Records managers and municipal clerks hear it all the time: "Stop keeping transitory records." And yet — on every on-site disposition project, transitory records make up at least 60% of what's in the room. So what's actually going wrong? The problem isn't creation. It's retainage. And the solution isn't telling staff to stop — it's training them to recognize transitory records the moment they're created, label them correctly, and let them go before they become someone else's

What happens when the way we organize government records isn't the way people actually look for them? Where do you file a deed? Sounds like a pretty straightforward question, right? Well, welcome to the wonderful world of records management, where even the simplest questions have a way of turning into a full-blown philosophical debate about filing systems, retention schedules, and public access. Recently, I was working with a municipal client when this exact question came up.