A municipality’s records serve as the legal foundation for all of its actions; therefore, preserving these records is of paramount importance. With few exceptions, original records should never leave the physical custody of the records custodian.^[1]

For guidance on issues related to records maintenance, see the MTAS publication Records Management for Municipal Governments. This document is available at http://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/reference/records-management-municipal-governments.

^[1] When a municipality, through its public records policy, allows a requestor to bring in his/her own copying equipment to copy public records, the PRRC remains responsible for maintaining the integrity of the records being copied. As such, the PRRC should be present during the copying process or copies of the originals should be provided to the requestor for copying.