For the Record April 2018

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ISSN 1321-6260
April 2018 - Number 128

Disposal of source records that have been migrated

The Board of the State Archives and Records Authority of NSW recently approved amendments to the General retention and disposal authority: source records that have been migrated. 

The main change is the removal of the requirement for the digital source records to be maintained for a minimum period of 6 months after the success of the migration has been confirmed. The authority still requires the source records to be retained for a sufficient length of time after migration to enable appropriate quality assurance checks to be undertaken and confirmation that the migration has been successful. Public offices will need to undertake an organisational risk assessment to determine an appropriate retention period. This will enable public offices to determine retention requirements for source records or data on a case by case or project by project basis, consistent with the risks associated with the business process and size and complexity of the migration process.

Advice on implementation of the authority has also been updated. See Migrating records: managing source records after migration. 

The suggested retention period of 6 months for original or source records that have been copied, has also been removed from the General retention and disposal authority: original or source records that have been copied (GA45). 

Proposed code of best practice for records management

NSW State Archives and Records has been consulting with public offices on the proposed new code of best practice to be issued under section 13 of the State Records Act 1998. Codes of best practice are documents which codify and describe best practice, functioning as a benchmark against which an organisation can measure its practices and systems. Although they are not designed for a formal auditing framework, failure to comply would leave a public office open to criticism in an investigation where recordkeeping practices were an issue.

Currently the Australian Standard on records management, AS ISO 15489 2002, is issued as a code of best practice under the State Records Act. It has been replaced by a new Australian Standard: AS ISO 15489.1: 2017 Information and documentation – Records management, Part 1: Concepts and principles.

The new Australian Standard is a concise, contemporary representation of recordkeeping practice, with an emphasis on the digital environment. It represents national best practice and is the Australian codification of the new international standard on records management, ISO 15489.1, approved in 2016.  Further information about the new standard is provided in the presentation from the recent Records Managers Forum available from the Future Proof blog.   

Thank you to those who have provided feedback. Please contact Catherine Robinson, Senior Project Officer, Government Recordkeeping at catherine.robinson@staterecords.nsw.gov.au for further information.

New exhibition: Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders 

Our latest exhibition Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders was launched by the Premier Gladys Berejiklian on 23 April at the Whitlam Institute.

Blaze engages with the finding that a significant leadership gap continues to exist between women and men in public life. Through a study of a selection of women working in different policy fields from the 1860s to the present, Blaze sheds insights into the challenges and opportunities that women have faced building professional careers in the NSW public sphere. An e-catalogue and selection of interviews are available from our website. The exhibition is at the Whitlam Institute until 27 July 2018.

Recent Future Proof blogposts

NSW State Archives and Records uses its Future Proof blog to post information about current digital recordkeeping issues. On the blog we road-test new ideas, distribute new information and initiate discussion on digital recordkeeping issues. Recent posts include:

• Presentations and podcasts from the March 2018 Records Managers' Forum are now available
• Using auto-classification to classify unmanaged records
• Reducing file share dependencies: the Aboriginal Housing Office’s approach
• Case Study – Internal Pilot – Machine Learning and Records Management
• Top digital trends affecting records, information and content management
• 'Recordkeeping by design’ – opportunities for local government

​Training 

The following training is being offered in April :

• 8-9 May (Western Sydney Records Centre, Kingswood) - Records Management Fundamentals
• 5-6 June (Queens Square, Sydney) - Records Management Fundamentals
• 2 May (Orange) - Implementing a Retention and Disposal Authority for Local Government Records
• 15 May (Cessnock)  - Implementing a Retention and Disposal Authority for Local Government Records

Disposal authorities approved

NSW State Archives and Records recently approved disposal authorities for the Dams Safety Committee.

Copies of our retention and disposal authorities are available from the Retention and disposal authorities page on our website.