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Electronic Filing ProceduresOn this page: In this section: Introduction
What to fileAll electronic information should be filed in the new PP filing scheme. This includes Word documents, emails, Excel spreadsheets and documents from web pages. Filing electronic records will differ from filing paper records as generally more information will be filed electronically than in the paper folders. This is because the electronic folder can be used for work in progress documents. File work in progress in the electronic filing scheme, taking care to indicate that the document is a draft in the file name. For guidance on naming your documents see the naming conventions for electronic records. Where there have been several different versions of a document it may be necessary to keep in the folder different versions of a 'golden copy' of the record, for example with assessment regulations which are updated every year, it is not just the current regulations which have a golden copy – a golden copy should exist for each previous set of regulations, and there will also be a golden copy of the draft of the next year's regulations. When saving a final version of a document in the electronic folders you should save it as a 'read-only' copy. This will mean that it cannot be overwritten. If you have been using the track changes tool when editing your document you should also remove these changes using the remove hidden data tool, this will result in the document being saved as 'read-only' automatically. For information on this process please see the guidance on removing tracked changes. Sensitive or reference items can be filed in shared team or personal folders. Sensitive items may include staff absence or leave records, closed meeting papers or strategy work-in-progress items. References items may be internal procedures or rotas, copies of external guidance like journal articles, acts of parliament that are useful for your job but do not need to be filed in the PP filing scheme. There is designated filing space for these items available on the shared departmental drive. All other electronic records should be filed in the PP filing scheme folders on the shared drive. Where to fileFile your electronic records in the appropriate shared drive folders. These are organised in accordance with the PP filing scheme. Only file items in level 4 folders. The level 4 folder is the official departmental folder and every level 4 electronic folder has a paper equivalent. Do not create new folders at levels 1-4, if you require new folders ask Central Records Registry to create them. See the procedures outlined in using the filing scheme to file records to decide where to put your records within the filing scheme. The procedures are the same for both paper and electronic documents. If you are creating an electronic document for which you need a new folder you can save it in a temporary folder in the 'for filing' space, whilst you ask the Central Records Registry to create the new folder and any new levels for you. The 'for filing' folder can be found on the shared drive under 'FilingScheme' and is called '0-ForFiling'. Create a new folder in '0-ForFiling' using the reference number and title you think your new folder will be given. Save your document in this folder. When you contact the Central Records Registry to request the new folder give the name of the temporary folder you have created in '0-ForFiling'. When the new folder is created for you the Central Records Registry will transfer your document to the new folder. You will be able to create sub-folders within the level 4 folders if this will help you to organise the information better. For example, the meeting papers for a certain committee will be filed in the level 4 folder 'meetings', you may wish to create a sub-folder for individual meetings with the date of the meeting as the title. There is no paper equivalent for these sub-folders. There is additional filing space available on the shared departmental drive which is organised according to the sections within PP. This other filing space can be used for reference items but not sensitive items as there are no restrictions on it. Information published on the WebIf you occasionally publish information on the Web then you should ensure that the 'golden copy' of the document being published is stored on the departmental drive. This is because the shared drive is more secure and can offer a quicker recovery time should documents be accidentally deleted than the Web drives. If a significant amount of your work is published on the Web then you may wish to store the document being published on the Web drive but ensure that when it has been superseded that it is saved to the departmental shared drive. For example, much of the work that the Planning Section does will be stored in this way. Any documents that are needed for legal admissibility reasons cannot only exist in published format on the Web. Format of recordWhere legal admissibility is important a copy must always be filed on the paper folder, for example Court minutes and legal agreements involving the University. You can also save an electronic copy to the shared drive, as this copy will be easier to search, but there must always be a paper record of them. If you need the electronic records for more than 10 years please contact the Records Management Section for advice on the best format (recordsmanagement@ed.ac.uk). For all other records, the format they are saved and filed in will be in line with the general guidance on formats for electronic records.
If you have any comments or suggestions regarding these pages please e-mail them
to us at recordsmanagement@ed.ac.uk The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336 Page last updated: Friday January 25 2008 |
