Public Records Center

The District of Columbia Records Center collects and stores both permanent and temporary records of the District government. The Records Center implements records retention schedules. It accessions, stores, manages and services inactive records of the District government in its physical custody. The Records Center prepares and maintains finding aids, indexes, registers and other resource guides to the records holdings in its possession.

Accessions in the Records Center consist of all inactive records created and maintained by agencies of the District government. The Records Center maintains subject files, case files, legislative files, plans, procurement files, speeches, correspondence, minutes, transcripts, proceedings and other related records of the District government.

The Records Center does not hold legal custody to the records of agencies stored in the repository. Access to records in the Records Center must be secured from the agency of legal custody. The Records Center's staff processes reference and research requests from agencies that authorize access to their records.

General Records Retention Schedule

The Office of Public Records issues General Records Schedules to provide disposition standards for records common to DC Government Agencies. The DC Archives develops the General Records Schedules and the DC Archivist, the Public Records Administrator and the DC Records Disposition Committee review and approve them.