Welcome back to our occasional series “Off the Record,” a curated collection of articles we found interesting on a broad range of topics, some which are directly related to records management and others which might share common themes.

No, we didn’t write these articles—hence the name of this series, “Off the Record”— but, fortunately, we didn’t need to in order to share the knowledge with our subscribers.

Recently we’ve found ourselves contemplating the records management implications of social media. We hope you’ll find these articles on the topic as interesting as we did!

‘Refrain from licking’: Why the National Park Service’s viral tweets are so weird – SF Gate

Here in the Records Management Assistance unit, we’re no stranger to the use of humor to spice up bland but important information. This article highlights the social media accounts of the National Parks Service (NPS), which have caught the attention of millions with their silly, often wry, public service announcements about wildlife safety and other topics. The article profiles the man behind the accounts, Texas native Matt Turner, and his process for coming up with new material. As a federal agency, any of the NPS’s social media posts that are federal records need to be captured and retained just like any other record. Records management is way more fun when there are cute pictures of animals and memes.

– Katherine Hoffman

Supreme Court Rules that Public Officials Can Block Social Media Followers in Some Circumstances – CNN

Navigating the “digital town square” as a government official presents many challenges. Posting about job openings, office closures, and events are not only records to be captured and kept for their minimum retention periods, but these posts can sometimes invite members of the public to engage with your official account in a myriad of ways. One may wish they could just hit the block button and forget about a negative interactions, but it’s not that easy! This article covers the recent Supreme Court rulings and the rationale of when a public official may block members of the public. Although we can’t help you determine when you can or can’t block someone, we have created several webinars on Social Media Records to make sure you are retaining your online records for their appropriate retention periods.

– Sebastian Loza

Lovettsville Violated FOIA in Facebook Posting Case, Judge Rules – LoudounNow

The determination of whether social media posts—public or private—made by public officials are subject to public information requests is determined by a few factors such as who owns the accounts to was the post made in the conduct public business. It also comes down to the best-case judgement made by the designated FOIA officer within an entity in compliance with any rules and laws in order to maintain transparency. The article goes over the actions of both the requester and local officials about a Facebook posts and comments, the lawsuit, and the judge’s ruling on the status of the posts and the actions taken by the local officials.

– Anne Poulos