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• Retention Schedules
  - Guidelines for Purging
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  - Do's and Don'ts
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• Destroying Records
  - Retention & Disposition
    Schedules

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Guidelines for Purging Office Files

Valueless papers should be separated from documentation with enduring value and should be destroyed prior to storing in the University Records Center.

If you have any doubts concerning which records to destroy, please contact Records Management at 443-3335.

Record Series that contain the highest percentage of transitory material are correspondence and subject files, which are found at all levels in universities. Experience has shown that the following categories of papers may generally be eliminated from files without affecting the files' substantive value.

Remember that although these records may not have enduring historical value, they may need to be retained for legal, fiscal or administrative reasons. Please refer to the University's General Records Retention Schedules to verify if records need to be retained.

Begin by eliminating all duplicate copies and supplies from the files. Note that the same rules apply for electronic data including e-mail.

The following categories are usually without long-term value.

• Accounting statements
• Acknowledgements
• Announcements of meetings (announcements in form of a program should be retained)
• Applications (except admissions applications)
• Appointment

• Ballots (a blank ballot should be retained by the producing organization)
• Bank statements vBills, financial
• Budget work papers

• Cash books
• Casual calculations
• Casual memoranda
• Checks, canceled
• Claims
• Copy for publication (after publication)
• Covering letters and memos (unless they provide explanatory information on the contents)

• Daybooks
• Directives and instructions - received
• Drafts (once the final paper is issued, excepting those which could add significant insight into the creators thought processes as he/she worked on the material)

• Inter-departmental correspondence and memoranda asking for action (after action has been taken)
• Invitations (two copies of invitations sent should be retained)
• Invoices

• Letters and Memos setting up appointments
• Licenses

• Memoranda asking for comment (when comment has been received)

• Orders, financial
• Outlines

• Payroll deductions, authorizations and notices
• Proofs for publication (after publication)
• Property inventories

• Reading files
• Releases
• Reminders (when action has been taken)
• Routine financial records which are at least two years old such as purchase orders, requisitions, invoices, cash receipts, statements of long distance phone calls, delivery slips
• Requests
• Reservations and confirmations

• Sales literature
• Shorthand notes
• Speeches (manuscript version of published speech unless drastically different)

• Tickets
• Tickler files
• Time books and records
• Trial balances

• Vouchers

• Warrants
• Work orders
• Work papers
• Worksheets

Off-campus periodicals and publications (catalogs, newsletters, bulletins, reports, manuals, books, magazines, etc.) should be purged and destroyed unless they have a clear relationship to the collection or creator, such as ones containing an article about or by the creator or the creating department. Publications heavily annotated by the creator of the collection, and publications created by the department should also be retained. Two copies of every departmental publication should be sent to the University Archives for permanent retention.

In addition, many files contain material that relates neither to the function of the office maintaining the file nor to the administration of that office. Such unrelated material should normally not be filed, but if it is, it should be eliminated as soon as possible. However, material not relating to the file, but relating to other aspects of University business should remain in the file.