Short answer. A certified copy is enough. Rule 130, Section 8 provides that when the original of a document is in the custody of a public officer or recorded in a public office, its contents may be proved by a certified copy issued by the public officer who has custody of it.
What the law says
When the original of a document is in the custody of a public officer or is recorded in a public office, its contents may be proved by a certified copy issued by the public officer in custody thereof.
Rule 130, Section 8 — Evidence admissible when original document is a public record. Read the full provision →
Why public records get their own rule
Requiring the actual physical removal of an original public record from government custody every time it becomes relevant to a private case would disrupt the public office's ongoing use of that record. Section 8 addresses this by allowing an alternative to physically producing the original. It also spares the requesting party the burden of obtaining a court order compelling a government office to release an original document from its files, which could otherwise take considerable time to secure. Government offices generally cannot function if their original records could be pulled out for every private litigant who needs to reference them in a lawsuit.
The certified copy alternative
Where the original is in the custody of a public officer, or is recorded in a public office, its contents may instead be proved by a certified copy issued by the public officer who has custody of it. The certification is what substitutes for producing the original itself in court. The certification itself is what gives the copy its evidentiary weight, distinguishing it from an uncertified photocopy that would not satisfy this section's requirement on its own. A copy that has not been certified by the custodian, even if it looks accurate, does not carry this same evidentiary weight under the section. This alternative binds proof of the document's contents specifically; it does not, on its own, establish that the underlying public record itself was validly issued or entered in the first place.
What this means in practice
If you need to prove the contents of something like an official government record, you generally do not need to secure the original document itself — requesting a certified true copy from the custodian public officer, and offering that certified copy in evidence, satisfies Section 8's requirement. This is the standard route for proving matters such as government-issued records or documents kept in official custody by a public office, rather than by a private individual or entity. This applies broadly to records such as land titles, civil registry entries, and other documents that government offices routinely maintain in their custody.