Permanent records . Records appraised by NARA as having sufficient historical or other value to warrant continued preservation by the Federal government beyond the time they are needed for administrative, legal, or fiscal purposes. Sometimes called archival records. As defined by 44 U.S.C. 3301, all books, papers, maps, photographs, machine readable materials, or other documentary material regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by an agency of the United States Government under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successors as evidence of the organizations functions, policies decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government or because of the informational value of data in them. Records center .
Records schedule .
A document providing required retention periods for agency records. Also called records disposition schedule, records control schedule, or schedule. Retention period . The length of time that records are to be kept prior to disposition. The transfer of records to a Federal records repository.