The information drawn up by or submitted to a Swedish public authority largely consists of public records.
Records (handlingar) by definition in Swedish law are everything that contains some kind of information, for example text, pictures or electronic files. Records are public if they meet the criteria in the Swedish constitution, Freedom of the Press Act, "tryckfrihetsförordningen". This is part of "offentlighetsprincipen", the principle of public access to official records, which can be described as the Swedish Freedom of Information Act.
For more information about public records, look at the guide Public records.
Some public records must be preserved, others may be discarded, this is regulated by law and by instructions from the Swedish national archives, Riksarkivet.
The records that are preserved constitute the archives of the public authority.
For more information about archives, look at the guide Archives - what is it and why do we have it?
The records are either enterd into a register or filed using other methods. The most common practice for records that require registration is that they are handled by the Registrar's office and entered into the public authority's general register for public records, "diarium".
The records who don't require registration are filed and listed in an archival inventory. The paper files are generally stored in one of the central archives, there is one located at each campus. Electronic records are stored in the university's e-archive.
For more information about what archiving involves, how to prepare records for transfer to the archives and practical information about discarding records, look at the guide Archiving Public Records.
More information in Swedish can be found at Mid Sweden University's Swedish webbsite and by contacting the university's registrars and records manager.
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