result of the recommendations in this report
is the prompt removal to economical and more efficient storage of a
minimum of 2,000,000 cubic feet of Federal records from Federal
offices, with a net and continuing yearly savings of $6,540,000 plus
an additional $650,000 each year after the first 2 years of this pro-
gram. This will release in the first 2 years space, equipment, and
operational and maintenance expense conservatively appraised at
$7,660,000, or $3.83 per cubic foot per annum. Space rental esti-
mated at $1.50 per square foot per annum is low. Equipment is
amortized over 10 years. The cost of handling, storing, and screening
this quantity of records in Federal records centers should not exceed
$1,120,000. This is based on the Navy's current costs for general rec-
ords handling, storage, and screening which is 56 cents per cubic foot
per annum. Costs of selected records centers in industry are as much
as 20 percent lower primarily because of the lower salaries paid
clerical and custodial employees in industry.
2. A second tangible result is the outright destruction or other dis-
posal. of a minimum of an additional 2,500,000 cubic feet of records
within 2 years, with a net and continuing yearly savings of $9,500,000.
After the first 2 years, an additional savings of $900,000 will be
effected cumulatively for each year. The space, equipment, and oper-
ational and maintenance expense is discontinued in toto because the
records are eliminated. The staff work applying records inventory
and appraisal controls to this end would cost less than 1 percent
of the savings affected and has been discounted accordingly.
3. A third tangible savings will result from the consolidation and
reduction of existing records centers. Such savings, while substantial
and important, will probably be absorbed by the cost of providing
records center services for the first time to many agencies.
4. A fourth and the largest savings, however, will accrue from
the economies and improvements effected by the development and
application of controls in record making and record keeping as pro-
vided for in Part III, sections A-2 and A-C of this report. Savings
already obtained in a few agencies, and therefore obtainable in many
agencies where the same conditions apply, are described in Part IV,
sections A-2 and C. We estimate that these savings will certainly
exceed the $16,000,000 reported in 1 and 2 above.
5. Equally as important as savings in excess of $32,000,000 within
2 years with substantial additional and cumulative savings thereafter
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is the certain knowledge that (a) record making and rc:~cord keeping
in the Federal Government will rapidly become more efficient manage-
ment; tools; (b) the essential records of the Govermnenl's obligations
at home and abroad are safeguarded; (c) the invaluable store of
experience recorded in the permanent records of our iiational effort
to sustain democratic capitalism is accessible and can better be
utilized.
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APPENDIX A
There follows a draft of a proposed bill providing for the creation,
preservation, management, and disposal of records of the United
States Government. Such a draft is submitted for consideration
and to serve in a sense as a check list of items to be included.
SECTION 1. That this Act may be cited as a "Federal Records Admin-
istration Act of 1949."
SEC. 2. That when used in this Act-
(a) the word "records" includes any paper, book, photograph,
motion-picture film, microfilm, sound recording, drawing, map, or
other document of any physical form or character whatever, or any
copy thereof, that has been made by any agency or received by it
in connection with the transaction of public business and has been
retained by that agency or its successor as evidence of the objectives,
organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations,
or other activities of the Government or because of the informa-
tion contained therein. There are excluded from this definition li-
brary material acquired by an agency solely for the information and
use of its staff and the public and not created or received by it in-
cidentally to the transaction of public business; museum material
acquired and preserved solely for exhibition; documents submitted
for copyright; models submitted in connection with applications for
patents; extra copies of documents preserved solely for convenience of
reference; and stocks of publications and processed documents. Upon
the request of any agency, the Federal Records Administrator shall
have authority to determine whether any particular body of mate-
rials falls within this definition.
(b) the word "agency" includes every instrumentality of the Fed-
eral Government whether legislative, executive, judicial, or other.
SEC. 3. That the head of each agency shall make, cause to be made,
or file only such records as in his opinion are necessary to provide
for the continued effective operation of the agency of which he is
the head, to constitute an adequate and proper recording of its activ-
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ities and to protect the legal rights of the Government of the United
States and of the people.
SEC. 4. Whoever shall willfully and unlawfully conceal, remove,
mutilate, obliterate, falsify, destroy, or otherwise alienate, or attempt
to conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, falsify, destroy, or otherwise
alienate, any records made or received by any agency of the United
States Government, including exhibits offered in evidence, shall, upon
conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000 or by
imprisonment for not more than 5 years or by both fine and im-
p:risonment; and, if such person is an employee of the limited States
Government, shall. moreover forfeit his office and be forerer afterward
disqualified from holding any office under the Government of the
United States. 13. S.. C.,, Title 18, sec. 234.)
'Snc. 5. It shall be the duty of, the head of each agency to (a)
acquaint all officials and employees under his jurisdiction with the
provisions of section 4 of this Act, (b) to insure that all officials and
employees turn over all records to their successors (U. S. C., Title 18,
sec. 235), and (c) to establish such safeguards against removal or loss
of Federal records as he shall determine necessary or as may be pro-
vided by regulations of the Federal Records Administration Council
.hereinafter provided.
SEc,,.6. There is hereby created the Federal Records Administration,
the Administrator to be appointed by the President of the United
States by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
Spa. 7. The Federal Records Administration shall establish and
operate Federal records centers in Washington and i n the field for the
storage, servicing, security, and screening of. all Federal records
which must be preserved for a time but need not be retained in office
equipment and space.,
Sic. S. The Federal Records' Administration shall evolve and pro-
mote Government-wide improvements and economies in records man-
agement. These, improvements and economies shall include: (a)
standards and controls for record making and record keeping, selec-
tive records preservation, scheduled records disposal, and transfers to
records centers; (b) discriminating application of tested methods,
practices, materials, equipment, and machines to record making and
record keeping; (c) authorization by law to inspect Federal records
and to require reports as to their management; (d) training programs
directed at improving the effectiveness and the technical knowledge of
personnel assigned to record making and record keeping; (e) stand-
ards and controls for physical, legal, and security safeguards of all
Federal records.
SEC. 9. The Federal Records Administration shall make special
provisions for preserving, studying, and servicing Federal records
having permanent value and historical interest by : (a) continuing
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the National Archives as an integral and vital part of the Admin-
istration; (b) continuing to maintain for this purpose an adequate
professional staff of trained archivists; (c) placing such records and
the professional staff under the general direction of an outstanding
archivist selected in accordance with Civil Service Regulations on the
basis of his professional attainments in. a highly specialized field.
SEC. 10. All records belonging to the Government of the United
States (legislative, executive, judicial, and other) shall be under the
charge and superintendence of the Federal Records Administrator to
this extent: (a) he shall have full power to inspect personally or by
deputy the records of any agency of the United States Government
whatsoever and wheresoever located, and it shall be the duty of the
head of each agency to grant the Administrator or his deputies ready
access to any or all of its records for inspection purposes and to direct
any and all persons in charge of such records to cooperate with the
Administrator or his deputies in such inspection; (b) he shall have
full power to requisition for transfer to the Federal Records Admin-
istration any records that fall within the classes of records defined
by the Federal Records Administration Council as records to be
transferred to the Federal Records Administration; (c) he shall have
full power to make regulations for the custody, arrangement, descrip-
tion, use, and withdrawal of records transferred to the Federal
Records Administration :
Provided : That the head of any agency may, at the time records
are transferred to the Federal Records Administration, with the ap-
proval of the Administrator, impose such restrictions on the use of
records transferred from the agency of which he is the head as he
may deem wise.
SEC. 11. Records of any agency, except when specifically authorized
by statute or Executive order or when required in the performance of
a function that has been transferred by authority of a statute or
Executive order, shall not be permanently transferred or loaned for
indefinite periods to another agency unless approved by the Federal
Records Administrator ;
Provided : That nothing herein contained shall prevent the head
of any agency from furnishing records in his custody for use as evi-
dence in courts or for use by the Congress of the United States or from
loaning records in his custody to another agency for a specified period
in accordance with the regulations promulgated as provided in section
17 of this Act if, in his opinion, the loan of such records is necessary
or desirable.
SEC. 12. It shall be the duty of the Federal Records Administrator
personally or through his duly authorized representatives to advise
and cooperate with the heads of agencies or their assistants designated
to serve in a liaison capacity with the Federal Records Administration
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and: to make available to the agencies the knowledge and experience,
of the Federal Records Administration in records management.
Sr,c. 13. It shall be the duty of the Federal Records Administrator
whenever he finds that any provisions of this Act have been or are being
violated to submit in writing to the head of the agency concerned a
report as to conditions found and recommendations as to corrective
measures. Unless corrective measures satisfactory V the Federal
Records Administrator are inaugurated within a reasonable time, the
Administrator shall submit a written report thereon to the President
and. the Congress.
SEc. 14. Statutory provisions limiting or restricting the use of
records of the United States Government shall not remain in force
and effect after a period of fifty years has elapsed ;
Provided: That thereafter the head of any agency having custody
of such records may :restrict and limit their use until such time as they
have been in existence for a period of one hundred years by such regu-
lations as, in his opinion, are desirable in the public intt? rest or other-
wise necessary, and
Provided further : That no restrictions or limitations may be im-
posed by any official of the United States Government on any records
of the-United States Government after they have been in existence for
a period of one hundred years.
Stc. 15. Whenever any records, the use of which is subject to statu-
tory limitations and restrictions, are transferred to the custody of the
Federal Records Administrator, such permissive and restrictive statu-
tory provisions theretofore applicable to the head of the agency having
custody of such records and to employees -thereof shall thereafter be
applicable to the Federal Records Administrator and to the employees
of the Federal Records Administration.
Srao. 16. Any official of the United States Governme:it who is au-
thorized to certify to facts on the basis of records in his custody is
hereby authorized to certify to such facts on the basis o:C records that
have been transferred by him or his predecessors to the custody of
the Federal Records Administrator.
SEC. 17. A Federal Records Administration Council is hereby estab-
lished' superseding The National Archives Council (58 Stat. 1122 and
60 Stat. 812) and comprising the same membership as The National
Archives Council with the addition of the Federal Records Adminis-
trator. The Council shall be responsible for (a) formulating regula-
tions governing record making, record keeping, and records disposal,
(b) the classes of records to be transferred to the Federal Records Ad-
r:ainistration, and (c) the use of records so transferred by public of-
cials,;scholars, and the people, (d) the loan or transfer of records from
one agency to another, (e) standards governing the reproduction. of
records by photographic (or microphotographic) processes for the
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purpose of disposing of the original records, provided that technical
standards of film base, emulsion and processing, and similar technical
matters shall be determined in cooperation with. the Bureau of
Standards.
SEC. 18. That each agency of the Federal Government shall appoint
or designate a qualified records management officer to plan, develop,
and organize a records management program for the agency for the
purpose of effecting maximum improvements and economies in the
agency's record-making, record-keeping, and selective records preser-
vation; to cooperate with the Federal Records Administration, to
use its services and facilities; and to insure conformance within the
agency to the provisions of this Act and regulations of the Federal
Records Administration Council.
SEC. 19. No records of the United States Government shall be de-
stroyed or otherwise disposed of except in accordance with the regu-
lations of the Federal Records Administration Council and with the
approval of the Federal Records Administration and the Congress.
SEC. 20. Requests for authorization to destroy or otherwise dispose
of records shall be submitted to the Federal Records Administrator
in accordance with regulations of the Federal Records Administration
Council. The Federal Records Administrator if he has no objections
to the proposed records disposal shall so report to the Congress within
thirty days after receipt of the request, provided the Congress is in
session.
SEc. 21. It shall be-the duty of the presiding officer of the Senate
to appoint two Senators who with the two representatives appointed
by the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall constitute a joint
committee which shall examine all requests for authorization to de-
stroy or otherwise dispose of records.
SEc. 22. A request from an agency to the Federal Records Adminis-
tration for authorization to destroy or otherwise dispose of federal
records shall be considered approved by the Federal Records Adminis-
tration and the Congress after the lapse of forty-five days provided
that the Congress is in session through the last fifteen days of the
period, and provided further that neither the Federal Records Ad-
ministrator nor the Congress direct that the proposed disposal or a
part thereof is disallowed or that it be delayed pending further study.
It shall be the duty of the Federal Records Administrator to forward
such requests to the Congress within thirty days unless he recommends
direct to the agency against the proposed records disposal or requests
additional time to study a request.
. SEc. 23. Whenever it shall appear to the Federal Records Adminis-
trator that any agency has in its custody, or is accumulating, records of
the same form or character as any records of the same agency pre-
viously authorized by Congress to be disposed of, he may empower
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the head of such agency to dispose of such records, after they have
been in existence a specified period of time or after they have been
photographed.
~?r,. 24. Records pertaining to claims and demands by the Govern
ment of the United States or against it, or to any accounts in which
the Government of the United States is concerned, either as debtor,.
or creditor, which are required to be audited by the General-Account-
ing Office, shall not be disposed of by the head of any agency under
any authorizations granted pursuant to the provision: of this Act,.
until such claims, demands, and accounts have been settled and ad-
justed in the General. Accounting Office except upon the written ap-
proval of the Comptroller General of the United States.
SEo. 25. Whenever the Federal Records Administrator and the head
of any agency shall `jointly determine that any of the records .in the
custody of that agency are a continuing menace to human health or
:life or to property, the Federal Records Administrator shall cause such
menace to be eliminated immediately by whatever method he may
deem necessary. If any records in the custody of the Federal Records
Administrator are disposed of under this section, the Federal Records
Administrator shall report the disposal thereof to the agency from
which they were transferred.
SEC. 26. The Federal Records Administrator shall transmit to Con-
gress at the beginning of each regular session reports as to the records
authorized for disposal under the provisions of section 25 of this Act.
SFo. 27. Photographs. (or microphotographs) of any records made
in compliance with regulations promulated as provided in this Act
shall have the same force and effect as the originals thereof would
have and shall be treated as originals for the purpose of their admissi-
bility in evidence. Duly certified or authenticated reproductions of
such' photographs or microphotographs shall be admitted in 'evidence
equally with the original photographs or microphotographs.
SEC. 28. All moneys derived by any agency from the sale of records
authorized for disposal under the provisions of this Act shall be paid
into the Treasury of the United States unless otherwise required by
existing law applicable to the agency.
SEc. 29. The procedures prescribed in this Act are exclusive and no
records of the United States Government shall be alienated or
destroyed except in accordance with the provisions of i his Act.
SEC. 30. It shall be the duty of the Federal Records Administrator
to :notify the Attorney General of any loss, threatened or actual, by
unlawful removal or destruction of Federal records that shall come
to his attention. It also shall be the duty of the Federal Records
.Administrator to initiate through the Attorney General the recovery
of Federal records which he finds to have been or be] ieves to have been
unlawfully removed from official custody.
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SEC. 31. The duties imposed upon and the authority vested in the
Federal Records Administrator by the provisions of this Act shall be
performed and exercised in his absence or incapacity by an official
of the Federal Records Administration designated by him to serve
as Acting Federal Records Administrator during his absence or
incapacity.
SEC. 32. Recent legislation HR 6293, Report No. 1938, 80th Con-
gress, 2d Session, established a trust fund for receipts from photo-
graphic services rendered by The National Archives. The Federal
Records Administration is hereby authorized to continue this service
in accordance with the terms of HR 6293, Report No. 1938, 80th
Congress, 2d Session.
SEC. 33. The National Archives Trust Fund Board (U. S. C. 300aa-
300jj), the National Historical Publication Commission (48 Stat.
1122-1124), and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (53 Stat. 1062)
shall be continued as a part of the National Archives within the
Federal Records Administration. The Federal Register (44 U. S. C.
301-314) shall be continued as a unit of the, Federal Records
Administration.
SEC. 34. All Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with this Act are
hereby repealed.
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APPENDIX B
Related Legislation
1...'The National Archives Act (44 U. S. C. 301-314) as amended
(44 IT. S. C. 300400k).
2. 'The Federal Register Act (44 U. S. C. 301-314).
3. 1 Resolutions establishing the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (53
Stat. 1062).
4. The National Archives Trust Fund Board (41 U. S. C. 300aa-
300jj).
5. Act Governing Disposal of Records, as amended (4L U. S. C. 366-
380) .
6. Administrative Procedure Act; (60 Stat. 237) sec. 3 and sec. 4.
7. Records of Congress (60 Stat. 833).
8. Provisions Against Loss of Records (18 U. S. C. 23:1-235).
9. Trust Fund fo:r Receipts from -Photographic Services (H. R.
6293, Report No. 1938, 80th Cong., 2d sess).
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