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For the purpose of this Chapter:

(1)  “Secretary” means secretary of state.

(2)  “State archivist” means the state archivist and director of the division of archives, records management, and history, appointed by the secretary to serve as director of that division and as state archivist.

(3)  “Division” means the division of archives, records management, and history.

(4)  “Records” means all documents, papers, letters, books, drawings, maps, plats, photographs, magnetic or optical media, microfilm, microphotograph, motion picture film, or other document or any other material, regardless of physical form or characteristic, generated or received under law or in connection with the transaction of official business, or preserved by an agency or political subdivision because of other informational or legal value.  This term shall not be construed to include library and museum material developed or acquired and preserved solely for reference or exhibition purposes, extra copies maintained for convenience in reference or stocks of standard publications, or processed documents.

(5)  “Agency” means any state, parish and municipal office, department, division, board, bureau, commission, authority, or other separate unit of state, parish, or municipal government created or established by the constitution, law, resolution, proclamation, or ordinance.

(6)  “State archives” means an establishment maintained by the division to administer a program to provide for the preservation of those records and other papers that have been determined by the state archivist to have sufficient historical, fiscal, or legal value to warrant their continued preservation by the state, whether they have been deposited with the state archives or are to be maintained in agency custody.

(7)  “Records management” means the systematic application of management techniques to the creation, utilization, maintenance, retention, preservation, and disposal of records for the purpose of reducing costs and improving efficiency of records keeping.  “Records management” includes management of filing and microfilming equipment and supplies; filing and information retrieval systems; files, correspondence, reports, and forms management; historical documentation; micrographics; retention programming; and vital records protection.

(8)  “Records center” means an establishment maintained by the division primarily for the economical storage, processing, servicing, and security of inactive public records that must be retained for varying periods of time but which need not be held in agency offices for the entire periods.

(9)  “Retention and disposal schedule” means a set of disposition instructions prescribing how long, in what location, under what conditions, and in what form records series shall be kept.

(10)  “Vital records” means any record essential to either or both the resumption or continuation of operations, to verification or re-creation of the legal and financial status of government in the state, or to the protection and fulfillment of obligations to citizens of the state.

(11)  “Destruction” means to destroy by shredding, burning, or other suitable means of obliteration.

(12)  “Disposal” means destruction in any manner approved by the environmental authority; or, transferral into the custody of the repository designated by the state archivist as most appropriate for continued maintenance.

Acts 1985, No. 238, §1, eff. July 6, 1985.