2009 Iowa Code
Title 8 - Transportation
Subtitle 1 - Highways and Waterways
CHAPTER 305 - STATE RECORDS AND ARCHIVES
305.2 - DEFINITIONS.

        305.2  DEFINITIONS.
         As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
         1.  "Agency" means any executive or legislative branch
      department, office, commission, board, or other unit of state
      government except as otherwise provided by law.
         2.  "Archives" means records that have been appraised by the
      state records commission as having sufficient historical, research,
      evidential, or informational value to warrant permanent preservation
      and that have been transferred to the custody of the state archives.

         3.  "Commission" means the state records commission created in
      section 305.3.
         4.  "Custody" means guardianship or control of records,
      including both physical possession, referred to as physical custody,
      and legal responsibility, referred to as legal custody, unless one or
      the other is specified.
         5.  "Designee" means an appointee of a commission member
      listed in section 305.3, who is a year-round, full-time state
      employee, appointed to regularly represent the commission member in
      the activities of the commission for a period of at least two years.

         6.  "Government records program" means a systematic state
      government program for the creation, organization, administrative
      use, maintenance, security, public availability, and final
      disposition of records.
         7.  "Guideline" means a suggested method of operation for
      specific activities.
         8.  "Policy" means a basic statement describing the boundaries
      within which activities are to take place.
         9.  "Record" means a document, book, paper, electronic record,
      photograph, sound recording, or other material, regardless of
      physical form or characteristics, made, produced, executed, or
      received pursuant to law in connection with the transaction of
      official business of state government.  "Record" does not include
      library and museum material made or acquired and preserved solely for
      reference or exhibition purposes or stocks of publications and
      unprocessed forms.
         10.  "Records series retention and disposition schedule" means
      a timetable established by the state records commission that
      describes the length of time a records series of an agency or
      multiple agencies must be retained in active and inactive status and
      provides authorization for a final disposition of the records series
      by destruction or permanent retention.
         11.  "Records inventory" means a detailed listing of the
      volume, scope, and complexity of an agency's records that is compiled
      for the purpose of creating records series retention and disposition
      schedules.
         12.  "Records officer" means a year-round, full-time agency
      official who possesses a broad understanding of programs and records
      of an agency and who is designated by the agency head to coordinate
      the records program or programs within the agency.
         13.  "Standard" means a specific rule or principle established
      to measure quality or value.
         14.  "Vital operating record" means a record containing
      information essential to continue or to reestablish an agency in the
      event of a natural or other disaster, allowing the re-creation of the
      state's legal and financial status, and the determination of the
      rights and obligations of the state and its citizens.  

         2003 Acts, ch 92, §5; 2004 Acts, ch 1120, §1