Home > Records Management > Public Records Standards and Laws > Microfilm and Electronic Imaging Approval

Microfilm and Electronic Imaging Approval

The Law

Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) § 41-151.16.

Production and reproduction by agencies of the state and political subdivisions; admissibility; violation; classification

1. Each agency of this state or any of its political subdivisions may implement a program for the production or reproduction by photography or other method of reproduction on film, microfiche, digital imaging or other electronic media of records in its custody, whether obsolete or current, and classify, catalogue and index such records for convenient reference. The agency, before the institution of any such program of production or reproduction, shall obtain approval from the director of the types of records to be produced or reproduced and of the methods of production, reproduction and storage and the equipment which the agency proposes to use in connection with the production, reproduction and storage. Approval pursuant to this subsection is necessary for digitizing programs but not for individual instances of digitization. On approval from the director, the source documents may be destroyed, but only after an administrative audit and after safeguards are in place to protect the public records pursuant to section 41-151.15, subsection A.
   
   
2. Except as otherwise provided by law, records reproduced as provided in subsection A of this section are admissible in evidence.
   
   
3. A head of an agency of this state or a political subdivision of this state who violates this section is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor.
   
   

Call the Records Management Division if you plan to scan or microfilm records so that we can ensure the proper paperwork is submitted and approved.

top of page