(1) No person acting in compliance with the provisions of this chapter shall be held personally liable. If it becomes necessary for archivists or records analysts on the staff of the department to inspect closed or restricted records in order to appraise them for archival significance those archivists or records analysts shall not be held liable under law for such inspection. It shall be unlawful for such archivists or records analysts to divulge any information contained in the closed or restricted records.

(2) Whenever laws and regulations prescribe where a record series must be kept, the custodian of such records shall be considered in compliance with those laws, rules and regulations if he transfers the records to a local holding area, a records center or the Mississippi State Archives when he does so in accordance with an approved records control schedule. All local governmental bodies in this state are hereby authorized and empowered, in their discretion, to transfer records, after the expiration of time when such bodies no longer have to retain the records, to a public library or to a local historical or archival group which has been incorporated and operates as a private, nonprofit corporation. Any local governmental body which desires to transfer records to a local historical or archival group or public library shall have certification from the department prior to the records being transferred indicating that such entity has satisfied all the rules and regulations of the department and that the department has officially approved such entity as a records depository. The title to all records transferred to any local historical or archival group or public library shall remain in the local governmental body which transfers the records to such entity, and the ultimate authority over the records shall continue to reside with the person charged with the responsibility for making and keeping the records. Any local governmental body may also request certification from the department of the body’s own record storage area for records which the body determines to retain in its custody.