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8. Details of Individual Metadata Elements

8.19 Disposition Action

Attributes

Comments and Guidance

a) Explanation of Definition/Usage

Disposition Action is used to identify what should happen to the record or file once it has reached the end of its retention period and has met all of the institution's operational, administrative, and legal requirements (a record may have to be kept longer than its initial retention period because of a change in the business need, a legal requirement, i.e. a court case, or a pending ATIP request).

Library and Archives Canada is currently registering an encoding scheme for this element. The values that will be recommended are:

• "Transfer" - Transfer of care and control to Library and Archives Canada or to another Government of Canada institution.
  
  
• "Destroy" - The definitive obliteration of a record or file beyond any possible reconstitution.
  
  
• "Alienation" - Removal from the care and control of the Government of Canada.
  
  
• "To Be Determined" - If there is no approved records disposition authority (RDA) for the record or file, or if the retention schedule is under development, the default value "To Be Determined" shall be applied to this element. Records that are not covered by a records disposition authority or are not scheduled must be retained.

b) Best Practices

Disposition actions will normally be transfer, destroy, or alienation.

The following may be consulted for guidance:

• Retention Guidelines for Common Administrative Records of the Government of Canada;
  
  
• Multi-Institutional Disposition Authorities (MIDAs) issued by Library and Archives Canada; and,
  
  
• Institution-Specific Disposition Authorities (ISDAs).

If there is no approved RDA for the record or file, or if the RDA is under development, the default value 'To Be Determined' shall be applied to this element. Records that are not covered by a records disposition authority or are not scheduled must be retained.

This element is generally applied at the file level, with the records in the file inheriting the value. It can, however, be applied at the record level. It must be applied to at least the file or record level and may be applied at both. Some records within a file may have a Disposition Action different than that of the file itself. Further, some institutions base their retention and disposition processing at the record level rather than the file level.

The value for this element may be modified by an authorized official only to accommodate for special circumstances. For example, a particular Disposition Action is determined for all budgetary files; however, an institution receives an ATIP request about their finances. The ATIP co-ordinator must have the authority to suspend the Disposition Action until the request has been dealt with.

c) Obligation

This element is mandatory in order to determine what should happen to the record or file once it has completed its retention period.

d) Default Values/Auto-populate

Disposition Action should be auto-populated through the classification scheme / file plan.

If there is no approved RDA for the record or file, or if the RDA is under development, the default value 'To Be Determined' shall be applied to this element.

e) Linkages

This element is dependent upon a value for Disposition Authority and Office of Primary Interest since both of those elements provide the authority and sign-off to undertake the final action on the record or file. It is also linked to Retention Period since a Disposition Action can only be undertaken once the record or file has satisfied the length of time of its retention.

Disposition Action is also linked to the element Event Type in cases where a change to the disposition action of the record or file must be noted in the management and event history log.

f) Examples

1. "To Be Determined"
   
   
2. "Transfer"
   
   
3. "Destroy"
   
   
4. "Alienation"

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