IARA County/Local Records Management - Originals, Copies, Duplicates, Oh My!

Hello County/Local Agencies,

Several county/local agencies have asked me questions similar to this:

"I've sent my agency's original to this other county agency to keep permanently, so now I have a copy in my office; do I have to keep it?"

Let's deconstruct this idea of what a copy is by discussing what a public record is.

A public record is any piece of recorded information that is created or received by your office and documents the activities of your office no matter what medium it's recorded on or format it's recorded in.

So even if you send a public record to another agency, you are responsible for retaining your agency's copy of the public record according to the applicable retention schedule or PR-1, because you created it.

Now, if you have more than one of the same public record within your agency, then you do have a copy (or more than one). One version is your Copy of Record, and all other versions in your office are duplicates - copies - which are considered non-records and may be destroyed whenever, no permission from IARA.

Which one is the Copy of Record? That's up to you! The Copy of Record is whichever version of the information your office currently uses to fulfill the legal retention requirements for that type of information. As long as the information is an authentic duplicate of the original, and the format/medium meet IARA standards, then any version of the information can be the Copy of Record.

The Copy of Record does not need to be the original. It doesn't even need to remain the same copy over the lifetime of the record: if you duplicate the original paper record in microfilm format, you might decide that the microfilm is now the Copy of Record and destroy the paper originals.

So if your agency sends a public record you created to another county agency,

it then becomes a record in their agency, but it's still a record in yours too.

This isn't a case of copies; it's a case of 2 records: yours and the other agency's.

Each agency must retain that record according to its office-specific or the GEN retention schedules. 

All of this information regarding public records, duplicates, and Copy of Record can be found in an IARA publication, the County/Local Records Custodian Handbook!

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Hello April, please don't fool us!

AMY CHRISTIANSEN

Records Management Liaison

Indiana Archives and Records Administration

o: 812-929-3882

e: achristiansen@iara.in.gov

w: www.in.gov/iara

a: 402 W Washington St, Room W472, Indianapolis, IN 46204

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