State Archivist
Terry Ketelsen

Terry Ketelsen is the manager of the Information/Archival Services unit. This unit, also referred to as the Colorado State Archives, provides professional archival and records management services to state and local government agencies across Colorado. These services include statewide oversight of how long paper and electronic records are to be retained, approval for the destruction of public records, preservation of important government information, providing public access to the state's archival records and the content management of the state homepage. The unit has only 8 FTE and is funded by a mix of general and cash funds.

The small size of the Information/Archival Services staff makes it imperative that staff is cross-trained in most of the daily operations that occur. The challenge of providing professional and technical assistance to nearly 3000 public offices statewide, and to the general public on daily basis makes customer service a high priority and a necessity if we are to meet the customer's needs and expectations. Without the dedication and sacrifice from our employees, our ability to maintain high service level expectations would be diminished.

In order to better communicate with our customers via the Internet, the Archives has been moving forward to place archival record indexes and documents on the Colorado Home Page so that citizens and agencies can view from home what records are available for their use without having to drive into Denver to make this determination. Another significant effort the Information/Archival Services unit is continuing with is posting government record retention requirements on the Internet so that agencies and the public will have a quicker and broader access to how long public records are retained. These efforts have met with good customer acceptance and will be further expanded in FY2009.

Terry is a native of Colorado and began his career with state government in 1963 working summers and holidays at the State Archives while in college. Upon graduating from the University of Northern Colorado with a bachelor and masters degree in Economic Geography he was inducted into the US Army Military Intelligence Corps, and served as a military intelligence officer/document specialist in the Mekong Delta area of South Vietnam from 1970-1971. After leaving the service Terry returned to working at the State Archives and was appointed to the State Archivist position in 1987. He and his wife Lois currently reside in Northglenn where he serves as the chair for the city's zoning board.