Messages should remain in an e-mail system no longer than one year and preferably no longer than six months. Many agencies include e-mail files in their standard system backups, thereby giving old messages especially long lives as public records. There is no specification in the Public Records Law of any means which access to public records must take. The means of access is left to the discretion of the public agency. The public should not be given direct access if such an action would compromise the security and safety of the records themselves.
Common sense urges caution where valuable records are concerned.
Application for authorization to destroy records is initiated through the Archives and Records Section's records retention and disposition scheduling procedures. The applicable records series must be scheduled with the Archives and Records Section through current records retention and disposition scheduling procedures. The agency must provide convincing, documented evidence that the electronic records were created, reproduced, and otherwise managed in accordance with systems and procedures designed to ensure the reliability, accuracy, and security of both the records and the process or system used to produce the records. The division's publication, North Carolina Guidelines for Managing Public Records Produced by Information Technology Systems , suggests certain methods and procedures in the preparation of electronic records that are designed to increase their reliability and accuracy and includes a model self-warranty form for voluntary use by individual agencies. The division regards a signed and dated self-warranty form as the agency's assurance that a particular series of electronic records is prepared in accordance with the suggested guidelines.