Records Storage Program
How Does It Work?
Our vault holds your unit’s documents, but they remain the property of your unit. Any action taken on records in UBC Okanagan Library Records Storage will happen only with your department head’s approval.
To minimize risk, we deal with sealed boxes only. We will help you identify and describe your records, but the final decisions are yours.
Working with Central Mail and Receiving, we facilitate secure transportation of your records to our storage vault.
Please be advised that box transfers will be scheduled considering the joint capacity of the sending unit, UBC Okanagan Records Management personnel, and the CRM team. It can be difficult to guarantee wait times between initiating and completing a transfer request. Under normal circumstances, we strive to complete small requests (eight boxes or fewer) within one business week (5 business days). For larger and/or off-cycle requests, it is our standard to complete transfers within two weeks.
Your Role
- Email Graeme Clarke, Library Services Assistant—Records, to create or update an account with the Records Storage Program in advance of starting a storage request.
- Know what you have an be ready to record details about the records you want to put in storage.
- Ensure your records are properly boxed and labelled.
- Submit your itemized list using the Request for Records Storage webform.
- Be present at the time of pick-up to guarantee the security of the records.
Accessing your Records
- To access your records while they are in storage, please complete the Records Retrieval webform.
- Once you are ready to return the boxes you have withdrawn, complete the Records Return webform.
Frequently Asked Questions
We don’t open boxes, but we can retrieve any of your boxes and deliver them back to you for whatever purpose you may need. We aim to facilitate non-emergency retrievals within one week under normal circumstances. For emergency retrievals, please contact us.
All boxes must be assigned a retention period by the unit (the Records Manager is available to help determine this, if you’re unsure). At the end of the retention period, the most common resolution is secure destruction of your records, which we witness and document. In advance of destruction, you will receive notice and a request to approve destruction.
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