Shortly after noon Friday, Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law the first major overhaul of the state’s public records law in more than 40 years.

Along with requiring state agencies, cities and towns designate records officers to field requests, the new law requires public agencies to provide requested public records within 10 business days, while allowing for extensions beyond that deadline capped at five business days from the original request for a state agency and 15 for a municipality.

Public agencies are encouraged under the law to make electronic public records more readily available to requesters if they are already in electronic formats, and to limit the costs public entities may charge for making copies or for employee time spent assembling records.