Recently Asked Questions

I am writing to update the excellent advice on the RAQ page from November 2020 in regards to the retention of health screening records in a school district, local government, or state agency (under a separate retention schedule.)

I just called the state archives to confirm the retention period of library employee daily health screenings using LGS-1. They referred me to item 792c (positive health screening) with a 6 year retention and 792d (negative health screening) with a 1 year retention. (pg: 210-211 in the schedule.)

They have also updated their guidance on records related questions for COVID-19 http://www.archives.nysed.gov/records/documenting-government-response-to-covid-19

Thank you for answering the original question in November. I hope this update to the response is helpful.

We got a question regarding how the new rules for records retention (the "LGS-1") impacts the retention of school library borrowing records.

Under the new LGS-1, how long must school library borrowing records be retained?  How does that impact BOCES, district, and school library records purging? 

Under the executive order, the modifications to Open Meetings Law meant we (I'm asking for several libraries in our system) record our Board meetings.

How long does a library (public or association) or a cooperative public library system have to keep the recording of board or committee meetings ?  Looking at http://www.archives.nysed.gov/records/local-government-records-schedule-browse?combine=meeting+recording, it states:
 "Four months after the transcription or minutes have been created"

Transcribing could be challenging, particularly for smaller libraries, so we were relieved to read that once minutes were created, we might not have to transcribe (hopefully we are reading that correctly).

However - our question is about the placement of the word "or".  Is it:

Option 1: Once transcribed, keep for four months. Once minutes are created and accepted (which might be less than four months - in our case, it would be at the next board meeting), you can delete recording.
Option 2: Whether transcribed or minutes created, keep the recordings for four months. 

Under option 2, it seems like there is a higher standard for meetings.  Pre COVID, our board meetings would occur, open to the public but usually no public in attendance, and the only "evidence" of the meeting would be the minutes.  Now, we are required to keep the recording for at least four months - which isn't a huge hardship but curious about the rationale behind that.

Thank you!

The public libraries in our region have been requiring staff to complete a health self-assessment every day that they report to the building to work. Some of these libraries now have a collection of paper or electronic responses that date back to June.

How long should these records be kept? Two weeks? Two months? Forever?

And, not to complicate matters, but for municipal or school district public libraries, are these records, or portions thereof, subject to FOIL?

The library is using NYS Archives and Civil Service references to set personnel and payroll files records retention and disposition.

A question arose regarding employee rights to request removal of materials from personnel records.

The committee’s question was specifically about removal of a negative matter after the minimum required retention time had elapsed.

In this instance there was no question about the accuracy of the record nor was there litigation involved or anticipated.