This book provides retention guidance for records maintained by cities, towns, villages, and other self-governing municipal entities in the United States.

Retention of Municipal Records: Best Practices covers the various types of municipal records that local governments handle. Each record has its own minimum retention and regulation practices. This book helps municipal workers and records handlers understand the retention guidelines for each type of record, and also gives guidance for best practices.

For each type of municipal record covered, the following information is be included:

Overview: Each entry defines the records to be covered and summarizes their purpose and most important characteristics.
Legal and regulatory recordkeeping requirements: Federal, state and local laws and regulations that prescribe retention periods for municipal records are cited and explained.

Applicable statutes of limitations that may affect retention of municipal records deemed relevant for litigation, government investigations, and other legal proceedings: While it is not required to consider statutes of limitations when establishing retention periods, it is widely considered prudent to do so.

Operational value: The need to retain the records to support municipal operations is be explained.

Scholarly value that warrants permanent preservation: A subset of municipal records contain information of interest to historians and other researchers.

Archival regulations: In most states, archival entities or agencies with records management authority specify minimum retention periods for municipal records. The book summarizes and discusses these minimum retention requirements.

Best practices: Each entry concludes with a summary and analysis of factors that must be considered in retention decisions. Where appropriate a retention period is recommended.