Record Storage Box Label - What should I include on the box label?

[chascoffin]

We store bankers boxes of records on site and we are planning to go through them in the near future. In the process of becoming ISO 9001 compliant, I would like to mark each box with information including disposal date. Not wanting to do this and then discover I should have included an additional bit of information, I was hoping someone could give me some pointers from their experiance...what should I include on the box label...examples would be appreciated. Thanks

Chas

[BadgerMan]

An indication as to the contents, noted on each box, would make the records easy to identify and retrieve.

[Coury Ferguson]

In Reply to Parent Post by chascoffin

We store bankers boxes of records on site and we are planning to go through them in the near future. In the process of becoming ISO 9001 compliant, I would like to mark each box with information including disposal date. Not wanting to do this and then discover I should have included an additional bit of information, I was hoping someone could give me some pointers from their experiance...what should I include on the box label...examples would be appreciated. Thanks

Chas

What you are planning to do, would meet the intent of the Standard in my opinion, since you are looking to be compliant, not registered.

[Jim Wynne]

In Reply to Parent Post by Coury Ferguson

What you are planning to do is would meet the intent of the Standard in my opinion, since you are looking to be compliant, not registered.

Do you mean that it wouldn't meet the intent of the standard if the OP were pursuing registration?

As to the original question, some things to consider:

• As Badgerman pointed out, you will want the identification to include a description of the contents.
• You can include a date when the contents can be safely disposed of, but you also have to define what that date means: is it a requirement to jettison the box (and its contents) on that date? Can you throw out the box any time on or after the given date?
• You have to make sure that all of the contents of a given box qualify for disposal when the appointed date arrives.

[Coury Ferguson]

In Reply to Parent Post by Jim Wynne

Do you mean that it wouldn't meet the intent of the standard if the OP were pursuing registration?

No that is not what I meant. I should have stated that either way the intent of the standard would be met. Thanks for straightening me out Jim.

[SteelMaiden]

Chas, it might be overkill, but the last div I worked for we did something similar. (no banker boxes but the plastic equiv.) anyway, I digress....

Each "cubby" was labled:
form or record identification,
the filing order (filed by date, or alpha numeric),
the date range of the files within and
Retention time (1 yr., 3yrs, 5 yrs....)

We would do a thorough housekeeping sweep of records during the week between Christmas and New Year's every year and get all of the records piled up to be gotten rid of. Then on the first or second day after New Year's day, all would be loaded up and incinerated. (that way nobody could say that we hadn't kept that Dec 31st record for a full year by incinerating it on the 29th. )