Website & Social Media Archiving for Nebraska State Agencies

Do you represent a Nebraska 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.

What Laws govern Records Management in the State of Nebraska?

Nebraska Public Records Statutes governs social media and open records in the custody of public agencies in the state of Nebraska. Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 84-712 – 84-712.09

Do Nebraska State Records Laws include Website and Social Media content?

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.

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 84-712.01(1) provides that the term “public records” shall include “all records and documents, regardless of physical form”, and though not explicitly stated, presumably include electronic, social media and online records, unless any other statute expressly provides that particular records shall not be made public.

What agencies are subject to these laws?

Subject to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 84-712.01(1), Nebraska Public Records Statutes are applicable to records belonging to “this state, any county, city, village, political subdivision, or tax-supported district in this state, or any agency, branch, department, board, bureau, commission, council, subunit, or committee of any of the foregoing,”

What is my agency required to do in line with these regulations?

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.

Note: Data which is a public record in its original form shall remain a public record when maintained in computer files.

In which form do I need to archive my records?

Websites must be retained in their original format: HTML, CSS, PDF etc

A party requesting access to open records may designate any form in which the public record is maintained or produced, including, electronic data. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 84-712(3)(a). However, the agency need not produce or generate any record in a new or different form or format modified from the original form or format of the public record. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 84-712(3)(c). Also, persons may request copies only if the custodian has copying equipment reasonably available.

How can we transfer website archives made with Pagefreezer to the Nebraska State Digital 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 Nebraska State or Agency Digital Archives.

How can Pagefreezer help our agency?

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 actually implement effective Online Public Records management start a free trial, schedule a demo or contact us directly.

Have more questions?

Contact us at +1-888-916-3999 or [email protected]