All Princeton University records must be managed in accordance with the University-wide Records Management Principles, regardless of the format of the records. Many university employees conduct university business via email, and --- just like paper-based correspondence --- these messages often can be university records. Likewise, born-digital documents created and shared on computers are also possible university records. 

Princeton’s RM Principles state that “records will be retained and disposed of in accordance with records retention schedules and destruction procedures and plans that comply with the law and university policies.” The following is a guide to manage university records in electronic format.

Review the Records Retention Schedule for your Central Administrative Office (CAO).

The Records Retention Schedule for your CAO outlines the university records that are unique to your department. It is essential that these records are maintained for the retention period specified for each record series. Once a record is past its retention period, it is considered to be expired and should be destroyed (paper-based records should be securely shredded, while digital records should be deleted). Any backup or reference copy of an expired record should also be destroyed along with the official record so that no versions exist. Please consult the Record Retention Schedule for your Central Administrative Office or contact Princeton Records Management for guidance on how long specific university records must be retained.

*Note: Employees should also follow the retention guidelines for those records listed in the Administrative and Common Records Retention Schedule. This is a list of common university records maintained throughout the university. 

Delete expired electronic records on hard drives and local network directories.

Delete electronic records on centrally managed servers when retention has been met, or when they are no longer administratively useful. 

*Note: Deleted files reside in Princeton CrashPlan backup service (Code42) for 45 days and are completely deleted after this time. Consult this Knowledge Base article for more information on CrashPlan.

Common file locations include:

• Windows
  1. Documents: C:\users\netid\documents (Most application such as MS Office save to this location by default)
  2. Downloads: C:\users\netid\downloads (Files downloaded in Web Browser sessions commonly appear in this folder)
• Mac
  1. Documents: /Users/username/Documents - Most application such as MS Office save to this location by default
  2. Downloads: /Users/username/Downloads - Files downloaded in Web Browser sessions commonly appear in this folder

Tips and suggestions for timely destruction of digital records:

• Follow this 2-step method for instant electronic record destruction: Delete the electronic file and empty the Trash/Recycle Bin.
• Maintain your electronic records in one file directory (e.g., My Documents) and consolidate all subdirectories under one directory.
• Use standard file names, with the goal of being able to identify the contents of a file without opening it.
• Ensure that every file is in an appropriate folder (i.e., no orphan files).

Delete files in cloud document storage.

Google Drive: Files in Google Drive can be permanently deleted. Files in the Trash folder will be automatically deleted after 30 days. Or, empty the Trash folder to permanently delete the files immediately.

*Note: After deleting the file permanently, anyone who has access to the file will also lose access to it.

Microsoft Sharepoint: Files stored in Microsoft Sharepoint can also be permanently deleted. Files in the Recycle Bin will be stored for 93 days and then permanently deleted. Electronic records can be restored from the Recycle Bin within this 93-day window.

Retention tools are in place for both Google Drive and Microsoft Sharepoint (MS 365). If you know how long electronic records need to be kept, consider utilizing retention tools for these electronic storage systems. Contact Princeton Records Management for assistance.

Manage your email account to ensure proper retention and destruction.

Google Mail (Gmail): A deleted message stays in the Trash for 30 days, after which time it is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

Microsoft Outlook: When a user deletes a mailbox item (email message, a contact, a calendar appointment, or a task), the item is moved to the Deleted Items folder, where the items are held for 30 days. After 30 days, the item is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. Please follow the same steps for deleting messages in your Archive folder.

Tips and best practices for email management:

• If an email is a transitory record (i.e., it does not contain significant information about the University’s course of business), it should be deleted as soon as it is no longer useful. Examples of transitory records often sent via email include listserv messages, brief “thank you” emails, newsletters, and meeting invitations and responses.
• If an email or email chain contains significant information, it is a record. Save it to a shared folder in PDF format so it is stable and accessible for the duration of its retention.
• Rather than attaching actual files to email messages, send email links to the file instead. This ensures that only the intended recipient will have access to the file, and it can vastly reduce the size of inboxes.

Audit other electronic records and file formats.

• Many electronic records are housed in specific systems (Prime, PeopleSoft, OnBase, etc.). Please contact Princeton Records Management for information regarding electronic record destruction as it relates to each software platform.
• Audio/visual material containing confidential information should be physically destroyed, not thrown away. It is possible to overwrite audio and videotapes with non-confidential sound and images, but it is recommended that this be done by an authorized member of the office of origin, or by OIT staff.