Avoid “Self-Destructing” Messaging Apps

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Last week was Sunshine Week (March 15–21), when the Ohio Attorney General’s Office releases its updated Sunshine Laws Manual to help Ohioans and public employees understand their rights and duties under the Public Records and Open Meetings laws.

The 2026 edition includes a new directive from Attorney General Dave Yost advising public employees not to use apps that automatically delete messages—such as Signal, WhatsApp, or Snapchat—because records are retained based on the content of the record, not the platform it was created or sent on. Auto-deleting messages may violate the Public Records Act since they prevent proper retention and review.

Yost highlights the recent case Ohio v. Wade Steen, et al., in which two State Teachers Retirement System board members used secret, off-record communications about a $65 billion investment. A judge ruled they violated their fiduciary duties and barred them from future board service. Yost writes that such secrecy erodes public trust and harms public institutions.

The Attorney General’s Office also provides free Sunshine Laws training, as does the Auditor of State. In Ohio, public officials (or designees) must complete this training once per elected term, and sessions are open to the public.

A World Without Microfilm: How Local Governments are Leading the Charge in Digital Preservation – Part II

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Following last month’s blog post, this month’s post will discuss the current work that is being done by the Digital Initiatives & Standards Committee (DISC) and what the next steps are for creating a digital preservation guide for the State of Ohio.

DISC has partnered with state records organizations, including the Ohio Electronic Records Committee, the Ohio History Connection, and the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board. In conjunction with these partnerships, DISC has established three subcommittees to determine standards and best practices for electronic records. The Microfilm committee has been tasked to determine the cost-effectiveness and long-term reliability of microfilm. Initial findings include: a significant price increase in microfilm supplies, a lack of product options, the impracticality of microfilm accessibility, and the obsolescence of microfilm equipment and repair.

If local governments decide to forego microfilm as a document preservation option and go the route of digital preservation, the Microfilm Subcommittee recommends the following to be considered:

  • Update retention schedules to reflect retaining electronic media and removing microfilm;
  • Plan to digitize microfilm (priorities, cost, staff, and time);
  • Research and invest in a digital preservation system.

The Minimum Standards Subcommittee has been meeting and working on coming up with digital standards, which include the following objectives:

  • Preferred digital file types (including DPI (dots per inch) and compression standards);
  • Standard and uniform naming conventions of records;
  • Implementing quality control standards when scanning records;
  • Applying sufficient metadata for searchability purposes.

The Security Subcommittee has discussed best practices for the security of electronic records. The following recommendations have been proposed:

  • Access/Restriction to certain records;
  • Understanding the difference between an access copy and a preservation copy, and what electronic document format they should be in;
  • Establishing the security controls for staff and internal/external users
  • Understanding explicitly the contract when dealing with a third-party system;
  • Having a disaster recovery plan in place.

Each of the three subcommittees will be compiling a report to address/review with the entire Digital Initiatives and Standards Committee this year. DISC hopes to have an Archives & Records Administration Permanent Electronic Records Guideline released in 2027. 

A World Without Microfilm: How Local Governments are Leading the Charge in Digital Preservation

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In October 2025, the National Association of Government Archives & Records Administrators (NAGARA) hosted an online forum centered on Advocacy for Archives. Two Ohio Electronic Records Committee members, Tina Ratcliff and Elise Kelly (along with Stephen Badenhop, Director of Archives and Records Manager for Union County, Ohio), co-presented on the future of microfilm and how Ohio’s local governments are adapting to these changes.

The presentation centered on three phases: “How did we get here?” “Where are we now?”, and
“What are we doing to face a future without microfilm?”

For this blog post, we are going to focus on the first phase, “How did we get here?”, and the subsequent blog post will center on phases two and three. Phase one touched upon the usage of microfilm for historical preservation purposes of permanent records. Since the 1950s, Ohio and its local government repositories have utilized microfilm for preserving historical and permanent records.

The obsolescence of microfilm and the emergence of digital records have been frequent topics of discussion among archivists and records managers across the nation for the past couple of years. In addition, supplies and the production of microfilm have become more tenuous in recent years. In 2025, Fuji Film, a major microfilm supplier, announced that it would no longer manufacture microfilm.  Discussing these issues became a focal point at a Spring 2025 Ohio County Archivists & Records Managers Association (CARMA) meeting.

It was determined at this meeting that a committee (the Digital Initiatives & Standards Committee (DISC)) would be formed to create a guide on how to transition from microfilm permanent record preservation to electronic permanent record preservation. DISC’s goal is to “establish best practices, guidelines, and consistent standards for the creation and maintenance of electronic records and to ensure they are retained in a trustworthy, accessible, and reliable manner.”

In next month’s blog post, we will discuss the DISC committee’s current work and projects, and outline the next steps for the digital preservation guide.