Recently, during an ongoing effort in the Municipal Library to reorganize the collection, librarians turned up a set of records that attest to New York City’s long history of responsible and innovative records management. A binder collecting the 1957 minutes of the Coordinating Committee for the Records Management Program of the City of New York shows how the work we do today at DORIS is remarkably similar to the efforts of the past—both in its challenges and its success.
Coordinating Committee for the Records Management Program of the City of New York, Minutes, 1957. NYC Municipal Library.
Records management is the practice of maintaining control of records throughout their lifecycle—ensuring that that records are accessible to the people who need to use them, as well as determining when it is appropriate to destroy the material or to permanently store it for historical preservation and public access. When researchers today examine their family history, examine photographs that document the evolution of a neighborhood, or review the correspondence of elected officials from the past to understand the policies of today, these materials are available because someone took care to ensure they were properly managed during their active life. Today, the Records Management division of DORIS oversees citywide records management policy and practices, training Records Management Officers at each agency to comply with city standards to ensure the records born today (many of which are digital) remain available for future researchers.
Coordinating Committee for the Records Management Program of the City of New York, Minutes, 1957, page 1. NYC Municipal Library.
The committee records we discovered begin on October 23, 1957. At that time, NYC Records Management history followed on the foundational efforts of Rebecca Rankin, who served as Director of the Municipal Library from 1920–1952. Rankin championed the development of the Municipal Archives and Records Center, as well as the creation of a records management manual and records manager training course. The 1957 Committee was chaired by James Katsaros, then Director of the Municipal Archives, who had worked under Rankin for many years. And as the records clearly show, Katsaros carried on her legacy of high standards for records management training and citywide coordination.
Mayor Vincent Impellitteri presents Chief Librarian Rebecca Rankin with the scroll of merit upon her retirement, City Hall, June 25, 1952. Official Mayor Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The minutes convey that a main concern of the committee was what information to share with records management officers at their regular citywide meetings:
“Mr. Brady thought that we should ask specific questions from the Records Officers, as for instance, when was the last time an agency disposed records; has a records inventory been prepared as yet by the agency,… The Chairman brought up to date the procedure of disposal of obsolete and useless records as contained in the manual, and had copies prepared for distribution to all the Records Officers. Copies of the Corporation Council’s opinion on the disposal of duplicate copies of records were made for distribution to the Records Officers.”
When reading through these minutes, it is striking how extremely similar the practices and concerns of the Committee are to DORIS Records Management today. We hold regular quarterly meetings for records officers and share updated information on the exact same topics of disposal, records scheduling, and how to handle duplicates or obsolete records. Even though our records may now be emails and CAD files instead of typed memoranda or hand drawn plans, the work of safeguarding city records remains the same.
Mayor Vincent Impellitteri bestows merit awards to City agency Record Officers, City Hall, June 24, 1952. Official Mayor Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The minutes even reveal a similarity in remote attendance, a common occurrence with today’s virtual meetings on Teams and Zoom. At the start of the October 23, 1957 meeting, a committee member telephones in that he is ill. The committee assured him “we would take care of his suggestions and he was kept informed of the progress of the committee’s work by phone during and after the meeting.” It may not be the real-time video call of today, but this instance attests to the dedication and ingenuity of this committee to get the work done even when a member of the group is not physically present, something city employees experienced en-masse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coordinating Committee for the Records Management Program of the City of New York, Minutes, 1957. NYC Municipal Library.
The 1957 binder of the Coordinating Committee for the Records Management Program also demonstrates the extent of their coordination efforts. In addition to general meetings for records managers, they also convened record officer sub-committees focused on specific government functions such as Court and Arrest Records, Education and Cultural Records, Engineering Records, General Government Records, Health and Social Services Records and Property Records. The committee also collaborated with the Office of Civil Defense to identify and secure the City’s vital records and was especially motivated to do so because the Civil Defense was providing funding for this effort.
DORIS Records Management is proud to carry on the legacy that began with Rebecca Rankin—meeting the complex and fascinating challenge of managing the records of New York City government. It is clear there is a direct throughline from the efforts of the past to our work today. We hope to discover more documents like these 1957 committee minutes and trace the history of NYC Records Management in more detail.
