§ 117 - Vermont state archives and records administration
§ 117. Vermont state archives and records administration
(a) As used in this chapter:
(1) "Records management" means the systematic identification and management of public records to assure their authenticity and accessibility from creation to ultimate disposition.
(2) "Archives" or "archival records" means public records which have continuing legal, administrative, or historic value.
(3) "Appraisal" means the identification, classification, and analysis of all public records, regardless of physical form or characteristics, to determine their value and ultimate disposition, based upon their:
(A) current administrative, legal, and fiscal use;
(B) evidential and informational content;
(C) arrangement and condition;
(D) intrinsic value; and
(E) relationship to other records.
(4) "Public record" or "public document" means all papers, documents, machine readable materials, or any other written or recorded matters, regardless of their physical form or characteristics, that are produced or acquired in the course of agency business. Individual salaries and benefits of and salary schedules relating to elected or appointed officials and employees of public agencies shall not be exempt from public inspection and copying.
(5) "Record schedule" means a manual, directive, or policy containing descriptions of and disposition instructions for retention, access, and management of all public records or public documents.
(b) There is created within the office of the secretary of state the Vermont state archives and records administration which is charged with administering and implementing a records management program for state government in accordance with professional records and information management practices and principles which shall be styled "the state archives and records administration program."
(c) The secretary shall adopt policies and procedures necessary to carry out the provisions of this section and shall report annually to the governor and the general assembly on the state archives and records administration program.
(d) The secretary may appoint an advisory committee to provide assistance and support for the state archives and records administration program.
(e) The secretary may adopt rules consistent with this section.
(f) There shall be a director of the Vermont state archives and records administration who shall have the title of "state archivist," and who shall be qualified by education and professional experience to perform the duties of the office. The state archivist shall be a classified position within the office of secretary of state.
(g) In fulfilling the duties of the state archives and records administration program, the state archivist shall:
(1) establish and administer a records management program for the application of effective and efficient methods to the creation, utilization, maintenance, reformatting, retention, destruction, and preservation of public records;
(2) cooperate with the heads of state agencies or public bodies to establish and maintain a program for the appraisal and scheduling of public records;
(3) analyze, develop, establish, and coordinate standards, procedures, and techniques for the creation of, preservation of, and access to public records;
(4) take custody of archival records in accordance with record schedules approved by the state archivist;
(5) maintain a record center to hold inactive records in accordance with records schedules approved by the state archivist;
(6) administer a central reformatting program for public records, including land records in the possession of municipal or county officers. Public records that are microfilmed, electronically captured, or otherwise reformatted shall be taken and received in all courts, public offices, and official bodies as prima facie evidence;
(7) arrange, describe, and preserve archival records, and promote their use by government officials and the public;
(8) permit the public to inspect, examine, and study the archives, provided that any record placed in the keeping of the office of the secretary of state under special terms or conditions of law restricting their use shall be made accessible only in accord with those terms and conditions;
(9) cooperate with and assist to the extent practicable state institutions, departments, agencies, municipalities, and other political subdivisions and individuals engaged in the activities in the field of public records, archives, manuscripts, and history;
(10) accept for filing copies of land records submitted in microfilm, electronic media, or similar compressed form by municipal or county clerks;
(11) receive grants, gifts, aid, or assistance, of any kind, from any source, public or private, for the purpose of managing or publishing public records; and
(12) serve on the Vermont historical records advisory board, as described in 44 U.S.C. § 2104, to encourage systematic documentation in Vermont and the collecting of archival records.
(h) Each volume published under the provisions of this section shall be called state papers of Vermont and numbered consecutively after the last volume of that title printed and published under the authority of No. 259 of the Acts of 1912 and shall be evidence in court and shall have the same force as the original documents.
(i) All volumes printed under authority of this section shall be delivered to the state librarian who shall deliver one copy to such elective and appointive state officers and such town and county clerks and such local historical societies and to each public high school and college library in the state, and to the library of each private school acting as a public high school as shall request it in writing for the permanent files of their offices. The state librarian shall also furnish four copies to the Vermont historical society. The remaining volumes shall be disposed of by the state librarian through liberal exchanges with other libraries and institutions or through sale at such prices as the state librarian shall establish.
(j) [Deleted.] (Added 1973, No. 32, § 1 eff. March 28, 1973; amended 1989, No. 186 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 1995, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 4(c)(2), eff. May 6, 1996; 2003, No. 3, § 1; 2007, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 3.)