Records Analysis Services FAQs

To designate a Records Officer (RO), please fill out the RM-25 form. This form can be mailed or emailed to your assigned records analyst. Just be sure to obtain either handwritten or Docusign signatures.

Yes! We recommend having two Records Officers just in case the primary Records Officer goes on long-term leave.

A Records Technician (RT) is a designation exclusive to State Records Center (SRC) clients. This person helps the Records Officer (RO) in managing SRC box transfers and ShelfLife management. This person cannot authorize the destruction of records. This designation is not required for completing the RM-3 form.

Previously, this designation was called a Records Coordinator. The name changed as of January 1, 2025.

To designate a Records Technician, please fill out the RM-26 form. This form can be mailed or emailed to your assigned Records Analyst. Just be sure to obtain either handwritten or Docusign signatures.

Records Coordinators (RC) are now called Records Technicians (RT) and have their own form to be designated (RM-26). We did this to cut down on confusion and to declutter the RM-25.

A retention schedule is a document with guidelines for the retention and disposition of public records. These guidelines are in compliance with state and federal laws and regulations. 

In general, state and local governments approach the Library for updates to retention schedules. In cases where the General Assembly has enacted legislation that affects the retention schedules, we will update them accordingly to maintain legal compliance.

Schedules are updated quarterly by the Records Oversight Committee (ROC).

Due to system limitations, the retention schedules are only available in PDF format. We can provide an Excel spreadsheet of our schedules, but cannot at this time provide anything more intensive or specialized than that.

We strongly discourage printing the schedules. The PDF links are live and the schedules are living documents. If you are printing schedules and not checking the live links regularly, you might miss an important update. We recommend only printing the schedules if you are spending a day or two in your records room away from your computer and need to reference the schedules on the move.

To find your Library of Virginia records analyst, please check out our Contacts page.

If you are experiencing a records management emergency during business hours, please call (804) 692-3600 to be directed to an analyst.

The Virginia Public Records Act (VPRA) grants us the authority of creating and maintaining retention schedules. The VPRA does not include any enforcement clauses. We are not an enforcement agency and cannot punish offices that are non-compliant with the VPRA. Our records analysts are here to help government employees manage their records.

No. We can't answer questions about FOIA. We recommend you send your FOIA questions to the FOIA Council.

We offer both self-led and live trainings. Our self-led offerings include our YouTube videos and our written materials. Our live offerings include in-person training for groups of 25 or more, as well as online training for smaller groups or those with a digital preference.

For more information, please visit our Education & Training page or contact your records analyst.

Unfortunately, there is no way to recover or re-send a form with an incorrect email address.

First, check to ensure your email was correctly entered by the Form Creator.

Then, check your spam and junk folders.

Finally, reach out to your IT staff. Some offices accidentally block the eRM-3 form. They will need the following information:
* subject line ("Approving review needed for RM3 #XXXXX") 
* date sent (YYYYY) 
* email sent from (rm3@lva.virginia.gov) 

If this is not the case, please contact your records analyst for further troubleshooting.

The form will automatically remove itself after 75 days of inaction. Due to our security protocols, there's no way to manually remove a form.

You can track your form’s progress using the In-Progress Dashboard. A fully filled circle means the step has been completed. An outlined circle means the form is waiting for approval. A blank circle means the step has not been reached yet.

You can find those on the Completed Form Search dashboard.

If the RM-3 was completed pre-2021, it was done on paper and will not appear on the Completed Form Search. 25 years' worth of those forms are still available for viewing, but must be requested.

If it was completed 2021-present, it is typical that the form:

1.) Is incomplete and still visible on the In-Progress Dashboard.
2.) Was incomplete for 75 days and was auto-removed from the system.

For further questions, follow up with your assigned analyst.

We will only accept paper RM-3s which were completed in 2021 or before. We will not accept any paper RM-3s completed after 2021.

Please reach out to your assigned analyst for help. We will need to know the date range and the types of records (preferably the specific records series) you are searching for.