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ISSN 1321-6260
December - No. 138

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Office 365 Working Group

NSW State Archives and Records has recently joined a working group of the Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative that will examine Australasian recordkeeping requirements for Microsoft’s Office 365 suite of products. The working group is in the early stages of defining its terms of reference, deciding what outcomes it wants to achieve, looking at existing Office 365 advice and identifying any existing tools which can be reused – including the Checklist for assessing business systems.

If you have experience with implementing Office 365, specifically SharePoint and Teams, or questions about implementing it, we’d like to hear from you. We’re looking at writing best practice guidance or case studies in this area. Pleae contact us at govrec@records.nsw.gov.au

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Records Managers' Forum presentations

The presentations from the November Records Managers' Forum are now available from our website. This includes:

  • Data driven approaches to customer service: What we need to consider
  • How to eat an elephant - Implementing Office 365 in a Government Agency
  • Review of Information Classification, Labelling and Handling Guidelines
  • Transferring records to the State Archives Collection
  • Records Managers Forum Program and Government Recordkeeping Updates
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New resources for implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission

We have a new box in the Resources section of the Government Recordkeeping website. Royal Commissions has a range of resources to assist organisations in implementing the five recordkeeping recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.  There are links to:

  • new guidance developed by the Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities (CAARA) on identifying and retaining records which may become relevant to an actual or alleged incident of child sexual abuse
  • relevant retention and disposal of authorities
  • records management standards
  • online training courses, and  
  • resources for non-government organisations, including new leaflets for raising awareness of good recordkeeping in non-government organisations.
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Webcasting of Council meetings

The Model Code of Meeting Practice for Local Councils 2018 requires that from 14 December 2019 all meetings of the council and committees of the council are to be webcast on the council’s website.  The recordings of Council meetings are records and are covered by the State Records Act 1998. 

To assist Councils, NSW State Archives and Records has information on the Government Recordkeeping website about the retention and disposal of the audio-visual recordings of Council meetings and the Office of Local Government has developed the “Guide to Webcasting Council and Committee Meetings”, see www.olg.nsw.gov.au

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Sentencing records

Sentencing of records has been raised with us as an area that some public offices have difficulties with. We are looking at the possibility of running some sentencing clinics later in 2020. These would not be face to face - we expect more along the lines of a teleconference. At the moment we are trying to gauge interest. If you are interested please email govrec@records.nsw.gov.au to express an interest. Please identify where you are from and what sort of issues you are facing.

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Shutdown period

The Government Recordkeeping will be closed from Monday 23 December 2019 and will re-open on Monday 6 January 2020. If you have any enquiries, please email us at govrec@records.nsw.gov.au or call 9714 3080 and leave a message. We will reply on, or soon after Monday 6 January 2020.

For information on Western Sydney Records Centre’s opening hours over the holiday period, please see:  https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/magazine/christmas/new-year-opening-hours

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New Administrative Requirements Portal

The Department of Premier and Cabinet recently launched a rebuilt Administrative Requirements (ARP) website. Administrative Requirements are whole-of-government administrative directions, policies and guidance to the NSW Government Sector. They are published by five entities:

  • Department of Premier and Cabinet
  • NSW Treasury
  • Department of Customer Service
  • NSW Public Service Commission
  • NSW State Archives and Records

When the platform was launched in 2014, there was limited authoring/auditing functionality, and it did not allow for easy updates or enhanced functionality. The site has been redeveloped with the aim of providing more transparency in the authoring process, as well as being able to enhance functionality as requirements change.

If you have any issues or ideas, please let us know.

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Season's Greeting

 

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