Ivey Soto

Professor Jinfang Niu

LIS6026
4 October 2021
Inventory Process Summary

In June of 2021, I began working from home for Dream Support, Inc. as a Waiver

Support Coordinator for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I am

used to working in an office setting where the majority of the files we used were in paper

format or were created digitally to then be printed and distributed, but now everything I

use is digital or being transferred to the computer from paper. In order to best create an

inventory of some of my work files, I used the record inventory elements from the

National Archive website, as well as the direction from Franks in chapter 14 to decide

what information to include in the spreadsheet. After reading through these, I decided to

include the record title, inclusive dates to show when the record was created and when

the last time I worked on it was, a short description, the program it is on, the approximate

volume, the reference activity, the format – which in this case were all digital aside from one – of

the document, whether or not it is an essential record, and if I have a physical copy available

or not. I narrowed my list down to these based on the information that the files I chose all

had in common to keep it consistent, as well as what I was most familiar with and what

applied to digital records.

Since I just began working as a Waiver Support Coordinator in June, the majority

of my records are for organization to stay on top of things, for training to begin working

and learn the material necessary, or timesheets and mileage sheets for my boss to ensure

payment while I am still a new hire. The main tab on my client worksheet is consistent

and has no retention period. When I begin a new month, I save the sheet from the 3

previous months to keep track of what I did the months before. The retention period for

the separate tabs on my client worksheet are around 3 months. The client sheet itself can
 Ivey Soto
Professor Jinfang Niu
LIS6026
4 October 2021
be cleared when I no longer work for Dream Support and transfer my files and cases to

someone else. As a new hire, I am going through the Mentor training program and have to keep

my transcript on file for one year until I renew my trainings, and the Excel checklist that I am

filling out as I complete things as I train must be retained throughout my employment. Mileage

records and timesheets are to be retained for 2 months after turning them in, and this has been set

by Dream Support to ensure that the reimbursement is not counted as taxable income.

While applying for graduate school and employment at Dream Support, I created a folder

on my computer to store documents that were important in the process, such as my resume and

cover letter, my eDiploma, and my final transcript. The majority of my files are digital, but I also

have a small accordion folder in a filing cabinet that my family shares where I store some

personal documents, and this is where I keep my acceptance letter into the MLIS program. My

graduate school records series is a bit small, but it is essential to my success as an employee and

a student. The majority of the files in this folder are noncurrent, as they are PDF documents sent

by the University, such as my eDiploma and my transcript, and they cannot be updated once they

are sent. These should be retained until I earn my master’s degree in 2022. My resume and cover

letter are semicurrent and are updated as I gain experience through work and school, so these

will be retained as long as I am working, and employers are requiring these. My acceptance letter

is nonessential and does not need to be retained, but it is a keepsake for me. I can dispose of it at

any time, but I will keep it until I move out of my parent’s home.