Iowa § 8A.602 - 8A.602 Definitions.

§ 8A.602. 8A.602 Definitions.

As used in this subchapter, 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 8A.603. 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 8A.603, 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 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. 11. “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. 12. “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. 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 CS2003, §305.2 2004 Acts, ch 1120, §1; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §1385, 1399 C2024, §8A.602 Referred to in §22.16 Wed Dec 10 21:48:13 2025 Iowa Code 2026, Section 8A.602 (25, 0)