41-151.15. Preservation of public records

A. All records made or received by public officials or employees of this state or the counties and incorporated cities and towns of this state in the course of their public duties are the property of this state. Except as provided in this article, the director and every other custodian of public records shall carefully protect and preserve the records from deterioration, mutilation, loss or destruction and, when advisable, shall cause them to be properly repaired and renovated. All paper, ink and other materials used in public offices for the purpose of permanent records, including electronic records, shall be of durable quality and shall comply with the standards established pursuant to section 39-101. Additionally, the custodian of records that keeps photography, film, microfiche, digital imaging or other types of reproduction or electronic media pursuant to section 41-151.16, subsection A shall protect records from loss or destruction pursuant to standards that are established by the director.

B. The state library shall establish, operate and maintain a trusted electronic records repository to keep, preserve, secure and make available the electronic and digitized records of the state archives and the state documents program and of any documents and public records received, subject to legislative appropriation.

C. Records shall not be destroyed or otherwise disposed of by any agency of this state unless it is determined by the state library that the record has no further administrative, legal, fiscal, research or historical value. The original of any record produced or reproduced pursuant to section 41-151.16 may be determined by the state library to have no further administrative, legal, fiscal, research or historical value. A person who destroys or otherwise disposes of records without the specific authority of the state library is in violation of section 38-421.