In Fall 2019, GovQA conducted its first survey to gather opinions from state and local agencies on their public records priorities for the upcoming year — 2020. No one could have anticipated the extreme challenges thrown at us in less than two years: a global pandemic, civil unrest, election uncertainties, impacts of extreme weather — and how these world-rocking events would change the landscape of public records request processing for years to come.
Three (3) Years of
Public Records Managers' Priorities
2020 PiPRSurvey
60% of all respondents marked “Meeting Time Deadlines” (the time allowed by law for request response) as their highest priority for 2020. Several respondents commented that the state laws do not provide enough time for processing of the increasingly complex requests – especially those requiring eDiscovery or video and audio redaction.
2021 PiPRSurvey
In the second annual PiPRSurvey, conducted in late 2020, the more than 300 responses (from public records custodians working in 257 unique agencies across the country) shed light on the priorities which are top of mind for agencies for 2021 across the country at each level of government.
2022 PiPRSurvey
We can look back and see that many of the priorities we asked about last year are still relevant. As we look back at 2020-2021, and evaluate the present and future for emerging trends, we have added new issues to the mix for the 2022 survey.