This request is a collaboration with Marc DaCosta.
Our FOIA request 📄 to the Department of Labor (DOL) seeks all department “file plans” and “electronic information system listings,” as well as the copies of those types of records already centralized in a particular internal Sharepoint site.
Per the National Archives, “A file plan describes the records held in a single office, department, or file station (paper or electronic).” Specifically:
It combines information from the records inventory and the records schedule to create a simple tool the office uses to organize, retrieve, and maintain its records. File plans can be used to manage records in all formats, including electronic records. A file plan lists each series held by the unit, including its series title, description, and official retention and disposition as specified in the organization’s records schedule. Most file plans also include information about how the records are to be organized (e.g., file by project number) and where the records are to be stored. A file plan can also include other helpful information by identifying records with special storage requirements for security or privacy and by noting which records are backed up off-site as essential records. File plans make it easy for employees to determine where, how, and for how long they should store the types of records specific to their organization.
“Electronic information system listing,” meanwhile, appears to be the agency terminology for the “inventory of major information systems” that 44 U.S. Code § 3505(c) requires “[t]he head of each agency [to] develop and maintain[.]”