A. Can the requester choose a format for receiving records?

Yes. In Tax Data Corp. v. Hutt, 826 P.2d 353 (Colo. App. 1991) the Colorado Court of Appeals held the Open Records Act does not permit the public to dictate the format in which information will be transmitted, it only guarantees the public's right to access information that is a matter of public record "in a form which is reasonably accessible and which does not alter the contents of the information." Applying this standard, the court upheld regulations denying public access to government-owned computer terminals or magnetic computer tapes, but requiring that the information on those computers be transmitted to the requester in another "reasonably accessible" format (either orally, on microfiche, or computer printout). These regulations, ruled the court, do not deny access to the electronically stored information but merely regulate the manner of access to that information.

Subsequent to the decision above, in 1996, the General Assembly enacted legislation requiring custodians of "records kept only in miniaturized or digital form" to adopt a policy for retention, archiving, and destruction of such records and to "take such measures as are reasonably necessary to assist the public in locating any specific record or public records sought and to ensure public access to the records without reasonable delay or unreasonable cost." Included in the measures suggested is "the provision of portable disk copies of computer files . . . or direct electronic access via online bulletin boards or other means." Colo.Rev.Stat. § 24-72-203(1)(b).