New National Archives Directives Prioritize Collaboration Platforms, Social Media

The National Archives and Records Administration published a bulletin in late September about collaboration platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Laurence Brewer, NARA’s chief records officer, said the directive will guide agencies managing records involving such applications, Federal News Network reported.

In an interview with Federal News Network at the recent 930 Gov conference, he explained that the bulletin defines what a collaboration platform is, identifies what records are created on them and lays out the implications for records management.

NARA’s directive goes into agency responsibilities when providing collaboration platforms to other agencies and clarifies when video and chat records need to be captured.

The agency also released a report analyzing whether 10 federal agencies were complying with a 2013 bulletin on managing social media records. One objective was to learn about the obstacles to collecting records from social media tools and their potential solutions.

The report recommends that federal agencies devote resources to automation solutions for social media records retention.

According to Brewer, NARA expects to issue follow-up guidance informed by the report to improve agencies’ social media management processes.