Appraising Records Maintained by your Unit

NEW - The Records Management Team is now the Archives and Information Management Team.

All records maintained by Smithsonian Institution units must be appraised by the Smithsonian Institution Archives before they can be discarded, destroyed, or transferred to the Archives or SIA's Records Center. When you no longer need certain records in your office, please follow these guidelines.

Please keep in mind that appraisal decisions apply to both paper and electronic records (including email) unless otherwise specified. Please notify the Archives and Information Management (AIM) Team if the same information exists in both paper and electronic format. The AIM Team may deliberately create separate retention periods in order to reduce redundancy.

1) If there is a records disposition schedule for your unit, the records may already have been appraised. Find the appropriate record series in the schedule and follow the disposition information (usually in the last column). If the records are not covered by the schedule, proceed to step 3. Check here (SI-only) to see if there is a disposition schedule for your unit.

2) If SIA has previously appraised the same type of record within your unit, you may follow the same guidance. If you do not remember what that guidance was, or have never received guidance, proceed to step 3.

3) Contact your AIM Team liaison. A list of liaisons is located here.

4) Depending on the circumstances, how much you know about the records, and the variety of records that need to be appraised, the appraisal may be done by email, over the phone, or in person. You may be asked about the types of records, what they are used for, the date span, the volume, who created the records, and if the records are duplicated elsewhere.

5) Your liaison may not always be able to give you an appraisal decision immediately. Appraisal decisions are based on a combination of factors including historical value, research potential, legal requirements, precedence, and duplication elsewhere. In most cases, you will receive the appraisal decision and disposition information within a few days.

6) Once an appraisal decision is made, you will be told that your records are either permanent or temporary. If the records are temporary, you will also be told how long they need to be kept. The appraisal decision will be accompanied by disposition information which will give you guidance on what to do with your records, such as discard or destroy them or transfer them to the Archives or SIA's Records Center.

7) If you are discarding or destroying records, you will find general guidelines here. If you are sending records to the Archives, follow the guidelines here.

For more details about how the AIM Team appraises records, go to SIA's Appraisal Methodology.