Records Retention and Disposition Schedule - 12-15-2015

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To assist local government agencies,the Division of Historical Resources has published guidelines for establishing methods and procedures in the duplication of original records. Copies of Micrographics:Technical and Legal Procedures and the North Carolina Guidelines for Managing Public Records Produced by Information Technology Systems can be obtained from our Web site. 3. DESTRUCTION OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS. Careful attention must be paid to the destruction of electronic records. When computers are disposed of hard drives must be carefully and thoroughly erased or destroyed. Tapes,disks,and other recording media should be physically destroyed. Simple erasure or destruction of a disk's index file is insufficient to destroy the actual data recorded on the disk. High-capacity storage media,such as CD-ROMs or optical media,may contain records of differing retention requirements. It is important that those records that must be retained for longer periods continue to be accessible. There are two options: a) Recopy the longer-retention records onto a separate tape or disk and destroy the original. b) Retain the entire tape or disk as long as required for the longest-term record. 4. METHODS OF DESTRUCTION. Local government records provide documentation of the actions and processes of government at its most direct level. These records should remain in the custody and control of the agency that created them or received them pursuant to law until such time as they are eligible for disposition. When authorized by an approved records retention and disposition schedule,records should be destroyed in one of the following ways: a) burned,unless prohibited by local ordinance. b) shredded,or torn up so as to destroy the record content of the documents or material concerned c) placed in acid vats so as to reduce the paper to pulp and to terminate the existence of the documents or materials concerned d) buried under such conditions that the record nature of the documents or materials will be terminated e) sold as waste paper,provided that the purchaser agrees in writing that the documents or materials concerned will not be resold as documents or records —N.C.Administrative Code,Tide 7,Chapter 4,Subchapter M,Section.0510 Confidential records should be destroyed in a secure manner. 5. DISPOSITION OF RECORDS NOT AUTHORIZED FOR DESTRUCTION BY THIS SCHEDULE. Custodians with records not authorized for destruction or other disposition by this schedule may discard these records by following one of the procedures listed below: a) Submit correspondence using the form"Request and Approval of Unscheduled Records Disposal" (see page 46)to the Government Records Branch. b) Custodians with records no longer in current use that are identified as permanent and not authorized for destruction by this schedule,or with paper records that have been microfilmed,are authorized and empowered to turn over such records to the Department of Cultural Resources. The Department of Cultural Resources is authorized,at its discretion,to accept custody of those records,providing it has adequate space and staff in the State Archives. A written offer of the records should be made to the Assistant State Records Administrator,Government Records Branch,4615 Mail Service Center, Raleigh,North Carolina 27699-4615. vi