The purpose of the City Archives is to retain permanently any city records that have or will have administrative, legal, or historical value either to city government itself or to researchers, scholars, political scientists, urban specialists, and other interested members of the public. (See Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, 94:36-41.) These records should be retained by the creating agencies for any legally mandated period or as long as they are administratively useful. Once their legal retention period has expired and/or they are no longer needed for the day-to-day operation of the agency, the permanently valuable records should be transferred to the City Archives.

Records retention schedules, tailored to specific types of records held in individual City of New Orleans departments and officially approved by the Louisiana State Archives' Records Management Department, currently exist for only a few departments. Those agencies that do have approved retention schedules should refer to those schedules to determine which records are suitable for transfer to the City Archives. Agencies that do not have approved retention schedules must first consult with the Archivist before transferring any records to the City Archives. No unscheduled records may be transferred to the City Archives until they are at least 3 years old.

Contact Information:
Irene Wainwright, Archivist
City Archives | New Orleans Public Library
504 596-2610 | IWainwright@neworleanspubliclibrary.org