It’s been almost 6 years since we addressed this question originally. In that time, the popularity of text messaging (“texting”) has skyrocketed while awareness that text messages (“texts”) are potentially government records has increased very little. Here we go again! The definition of a government record in Texas is media neutral. A record is defined…
We know how to dispose of paper records. You can either destroy the records by burning or shredding them. Although these methods of destroying records may have been a viable option in the past, these same methods might not be enough to remove all traces of data from records being stored electronically. Before destroying an electronic…
Edited to update hyperlinks on October 5, 2021 Recently, many questions have been raised about how to establish a electronic records (e-records) management policy. One of the main questions we’ve received is what is covered within an e-records management policy. An e-records management policy enhances the organization’s policy on information management and storage. A well-crafted…
Creating policies for social media records is vital to successfully managing those records and notifying the public of the areas that impact their use of agency social media tools.We’ve previously discussed the benefits and challenges of using social media, identification and retention of social media, and we outlined some methods of capturing these records. So…
Once you tackle determining whether social media content are records, the job is not quite done; capturing social media records is an extremely important aspect to successfully managing the records. Social media capture helps guarantee your government body has access to the records for review, use and, ultimately, destruction at the end of its retention…
Last year, a Confederate Muster Roll from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission reached an audience of 175. Normally, historical artifacts like this list of officers and soldiers are viewed by researchers or visitors to the library, who often do so individually. Through the power of Instagram, TSLAC is able to extend its holdings…
If the question is, “Can Social Media Content be a record?” then the answer is “Yes, it can be.” This is supported by the definition of a government record as defined in the Local Government Records Act (LGRA) and in the Government Code Chapter 441 for State Agencies; records can exist in a variety of…
When an employee leaves or is separated from the agency, you probably have a checklist of things that need to be done in order to close everything out for them. Hopefully, one of those things includes reviewing and transferring emails and if it doesn’t, it needs to! I recently attended a conference where one of…