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.