The business records archives, located in the Dorland Building, are managed by the Central Stores section of the Materials Management department. The archives are 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.
To archive records in the Business Records Archives at Central Stores, they must be packed in new archives boxes and approved for this purpose. Other requirements include:
Only new boxes may be used. Boxes must be 24" x 12" x 10". Boxes may be purchased through the Office Depot business portal.
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:
No abbreviations are allowed.
This includes starting and ending dates, letters or names.
This is the month and year documents may be destroyed according to State Retention guidelines.“Do not destroy” or “DND” is not an acceptable destroy date. Please follow the Records Retention Schedules to determine the appropriate destroy date for your archives.
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).
The records retention schedule has a list of application numbers. This number is imperative to have on the box so that when it is time to destroy the records, it is clear what type of record is in the box. Please see the Records Retention Schedules for more information.
When boxes are packed and labeled, call Central Stores at 815-753-1437 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 to free storage space. See the Records Management Guidelines.
Once the state has approved your request, please submit a copy of the approval to the Central Stores Manager. Once they have received a copy of the approval to dispose of records we will arrange for the documents to be shredded by a secure shredding company. A cost center to bill the shredding charges is required. If you have any questions, please contact Central Stores at 815-753-6274.