NARA Records Management Key Terms and Acronyms
9
Performance Work Statement
(PWS)
The PWS describes completely the work required to be performed
including the standards, specifications, and controls. It lists
individual requirements that are too long to be written into the
contract schedule as contract line items. It serves as a clear
statement of contract requirements for defining and achieving the
technical program goals or services needed.
Record appraised by NARA as having sufficient historical or other
value to warrant continued preservation by the Federal
Government beyond the time it is needed for administrative, legal,
or fiscal purposes.
Documentary materials of a private or nonpublic character that do
not relate to, or have an effect on, the conduct of agency business.
Occurs when NARA fully processes permanently valuable electronic
records in order to assume physical custody before the records
are scheduled to become part of the National Archives of the
United States. The agency maintains legal custody and
responsibility for access.
Those records created by each Federal agency in performing the
unique functions that stem from the distinctive mission of the
agency. The agency’s mission is defined in enabling legislation and
further delineated in formal regulations.
Process of reducing paper to its constituent fibers
Taking the actions necessary to bring working conditions back to
normal and being able to resume business operations.
Includes all recorded information, regardless of form or
characteristics, made or received by a Federal agency under
Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business
and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its
legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions,
policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the
United States Government or because of the informational value of
data in them.” (44 U.S.C. 3301 )
A group of records arranged according to a filing system or kept
together because they relate to a particular subject or function,
result from the same activity, document a specific type of
transaction, exist in the same media format, or have some other
type of relationship.
The value of a record encompasses its value for current business –
i.e., its administrative, fiscal, legal/accountability value – as well as
its historical value.
Includes all traditional forms of records, regardless of physical form
or characteristics, including information created, manipulated,
communicated, or stored in digital or electronic form.
Recordkeeping Requirements
Statements in statutes, regulations, or agency directives providing
general and specific guidance on particular records to be created
and maintained by an agency.