Vital Records at Berkeley Lab John Stoner, Archives and Records Office

1. Vital Records • at Berkeley Lab • John Stoner, Archives and Records Office

2. Introduction • Subject: Vital Records at Berkeley Lab. • Purpose: To give you the information to assist your division/department in identifying their vital records and making arrangements for their protection.

3. Agenda • Vital Records--What are they? • Vital Records Program--What is it and why have one? • Vital Records at Berkeley Lab

4. Vital Records--What Are They?

5. Vital Records Characteristics • Contain information needed to establish or continue an organization in the event of an emergency or a disaster. • Essential to recreating an organization's legal and financial position. • Essential to preserving the rights of the organization, its employees, and the people and organizations it serves.

6. Records Protection Levels • Vital - Top Protection Priority. • Essential to mission-critical financial, legal, operational functions and interests of an organization, its employees, stakeholders. • Irreplaceable. • Important - Secondary Protection Priority. • Essential to protect assets. • Could be replaced or recreated. • Useful - Lowest Protection Priority. • Non-essential to normal operations. • Inconvenient to lose.

7. Classes of Vital Records • Emergency Operating Records. • Essential to continued functioning or reconstitution of the Lab during and after an emergency. • Examples: • Emergency plans and directives. • Orders of succession. • Delegations of authority. • Emergency staffing assignments. • Building plans and building systems operations manuals for lab’s facilities. • Equipment inventories for lab’s facilities. • Indexes for records series and electronic information systems at the lab.

8. Classes of Vital Records • Vital records inventories. • Copies of agency program records needed to carry out continuing, critical functions. • System documentation for any electronic information systems designated as emergency operating records. • Rights and Interests Records. • Provide evidence of legal status, ownership, and financial status. • Examples: • Accounts-receivable records. • Social security records. • Payroll records.

9. Classes of Vital Records • Retirement records. • Insurance records. • Any records relating to contracts, entitlement, leases, or obligations whose loss would pose a significant detriment to the legal and financial rights of the organization.

10. Vital Records Program--What is it and Why Have One?

11. Vital Records Program Planning • Contingency Planning • Determine mission-critical activities to be performed under other than normal operating conditions. • Identify records required to support critical activities and reconstruction of normal operations. • Identify records/information systems containing information needed to protect legal and financial rights of organization and people affected by organization. • Make and store copies of above records. • Risk Assessment • Purpose is to protect essential information.

12. Vital Records Program Planning • Assessment requires • Comparison of cost of protecting records to cost of reconstructing records and direct monetary losses (revenue, assets, productivity). • Assessment of levels of risk and appropriate type of protection/response. • Consideration of potential disasters. • Their nature. • Their likelihood. • Their consequence to the organization.

13. Classification of Disasters • Class 1 • Most severe conceivable; national in scope. • Example: Nuclear attack. • Class 2 • Severe natural disaster affecting local area. • Example: Earthquake, fire, flood, tornado. • Class 3 • Destruction of major building during working hours. • Example: Fire in Building 90 during working hours.

14. Classification of Disasters • Class 4 • Destruction of major building during non-working hours. • Example: Fire in Building 90 during the weekend. • Class 5 • One or two functions of an organization affected. • Example: Bomb thrown into tape library. • Class 6 • Subfunction affected. • Example: Research notes of scientist lost.

15. Classification of Disasters • Class 7 • Lost document • Example: Letter of recommendation lost

16. Vital Records Program • Goals. • Provide organization with information needed to: • Conduct business under other than normal operation conditions. • Resume normal business after emergency/disaster. • Identify and protect records dealing with the legal and financial rights of: • The organization. • Persons affected by the organization’s actions.

17. Vital Records Program • Responsibilities. • Records Office. • Guidance and assistance regarding: • Identification of vital records. • Determination of protection procedures for vital records. • Divisions. • Determination of which of their records are vital. • Insure proper protection of their vital records. • Vital Records Plan. • Identify organization’s vital records by:

18. Vital Records Program • Consulting with Emergency Manager. • Reviewing organization’s mission statements and existing emergency plans. • Reviewing current files of offices responsible for performing critical functions and/or preserving rights. • NOTE: Only 1 to 7 percent of an organization’s records may be vital records. • Describe organization’s vital records: • Name of responsible office for the records. • Title of each records series/information system containing vital information. • Identification of records as emergency operating or rights and interests records. • Records medium.

19. Vital Records Program • Physical location for offsite storage of copies of records/system. • Updating frequency. • Choose protection methods and storage sites. • Protection methods. • Use existing duplicates of records identified as vital. • Duplicate originals (duplicate to same medium). • Storage of copies. • Facility should not be subject to same emergency/disaster but still be accessible. • Facility should have proper environmental conditions for storage of copies.

20. Vital Records Program • Federal Records Center may be used. • Periodically cycle (update) vital records copies. • Essential to insure currency of information to meet organization’s vital records needs. • Depends on needs and medium on which vital records are maintained. • Training. • Periodic briefings regarding status of program records in relation to vital records program. • Periodic review to determine if organization’s vital records are adequately protected, current, accessible. • Test program as part of emergency plans.

21. Vital Records Program • Reasons for implementing a Vital Records Program. • BBP (Best Business Practices) • Information as a corporate asset. • Vital records essential to the recovery and continuation of an organization’s operations. • Regulations • Title 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Chapter XII, Part 1236--Management of Vital Records--http://archiveseleanor.nara.gov/about_us/regulations/part_1236.html • Berkeley Lab Regulations and Procedures Manual (RPM), Chapter 1.16, Part D.6--Vital Records--http://www.lbl.gov/Workplace/RPM/R1.16.html#RTFToC12

22. Vital Records Program • UC Business and Finance Bulletin RMP-4, Vital Records Protection--http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/policies/bfb/rmp4.html • DOE G 1324.5B (Redesignated DOE G 200.1-1), Chapter XIV, Vital Records Program, Pages XIV-8 through XIV-10--http://www.directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/oldord/1324/g13245b.pdf

23. Vital Records at Berkeley Lab

24. Vital Records at Berkeley Lab • Management of vital records is part of Lab’s emergency and disaster preparedness planning. • Emergencies • Situation of a serious nature. • Develops suddenly and unexpectedly. • Demands immediate action. • Short duration. • Disasters • Unexpected occurrence. • Inflicts widespread destruction and distress. • Has long-term adverse effects on Lab operations. • Emergency Preparedness • Valerie Quigley, EH&S.

25. Vital Records at Berkeley Lab • August 14, 1998 Meeting of Lab Managers regarding resumption of Lab business after an earthquake • CFO, HR, Facilities articulated business resumption requirements. • ISS and networking’s role in meeting those requirements. • Conclusions. • Two ISS data centers (Berkeley Lab Main site and 938) and system backup data stored in Hayward. • Manual purchase order numbers, Procard, and last-month payroll to meet purchasing/payroll requirements.

26. Vital Records at Berkeley Lab • Short-term failure of computing support (1-2 days) would not impede Lab’s business recovery. • Other vital Lab records identified and backed up. • Inactive employee service records (payroll jackets)--microfilmed. • Engineering's Document Control Center’s engineering drawings--microfilmed. • Facilities Architecture and engineering Project Management As-Built Drawing Files--microfilmed.

27. Vital Records at Berkeley Lab • It is the responsibility of each Division to develop and maintain a vital records program. • It is the responsibility of ARO to help the Divisions meet their responsibility by providing training and assistance on a formal basis. • Offices need to identify and protect vital records deemed essential to: • The continuity of Lab operations before, during and after emergencies. • The recreation of the legal and/or financial status of the Lab after an emergency.

28. Vital Records • The protection of the legal and financial rights of the Lab and individuals affected by Lab activities.