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Data in the CoSA Report on Local Government Records
Programs and Services were collected during two surveys conducted by
the Council of State Archivists (CoSA).
The latest was completed in early March 2006 in conjunction
with the CoSA Local Government Archives Project.
CoSA received responses from 35 (out of 37) combined archives and records
management programs, 10 (out of 14) archives only programs, 4 (out of
12) records management only programs (see Table 1 for respondents).
Two states (AR, MN) do not have state records management programs. The
responses included on pages 3-19 are from this latest data collection.
(For a few states that did not report in 2006, we used staffing numbers
provided during the FY2004 survey to complete Table 3.)
CoSA collected the remaining data during a comprehensive
survey of state archives and records management programs that covered
FY2004.
The data include:
State authority for establishing/approving retention/disposition
standards and schedules.
Number staff (FTEs) in state archives and records
programs working with local government records;
Types and levels of service provided for local
government records;
Fee structures and programs/services supported
by funds based on revenue received from filing fees at the local level;
Evaluations, needs assessments, surveys, and
reports on local government records developed in the states;
Total volume of local government records held
in state archives and records centers at the close of FY2004 and local
government records accessioned in FY2004
The six largest state-based local government programs
can be found in states that have a fund based on revenues from filing
fees at the local level (Table 6a-6c). New York, Washington, Missouri,
Virginia, and New Jersey, and Texas all have 15 or more FTEs devoted
to local government records at the state level (Table 3). All but Texas
has a revenue stream from fees to help support its program for local
government records. At the other extreme are states that have only fractional
or no FTEs to address local government concerns. Nearly half of the
states have less than 2 FTEs and one-quarter have less than 1 FTE working
on local government records.
A number of states also have implemented funds in
which filing fees stay in the local jurisdiction but are specifically
allocated for the care of records. In Delaware, New York, and Rhode
Island, the fee is split between the locality and the state. In Indiana,
Iowa, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont the fees stay entirely with
the local governments.
