For the Record
Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Van Carlisle
Education instititions should consider the importance of protecting vital records when planning for emergencies.
The chaotic confusion that follows a fire, flood or other disaster is harrowing for an education institution. Once the danger to human life is controlled, however, the focus must center on recovery. Emergency-management plans serve as the main guide to prepare for, respond to and recover from a disaster that may affect any number of crucial functions. Having an emergency-management plan in place ensures that a school or university will be able to sustain losses stemming from a crisis and recover in an expedient manner.
One of the first steps in emergency-management planning is vital records protection (VRP). Records are critical to education, and installing a process for storing and retrieving data is considered to be a basic operational requirement for all education organizations. If a vital record is lost, damaged or otherwise rendered unavailable, that loss becomes a disaster-within-a-disaster.
Most emergency planning is designed primarily to ensure life safety. VRP is about mitigating loss and limiting property damage. These are two different concepts that need to be viewed from different perspectives.
Defining a vital record
In an education institution, student records are considered vital. But they are not the only categories of stored information that may be deemed as vital in the education environment. Some typical examples:
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Critical data relating to written curriculums.
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Contracts and agreements that prove ownership of property, equipment, vehicles and products.
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Operational records, such as budgets, accounting and tax records, personnel and payroll records.
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Assessing strategies
Standard operating procedures (SOPs).
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Reports, audits, test scores and summaries.
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Software source codes (both licensed programs and systems, and custom-developed applications).
This list should be considered a starting point. Although a specific category of records may not be considered vital, the data still may be worth protecting. Each category of record should be analyzed to determine the amount of protection it should receive. Non-vital (but valuable) records may be tiered as such:
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Important records: records that are replaceable, but reproducing them could be expensive, time-consuming and labor-intensive.
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Useful records: records that, if lost, will cause some inconvenience, but could be replaced readily.
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Non-essential records: records that are in line for routine destruction.
In order to validate the classifications, those responsible for emergency planning should interview the managers and personnel who create and manage the organization's records.
If VRP is the first step in the emergency-planning process, then the first step in developing a VRP strategy is to assess the threats to vital records. Identify specific risks, such as fire; flooding of storage areas; earthquakes that could cause a building collapse; and periodic storms or tornados that could endanger digitally stored vital records. With electronic data, poor care or storage can cause problems — simple things such as spilled coffee or inappropriate handling.
VRP describes both the process and the tools deployed to prevent the loss or destruction of vital records that are essential to an organization's continued operation. The basic action that VRP drives is storing vital records and documents in UL-rated fireproof files and safes. The National Fire Protection Association, Standard 232, “Protection of Records” recommends storing vital records in a fire-resistant file cabinet or vault that has been tested and rated by Underwriters Laboratories when keeping them on-site.
Some of the worst damage to vital records from a fire actually can occur from the water used to extinguish the flames. Sprinkler systems and fire hoses can cause irreparable harm to documents that are not protected properly. It is, however, impossible for a VRP product to be fireproof, as well as waterproof. When a fireproof cabinet is exposed to extreme temperatures in a fire, it expands by design, making it more difficult for water entry; however, when sprayed with a fire hose or submerged, no fireproof filing cabinet will be able to keep contents completely dry.
In order for a filing cabinet to be completely waterproof, it must be designed to withstand complete submersion in water; leaving little to no damage to internal documents. A cabinet that is water-resistant will be able to endure the effects of fire-suppression systems, such as sprinkler systems, as well as high-pressure fire hoses, sustaining minimal water entry during the process.
Some organizations, especially larger districts and university systems, may choose to outsource vital records protection, mainly to off-site storage facilities. This may work for archived records; however, for current information (such as student records) storing all vital records off-site requires such a high degree of discipline and coordination that it will become too expensive and time-consuming for most organizations. So, education institutions must ensure vital records are secure while they remain onsite.
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