General Records Schedule Transmittal 22
GRS Transmittal No. 22
April 19, 2010
TO: Heads of Federal agencies
1. What does this document do?
GRS Transmittal 22 announces changes to the General Records Schedules (GRS). The General Records Schedules provide mandatory disposition instructions for temporary administrative and certain permanent records common to several Federal agencies.
2. What changes have been made to the GRS?
Six changes have been made to the General Records Schedules.
a. GRS 24 has been expanded to include disposition authorities for public key infrastructure (PKI) records in item 13.
b. GRS schedules have been annotated to show the Standard Form (SF) 115, Request for Records Disposition Authority, tracking number or other document providing the legal authority for each item, some dating to the early 1950s. These authorities are shown in parentheses at the end of the disposition statement.
c. The subject index has been revised to correct minor cross reference errors.
d. GRS Transmittal 8 appended items to most (but not all) GRS schedules covering electronic mail and word processing records used solely to create the recordkeeping copy, and other electronic copies maintained solely for revision, updating, and dissemination. These items reflected a 1998 NARA policy that all newly submitted SFs-115 must include such series. This policy was rescinded per NARA Bulletin 2006-04 and these items have been removed.
e. A new version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) concerning NARA was published November 2, 2009. In light of this, all references in the GRS to the CFR and the United States Code (U.S.C.) have been checked for currency. Seventeen corrections have been made; four citations have been dropped entirely, as outlined in Appendix 1 to this memorandum.
f. Transmittal documents previously appearing at the head of the GRS have been relocated to the back. This change has been made in response to comments that users are more interested in getting into the current schedules than in surveying the history of changes to these schedules over the years.
3. Do I have to take any action to implement this GRS change?
NARA regulations (36 CFR 1226.12(a)) require agencies to disseminate GRS changes within 6 months of receipt. You must follow the provisions of this GRS unless your agency already has NARA-approved disposition instructions and you have previously informed NARA that you intend to continue using the agency schedule. If you wish to apply a retention period that differs from that specified in the GRS, you must submit a Standard Form (SF) 115, Request for Disposition Authority, to NARA for approval.
4. How do I get copies of the new GRS?
We are posting a set on our web site http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs/index.html. The complete GRS is available for downloading in HTML, MS Word, and PDF formats.
5. Whom do I contact for further information?
NARA's National Records Management Program (NRMP), including the Life Cycle Management Division in Washington, D.C., and Records Management staff in NARA's regional offices, provides assistance and advice to records officers of agencies headquartered in Washington and in the field.
Your agency's records officer may contact the NARA appraiser or records analyst with whom your agency normally works for support in carrying out this transmittal. A list of the appraisal and scheduling work group and regional contacts is posted on the NARA web site at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/appraisal/index.html.
DAVID S. FERRIERO
Archivist of the United States