Public Records Law Compliance: What the State Library can do for you

Three full years have passed since the “Act to Improve Public Records” went into effect on January 1, 2017 so where are we now with the effort to make state and municipal agency records available to citizens with just the click of a mouse? Not quite there yet, unfortunately, but moving in the right direction.  One vast improvement is that the new law required each state and municipal agency to designate a “Records Access Officer” (RAO) who would be in charge of answering all requests for public records in writing within 10 business days, thereby providing a legal framework for accountability and responsiveness.  The law also set limits on fees that could be charged by agencies for time and preparation of records to fulfill requests which previously could have been seen as prohibitive. 


The RAO also must report all requests made to the Secretary of State’s Public Records Division searchable repository, making it straightforward to find out what is being requested from each agency. The law also mandates that every agency “shall provide on a searchable website electronic copies, accessible in a commonly available electronic format, of the following types of records:”

• final opinions, decisions, orders, or votes from agency proceedings
• annual reports
• minutes of open meetings
• notices of proposed regulations and hearings
• winning bids for public contracts and grant awards 
• agency budgets
• any information of significant interest that the agency deems appropriate 

This is quite a long and comprehensive list, so how can an agency that is already busy easily comply with the law?  Simple!  Just send your publications to the State Library and we will provide permanent access to them for FREE in our DSpace digital repository and relieve you of the custodial and archival burden of managing them!  All you have to do is link to your document collection on your website and leave the rest of the details to the State Library.

How can you do this? For more details check out our How-to Page on Submitting State Documents and upload via our handy submission form.  Questions?  Need help? Please feel free to call us or email us at electronic.documents@mass.gov.


Judy Carlstrom
Technical Services