NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1961 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 1041

SENATE BILL 210

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 132 OF THE GENERAL STATUTES TO CLARIFY THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY TO CONDUCT A RECORDS MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION PROGRAM.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  Chapter 132 of the General Statutes is hereby amended by adding two new Sections immediately following G.S. 132‑8 as the same appears in the 1959 Cumulative Supplement to Volume 3B of the General Statutes, to be numbered G.S. 132‑8.1 and G.S. 132‑8.2, and to read as follows:

"G.S. 132‑8.1.  A records management program for the application of efficient and economical management methods to the creation, utilization, maintenance, retention, preservation, and disposal of official records shall be administered by the State Department of Archives and History. It shall be the duty of that Department, in cooperation with and with the approval of the Department of Administration, to establish standards, procedures, and techniques for effective management of public records to make continuing surveys of paper work operations, and to recommend improvements in current records management practices including the use of space, equipment, and supplies employed in creating maintaining, and servicing records. It shall be the duty of the head of each State agency and the governing body of each county, municipality and other subdivision of government to cooperate with the State Department of Archives and History in conducting surveys and to establish and maintain an active, continuing program for the economical and efficient management of the records of said agency, county, municipality, or other subdivision of government.

"G.S. 132‑8.2.  In cooperation with the head of each State agency and the governing body of each county, municipality, and other subdivision of government, the State Department of Archives and History shall establish and maintain a program for the selection and preservation of public records considered essential to the operation of government and to the protection of the rights and interests of persons, and, within the limitations of funds available for the purpose, shall make or cause to be made preservation duplicates or designate as preservation duplicates existing copies of such essential public records. Preservation duplicates shall be durable, accurate, complete, and clear, and such duplicates made by a photographic, photostatic, microfilm, micro card, miniature photographic, or other process which accurately reproduces and forms a durable medium for so reproducing the original shall have the same force and effect for all purposes as the original record whether the original record is in existence or not. A transcript, exemplification, or certified copy of such preservation duplicate shall be deemed for all purposes to be a transcript, exemplification, or certified copy of the original record. Such preservation duplicates shall be preserved in the place and manner of safekeeping prescribed by the State Department of Archives and History."

Sec. 2.  There is hereby appropriated to the State Department of Archives and History from the General Fund of the State for the fiscal year 1961‑1962 the sum of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00) and for the fiscal year 1962‑1963 the sum of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00) to be used by said Department for the operation of records management and records preservation programs as contemplated in Section 1 above.

Sec. 3.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 4.  This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 19th day of June, 1961.