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ISSN 1321-6260
April 2022 - Number 152

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Keyword AAA and Keyword for Councils

Keyword AAA and Keyword for Councils are two records management thesauri developed by NSW State Archives and Records. These products are widely used within NSW Government and other government jurisdictions.

NSW State Archives and Records has decided to discontinue the sale of Keyword AAA and Keyword for Councils and to make both products freely available for download and use from our website under a creative commons licence. See the Keyword AAA and Keyword for Councils webpages for copies of the products. This does not affect the status of licence agreements held by licence holders in NSW and other jurisdictions. Licence holders may continue to use Keyword AAA or Keyword for Councils and are not required to destroy or return any copies to NSW State Archives and Records. We will be contacting all licence holders during May and June 2022 about the new arrangements.

If you have any queries about the new arrangements, please contact us at govrec@records.nsw.gov.au

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Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise

Thank you to all the public offices that participated in this year’s Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise. We have received a very good response to the first annual reporting exercise.

A summary level report of results of the monitoring exercise will be published on our website and in our Annual Report in the first quarter of 2022-23. Public offices will also be able to access their submission and associated reports in the new Monitoring Portal from July 2022.

We will contact all public offices to advise when the reports are available and provide further information on accessing the Monitoring Portal.

The next Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise will be held in March 2023.

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Upcoming Webinar on Records Information and Data Risks

Do you often think “Where do I begin?” when undertaking risk assessments for your records, information and data activities?  If so, please join us for our webinar on:    

Risks in managing records, information and data within business systems

Date: Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Time: 10.30am – 11.30am

The focus of this webinar will be on:

  • identifying possible risks
  • what makes these risks (i.e. what are the threats and weaknesses?)
  • possible responses to these risks.

Please register here. The Microsoft Teams link will be emailed on the day.

    Please note: these webinars will be covering general information risks that are common across all public offices.

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    Notification of Damaged or Destroyed Records

    In recent months we have been contacted by public offices who have had records severely damaged or destroyed in the recent floods and the Wickham Wool Store fire. As per the Standard on the physical storage of State records, please notify us if you have damaged or lost records from these (or any other events) at govrec@records.nsw.gov.au. We are committed to supporting public offices through the legislation to understand obligations and options for managing these types of unanticipated events.

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    Review of the Building the Archives policy

    We are currently reviewing the Building the Archives: policy on records appraisal and the identification of State archives.  The policy has not been formally reviewed since its publication in 2001 although given its nature it remains flexible and interpretable through time to meet the changing needs and expectations from the community.

    If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about the policy or the review process, please contact Irene Chymyn on 9714 3087 or email irene.chymyn@records.nsw.gov.au

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    Agency Services Update

    Our new Public Office Service Portal is live! The Agency Services team would like to pass on an enthusiastic thank you to all of the public office staff who assisted us with development ideas and user testing of the Service Portal. The portal is now live and can be used to submit general enquires, search registered series’, request new series registrations, and propose record transfers in all formats.

    We have seen a number of transfers successfully authorised through the portal already and are excited to continue to improve the transfer experience for you all as we refine and enhance the procedures.

    Agency Services is now updating the advice, links, and fact sheets available on our website to support using the portal. Advice around transfer can be accessed here.

    We are also available to provide training and support with the new Portal. If you or your team would like a demonstration of the Portal, please don’t hesitate to contact us via the address below. We can facilitate online or face to face set up and training.

    Agency Services is available to provide advice and assistance to all Public Offices with the transfer of material into the State Archives Collection. If you have any questions, please contact us via transfer@records.nsw.gov.au

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    Records Managers Forum March 2022

    The recordings and presentation from the online Forum held on 31 March are available from our website. This includes:

    • An update by Adam Lindsay, CEO of NSW State Archives and Records and Sydney Living Museums, on the review of the State Records Act 1998 and the proposed establishment of a history focused cultural institution: Museums of History NSW.  (A pdf of the White Paper on the review of the State Records Act is also available from this page).
    • Gillian Wood, Director of Information & Records Management at Transport for NSW, on Transport for NSW's journey with records management in Microsoft 365
    • Kristy Tiberi, Agency Services – NSW State Archives and Records Authority: a demonstration of the Public Office Portal which streamlines the records transfer process from public offices to the State Archives Collection
    • Catherine Robinson, Recordkeeping Standards and Advice – NSW State Archives and Records Authority, on the Record Monitoring Assessment Tool (RMAT) portal for public offices and the recordkeeping monitoring exercise.
    • Updates from Andrew Pickles, Manager – Recordkeeping Standards and Advice on the SCARP Digitisation Project and Recordkeeping Standards and Advice.
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    Results – Microsoft 365 Survey

    Thank you to the public offices who completed the recent M365 survey.

    Key findings:

    • Most public offices are using an E3 licence
    • All public offices use the following applications: Office 365; Outlook; Microsoft Teams
    • Nearly all public offices are using SharePoint and OneDrive
    • Public offices vary in records/information management strategy (i.e., in-place records management; EDRMS integration; third party apps; etc.)
    • Many public offices are transitioning from shared drives to M365 or EDRMS
    • Numerous public offices are not confident in managing records disposal, or non-migrated content in M365

    Request for additional guidance/webinar on:

    • Disposal of records – how to comply (reviewing processes for the disposal of records; correct documentation for the disposal of records)
    • Recordkeeping in Microsoft Teams
    • Recordkeeping practices in OneDrive and SharePoint
    • Version control
    • Public office case-study on recordkeeping in M365

    From the outcomes of this survey and feedback from the recent Records Managers’ Online Forum, we intend to host another M365 case study webinar later this year with a greater focus on the requested guidance.

    The results of the M365 survey are available to download.

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    Information Awareness Month 2022

    Information Awareness Month is a collaborative event between various bodies within the records, archives, library, knowledge, information, and data management communities. This year's theme Building Trust in Information will focus on trusted information which enables individuals, businesses, and government to make informed decisions that can be relied upon. From day-to-day operational decisions to ensuring that we have accurate and representative records of our history and society. Information Awareness Month 2022 highlights the importance of trust in information across all aspects of business and life, from the people to the technology. More detail about events is available from the National Archives of Australia website and the RIMPA website.

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    Disposal authorities approved

    The Board of the State Archives and Records Authority of NSW recently approved the following records retention and disposal authorities:

    • National parks and wildlife
    • Liquor, gaming, casino and racing regulation.

    Copies of disposal authorities are available from our website.

     

     

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