In-house Services

Before your work-related documents and media are due for submitting to the University Archive, there are at least two related duties that must be assumed by all colleagues: proper file management and (temporary) storage in the context of retention periods. We offer advise on these topics to prevent any losses in these administrative proceses, which generally last over several years before the records of your individual hard work are finally able to rest safely in our archival stacks.

It is important to note, that all information below pertains to the individual work sphere of each colleague and is to be distinguished from archival standards and procedures of the University Archive, which set in with the submitting process after the respective retention periods of files have expired, see The Process of Selection for Discarding and Submitting of Files.

In a nutshell

File management of analog and digital documents and media is mostly concerned with maintaining their consistent, comprehensive and accountable structural order that follows the legal guidelines of administrative work as well as matters of conservation.

Storage is related to the archival term of retention periods. In a way, this follows up to file management. Beginning with the time your files are no longer required for administrative purposes but before your documents and media is to be submitted to the University Archive it is necessary for you to ensure their storage for a specific amount of time. This aspect is called ‘retention period’. Retention periods are regulated by a university decree (“Richtlinien der Kanzlerin und des Rektors über Aufbewahrung, Aussonderung, Archivierung und Vernichtung von Akten", in German). The “Richtlinie“ addresses many different media that regularly appear in university administration and states their retention period’s respective length. Storage of documents and files should follow certain conservation guidelines which support their preservation. There are different guidelines for analog and digital media containing practical methods most of which you may easily implement in your job routine.

Irrespective of this recap, both topics are very complex with no quick answers, so please note our at length elaborations on Ruhr University's Serviceportal (only accessible for members/employees of RUB via the campus network):

Serviceportal

After the respective storage periods has expired, the University Archive decides on the eligibility of the files for either submission or destruction.

Transfer:

To prepare all further steps, a list of the files to be transferred must be made, which includes the following data of each file, resp. file folder:

• the serial number of the file
• a short title (e.g. the file folder’s spine label),
• the duration (years of the oldest and the most recent document)
• if applicable, your file number

On the one hand, this list is useful for sifting through the files and on the other hand, it can be used as the the basis for a transfer list for the University Archive. In any case, the University Archives will provide a transfer list, which contains our accession number and the (transfer) number of each unit, so that the whereabouts or destruction of the records may be traced at any time.

Depending on the amount of the files which are to be submitted, archive staff is able to collect the files from you in the case of smaller quantities. For larger amounts the submitter has to organize transport service themselves. We therefore recommend checking your files for eligibility for submission on a regular basis in order to prevent their accumulation. Transfer of smaller quantities can be offered expeditiously and without further ado by the University Archive.

Destruction:

After approval for destruction has been given by the University Archive, you may dispose of them properly. Keep in mind that files containing personal or confidential information must be disposed of in an appropriately secure manner. For further information regarding proper disposal and destruction, please refer to the RUB Office for Information Security's (Stabsstelle für Informationssicherheit) website.

For larger quantities of files to be destroyed, you will find further information, for example, about the delivery and collection of security containers (240 and 450 l) on the website of the Department for Disposal of the RUB Office of Workplace Safety and Environmental Protection (Sachgebiet Entsorgung der Stabsstelle Arbeitssicherheit und Umweltschutz).

Transferred files are recorded, indexed and stored in a secure manner.

During the process of recording and indexing, the files are first given comprehensive and meaningful titles with references to interesting details. In the course of this work, the correspondingly detailed inventory (“Findbuch”) is created, of which the submitter receives a copy upon request. The inventory also lists the corresponding retention periods of the records, for example if they contain personal data. By default, all files have a retention period of at least 30 years (after the file was closed). Finally, conservational measurements are carried out, including the demetallization and repacking of the files in age-resistant archival folders, all while retaining the original internal order of the records.

Regardless of the retention periods, the documents are available to you as the submitter without restriction, if necessary they may also temporarily returned to you, if official requests make this necessary.

You are welcome to use our in-house services and are invited as users of the University Archive itself as well. We are happy to provide you with information on the history of RUB, grant access to documents available for research in our reading room, and to conduct guided tours and seminars in the context of our archive – whether in connection with your work or other research interests.