For the purposes of this chapter:
"Department" shall mean the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
"Public records" shall mean all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings or other materials regardless of physical form or characteristics made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency or by any appointed or elected official. Books, periodicals and other published material normally found in a library are excluded from this definition.
"State record" shall mean a record which normally is maintained within the custody or control of a state agency or by any appointed or elected state official or any other record which is designated or treated as a state record according to general law.
"Vital record" shall mean any record vital to the resumption of the legal and financial status of government in the state or to the protection and fulfillment of obligations to the citizens of the state of Mississippi.
"Agency" shall mean any state office, department, division, board, bureau, commission, institution of higher learning or other separate unit or institution of state government created or established by law.
"Mississippi State Archives" shall mean an establishment maintained by the department for the preservation of those public records and other documentary materials that have been determined by the department to have sufficient historical or other enduring value to warrant their continued preservation by the state and that have been accepted by the department for deposit in its custody.
"Records center" shall mean an establishment maintained by the department primarily for the processing, servicing and security of public records that must be retained for varying periods of time but need not be retained in an agency's office, equipment or space.
"Records control schedule" shall mean a set of instructions prescribing how long, where or in what form records shall be kept.
"Records management" shall mean the application of management techniques to the creation, utilization, maintenance, retention, preservation and disposal of records undertaken to reduce costs and improve efficiency of record-keeping. Records management includes management of filing and microfilm equipment and supplies, filing and information retrieval systems, historical documentation, micrographics, records system scheduling and vital records protection.
"Director" shall mean the director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
"State records committee" shall mean a committee established by this chapter whose duties are to review, approve, disapprove, amend or modify records control schedules submitted by agency heads.
Structure Mississippi Code
Title 25 - Public Officers and Employees; Public Records
Chapter 59 - Archives and Records Management
§ 25-59-5. Department of archives and history to be archival and records management agency
§ 25-59-7. State records committee; duties as to records control schedules
§ 25-59-9. Powers and duties of department of archives and history
§ 25-59-13. Procedures for transfer of records to the department of archives and history
§ 25-59-15. Records management duties of state agencies and officials
§ 25-59-17. Record control schedules for courts; destruction of court records
§ 25-59-19. Records to be public property
§ 25-59-21. Consent of director required for disposal of public records; rules and regulations
§ 25-59-23. Penalties for offenses involving records
§ 25-59-27. Records to be open for public use; exceptions; disposal of closed and restricted records
§ 25-59-29. Reproduction of records and storage of copies; destruction of originals
§ 25-59-31. Transition from existing program of reproduction and destruction of records