P.R. Laws tit. 3, § 1001
For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning stated below:
(a) Document. — The word document shall include any paper, book, pamphlet, photograph, film, microfilm, magnetic tape, map, drawing, plan, record, video disk or any other material read by machine and any other informative material, regardless of its physical form or characteristics. It also includes materials generated electronically even though they may never be printed on paper or other media different from the originally created one. Publications and bibliographical or museum material acquired for public viewing, consultation, or other related purposes, are not included in the definition of the word document.
(b) Public document. — Any document which originates, or is kept or received in any dependency of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico according to the law or in relation to the management of public affairs and that pursuant to the provisions of § 1002 of this title is required to be permanently or temporarily preserved as evidence of transactions or for its legal value. It includes those documents produced electronically which meet the requirements established by law and regulations.
(c) Private document. — Any document not included in the foregoing definition.
(d) Archives. — The General Archives of Puerto Rico.
(e) Archivist. — The General Archivist of Puerto Rico.
(f) Commonwealth. — The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including its municipalities.
(g) Dependency. — Shall include every department, agency or corporate entity, board, committee, body, bureau, office and every other government body of the three (3) branches of the Commonwealth Government and the municipalities.
(h) Educational or cultural entity. — Includes, without it being understood as a limitation [an exclusive list], a university, library, foundation, institute, trust, association, partnership or nonprofit corporation devoted to teaching, research or furthering cultural, artistic and scientific development.
(i) Commission. — The General Archives Advisory Commission.
(j) Program Administrator. — The official designated by this chapter to administer and regulate the Public Documents Administration Program in his jurisdiction, and who is empowered to make special appointments of Documents Administrator, after consulting and receiving recommendations from the heads of the dependencies.
(k) Documents Administrator. — The employee who is responsible for administering the Documents Administration Program in his respective dependency.
(l) Documents Administration. — Is the planning, control, direction, organization, training, promotion and other administrative activities related to the creation, use and conservation of documents, as well as to their disposition.
History —Dec. 8, 1955, No. 5, p. 78, § 3; June 4, 1979, No. 63, p. 126, § 1; Aug. 26, 1992, No. 49, § 5; Nov. 10, 1992, No. 91, § 1; Aug. 7, 1998, No. 188, § 29; Oct. 18, 1999, No. 317, § 1.