Overview of the Administrative Records Classification System (ARCS)
What is ARCS?
ARCS is a combined records classification and scheduling system that
facilitates the efficient and systematic organization, retrieval, storage,
destruction or permanent retention of the government's administrative
records.
A standard classification system such as ARCS is the cornerstone
of an effective records management program. ARCS identifies and describes
the administrative records created by government offices and organizes them
into a structure that reflects administrative functions. This organizational
structure ensures that records can be quickly and easily identified, documented
and retrieved.
ARCS is also a records scheduling system. A records schedule
is a timetable that governs the life span of a record from creation, through
active use within an office and retention in off-site storage, to destruction
or transfer to the government archives.
The records schedules incorporated into ARCS ensure that all
administrative records are retained for sufficient periods of time in order
to meet the legal, operational, audit, fiscal or other requirements of
government. A records schedule identifies those records that have enduring
values and provides for their transfer to the government archives. Records
schedules also provide for the timely destruction of routine administrative
records when they are no longer required to support the government's
administrative functions.
What are administrative records?
Administrative records document and support those functions that are common
to all government offices, such as the management of financial, personnel,
facilities, property, materiel or information systems. Administrative records
also document common management processes, including committees, agreements,
contract management, public information services, information and privacy,
records management, postal services, legal opinions and other similar functions.
Administrative records may exist in a number of physical formats, including
paper files, microfilm, diskettes, magnetic tape, electronic data processing
records, and video or audio tapes.
Records documenting a government agency's unique mandated functions
are classified and scheduled in accordance with program-specific Operational
Records Classification Systems (ORCS).
The purpose of ARCS
ARCS facilitates the efficient management of administrative information
by:
-
providing a tool for executive control of recorded information;
-
ensuring that needed information can be accessed quickly and accurately;
-
ensuring that records are available to protect the fiscal, legal, operational,
audit and other liabilities of government for required periods of time;
-
providing for the timely destruction of routine administrative records that
are no longer required and ensuring that records of enduring value are retained
by the government archives;
-
providing a framework for the audit and review of administrative functions;
and
-
providing a legal basis on which the integrity, authenticity, and completeness
of administrative records may be established.
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