Records Disposition Methods: Destroy, Transfer, Preserve

Disposition is the final, documented action taken on records at the end of their retention period. It comes in three forms — and choosing the right one (and doing it defensibly) is the payoff of the whole retention schedule.

1. Destruction

The most common outcome. Records that have met their retention period and have no enduring value are destroyed. Done well, destruction is:

• Authorized — covered by an approved schedule / disposition authority.
• Appropriate to the medium and sensitivity — recycling for non-sensitive paper; cross-cut shredding, pulping, or incineration for sensitive paper; secure deletion or media sanitization for electronic records and devices.
• Documented — often with a certificate or log of destruction.
• Suspended by any litigation hold in effect.

2. Transfer

Records may be transferred to another custodian. Two common forms:

• Transfer to an archives — permanently valuable records move to an archival institution (such as the National Archives) for ongoing preservation. This is a disposition action paired with accession by the receiving archives.
• Transfer to storage — inactive records move to a records center or off-site facility for cost-effective keeping during the rest of their retention period.

3. Permanent preservation

A small fraction of records are appraised as permanent — preserved indefinitely for their enduring legal, evidential, or historical value. In government these are transferred to NARA; for digital permanent records, ongoing digital preservation keeps them usable over time.

Making it defensible

Whatever the method, disposition should be defensible: routine, consistent, under documented authority, with holds reliably enforced and the action documented. That’s what lets an organization confidently reduce what it holds while being able to prove every disposition was proper. See defensible disposition for the full discipline.