1B-24.001. General

(1) This chapter establishes standards and procedures for the scheduling and disposition of public records to promote economical and efficient management of records and to ensure that records of archival value under an agency’s control are so designated and ultimately transferred to the Florida State Archives or to a local records office, archives, or historical records repository.

(2) Each agency in the State of Florida is responsible for complying with the provisions of this chapter.

(3) For the purpose of this chapter:

(a) “Agency” means any state, county, or municipal officer, department, district, division, board, bureau, commission or other separate unit of government created or established by law.

(b) “Custodian” means the elected or appointed state, county, district, or municipal officer charged with the responsibility of maintaining the office having public records, or his or her designee.

(c) “Disposition” means final actions taken with regard to public records that have met all retention requirements and are no longer needed for current government business as indicated in General Records Schedules or Records Retention Schedules. Disposition may include either destruction of public records or transfer of public records to the custody of another public agency such as the Florida State Archives or a local government archives or records repository.

(d) “Division” means the Division of Library and Information Services of the Department of State.

(e) “Electronic records” means any information that is recorded in machine readable form.

(f) “Florida State Archives” means the program maintained by the Division for the preservation of those public records and other papers that have been determined by the Division to have sufficient historical or other value to warrant their continued preservation by the state and which have been accepted by the Division for transfer to its custody.

(g) “General Records Schedules” means retention requirements established by the Division for public records common to all agencies or specified types of agencies within the State of Florida indicating the minimum time such records must be kept.

(h) “Intermediate files” (processing files) are temporary electronic files used to create, correct, reorganize, update, or derive output from master data files. Intermediate files are precursors of public records, and are not, in themselves, public records which must be retained. Intermediate files only exist provided a final product is subsequently generated which perpetuates, communicates, or formalizes knowledge of some type. In the absence of such a final product, processing files constitute final evidence of the knowledge to be recorded and shall not be construed as intermediate files for the purposes of this chapter.

(i) “Public records” are those as defined in Section 119.011, F.S., and include records that are designated by statute as confidential or exempt from public disclosure.

(j) “Record (master) copy” means public records specifically designated by the custodian as the official record.

(k) “Record series” means a group of related public records arranged under a single filing arrangement or kept together as a unit (physically or intellectually) because they consist of the same form, relate to the same subject or function, result from the same activity, document a specific type of transaction, or have some other relationship arising from their creation, receipt, or use. A record series might contain records in a variety of forms and formats that document a particular program, function, or activity of the agency.

(l) “Records Retention Schedule” means retention requirements established by the Division for public records held by a specified agency within the State of Florida indicating the minimum time such records must be kept.

(m) “Retrospective conversion project” means the bulk microfilming or digital reformatting of existing backfiles; it does not refer to day-to-day scanning of current items conducted as part of daily workflow.

Rulemaking Authority 257.14, 257.35(7), 257.36(6) FS. Law Implemented 257.35, 257.36 FS. History–New 1-8-80, Formerly 1A-24.01, 1A-24.001, Repromulgated 3-23-93, Amended 2-20-01, 1-18-09.