[Code of Federal Regulations] [Title 36, Volume 3] [Revised as of July 1, 2006] From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access [CITE: 36CFR1234.20] [Page 914] TITLE 36--PARKS, FORESTS, AND PUBLIC PROPERTY CHAPTER XII--NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION PART 1234_ELECTRONIC RECORDS MANAGEMENT--Table of Contents Subpart C_Standards for the Creation, Use, Preservation, and Disposition of Electronic Records Sec. 1234.20 Creation and use of data files. (a) For electronic information systems that produce, use, or store data files, disposition instructions for the data shall be incorporated into the system's design. (b) Agencies shall maintain adequate and up-to-date technical documentation for each electronic information system that produces, uses, or stores data files. Minimum documentation required is a narrative description of the system; physical and technical characteristics of the records, including a record layout that describes each field including its name, size, starting or relative position, and a description of the form of the data (such as alphabetic, zoned decimal, packed decimal, or numeric), or a data dictionary or the equivalent information associated with a data base management system including a description of the relationship between data elements in data bases; and any other technical information needed to read or process the records. [55 FR 19218, May 8, 1990, as amended at 60 FR 44641, Aug. 28, 1995]