Transferring Legal Custody to NARA
When permanent records
stored at the Washington
National Records Center (WNRC) are scheduled for transfer
to the National Archives
and Records Administration (NARA), a partially completed Standard
Form 258 (SF-258), Agreement to Transfer Records to the National
Archives of the United States is forwarded to your agency.
The SF-258 documents the change in legal custody of the records
and states the terms of the transfer. The NIH
Records Management Officer (RMO) and the IC
Records Liaison work together to complete the form and return
it to the federal records center (FRC).
While records are stored at the FRC, they continue to be owned
by the agency that transferred them. Therefore, during this time,
your agency would continue to be responsible for responding to
any congressional inquiries or Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests. However, once an SF-258 is executed, the records become
the legal property of NARA. Your office will no longer own the
records and therefore will not be responsible for them. Any requests
to access the records are now governed by NARA rules and regulations.
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