Electronic Public Records Retention

Contents

• Requirements for Electronic Public Records Retention
• Retention Methods for Electronic Public Records
• Electronic Record Policies
• Related MRSC Pages
  • Internet Usage & E-Mail Policies
  • Public Records Disclosure

Requirements for Electronic Public Records Retention

• Metadata - O'Neill v. City of Shoreline, Wn. 2d (2010) [Public records] Is the metadata (data about electronic data) subject to disclosure? On appeal, the Supreme Court has determined that such data is subject to disclosure. The court, in a divided opinion (5 to 4), concluded that an electronic version of a record, including its embedded metadata, is a public record subject to disclosure subject to disclosure. The court also determined that the city should inspect a councilmember's hard drive for the metadata to determine whether it had provided the requested information when it had provided a paper copy as well as other information associated with the the inquirer's request. The case was returned to the trial court to determine whether the city had violated the state's public records disclosure requirements.
• Permanent Rules for Preservation of Electronic Public Records, Washington State Register, Office of the Code Reviser, 10/2008
  • Ch. 434-662 WAC () - Preservation of Electronic Records
  • Explanation of Edits to WAC 434-662 ()
• Washington State Archives Records Retention Cost-Benefit Analysis for 434-662 WAC ()
• Public Records Act for Washington Cities and Counties (), Report No. 61 Revised, 11/2009 - See section on Electronic Data and Records ()

Retention Methods for Electronic Public Records Retention

• Records Management Recent Power Point Presentations, Washington State Archives
  • How to Manage Emails () - How to capture, maintain, disposition and archive emails
  • How to Manage Websites, Social Media and Web 2.0 () - How to capture, maintain, disposition and archive websites and other media.
• Transferring Records to State Archives
  • Transferring Your Archival Electronic Records to the Digital Archives
  • How to Transfer your Emails to the Washington State Archives
  • Web Spidering Guidelines - Capturing State and Local Government Agencies' Websites
• Presentation - Electronic Records Management 101 (), Kyle Stannert, Public Records Manager, City of Bellevue, Local Government Webmasters Meeting, 09/2010
• Presentation - Toolkit for the Future, () Electronic Records Preservation - Washington State Archives, 07/31/2008
• Presentation - Washington State Archives partners with Association of County and City Information Systems (), 07/31/2008
• Presentation - Managing Your Electronic Communications(), Joe Levan, MRSC Legal Consultant, Public Hospital District Commissioner Refresher, 10/12/2010
• Presentation - Managing Electronic Communications and Records(), Joe Levan, MRSC Legal Consultant and Pat Mason, MRSC Senior Legal Consultant, AWPHD Membership Meeting, 06/28/2010
• Presentation - Social Media and the Public Records Act (), presentation by Joe Levan, MRSC Legal Consultant, WAPA Spring 2011 Conference, 04/21/2011
• Facebook Fan Page Archiver Script - This free PowerShell script was created as a way to retain a record of all posts and comments published to a Facebook fan page wall. City of Bellingham

Policies for Electronic Public Records Retention

• Bremerton Electronic Records Retention Policy (), 2006
• Seattle
  • Retaining Records in Electronic Format (), 2007
  • Disposing of Electronic Records (), 2009
• Shoreline Email Management and Retention Policy(), 2009
• Vancouver Electronic Records Retention Policy (), 2002