(a) Local governments must ensure that the reliability, integrity, and usability of information is not lost prior to its authorized destruction date because of changing technology or media deterioration through periodic checking and maintaining the state of electronic storage media, converting electronic storage media or file format, and taking other action as required to provide compatibility with current hardware and software. The migration strategy for upgrading equipment as technology evolves must be documented and include:
  (1) periodically recopying to the same electronic media as required, and/or transferring of data from an obsolete technology to a supportable technology; and
  (2) providing backward compatibility to the data in old systems, and/or converting data to media that the system upgrade and/or replacement can support.
(b) The storage areas for electronic storage media must be maintained in environments without high levels of airborne particulates and within the following temperatures and relative humidities:
  (1) For magnetic media--65 degrees Fahrenheit to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and 30% to 50% relative humidity;
  (2) For optical disks--14 degrees Fahrenheit to 74 degrees Fahrenheit, and 20% to 50% relative humidity.
(c) Electronic storage media that cannot meet the requirements of subsection (a) of this section may not be used for the exclusive storage of electronic records subject to this subchapter.
(d) Additionally, if electronic storage media is used to store permanent electronic records, local governments must maintain any metadata and media-specific information necessary to access the records.
(e) The following standards must be met for electronic records stored as digital images on electronic storage media:
  (1) A visual quality control evaluation must be performed on a representative sample of scanned images and related index data. A representative sample must be at least 10% of the total scanned images.
  (2) A scanning density with a minimum of 200 dots per inch is required for recording text documents that contain no type font smaller than six point.
  (3) A scanning density with a minimum of 300 dots per inch is required for engineering drawings, maps, and other text documents with background detail.
  (4) The selected scanning density must be validated with tests on actual text documents.
(f) A local government must prohibit smoking, drinking, and eating in areas containing electronic storage media.

Source Note: The provisions of this §7.76 adopted to be effective March 12, 1993, 18 TexReg 1271; amended to be effective October 2, 1995, 20 TexReg 7484; amended to be effective August 31, 2021, 46 TexReg 5389