[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: 36CFR1234.30]



[Page 917-918]

 

              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.  1234.30  Selection and maintenance of electronic records storage 

media.



    (a) Agencies shall select appropriate media and systems for storing 

agency records throughout their life, which meet the following 

requirements:

    (1) Permit easy retrieval in a timely fashion;

    (2) Facilitate distinction between record and nonrecord material;

    (3) Retain the records in a usable format until their authorized 

disposition date; and

    (4) If the media contains permanent records and does not meet the 

requirements for transferring permanent records to NARA as outlined in 

Sec.  1228.270 of this chapter, permit the migration of the permanent 

records at the time of transfer to a medium which does meet the 

requirements.

    (b) The following factors shall be considered before selecting a 

storage medium or converting from one medium to another:

    (1) The authorized life of the records, as determined during the 

scheduling process;

    (2) The maintenance necessary to retain the records;

    (3) The cost of storing and retrieving the records;

    (4) The records density;

    (5) The access time to retrieve stored records;

    (6) The portability of the medium (that is, selecting a medium that 

will run on equipment offered by multiple manufacturers) and the ability 

to transfer the information from one medium to another (such as from 

optical disk to magnetic tape); and

    (7) Whether the medium meets current applicable Federal Information 

Processing Standards.

    (c) Agencies should avoid the use of floppy disks for the exclusive 

long-term storage of permanent or unscheduled electronic records.

    (d) Agencies shall ensure that all authorized users can identify and 

retrieve information stored on diskettes, removable disks, or tapes by 

establishing or adopting procedures for external labeling.

    (e) Agencies shall ensure that information is not lost because of 

changing technology or deterioration by converting storage media to 

provide compatibility with the agency's current hardware and software. 

Before conversion to a different medium, agencies must determine that 

the authorized disposition of the electronic records can be implemented 

after conversion.

    (f) Agencies shall back up electronic records on a regular basis to 

safeguard against the loss of information due to equipment malfunctions 

or human error. Duplicate copies of permanent or unscheduled records 

shall be maintained in storage areas separate from the location of the 

records that have been copied.

    (g) Maintenance of magnetic computer tape. (1) Agencies shall test 

magnetic computer tapes no more than 6 months prior to using them to 

store electronic records that are unscheduled or scheduled for permanent 

retention. This test should verify that the tape is free of permanent 

errors and in compliance with National Institute of Standards and 

Technology or industry standards.

    (2) Agencies shall maintain the storage and test areas for computer 

magnetic tapes containing permanent and unscheduled records at the 

following temperatures and relative humidities:



Constant temperature--62 to 68 [deg]F.

Constant relative humidity--35% to 45%





[[Page 918]]





    (3) Agencies shall annually read a statistical sample of all reels 

of magnetic computer tape containing permanent and unscheduled records 

to identify any loss of data and to discover and correct the causes of 

data loss. In tape libraries with 1800 or fewer reels, a 20% sample or a 

sample size of 50 reels, whichever is larger, should be read. In tape 

libraries with more than 1800 reels, a sample of 384 reels should be 

read. Tapes with 10 or more errors should be replaced and, when 

possible, lost data shall be restored. All other tapes which might have 

been affected by the same cause (i.e., poor quality tape, high usage, 

poor environment, improper handling) shall be read and corrected as 

appropriate.

    (4) Agencies shall copy permanent or unscheduled data on magnetic 

tapes before the tapes are 10 years old onto tested and verified new 

tapes.

    (5) External labels (or the equivalent automated tape management 

system) for magnetic tapes used to store permanent or unscheduled 

electronic records shall provide unique identification for each reel, 

including the name of the organizational unit responsible for the data, 

system title, and security classification, if applicable. Additionally, 

the following information shall be maintained for (but not necessarily 

attached to) each reel used to store permanent or unscheduled electronic 

records: file title(s); dates of creation; dates of coverage; the 

recording density; type of internal labels; volume serial number, if 

applicable; number of tracks; character code/software dependency; 

information about block size; and reel sequence number, if the file is 

part of a multi-reel set. For numeric data files, include record format 

and logical record length, if applicable; data set name(s) and sequence, 

if applicable; and number of records for each data set.

    (6) Agencies shall prohibit smoking and eating in magnetic computer 

tape storage libraries and test or evaluation areas that contain 

permanent or unscheduled records.

    (h) Maintenance of direct access storage media. (1) Agencies shall 

issue written procedures for the care and handling of direct access 

storage media which draw upon the recommendations of the manufacturers.

    (2) External labels for diskettes or removable disks used when 

processing or temporarily storing permanent or unscheduled records shall 

include the following information: name of the organizational unit 

responsible for the records, descriptive title of the contents, dates of 

creation, security classification, if applicable, and identification of 

the software and hardware used.



[55 FR 19218, May 8, 1990. Redesignated at 60 FR 44641, Aug. 28, 1995; 

62 FR 54585, Oct. 21, 1997; 65 FR 24132, Apr. 25, 2000; 66 FR 27028, May 

16, 2001]