There was a case here in Florida where an employee and his wife were
engaged in a side business.   The county or city was sued by the local
newspapers under the state's public records law for their e-mails.   The
Florida Attorney General ruled that the definition of public records
were those used in the agency's business and therefore these were
private records and not subject to public records laws.   Since the
organization permitted, with reasonableness, the use of computers, etc.
for personal business, it did not automatically make them public records
or owned by the agency.

When my co-worker passed away here, a lot of her work was stored on her
computer which I needed access to, like checking in of daily newspapers,
etc.   I went through heck to get those files as they were viewed as
"her" computer and therefore "her" records.   Finally I was permitted to
go through and separate the electronic files into "her" records (e.g.
family photographs, personal e-mail, etc.) and university records, but
it was clear we had no uniform policy for that.     Employees are given
an "H" drive on the office server and on the university server to store
files but these are viewed as personal and not university records.    

Dean


Dean DeBolt
University Librarian, Special Collections
John C. Pace Library, University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
850-474-2213
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