Managing Public Records

for Local Government Agencies

Scanning Public Records

Many local government agencies throughout North Carolina have started scanning projects or are considering going paperless.  A few things to keep in mind if you are planning a scanning project are:

• You can scan any record you like
• Scanning is not required
• Balance the cost and the benefit: sometimes offsite storage or microfilm is a better choice
• There is more to a scanning project than just scanning the documents. Consider:
• Document preparation, such as removing paper clips, flattening documents
• Quality control
• Indexing
• Maintenance (i.e. storage, conversion)

Destroying Converted Records

Once you have converted paper records to a scanned digital image, you may destroy the paper record as long as it is not a permanent record.  Prior to destroying the records, we ask you to submit the following documents:

1. Imaging Policy for your office; sample policies can be obtained from our office
2. Self-warranty Form, which is available as part of "NC Guidelines for Managing Public Records Produced by Information Technology Systems"
3. Request for Destruction of Records Duplicated by Electronic Means Form, which can be obtained from our office

Human-readable Preservation Duplicates

Records that are considered permanent records are required to be preserved in a human-readable format, either

• Paper
• Microfilm

If you are interested in scanning these records for access and retrieval purposes, the scanned image should be the reference copy. 

 

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