Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

It is with sadness that State Records farewells Amanda (Mandy) Barber. After 38 years with us, Mandy is riding off into the sunset. Mandy joined the then Archives Authority of NSW in February 1978 and worked in a range of technical positions, including being based at Parliament House where she surveyed the records of the […]

The Federal Department of Communications and the Arts has released an exposure draft of  the Copyright  Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures)  Bill  2016 for comment. The proposed changes to the Copyright Act 1968 will have an impact on how public archives and libraries and key cultural institutions, including State Records NSW, handle copyright material. […]

We’re often asked how State Records NSW does digital preservation. Really the defining feature of our approach is its flexibility: we apply a project management-based methodology (the Digital Archives Migration Methodology) to all transfers of digital State archives. This means that we assess, define and document appropriate preservation strategies for each individual transfer (using project […]

A common problem for many organisations is the accumulation of digital records and information in systems which become obsolete. These systems either rely on legacy technology, or are related to non-current business processes. However many of these systems contain high value information, and their poor management can become a significant risk for organisations. Decommissioning is a process by which a […]

In February this year, State Records published some advice on metadata for records and information. This advice gives an overview of metadata for records and information, establishes some principles for implementing metadata for records and information, and discusses what metadata for records and information can achieve. We have revised and updated this advice, and included […]

State Records issued the new Standard on Records Management earlier this year. The new standard provides a streamlined framework designed to better support NSW Government digital business processes in complex environments. Catherine Robinson recently spoke about the new standard at a records and information management conference. Here is some of what Catherine said:

Many organisations across the NSW public sector have well established digital recordkeeping systems. As these systems have been in place for some years, they contain records that are able to be destroyed in accordance with approved retention and disposal authorities. A number of organisations have recently contacted us to discuss the requirements for keeping metadata […]

This morning Catherine Robinson from State Records spoke at Akolade’s Cloud Services in Local Government conference in Sydney. This conference aimed to illustrate how local councils can successfully procure, implement and manage ‘as a service’ cloud platforms. Catherine’s talk focussed on the considerations for records and information management when using cloud services. Catherine talked about: […]

Last week we had our regular Digital Implementers group meeting. As usual, a diverse group attended from across government. There was a lively discussion around the various implementation challenges the organisations are facing, as well as discussion of data migration and decommissioning challenges, and management accountabilities for information.

Recently, State Records staff attended a very informative session hosted by the NSW Privacy Commissioner, Dr Elizabeth Coombs. This “Privacy Matters” event was held to mark Privacy Awareness Week, which is an initiative supported by the Asia Pacific Privacy Awareness forum. State Records had a stand at the forum in conjunction with staff from NSW […]