Z-1778               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 6899

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Senators Nelson and Madsen; by request of Secretary of State

Read first time 2/21/90 and referred to Committee on  Governmental Operations.

AN ACT Relating to archives and records management; and amending RCW 40.14.020.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 2, chapter 246, Laws of 1957 as last amended by section 1, chapter 275, Laws of 1986 and RCW 40.14.020 are each amended to read as follows:

          All public records shall be and remain the property of the state of Washington.  They shall be delivered by outgoing officials and employees to their successors and shall be preserved, stored, transferred, destroyed or disposed of, and otherwise managed, only in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.  In order to insure the proper management and safeguarding of public records, the division of archives and records management is established in the office of the secretary of state((, and, under the administration of)).  The state archivist, who shall have reasonable access to all public records, wherever kept, for purposes of information, surveying, or cataloguing, shall undertake the following functions, duties, and responsibilities:

          (1) To manage the archives of the state of Washington;

          (2) To centralize the archives of the state of Washington, to make them available for reference and scholarship, and to insure their proper preservation;

          (3) To inspect, inventory, catalog, and arrange retention and transfer schedules on all record files of all state departments and other agencies of state government;

          (4) To insure the maintenance and security of all state public records and to establish safeguards against unauthorized removal or destruction;

          (5) To establish and operate such state record centers as may from time to time be authorized by appropriation, for the purpose of preserving, servicing, screening and protecting all state public records which must be preserved temporarily or permanently, but which need not be retained in office space and equipment;

          (6) To ((set)) adopt rules under chapter 34.05 RCW:

(a) Setting standards ((by rule)) for the durability and permanence of public records ((required by law or for other reasons to be filed and)) maintained ((permanently or for very long periods of time)) by state and local agencies;

(b) Governing procedures for the creation, maintenance, transmission, or reproduction of photographic, optical, electronic, or other images of public documents or records in a manner consistent with current standards, policies, and procedures of the department of information services for the acquisition of information technology;

(c) Governing the accuracy and durability of photographic, optical, electronic, or other images used as public records; or

(d) To carry out any other provision of this chapter;

          (7) To gather and disseminate to interested agencies information on all phases of records management and current practices, methods, procedures, techniques, and devices for efficient and economical management and preservation of records;

           (8) To operate a central microfilming bureau which will microfilm, at cost, records approved for filming by the head of the office of origin and the archivist; to approve microfilming projects undertaken by state departments and all other agencies of state government; and to maintain proper standards for this work;

           (9) To maintain necessary facilities for the review of records approved for destruction and for their economical disposition by sale or burning; directly to supervise such destruction of public records as shall be authorized by the terms of this chapter; and

          (10) To conduct an oral history program to record and document the oral history of former members and staff of the Washington state legislature, former state government officials and personnel, and other citizens of interest through recording memoirs, processing and making transcripts of the tapes, and taking photographs.  The tapes, transcripts, and photographs shall be indexed, shall be available for reference, and shall be properly preserved((;

          (11) To adopt rules under chapter 34.05 RCW to carry out the state archivist's duties under this chapter)).