There is often confusion between the State Records Center and the UW Archives.  The SRC offers offsite storage for records that have not yet met their retention according to their record schedule.  At the end of that time, the record schedule dictates whether those records are destroyed or transferred to the UW Archives for permanent retention and the SRC helps to facilitate that process. 

Records transferred to the UW Archives have been determined to have some public research or historical value to telling the story of the University.  These records are most often transferred here at the end of the records lifecycle or are donated by individuals. The UW Archives does not provide storage for departmental records that have not reached the end of their disposition period according to records schedules. More information about the types of items held by the UW Archives can be found on our website.

The UW Records Management staff helps departments establish their relationship with the State Records Center, manages the Authorized Users lists for units using the SRC’s services, answers questions about SRC processes and inventory management and manages the biannual disposition for university records at the SRC.

State Records Center (SRC): While departments can choose an offsite storage provider of their choice, the SRC provides an economical, safe, environmentally-sound, and secure records management option for university departments needing to store their inactive records offsite. Records sent to the SRC must be assigned to an active record schedule, and not have reached the end of its retention period according to that schedule. For additional information on how to use the State Records Center for offsite storage, please see the Using the State Records Center for Offsite Storage page.

Outside Vendors: The State Records Center will be the best option for most departments. However, if you require additional services not offered by the SRC, are moving out from under the UW-Madison agency, or have an office outside of the Madison area, contracting with an outside vendor may be necessary. Outside vendors must be carefully evaluated before using to ensure that units are able to manage their records throughout their lifecycle and appropriately destruct or transfer them to the UW Archives at the end of that time period. Additional information about working with outside vendors can be found on our website.

It is not recommended for departments to store records in other buildings or storage areas associated with the University but not under their direct control. It is fairly common for these records to become “orphaned” and lost when stored in locations that are not actively managed or documented and makes it difficult to fulfill our required public records responsibilities.

For additional information on how to use the State Records Center for offsite storage, please see the Using the State Records Center for Offsite Storage page.

Two times a year (June and November), the State Records Center (SRC) conducts a disposal process for records that have met their retention per the records schedules assigned to the inventory. During these periods, the University Records Officer receives a list from the SRC of all UW-Madison records that have met their retention.

The University Records Officer sends the destruct/transfer lists to Authorized Users (AU) for each UDDS on the report. The AU works with the appropriate content owner(s) in their area for review and a sign-off to release the boxes for destruction or transfer to the UW Archives. In the cases where there is litigation, audit or open records requests on the listed items, the records destruction/transfer process will be suspended another cycle.

Items that are released for destruction are confidentially destructed through a process managed by the SRC.

Standard Shredding Services: While some areas of the university contract with outside destruct services like Pellitteri Waste Systems, the State Record Center (SRC) provides cost-effective confidential paper and media destruction services for records stored onsite that have met their retention period according to schedule. While it is not required that you are an Authorized User to use these services, it is highly recommended if you are sending in a large number of boxes to be destroyed or plan on using this service repeatedly. For information about how to become an Authorized User, please see the Using the State Records Center for Offsite Storage page.

The SRC will pick up boxes for shredding for a fee, but departments can avoid the pickup cost by delivering the boxes to their location at 4622 University Ave. in Madison at their loading dock. Please call their order desk (608-266-2995) ahead of time and tell them what date, approximate time, and how many boxes you will be bringing.

Information about these SRC services can be found on the fact sheets here:

• Paper Records: Options for Destruction of Paper Records
• Non-Paper Records: Options for Destruction of Non-Paper Media

While you don’t need to worry about items stored out at the SRC that end up being destructed, for paper records you pack in your office that have reached the end of their lifecycle and are ready to destruct, remove clips/fasteners larger than a staple or paper clip and remove from binders. For records on media, remove from cases to the greatest extent possible.