Northern Illinois University
Facilities Management and Campus Services
Division of Administration and Finance

The business records archives, located in the Dorland Building, is administered by the Central Stores section of the Materials Management Department. The Archives is designed for storage of official business records for departments in the Division of Administration and Finance. These records are archived for future reference until an assigned destroy date is reached.

Requirements

In order to archive records in the Business Records Archives at Central Stores, they must be packed in new archives boxes (available through the Office Depot), and approved for this purpose. Other requirements include:

• The requesting department must be a part of the Division of Administration and Finance.
• There must be a demonstrable need to retain the documents for business purposes.
• A specific retention period must be established with an assigned destroy date.
• The documents must be uniformly packed in approved cartons designed for records storage.
• The records are historical in nature and need not be accessed on a regular basis.

Packaging Documents For Storage

Only new boxes may be used. Boxes must be 24" x 12" x 10". Boxes may be purchased through the Office Depot Business portal.

Labeling Cartons

The approved storage cartons have a printed label area on one end that must be completed with the requested information before the carton can be accepted into the Business Records Archives. Print information neatly on the label; boxes with writing that cannot be easily read and interpreted will be returned for re-labeling. Requested information may include:

• Complete department name. No abbreviations are allowed.
• Contents description. This includes starting and ending dates, letters or names.
• Destroy date. This is the month and year documents may be destroyed according to State Retention guidelines.
• Box numbers. Boxes must be sequentially numbered by the department, using a logical tracking system, to facilitate later identification. Use only numbers, and do not repeat box numbers unless the number is preceded by a fiscal period designation (such as 09 to designate the fiscal period 2009).
• From. The beginning date of records or first document identification number.
• Thru. The ending date of records or last document identification number.

Moving Document Storage Cartons

When boxes are packed and labeled, call Central Stores at 815-753-6280 and request that cartons be picked up. Materials Management personnel will pick up boxes and take them to the Dorland Building for storage. Boxes that are not packaged and labeled as specified above will not be picked up.

Accessing Stored Records

Documents stored in the Business Records Archives may be accessed only by designated representatives of the department for whom the records are stored. University identification may be requested on-site, or pre-approval requested by email. Access is available during regular business hours, Monday through Friday.

Please email CentralStoresOrders@niu.edu or call Central Stores 815-753-6274 a minimum of two business days in advance, so desired boxes can be located and made available.

Individual documents may be removed from the Archives only after signing for specific document removal in the Central Stores main office. Archived boxes will not be delivered back to a department once they are placed in the storage facility.

Archive Destruction

The Ethics and Compliance Office website has information for records disposal and the State of Illinois Records Disposal Certificate request form. If you need to see what is inside of an archive box in order to complete the request to the state, please contact Central Stores at 815-753-6274 to arrange to view the contents of a box. Please allow us  two business days to retrieve any archive boxes you need to see.

If you have any archive boxes that are marked "do not destroy"” (DND), please check the records retention schedule to make sure the records need to be maintained permanently. If you find that you have records marked DND that can be destroyed, please put the correct destruction date on these boxes in order to free storage space. See the Records Retention and Administration Guidelines.

Once the State has approved your request, please submit a copy of the approval to Central Stores Manager, Keenon Darlinger, at keenon@niu.edu. Once he has received a copy of the approval to dispose of records properly we will arrange for the documents to be shredded by a secure shredding company. If you have any questions, please contact Central Stores at 815-753-4567.