EPA Records Management Technical Leaflet #3
     A Practical
     Guide
     to  Personal
     Papers
   The Environmental Protection Agency is
required by statute to "make and preserve
records containing adequate and proper
documentation" of its activities (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 31). The documentation necessary
to do so constitutes our official records, and
staff should be aware of the Agency policies
concerning the management and disposition
of official records. Officials may also maintain
personal collections of papers that they have
accumulated while in office. Both the official
records and the personal collections of papers
are important: both may have historical
significance.  But it is sometimes difficult to
distinguish between the two.

   The National Archives and Records
Administration's (NARA) Personal Papers of
Executive Branch Officials, the most recent
installment in its continuing Management
Guide Series, can help determine which
documents must be incorporated into Agency
files and which materials may be considered
personal papers.
Personal Papers

   Officials of advisory and regulatory agencies
of the Federal Government create and maintain
official records during the course of their
Government service. By law official Federal
records are all documentary materials, regardless
of physical form, that:

    ... are made or received by an agency
    of the U.S. Government under Federal
    law or in connection with the transaction
    of public business, and

    ... are preserved or appropriate for
    preservation as evidence of agency
    activities or because of the value of
    the information that they contain
    (44 U.S.C. 3301).

   Once officials have fulfilled their responsibility
to adequately document the agency's
organization, functions and activities in the
records of the agency, questions may arise about
what work-related and other materials may be
considered personal papers. Most officials
accumulate and keep some personal papers at
the office. Certain materials are clearly personal,
and officials may clearly claim them as such.
In the more difficult cases you may wish to
consult the agency records officer, legal counsel,
or other designated official to help determine if
the materials in question are personal papers or
agency records.

   Some of the guidance expressed in the NARA
Management Guide is based upon court
decisions that define agency records under the
Freedom of Information Act  (FOIA). At this time
these decisions are the most pertinent guidance
available for determining which work-related
documents may constitute personal papers.
Future court decisions may produce different
results and revised guidance.
         This Technical Leaflet summarizes the information contained in the NARA Guide.
         For a copy of the Guide itself please contact Michael L Miller, Agency Records
         Officer, at (202) 260-5911.
National Records Management Program, Information Access Branch
Information Management and Services Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

                                                $& Printed on Recycled Paper
                              December 1992
                            EPA-220-F-92-019

-------
There Are Penalties
Statutory law prohibits the destruction or
removal from Government custody of any
Federal records without the approval of the
Archivist of the United States (44 U.S.C. 3303
and 44 U.S.C. 3314). 44 U.S.C. 3105 requires
the heads of Federal agencies to establish
safeguards against the removal or loss of
records. Criminal penalties are provided for the
unlawful loss, removal, or destruction of Federal
records (18 U.S.C. 2071). The heads of Federal
agencies are required to notify the Archivist of
any actual, impending or threatened unlawful
removal, alteration or destruction of records in
their custody. The Archivist will assist agency
heads in initiating action through the Attorney
General of the United States for the recovery of
records unlawfully removed.
What Are Personal Papers?
Personal papers are defined as documentary
materials, or any reasonably segregable portion
thereof, of a private or nonpublic character that
do not relate to, or have an effect upon, the
conduct of agency business (36 CFR
1222.20(d)). It should be noted that personal
papers may refer to or comment on the subject
matter of agency business, provided that they
are not used in the conduct of that business.
Many EPA employees do have personal
papers in their file cabinets or computers.
Traditionally, there are three generally accepted
classes of personal papers:
• Materials accumulated before entering
Government service that are not subsequently
used in the transaction of Government business,
e.g. previous work files, political materials and
reference files.
• Materials brought into, or created or
received while in office that relate solely to an
individual’s private affairs, e.g. outside business
pursuits, professional affiliations, volunteer and
Continued on page 4
How Does One Determine
What’s What?
In determining the status of a document as
an agency record or a work-related personal
paper, agency employees can use the following
questions as guidelines:
Creation
Q: Was the document created or received by
an agency employee on agency time, with
agency materials, at agency expense?
A: If not, then the document very likely is not
an agency record on that basis alone. If the
answer is yes, the document may or may not
be an agency record, depending upon other
considerations.
Content
Q: Does the document contain substantive
information about agency business? Does the
document contain personal as well as official
information?
A: If it does not contain official information, then
it very likely is not an agency record on that
basis alone. If it does, then additional factors
should be considered in determining whether
the document is an agency record.
Purpose
Q Was the document created solely for an
individual employee’s personal convenience?
A: if so, then it is very likely that it is not an
agency record.
Q: Was the document created to facilitate
agency business?
A: If so, it may be an agency record depending -
on its distribution and use by other agency
employees.
2

-------
Distribution Control
Q: Was the document distributed to anyone else Q: Has the agency attempted to exercise
for agency business or official purpose? ‘institutional control” over the document through
applicable maintenance or disposition
A: If it was distributed to other employees for an regulations? Did it do so by requiring the
official purpose, it may be an agency record. document to be created in the first place?
Use A: if so, the document is most likely an
agency record.
Q: To what extent did the document’s author
actually use the document to conduct agency S atlon
business? Did others use it?
Q: is there any practical way to segregate
A: Materials brought into the agency for reference personal information in the document from
use do not become agency records merely official business information?
because they relate to official matters or because
they influence the employee’s work. (On the other A: if so, the official portion of the document
hand, as influence becomes reliance or use by should be copied or extracted and placed in the
other officials, a document is more likely to be an agency files. •
agency record.)
Maintenance
Q: Was the document kept in the author’s
possession, or was it placed in the agency files? have questions regarding
A: If it was placed in an official agency file, the Interpretation of personal
it is likely to be an agency record. papers, please call:
Disposition Don Nantkes
Q: Was the document’s author free to dispose Agency Alternate Ethics Official
of it at his or her personal discretion? at (202) 260-5460, or
A: if so, it is unlikely to be an agency record. Michael Miller
However, if the authority to dispose of the Agency Records Officer
document is based on an agency disposition at (202)260-5911.
schedule, the document most likely is a record
despite the fact that the author had the authority
under this disposition schedule to destroy the
document. With agency permission, however,
officials may retain nonrecord copies of
documents as part of their personal papers.
3

-------
What Are ... from page 2
community service records or private political
associations that do not relate to agency
business.
• Diaries, journals, notes and personal
calendars and appointment schedules that are
not prepared or used for, or circulated and
communicated in the course of, transacting
Government business.
Care should be taken with all of the above
categories to file personal papers separately from
the records of the agency and to keep in mind
that some of these materials could later be
determined to be agency records, depending on
the circumstances surrounding their creation,
maintenance and use, and disposition. Labeling
materials as “personal,” “private,” or “confidential”
does not necessarily make them personal papers.
Documents marked with those or similar
designations are indeed Federal records and
not personal papers if they are used in the
transaction of agency business.
General Principles
Several general principles may be drawn with
regard to agency records/personal papers issues.
These issues include:
• Private materials not created within an
agency but brought into it by an employee for
reference purposes do not become agency
records by mere incidence of location.
• A document created within an agency
cannot be regarded as “personal” merely
because its author is free to dispose of it.
• Use alone is not conclusive. The only
consideration that may be conclusive is the
assertion of agency control over a document
through institutional requirements mandating its
creation or retention. +
For Additional Information:
A EPA Ethics Advisory 89-2, Disposition
of Federal Records and Persona! Papers,
January 18, 1989.
A NARA Bulletin 93-2, Proper Disposition
of Federal Records and Persona! Papers,
National Archives and Records
Administration, November 13, 1992.
A Personal Papers of Executive Branch
Officials: A Management Guide
[ Management Guide Series], Office of
Records Administration, National
Archives and Records Administration,
1992.
A What Makes Papers Persona!? [ flyer]
National Records Management Program,
Information Access Branch, Office of
Information Resources Management,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
August 1992. EPA 220-F-92-013.
This Fact Sheet was developed by
Michael Miller, Agency Records Officer,
arid Joseph Moeltner (contractor),
Information Access Branch,
Information Management and
National Records Management Program
4
December 1992

-------