Sec. 185.1. Definitions

As used in this Part:

(a) Records management officer means the local officer charged with the responsibility to develop and coordinate the local records management program in accordance with section 57.19 of the Arts and Cultural Affairs Law.

(b) Records management program means an ongoing, coordinated, administrative effort to systematically manage a local government's records from initial creation to final disposition. A records management program includes, but is not limited to: the legal disposition of obsolete records; the identification and administration of and access to records of enduring value; filing and indexing systems; the use of computer or other technology in information creation, manipulation and storage; the storage and management of inactive records no longer needed for the conduct of day-to-day business in the office; the microfilming of records; the oversight of the creation and use of forms, correspondence and other records and the provision for protecting vital records.

(c) Records of enduring value (archival records) means those records worthy of permanent retention and special administration because of the importance of the information they contain for continuing administrative, legal, or fiscal purposes, or for historical or other research.

(d) Custody means the control of, and responsibility for, records owned by the local government, regardless of their location.

(e) Vital records means those records of a local government that are essential to its continuing operation. Vital records is not used in this context to mean official birth, death, or marriage records which are State records and duplicate those held by the State.

(f) State Archives means the New York State Archives, the organizational unit within the State Education Department which has responsibility to administer the local government records management program.

(g) Electronic records means those records stored on electronic media that can be read or processed only by means of a computer.

(h) Electronic information system means a computer-based system that supports the acquisition, creation, storage, processing, management of, and/or access to records.