(a) The division of records management of the department of state shall be the primary records management agency for state government, and as such shall direct the disposition of all records, including electronic processed records and computer output microfilm records.

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 10-7-303

  • Agency: means any department, division, board, bureau, commission, or other separate unit of government created by law or pursuant to law, including the legislative branch and the judicial branch. See Tennessee Code 10-7-301
  • Disposition: means preservation of the original records in whole or in part, preservation by photographic or other reproduction processes, or outright destruction of the records. See Tennessee Code 10-7-301
  • division: means the division of records management of the department of state. See Tennessee Code 10-7-301
  • Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Records management: includes records retention schedule development, essential records protection, files management and information retrieval systems, microfilm information systems, correspondence and word processing management, records center, forms management, analysis, and design, and reports and publications management. See Tennessee Code 10-7-301
  • Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
  • Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Working papers: means those records created to serve as input for final reporting documents, including electronic data processed records, and/or computer output microfilm, and those records which become obsolete immediately after agency use or publication. See Tennessee Code 10-7-301
(b) The division shall cooperate with other agencies in the creation of records, forms, etc., which will eventually be subject to retention and/or disposition scheduling.
(c) Whenever the head of any state department, commission, board or other agency has certified that records created by such person‘s department, either permanent, temporary or working papers, as defined in § 10-7-301, have reached the end of the retention period established prior to the generation of such records, the public records commission shall then approve or disapprove, by a majority vote, the disposition of such records in a manner specified in the rules and regulations of the commission, and any disposition schedule already in effect may be voided or amended by a majority vote at any time by the commission, upon recommendation of a member of the commission or the head of the appropriate department, commission, board or other agency, in consultation with the staff of the division.
(d) No record or records shall be scheduled for destruction without the unanimous approval of the voting members of the public records commission.
(e) All records concerning private or public lands, with the exception of leases, shall be forever preserved. The records of leases required to be preserved pursuant to § 12-2-108(c) must be forever preserved.
(f) When the development of a records management system for judicial records or the disposition of judicial records is under consideration, the attorney general and reporter or the attorney general’s representative, and the chief justice of the supreme court or the chief justice’s representative shall serve as temporary nonvoting members of the commission.
(g) This part applies to judicial records but does not apply to legislative records.
(h)

(1)

(A) The division is authorized to develop a protocol manual or to adopt a published protocol manual to be adopted by the executive, judicial and legislative branches of state government.
(B) The division is authorized to develop a style manual or guide or to adopt a published style manual or guide to be adopted by the executive, judicial and legislative branches of state government.
(2) A branch of state government may modify an adopted protocol manual or style guide.