Discovering the History of DORIS Records Management — NYC Department of Records & Information Services

The minutes convey that a main concern of the committee was what information to share with records management officers at their regular citywide meetings:

“Mr. Brady thought that we should ask specific questions from the Records Officers, as for instance, when was the last time an agency disposed records; has a records inventory been prepared as yet by the agency,… The Chairman brought up to date the procedure of disposal of obsolete and useless records as contained in the manual, and had copies prepared for distribution to all the Records Officers. Copies of the Corporation Council’s opinion on the disposal of duplicate copies of records were made for distribution to the Records Officers.”

When reading through these minutes, it is striking how extremely similar the practices and concerns of the Committee are to DORIS Records Management today. We hold regular quarterly meetings for records officers and share updated information on the exact same topics of disposal, records scheduling, and how to handle duplicates or obsolete records. Even though our records may now be emails and CAD files instead of typed memoranda or hand drawn plans, the work of safeguarding city records remains the same.