Mary,

If you are part of state government, the answer to your questions might
be regulated by Washington Administrative Code.  In Oregon, it depends.
If the record has a retention of less than 100 years, then yes, the
paper can be destroyed provided that the medium, probably some sort of
optical disk (CD, DVD, etc.) be migrated.  OAR 166-017-0080(1) states
"optical disks shall be copied onto new optical disks after no more than
ten years. Images must be recopied until the retention period of the
original public records has been satisfied.  (2) Public records with a
scheduled retention period of 100 years or more may be stored on optical
disk devices provided that the original records are retained in hard
copy or on microfilm for the entire scheduled retention period."

Additionally,  agencies must "have system documentation on file with
the agency records officer."(OAR 166-017-0020)
http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/rules/OARS_100/OAR_166/166_017.html

Washington may impose similar restrictions.  Hope this helps.

Jim

on 9/6 you wrote:
<From:    Mary Newsum <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: retention and destruction of records

 has a policy of destroying records once they are scanned and indexed.
The impression I get is that the belief is that the records can be
destroyed once the records are scanned, indexed and verified for
accuracy, then look out records here is the shredder!  Is the normal
process to scan the records hold onto the paper (harcopy) records until
the retention period is over?  Or can the electronic format be
substituted for the hardcopy and held for the retention period?

Mary Collette Newsum
Records File Clerk
Sammamish Plateau Water & Sewer District
Sammamish, WA
[log in to unmask]


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Mullen
Records Manager
Oregon University System
P.O. Box 3175
Eugene, OR  97403
(541)346-5798
Fax (541)346-5764
[log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance