The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has a new approach to managing email records.

NARA would like government agencies to begin using a simplified and automated approach to handling the huge volume of emails they send and receive on a daily basis—with many ending up permanently stored in the National Archives. To NARA’s dismay, agencies have been known to treat their email systems as archives, despite the fact that they are unsuitable as a records management system. An initiative called “Capstone” is meant to help rectify the situation.

Capstone is designed to help agencies comply with an August 2012 memo from the White House requiring agencies to electronically manage permanent and temporary email records by December 31, 2016.

With Capstone, agencies are expected to categorize and archive email records as permanent or temporary, based on the position or work of an email account owner. For instance, agencies can assign email records of senior executives as permanent, while designating emails from employees in supportive roles as temporary, and therefore necessitating a shorter retention period. Email accounts scheduled as permanent are transferred to the National Archives, while temporary files can ultimately be culled and discarded by the agency.

If agencies don’t cull emails, all content (including personal) in email accounts will be treated as records and transferred to NARA.

Benefits of Capstone

The massive number of emails seen in business today has made it challenging for government agencies to keep up with records management requirements, and stay compliant with the Federal Records Act and Freedom of Information Act, among other recordkeeping regulations.

First and foremost, Capstone will help agencies simplify compliance with the Federal Records Act. Agencies won’t have to rely on their staff to print and file emails, or use other manual and employee-dependent methods of email capture and storage. Capstone will also help agencies respond better to Freedom of Information Act requests, giving them quick access to requested records. In addition, the initiative is expected to reduce the risk of unauthorized disposal of email records by agency employees.

What are the Capstone Requirements?

• NARA outlines its Capstone goals and requirements as follows:
• Reduce manual filing of email to make email management and recordkeeping easier.
• Base decisions about email retention according to the position and/or account of the email account owner.
• Identify and archive email accounts that are permanently valuable, while allowing email from clearly temporary accounts to be discarded after being preserved for a set period of time, based on the agencies’ requirements. (Capstone does not relieve agencies of their regular records-management responsibilities).

It falls to each government agency to decide the suitability of Capstone for their organization. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ for implementation, so agencies can develop different approaches that work for their specific business and legal needs. Records management, IT/CIO staff, and legal counsel in agencies are those most likely to be involved in determining suitability and implementation practices.

Agencies are also asked to create and issue policies for their specific Capstone approach. These policies include information about how much email oversight is needed; rules for personal use of agency email; rules for use of personal accounts to conduct agency business; and details about when permanent email accounts will be captured for preservation. Agencies also need to put together their own policies regarding the classification of email records and culling of email, noting when non-records or temporary content from email accounts can be discarded.

Tackling Capstone with Technology

There’s a lot of email data to manage under Capstone. Agencies should check to see if their technology solutions are sufficient enough to be able to implement the email management requirements of Capstone.

If you’re considering Capstone, you’ll need an email archiving solution that works best for your agency and helps take the manual labor out of email management by automating many of the processes required by Capstone. Not all solutions are the same, so make sure yours has the ability to:

• Manage email archival at the level suitable for your organization. You’ll need the ability to archive email for different groups, individuals, or even across your entire agency. You’ll also need tools that let your archive administrator select specific accounts, departments and individuals for email archiving.
• Transfer legacy data into your archive. If you’ve decided to begin archiving email to help meet Capstone requirements, you’ll most likely have old legacy email that needs to be migrated into your new email archive.
• Help you quickly respond to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act or a legal subpoena requiring a litigation hold. Your email archiving solution needs to be sophisticated enough to allow for e-discovery and legal holds. You’ll also want the ability to quickly export email data to various formats for use and review outside of your agency’s email archive.
• Capture more than just the text of an email. No matter which solution you use for email archiving, it must include related elements such as attachments and associated metadata. Capstone notes agencies may ‘want or need’ to associate additional files with email records, such as project files.

For more information about Capstone, check out the following resources:

• NARA Bulletin. NARA’s guidance on the new approach to managing email records.
• Capstone briefing. A training session that provides an overview and an introduction to planning for Capstone implementation.
• Capstone Planning Checklist. A checklist that assists agencies with planning and implementing the Capstone approach in their organization.
• Guidance on Managing Records in Cloud Computing Environments. A NARA bulletin addressing records management considerations in cloud computing environments.
• Toolkit for Managing Electronic Records. A resource for agencies to share and access records management guidance and best practices. Examples include tools that address the creation of business rules for managing email and related issues.
• Records Express. The official blog of the Office of the Chief Records Officer at NARA. Highlights guidance and upcoming events, and discusses how NARA is working with agency partners to improve records management in the Federal government.
• Frequently Asked Questions about Records Management. Provides a list of FAQs on noteworthy records management topics.