County Records Center

An essential tool each county office has to manage its records is the County Records Center and Archives. If an office finds that it does not have available space for all its paper records or that it is not necessary for its long-term, inactive records to be stored on site, there is storage space available to them at the Records Center and Archives.

The Records Center and Archives alleviates space and storage problems, provides economical storage, security retrieval and disposal for semi-active, inactive and archival records. It is the only legally authorized facility for storage and retrieval of records removed from the office of origin under Ohio Revise Code Section 149.351.

The Records Center and Archives has a 48,000+ cubic foot capacity. It uses steel shelving and standardized storage container boxes in order to use its space in the most efficient manner possible. A computerized indexing system enables the staff to quickly respond to over 70,000 retrievals annually requested via telephone, email and walk-in customers.

The Records Center and Archives is under the direction of the County Records and Information Manager. Any county office, agency or department may store records in the Records Center and Archives. Offices must contact the County Records and Information Manager in advance of any physical transfer. All records to be transferred must be listed on a Records Retention Schedule approved by the County Records Commission. The Records Center and Archives is considered to be an extension of the office of origin only for the purposes of storing and preserving records.

Offices and agencies not funded through the General Fund are charged according to a general rate schedule adopted by the Microfilming Board. Non-county governmental offices may also contract with the county for this service. The cost of storing records in the Records Center for retrieval is generally less than 10% of the cost of storing records in filing equipment in prime, newer space in county buildings.

Although records may be in the physical custody of the Records Center, legal custody is maintained by the office of origin. The Records Center staff will not do any docketing or other annotation on a record for the office of origin and cannot answer questions concerning the legal meaning of the contents or disposition of the record. When records are transferred, they are still available to the office of origin for reference and research. Fulfilling records requests from county offices is the top priority of the Records Center.

In order to prevent the facility from outgrowing its capacity, the Records Center uses imaging and each office's Records Retention Schedule to aggressively and judiciously implement the Records Retention and Disposal Policy. All records transferred to the Records Center must be listed on a Records Retention Schedule approved by the County Records Commission. Any records eligible for destruction will not be accepted by the Records Center. The office should contact the County Records and Information Manager to file a Certificate of Records Disposal in order to destroy such records.