Records Management Assistant (RMA) Description

Duties:

• Under the direction of the Records Management Liaison (RML), serve as the steward for a sub-unit (i.e. a department, institute, program, office, etc.), ensuring that the sub-unit’s records are retained according to Records Retention Schedules and that the sub-unit is in compliance with Policy AD35 to the best of their knowledge.

• The goal is that the Records Management Assistant serves as a conduit between the sub-unit, the Records Management Liaison, and the University’s Office of Records Management.

• Specially, this will include sharing and communicating information about Records Management services, procedures, resources, issues, and compliance with the sub-unit.

• As the representative of your sub-unit, attend meetings of the Unit’s RM team led by the Unit’s RML. Be able to discuss RM situations, issues, projects, and successes as it relates to your sub-unit

• With support from other employees in your sub-unit, ensure that your sub-unit’s records are…
  • …organized to be easily searched in order to find specific documents.
  • …stored securely (only those that need to can access certain records).
  • ...not retained longer than they should be.
  • …disposed of appropriately (destroyed beyond recovery or transferred to University Archives).

• If located at University Park:
  • Maintain current knowledge of services and resources provided by the Inactive Records Center, such as secure records storage, transfer and retrieval of stored records, and secure destruction services.
  • Maintain familiarity with the services and resources provided by the Blue/White Shredding Program and LionSurplus for secure destruction of University Records stored in offices and on computers or external hard drives.

• If located at Commonwealth Campus:
  • Use secure records storage and destruction services approved by your Financial Officer/Director of Business Services.
  • Maintain familiarity with approved methods of secure destruction of University Records stored in offices, on computer systems, external hard drives, and in the cloud.

• As it relates to your Unit, maintain an understanding of the Penn State University Archives and its services, resources, and procedures. Be able to distinguish between University Records, which have a fixed retention period and Archival Records that have enduring historical value.

• In order to receive credit for taking on these additional tasks, RMA duties and responsibilities can be added to the employee’s Job Responsibilities Work (JRW).

• Additionally, training provided by the Office of Records Management can be found on the Learning Resource Network (LRN): https://lrn.psu.edu/ and Penn State Human Resources Talent Management Upcoming Programs. Completed trainings can be viewed as credit on the employee’s LRN transcript. 

​Revision information:

December 10, 2019 – Updated RMA appointment process which is now handled by the Financial Officer or Director of Business Services.

Replaced information about earning credit via You@PSU system with adding RMA duties to JRW.   

November 11, 2015 – RMA Description first created and published.