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- Archival Film Flashes Back to 70s Student Life
- Manuscript Traces SFU's Architectural History
- Early University News Publications Now Digitally Available
- Digitized Programs Commemorate SFU’s Opening & Installation Ceremonies
- Archives Celebrates Fall Convocation with Release of Digitized Programs
- Films Capture Visual History and Sentiment of Time Gone By
- Lost and Found: Simon Fraser Letters
- Oral History Provides Glimpse into Mind of SFU’s First Chancellor Gordon Shrum
- Early SFU Photos Tell a Story That Frames Our World
- Aerial Photos Capture Campus Landscape & Photographer’s Legacy
- You have what...?!! and other interesting things you didn't know about the SFU Archives
- Charting the course of history: documenting SFU's early days from the student perspective (Part 1)
- Charting the course of history: documenting SFU's early days from the student perspective (Part 2)
- Helping others find their history in the future: Preserving the records of the Students of Caribbean and African Ancestry at SFU
- Preserving the sparks of global revolution in the Adbusters Media Foundation fonds
- Reflections of a co-op student
- Debunking popular myths and conspiracies with the Barry Beyerstein fonds
- In "The Beginning...": First student film returns to SFU
- "Got any pictures of Terry Fox?"
- My summer in the archives: a co-op placement retrospective
- Seeing the world through Arthur Erickson's eyes
- Beer (records) in the Archives!
- Quartet in the Quadrangle: PSQ Records Come to SFU
- Navigating silences and filling gaps: finding Black stories in the Archives
- Boxes, boxes, and more boxes: my summer co-op at SFU Archives
- Glossary
Identify Applicable RRSDA
SFU Records Management prepares Records Retention Schedules and Disposal Authorities (RRSDAs or ‘retention schedules’ for short) to assist University Departments with organizing and disposing of their records. There are about 200 RRSDAs for different types of University records. RRSDAs have several parts, and it might take some practice to learn how to read and apply them.
The first thing you need to do is to determine which RRSDA, or retention schedule, applies to your records. Once you have located the correct RRSDA, you need to verify who is the Office of Primary Responsiblity (OPR) or if that RRSDA is one that applies to any department in the university.
Read through the Description, purpose and use of records section of the RRSDA. If the description is a good match for your records, this will be the retention schedule to use.
Locating the RRSDA that applies to your records:
You can browse through the RRSDAs based on the function, department, title or number. They are organized in these different categories to assist with locating the correct RRSDA, and all RRSDAs are listed in the different browse indexes.
If you are unsure about where to find the correct RRSDA, you might begin by looking at the function of your records (e.g. research, human resources, teaching, student records, etc). Or search by department to see if you have any RRSDAs that apply specifically to your area. You can also scan through the titles and find ones that might fit your records.
Reading a retention schedule:
An RRSDA consists of different parts and it can take practice to learn how to read one. Hover over each section of each section of the interactive document below to access information about how to read an RRSDA.
What is an "OPR"?
OPR stands for "Office of Primary Responsibility" and is indicated at the top of an RRSDA in the Basic Information section. In some cases, the OPR will be All Departments. In other cases, only one department is the OPR for that type of record at SFU.
Accessible alternatives are also provided:
The RRSDAs, along with the Personal Information Directories and the Model Classification Plan, make up the Directory of University Records. This directory is the primary guide for records and record keeping systems at SFU. See the Directory of University Records for more information.
Frequently used RRSDAs
Departments can be quite different across campus, producing different kinds of university records. However, for a place to start, take a look at these RRSDAs that tend to apply to a large number of departments:
If you cannot find a good match for your records, you may need to request records retention scheduling for your department.
If you do not find an RRSDA that is a close match for your records, please contact the Records Management Archivist about requesting records retention scheduling services. You cannot transfer records to the Records Centre without an applicable RRSDA