WSA officials believe they lack the resources necessary to do more than maintain the existing program.

We believe WSA should adopt approaches that assist government agencies in managing their own records.

Although the Wyoming State Archives is a small program within state government, it has significant impact on all government functions and ultimately, on all citizens that government serves.  This program serves as a central resource to assist citizens as well as government officials to identify, locate, and make accessible government information. 

In the course of our research, we found areas in which this program could be improved, and have discussed those in the preceding chapters.  Among those are the program’s needs to develop a viable electronic records program, enhance training for records creators, and better support its microfilming resources.  WSA officials with whom we worked in preparing this report will likely agree that more can be done in these areas, but they believe they lack the resources to do more than maintain the existing program.

However, we believe the magnitude of the impact of electronic records is such that WSA should change its focus from maintaining the existing program.  Instead, it must evaluate its current practices in the context of the new records environment.  Along those lines, we recommend that WSA assess the way it provides its services and adopt approaches that assist government agencies in managing their own records.  As electronic records become more prevalent, it is not possible for WSA to oversee records management in every agency and political subdivision.  Therefore, WSA officials must rethink how the program will provide record management services in the future, and take the steps necessary to move forward.

We believe that the Legislature, through the Management Audit Committee, should monitor WSA actions to ensure that these issues are addressed.  If necessary, statutory changes are a means to ensure a program reorientation that meets future records management needs.