Selection and Disposal of Records

Abstract

All custodians and creators have a legal obligation to organize and arrange public records/archival material. This obligation for “arrangement” of records refers to the records created by the work of the creator of public records, as well as to the records created by the work of another creator that is in his possession on any legal basis. The work of organizing and arranging public records consists of four phases: classification and selection records into fonds, arrangement of records within one fonds, selection and disposal of records and creating basic description about records. The author will present the third phase of records arrangement, selection and disposal of records, and the most common mistakes that occur in the realization of that process. Retention periods of records are determined in accordance with regulations. For records that are not stored permanently and that do not have archival value, the disposal dates are determined depending on the business needs of the creator and in accordance with special regulations, taking into account the time in which the records needed for business was created. The author will present the experiences of the Archives of the Republic of Srpska with different creators of records and look back on their approach to selecting and disposal of records. Also, the challenges when selecting records from some non-specific creators, as well as the conditions in which those records are found, will be shown.