Writing a General Records Schedule for Electronic Records

The National Archives and Records Administration confronted the difficult question of how burgeoning electronic records should be scheduled and appraised when, in 1986-88, it revised the existing General Records Schedules as they pertained to the disposition of machine-readable records. The committee of custodial and appraisal archivists substantially revised GRS 20, the existing nontextual schedule for machine-readable records, and created new provisions in GRS 23, which, for the first time, addressed the issue of electronic records created on personal computers or in office automation systems. The authors discuss the fundamental archival questions raised in the revision process, describe how the issues were resolved, and evaluate the results.