nsible for taking physical and legal 
custody of and preserving (i.e., protecting and ensuring continuous access to) a creator’s 
inactive records. Be it an outside organization or an in-house unit, the role of the designated 
preserver should be that of a trusted custodian for a creator’s records. To be considered as a 
trusted custodian, the preserver must: 
• 
act as a neutral third party; that is, demonstrate that it has no stake in the content of the records 
and no reason to alter records under its cu