osd records

All of the above — and the point of the question is that there are exactly three kinds and you are responsible for all three, kept apart from one another: (1) Federal records, the recorded information you make or receive in the transaction of public business; (2) non-record materials, Government-owned material excluded from the statutory definition of a record (extra convenience copies, stocks of publications, library and museum material, routing slips, information copies); and (3) personal files, documentary material belonging to you that is not used to conduct agency business. AI 15 does not let you pick one — it requires that personal files and non-record material be maintained separately from work-related records, and that personal and non-record material never be mixed into Federal records.

A description of the records, the volume of records, and the office of origin. That is the answer the course expects, and it is the front half of the actual reporting rule: 36 CFR 1230.14(a) requires the agency to report promptly to NARA and to include a complete description of the records with volume and dates if known, and the office maintaining the records. Note the regulation asks for five things, not three — it also requires a statement of the exact circumstances surrounding the loss, a statement of the safeguards established to prevent further loss, and, when appropriate, details of any actions taken to salvage, retrieve, or reconstruct the records. The report must be submitted or approved by the individual authorized to sign records schedules.

Non-records. Non-record material is Government-owned but sits outside the statutory definition of a record, so it carries no NARA disposition authority — filing it in with Federal records contaminates the record set and makes the whole file impossible to schedule or search cleanly. AI 15 states the rule flatly for both non-record material and personal files, and 36 CFR 1222.20(b) adds that labelling something “personal” does not change its status: material used in the transaction of public business is a Federal record no matter what you call it.

Unscheduled records. Word it precisely, because the course's phrasing overstates it: unscheduled records are not permanent — they are records whose final disposition NARA has not yet approved on an SF 115, and they must be TREATED as permanent until a disposition is approved. That treatment is what makes them undestroyable in the meantime; it is not an appraisal decision. Once NARA approves a schedule the same records may turn out to be temporary and disposable. AI 15 says the same thing in one line: unscheduled records may not be destroyed or deleted.

True. A network share drive is not a recordkeeping system on its own; AI 15 lets a component treat one as a recordkeeping system only if it wraps the drive in procedures, and one of the required steps is a clear and understandable naming convention for records and information. The Federal rule behind it is 36 CFR 1220.34(i): the agency must institute controls ensuring that all records, regardless of format or medium, are properly organized, classified or indexed, and described, and made available to appropriate staff.

“Sensitive information” is what the course key says — and the key is wrong. This stem is almost word for word FOIA Exemption 1, 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(1)(A), which describes information “specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy.” That is the definition of CLASSIFIED national security information, not sensitive information. Executive Order 13526 supplies the Executive order the exemption refers to; classified information is information determined under that order to require protection against unauthorized disclosure because its unauthorized release reasonably could be expected to damage the national security, which EO 13526 defines as the national defense or foreign relations of the United States. Sensitive but unclassified information — today, CUI — is by definition NOT classified. Pick “Sensitive Information” to pass the test; know that the correct answer is classified (national security) information.

Offsite. A freeze suspends disposition, not custody — it does not require you to move anything, and records already held offsite stay under the hold. Federal agencies may store records in NARA Federal Records Centers, in records centers operated by or for other Federal agencies, or in commercial records storage facilities, and records transferred there remain in the legal custody of the agency, so a litigation hold reaches them. AI 15 has the OSD Records Administrator search the FRCs for records of an affected component when a hold lands, and 36 CFR 1226.18(b) requires an agency extending a retention period to notify the storage facility holding the records.

Indefinitely, until the freeze is lifted. A record disposition authority moratorium has no fixed end date: the designated point of contact suspends the retention period of every affected record and holds it until told the litigation or dispute is resolved, and the OSD Records Administrator is the one who notifies RIM personnel, NARA and affected components when a hold is lifted or terminated. Until that notice arrives, the approved schedule simply does not run — destroying a record subject to a hold is unauthorized destruction under 36 CFR 1230.3.

One. Executive Order 13526 allows information to be classified at one of three levels — Top Secret, Secret or Confidential — and no other terms may be used to identify U.S. classified information. A given record therefore carries exactly one classification, the level matching the damage its unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause; you do not stack levels or hedge between them. EO 13526 even resolves the tie: if there is significant doubt about the appropriate level, it is classified at the LOWER level, and if there is significant doubt about the need to classify at all, it is not classified.

1236 — 36 CFR Part 1236, Electronic Records Management. Part 1236 is where the requirement lives that recordkeeping controls be built into an electronic information system rather than bolted on afterwards: as part of capital planning and the system development life cycle, agencies must ensure records management controls are planned and implemented in the system, and an electronic recordkeeping system must be able to organize records by associating them with an approved records schedule and disposition instruction. AI 15 points DoD employees at the same part for anything created or received in electronic format, in a Federal information system, or through messaging.

Administrative Instruction 15 (AI 15), “OSD Records and Information Management Program.” It is issued by the Office of the Director of Administration and Management and signed out by the Director, Washington Headquarters Services; the current edition is effective November 27, 2023 with Change 1 effective March 12, 2025, and it reissued and cancelled the May 3, 2013 version. AI 15 implements DoDI 5015.02, 44 U.S.C. chapters 29, 31 and 33, and 36 CFR chapter XII subchapter B for the OSD, the OSD RIM Program-serviced Defense Agencies and DoD Field Activities, and DoD advisory committees — collectively the WHS-serviced Components.

Updating the file plan, conducting records searches, and educating office personnel of their responsibilities. AI 15 spells out all three: RIM personnel must ensure each reporting office has an office file plan and must annually review and approve it; they must conduct records searches and implement moratoriums such as litigation holds, preservation notices or court orders; and they must brief both incoming and departing personnel — including Service members and contractors — on their duties when creating, maintaining and surrendering OSD records, documenting each briefing.

False. Personal files must be clearly designated as such and maintained separately from the office's official records, and private matters must not be mixed with agency business in outgoing agency documents including correspondence and messages. AI 15 repeats the rule for e-mail specifically. The asymmetry is worth knowing: if private information turns up in a document you RECEIVE, the document is a Federal record — the agency's remedy is to copy it with the personal information redacted and treat the copy as the record, not to move the original out of the record set.

20 days. 44 U.S.C. 2911 bars an officer or employee of an executive agency from creating or sending a record on a non-official electronic messaging account unless they either copy their official account in the original creation or transmission, or forward a complete copy to their official account not later than 20 days after the original creation or transmission. AI 15 applies the same clock to OSD employees, contractors and Service members and adds two DoD-specific points: you must forward the COMPLETE message — a screenshot or screen capture is not adequate documentation — and an intentional violation is a basis for disciplinary action under chapter 75 of title 5.

“Classified information” is what the course key says — and the key is wrong; it is the mirror image of the error on the “kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy” card, and the two keys look swapped. Confidentiality, integrity and availability is the information-security triad of 44 U.S.C. 3552, which applies to Federal information generally, classified or not. Information that a law, regulation or Government-wide policy requires an agency to safeguard, but which is not classified, is sensitive — in current terminology Controlled Unclassified Information, and 32 CFR 2002.4(h) says in so many words that CUI does not include classified information. Classified information is defined by damage to the national security under EO 13526, not by the CIA triad. Pick “Classified Information” to pass the test; know that the correct answer is sensitive (controlled unclassified) information.

Content; classification. A record's file number and retention come from what the record is about and what it documents, and the approved disposition schedule then governs it regardless of how it is marked. AI 15 makes approved disposition schedules mandatory regardless of form, format, function, classification or location, and says disposition schedules identify the CONTENT and provide the retention instructions. DoDI 5015.02 states the DoD-wide version of the same rule. The practical consequence: classified NSI identified as temporary under the OSD RDS is destroyed on its file number like anything else, and only classified records identified as PERMANENT are eligible for declassification review.

True. Collaboration and share storage is not a recordkeeping system by default. 36 CFR 1236.20(b) sets the functionality an electronic recordkeeping system has to have before it can hold the recordkeeping copy — declare, capture and organize records against an approved schedule, maintain security and audit trails, manage access and retrieval, preserve records for as long as needed, and execute disposition including applying a hold or freeze — and 1236.20(c) rules out backup systems entirely. AI 15 makes the same point about OSD network share drives: they do not provide recordkeeping functionality, and only become a recordkeeping system when a component wraps them in formal retention and disposition procedures, naming conventions and a RIM structure.

Media format; physical location of records; vital record designation; file number, file title and file description; and record disposition instructions — all of them. AI 15 requires every program office, division and directorate to establish and maintain a file plan that identifies all records and information the office creates and receives, and it sets the minimum content of the underlying procedures: the formats and location of records, how and where they are maintained, whether they are hard copy or electronic and if electronic which share drive or Federal information system holds them, and the applicable records disposition authority for every record described, regardless of format or classification. The file number is the OSD alpha-numeric code that ties subject matter to a schedule, and 36 CFR 1223.14(c) separately requires the designation of vital records to be kept current and complete.

True. AI 15 states it in one sentence — non-record materials may be removed from U.S. Government custody only with the agency's approval — and 36 CFR 1222.18(a) puts the approval at the level of the head of the agency or the individual authorized to act for the agency on records issues. In OSD the request is documented on an SD Form 821 or 822, reviewed by the office of primary responsibility and the component security managers, and the requester signs a non-disclosure agreement. Two hard limits survive any approval: national security classified information may not be removed at all outside the National Industrial Security Program, and Privacy Act-restricted information may not be removed except as those statutes permit.

True. AI 15 requires every WHS-serviced Component program office, division and directorate to establish and maintain a file plan that is reviewed and approved by its CRMO, DAFA records manager or DoD Advisory Committee records manager annually, to ensure compliance, consistency and accuracy. The same annual duty is written into the RIM personnel responsibilities, and the review exists because file plans go stale the moment an office reorganizes or adds a system — the annual look is the floor, not the ceiling.

All of them: record, non-record and personal material are maintained separately; procedures are established for organizing, sorting, handling, protecting, referencing and retrieving records; and responsibilities are assigned for maintenance of records. AI 15 assigns each piece — personnel must keep personal files and non-record material separate from work-related records, must maintain files and filing materials regardless of format in a manner that lets them be safely stored and efficiently retrieved, and RIM personnel must document internal RIM roles and responsibilities in standard operating procedures. 36 CFR 1220.34 puts the same three duties on the agency: assign records management responsibility, assign it in every program and administrative area, and institute controls so records are properly organized, indexed, described and available.

True. AI 15 defines a litigation hold as a temporary suspension of the agency's document retention destruction policies for the paper documents and electronically stored information that may be, or are reasonably anticipated to be, relevant to a lawsuit — also called a legal hold, preservation order, records freeze or hold order. In OSD the hold is normally issued by agency general counsel or attorneys, but it can also come from the OSD Records Administrator, component attorneys, DAFA general counsel, Congress or the Office of the President, and a GAO or DoD IG audit produces the same effect. Failure to preserve can carry regulatory fines, adverse inference instructions, default judgment, civil contempt, vicarious liability for senior management, criminal liability and termination.

False. Non-record material is Federally owned but excluded from the statutory definition of a record, so it has no NARA disposition authority and must be kept out of the record set. AI 15 tells RIM personnel to remind employees, Service members and contractors not to mix personal and non-record materials with Federal records — e-mail, e-messages and official social media accounts included — and the removal rules for non-record copies only work if the non-record material was segregated in the first place.

False. An extra copy kept near the point of use for convenience is not a record at all — AI 15 calls it a convenience file and 36 CFR 1220.18 excludes extra copies preserved only for reference from the definition of a record. Scattering duplicates creates unscheduled copies that never get disposed of, multiplies what has to be searched under a litigation hold, and makes it impossible to say which version is authoritative. The policy runs the other way: OSD limits the creation of records to those essential for the efficient conduct of official business, and disposition schedules exist so that redundant, trivial and obsolete records are disposed of in a timely manner. Vital records are the narrow exception, and even there only the most recent and complete source counts.

Both: accessible within 12 hours after a disaster regardless of the media or format of the records, and needed to meet operational responsibilities under national security emergencies or other emergency conditions. The second half is the regulatory definition in 36 CFR 1223.2 — vital (essential) records are those needed to meet operational responsibilities under national security emergencies or other emergency conditions, the emergency operating records, or to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and those affected by its activities. The 12-hour figure comes from NARA's Essential Records Guide implementing FEMA's Federal Continuity Directive 1: within 12 hours following activation of agency continuity plans, agencies must make copies of emergency operating records accessible. Be precise about the trigger — the clock runs from CONTINUITY PLAN ACTIVATION, not from the disaster itself, and legal and financial rights records may not be needed that quickly.

True, and note that the ATTEMPT is enough. 36 CFR 1230.12 states the penalty in exactly those terms and cites 18 U.S.C. 641 and 2071. Under 18 U.S.C. 2071(a) anyone who willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates or destroys — or attempts to do so — a record filed or deposited in any public office is fined or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. Subsection (b) is harsher for the custodian of the record: the same conduct also forfeits the office and disqualifies the person from holding any office under the United States. AI 15 puts the exposure at up to $250,000 in fines and imprisonment.

True. 44 U.S.C. 3303 requires every Federal agency to submit disposition schedules covering the retention and disposal of the records it creates and receives; once the Archivist of the United States approves them they are published as the OSD Records Disposition Schedule. AI 15 defines the RDS as the administrative document OSD uses to obtain legal disposal authority for categories of its records, granting continuing authority to dispose of identifiable categories that have accumulated and will accumulate in the future. Because a NARA-approved schedule identifies records as either temporary or permanent, the RDS necessarily carries instructions for both.

False. Documenting destruction is not triggered by the sensitivity of the content — it is triggered by the act of disposing of a Federal record. AI 15 reaches OSD records in any medium regardless of form, format, function, classification or location, and makes every approved disposition schedule mandatory on the same terms. Sensitivity changes HOW you destroy, not WHETHER you document it: 36 CFR 1226.24(c) adds witnessing and media-sanitisation requirements for classified and otherwise restricted records on top of the ordinary rules. A record with no PII in it still gets destroyed on its file number and still gets recorded. (The course this bank comes from circulates in a DHA-flavoured version naming a DHA form; the agency-neutral rule is the one above.)

All of the above — in AI 15 the coordination runs to three places. RIM personnel receive and process the request and coordinate it with the office of primary responsibility and the component security managers; the request is documented on an SD Form 821 or SD Form 822 and the requester signs a non-disclosure agreement; and approval sits with authorising officials from the gaining and losing components, with the OSD Records Administrator as the approval authority for CAPSTONE officials and the OSD Senior Agency Official for Records Management as the appellate authority on any denial or redaction. The office of primary responsibility also reviews the material itself for CUI, for information that could compromise classified matters or operations, and for foreseeable harm.

Electronic records. The definition is identical in 36 CFR 1220.18 and in the AI 15 glossary: any information recorded in a form that only a computer can process AND that satisfies the definition of a Federal record under the Federal Records Act. Both halves matter — being machine-readable does not by itself make something a record. The term also covers more than the visible content: it includes the associated metadata the agency determines is required to meet its business needs, which is why exporting a message as a screenshot destroys part of the record.

True. 36 CFR 1220.18 defines personal files, also called personal papers, as documentary materials belonging to an individual that are not used to conduct agency business; they are excluded from the definition of Federal records and are not owned by the Government. AI 15 adds the handling rule: personal files must be filed separately from the official records of the office. The test is use, not label — material labelled personal, confidential or private that is used in the transaction of public business is a Federal record regardless of what it says on the folder.

False — that describes temporary records, and the “occurrence of an event” half specifically describes CONTINGENT records. A permanent record is one NARA has determined has sufficient value to warrant preservation in the National Archives of the United States; it is never destroyed on a clock, it is transferred to the National Archives after the period specified on the approved SF 115. Temporary records are the ones NARA has determined are disposable, and contingent records are those whose final disposition depends on an action or event, such as sale of property or destruction of a facility, at some unspecified future time.

True. Once the Archivist approves them, disposition schedules are mandatory under 44 U.S.C. 3303a — regardless of form, format, function, classification or location — and the WHS-serviced Components must execute them. AI 15 gives the worked example: records monitoring expenditures under approved budget allocations are retained three years after execution of the funds, and that three years applies whether the records sit in hard copy, in persistent electronic format, or on SIPRNET or JWICS. Records with no approved schedule are unscheduled and cannot be destroyed at all, and a component may not deviate from an authorised schedule without the OSD Records Administrator's permission.

False. The file plan is mandatory and has no “we are tidy” exception. 36 CFR part 1222 subpart B requires every Federal agency to provide for adequate documentation of agency business, and AI 15 implements that by requiring ALL program offices, divisions and directorates of the WHS-serviced Components to establish and maintain a file plan — one that is reviewed and approved annually, meets the minimum requirements of the OSD Primer, and identifies every record and piece of information the office creates and receives. RIM personnel must ensure each reporting office has one, and the file plan is what ties records to file numbers and disposition authorities; being organised is not the same as being scheduled.