It is sometimes said by records managers that one of the drawbacks of SharePoint 2010 (and SharePoint 2013) is that it doesn’t manage physical records, or at least not very well.
This article describes how to manage physical records in SharePoint 2010/2013 using a list that includes barcodes.
Up front and out of the box, the main limitations are the ability to: (a) print labels for paper files and boxes (including labels with barcodes) (b) attach a portable scanner to scan barcodes and (c) maintain a chronological history of file movements. These limitations may not be a problem for many organisations seeking a low-cost way to manage mostly inactive files and boxes, especially if they currently use an Access database or Excel spreadsheet to do this now.
Options to address each of these limitations are discussed in this article.
Metadata options
There are almost no limitations on the type of metadata you can use to describe physical records. I would suggest having the following metadata:
- Title (e.g., name on the file or box)
- Record Type (drop down list – file, box, etc)
- Reference ID (manually entered unless you use the default ‘ID’ option, possibly with a separate ‘year’ column)
- Date created (date first registered, default system date)
- Start date (start of date range)
- End date (end of date range)
- Business Owner
- Current location (can be a custom list of pre-defined locations)
- Date at current location
- Record status (drop down list: active, inactive, missing, destroyed etc)
- Internal barcode (if one exists)
- External barcode (usually the one provided by a storage provider)
- Records description (description of contents, usually of a box)
- Box number
- Box barcode (may be the same as the Internal or External Barcode)
- Retention schedule (can be from a pre-defined list)
- Disposal action (can be from a pre-defined list)
- Date to be destroyed (manually entered based on retention schedule and disposal action)
- Destroyed? (checkbox)
- Date destroyed (manually entered date)
- Legal hold? (checkbox)
If physical files are registered in the system, then only details of the box and disposal action would need to be entered. When the box is ready to be sent offsite, details from the offsite storage provider’s label (often provided in advance) can be entered in the external barcode and other metadata (including current location) updated.
An optional barcode can be obtained by checking ‘Barcode’ in the Information Management Policy settings for the list item. Once checked, the barcode appears when the item is displayed in view but not when it is edited or exported.
Printing labels
All list metadata (except the barcode) can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet, which can then be used to print labels. Microsoft provide details how to create and print labels for a list in Excel here:
Scanning
Using a portable (or attached) scanner to scan barcodes and update your records register, especially with a new location (or during a physical records audit) saves a great deal of time instead of entering details manually. It is possible to scan directly to an Excel spreadsheet however several steps may be required to match or validate the barcode with the details in the SharePoint list.
For example, if series of files are being scanned to a box (or location), the usual practice is to scan the box (or location) barcode first, then scan each individual file. If scanning directly to an Excel spreadsheet, you would do it the other way around – have the list of existing files in the spreadsheet, then scan the box or location barcode to the cell next to the file number. This detail can then be copied and pasted back to the SharePoint list.
Chronological movement history
The only option to maintain a chronological movement history, out of the box, would be to add versioning to the list. This means that each time the item is edited, a new version is created, keeping the previous details. The movement history will not display in a single view in the list but clicking on ‘Version History’ will show any changes made in single view. Only ‘major’ version numbers are supported in lists (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4).
Records about the world 
We use that metadata but also include fields for the approval for destruction by business owner and CEO Delegate, person who conducted the destruction, relevant date fields, a provenance field where we capture the organisational responsibility history. In that way we can manage the archive boxes and inactive files through the whole process to destruction. We don’t manage the active paper files – only because we hadn’t thought to do so – but we might now.
Thanks Mary, as you know the options for metadata are almost unlimited.
Thank you for sharing this article. My experience is not enough, it’s refreshing to learn something about managing physical records in SharePoint 2010. Looking forward to learn more from you.
Best regards.