Delaware Public Record Laws

Website & Social Media Archiving for Delaware State Agencies

Do you represent a Delaware State Government Agency and wondering how you should archive all your web and social media content? Are you trying to determine what you need to do both from a legal and a technical point of view? Here’s a guide to the different Laws and processes you should follow.

Delaware Public Records Law (29 Del. Code, Chapter 5) governs social media, website and other forms of open records in the State of Delaware.

Delaware Freedom of Information Act (29 Del. Code, Chapter 100) establishes that “it is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner” and that “it is vital that citizens have easy access to public records in order that the society remain free and democratic.” Delaware FOIA provides access to the public records of governmental bodies created, used, received or otherwise compiled or collected by any public body, relating in any way to public business, interest or purposes.

Yes, they do. NARA state that there is a “[P]ublic expectation that all web content is both permanently valuable and accessible” – and so social media and web records are subject to these standards as well as the relevant metadata being pertinent to these laws.

DPRL states that “public record” means any information “regardless of physical form or characteristics, including electronic records created or maintained in electronic information systems, made, used, produced, composed, drafted or otherwise compiled or collected or received in connection with the transaction of public business or in any way related to public purposes by any officer or employee of this State or any political subdivision thereof”.

Subject to DPRL, “agency” means any office, department, board, commission or another separate unit of government of this State, including all branches of government: Executive, legislative and judicial.

Your agency website must be retained in electronic format and remain usable, searchable, retrievable and authentic for the length of the designated retention period as established by the agency and/ or form of record in question and content placed on state agency social media should be moderated by an authorized, trained staff member.

DPRL – There are separate and additional responsibilities on the Delaware Public Archives in accordance with the archiving and producing of public records in Delaware. Delaware Public Archives are responsible for establishing and enforcing the policies and guidelines for the management and preservation of all public records.

Web sites must be retained in their original format: HTML, CSS, PDF, etc. Materials and methods used in the archiving of Delaware public records must meet the standards of quality established by the Delaware Public Archives.

PageFreezer exports all data on request in the original file format including the required metadata. This data set can be transferred by FTP or by other means to the Delaware State or Agency Digital Archives when consent has been approved.

PageFreezer has been working on our Archiving technology and processes since 2006 – We know how to properly archive Web Sites, Blogs and Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Just ask any of our over 500 clients including US Cities, Counties, and other Government Agencies as well as Multinationals, Financial Service Firms, Healthcare Providers …

Our clients know our technology is secure, reliable and authenticated. More importantly they appreciate the ease-of-use.

That’s why our complex technology is simple to use – The archiving is automatic and retrieval is a matter of signing in, going to the date you want, and browsing your site just like you did when the content was just published.

If you have questions about any of this or about how to implement effective Online Public Records management start a free trial, schedule a demo or contact us directly.