Preserve our Texas public records
Tarrant County District Clerk Tom Wilder’s ongoing effort to create a digital archive of electronic court records ( “Famous case files won’t be destroyed,” March 24) is mirrored on a statewide level through the endeavors of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Our agency is mandated by statute to ensure that state and local records remain accessible to the public. We do that in a variety of ways, from writing rules governing records retention, to providing guidance for state and local staff in the proper preservation and management of their records, to storing and preserving archives of permanent value to the state.
Unfortunately, not all records are as secure as Tarrant County’s. In fact, state and local public records across Texas are at significant risk.
Almost 20 years ago, former State Archivist David Gracy described a situation where state and local records were threatened by a lack of resources for preservation, poorly housed collections, staff untrained in records handling and a chronic undervaluing of the crucial nature of public archives.
More recently, in 2011, the Texas Court Records Task Force, commissioned by the Texas Supreme Court, delivered a study saying that in many counties, “records are decaying or being destroyed due to a confluence of events and condition, including (i) improper storage and handling, (ii) the effects of moisture and temperature fluctuations, (iii) the ravages of rats, bugs and vermin; and (iv) the acidity of the ink and poor quality of the paper.”
The other threat is the access to statewide data in electronic format. There are currently no state resources applied to the permanent preservation and retention of state government archives in digital format, either scanned or so-called “born digital” records.
An ever-increasing portion of public documents are digital. However, often there are no public searching capabilities for people who want to find these documents.
In other words, there’s little or no ready access.
For several legislative sessions, we have sought funding to launch a Texas Digital Archive to bring those materials of long-term value to the state under a central framework where documents are protected, preserved and accessible to the public.
Early deliberations of House and Senate budget writers indicate there may finally be a willingness to fund the Texas Digital Archive so we can begin to achieve this vision of access and transparency for all Texans.
Our effort is supported by a number of partner organizations such as the Texas State Historical Association, the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas and the Texas Library Association.
Together we look forward to ensuring state and local records will always be available to the people of Texas.
Mark Smith is the director and librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
This story was originally published March 30, 2015 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Preserve our Texas public records."