World War I, Mosman 1914-1918 and metadata September 27, 2012 No Comments
Doing our bit, Mosman 1914-1918
In August Cassie, Richard and I attended a Build-a-thon workshop at Mosman Library. To commemorate the centenary of World War I, Mosman Library is creating a rich online collection of materials about the war experiences of Mosman residents. The Build-a-thon was led by Dr Tim Sherratt, a digital historian, web developer and cultural data hacker and he and the passionate team at the Library are doing some brilliant thinking to consider how wonderful personal papers, official archival records, photographs and other information about the impact of the war on Mosman and its residents can be really opened up and made accessible online. Read the rest of this entry »
State Records survey on electronic document and records management system (EDRMS) use in NSW government: report September 24, 2012 2 Comments
Image by t.magnum at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickperez/2569423078/
On 31 August State Records sent out a survey request to all its recipients of the For The Record newsletter, asking them to complete a short survey on Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) use in NSW government.
This informal information survey ran for 2 weeks, until 12 September. 62 responses were received from across all areas of government, with the majority of responses from local government (37%) and government agencies (34%). The remaining responses were distributed evenly between the Health sector, the University sector and State owned corporations.
State Records undertook the survey as part of its regular information gathering activities which help to track trends and issues in government recordkeeping. EDRMS were the focus of this information survey because they are a widely used business system in government but there is little consolidated data that tracks what specific types of EDRMS are being used and how widely these are being used across organisations.
While the survey does not contain definitive data, it has given State Records some really useful information to use in its planning and guidance development processes. Read the rest of this entry »
Goodbye Janet! September 18, 2012 No Comments
Janet 2012
It is with sadness that State Records farewells Janet Knight. After working at State Records for 22 excellent years, Janet has decided to move on to a very exciting job in the Commonwealth government. We wish her all the very, very best for her exciting future but we will miss her! Read the rest of this entry »
Digital recordkeeping enquiries at State Records NSW, August 2012 September 11, 2012 2 Comments
Each month we report on the digital recordkeeping enquiries we receive in the Government Recordkeeping area at State Records. We want to share information about what recordkeeping issues are being discussed in the NSW public sector, publish the advice we are giving to government agencies about digital recordkeeping issues, help others who may be facing similar issues, and open up our advice to broader scrutiny and feedback. If you have opinions on what we say then please, please don’t hesitate to tell us!
This month we have had a host of enquiries and what is interesting is the very wide range of topics that these enquiries covered. Business systems, social media, websites, digital signatures, the cloud, shared drives, PDF/A – read on, there is something for everyone! Read the rest of this entry »
Metadata 2012 at ICA 2012 #ICA_2012 September 4, 2012 2 Comments
ICA Congress photo
At the end of August Janet and I, as well as several other colleagues, attended the excellent International Council on Archives (ICA) 2012 Congress in Brisbane. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, chatting with and learning from 1000 other archivists from 95 countries around the world. (Drink. *)
The ICA Congress only runs once every four years and so it is a very significant event in the international recordkeeping calendar. As a result it is chock-a-block with content. Seven parallel conference sessions ran every half an hour for nearly the full three days of the conference, as speakers reported on recordkeeping developments from across the globe.
Full papers of virtually all presentations are available via the Congress website at but here I am going to report on some of the conference sessions I attended that focussed on metadata in one tangential way or another.
As one conference delegate put it, it all comes down to metadata and, to me at least, the significance of metadata to all aspects of the recordkeeping endeavour was a really interesting theme that emerged through the conference. Read the rest of this entry »
Gold for the staff at State Records! August 30, 2012 No Comments
We are delighted to report that the work of State Records NSW was recently recognised in a number of professional awards.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/plashingvole/7752237728/
We are all in this together – information professionals collaborating to combat information risk August 16, 2012 2 Comments
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkpublic/2366197687/
Yesterday I spoke at the NSW Right to Information/Privacy Practitioners Network at the lovely Parliament House Theatrette. The Practitioners Network is a really fantastic network of professionals who meet to share information about GIPA (Government Information Public Access) and privacy matters that affect those working in the NSW public sector.
Also speaking this morning was William Murphy from the Department of Finance and Services about the NSW government’s new ICT Strategy. My presentation followed William’s and focussed on what information professionals can do to help implement the ICT Strategy across government, and what we can do to minimise the information risks that are threatening government business information.
Digital archives team drops its warez on Github August 10, 2012 No Comments
When State Records started building a whole of government digital archive for New South Wales, we committed to publishing new software developed for the project as free and open source software. We rely heavily on software and web services shared freely by members of the digital preservation community, such as the PRONOM technical registry from the National Archives (UK) and Xena from the National Archives of Australia. We hope, in turn, that the software we publish will prove of use, or of interest, to others.
Why develop new digital preservation tools? We have been conscious of the importance of not ‘re-inventing the wheel’ and, wherever possible, are adopting or adapting existing tools. This avoids waste, pools resources, and means we can take advantage of the great software that is already available. However we do require a software solution which supports our general approach to digital preservation (see /digital-archive/) and this demands:
- a flexible workflow solution that can be customised for each digital archives migration project
- a flexible approach to file format conversion that can be adapted according to the needs of each digital archives migration project
- and a flexible approach to managing metadata.
Accordingly we are developing three key tools: the Digital Archives Workflow Controller, the Digital Archives Preservation Pathways Registry, and the Digital Archives Metadata Registry. These are made available (in beta) under the GNU General Public License (version 3) on State Records’ Github repository. Read the rest of this entry »
State Records congratulates Barbara Reed on national Standards Australia award August 7, 2012 No Comments
Barbara Reed at Standards Australia ceremony, 1 June 2012 (Barbara is fourth from the right)
We are extremely pleased to report that Barbara Reed’s enormous contribution to records management standards development has been officially recognised by Standards Australia. On 1 June 2012 Barbara was awarded the Meritorious Contribution Award (International) at ceremony in Melbourne.
Barbara has worked exceptionally hard over many years on the development of international records management standards. Having been one of the key developers of the Australian Standard on records management, AS 4390, Barbara chaired the international working group that translated AS 4390 into the first ever international records management standard, ISO 15489-1:2001 Records management – Part 1: General and ISO/TR 15489-1:2001 Records management – Part 2: Guidelines. ISO 15489 is now used by fifty countries across the world and has been translated into 15 languages.
Key digital recordkeeping enquiries July 2012 August 2, 2012 No Comments
This post is part of a new series where we report on some key digital recordkeeping enquiries received each month and the responses given. We hope that this information can assist others in managing their digital recordkeeping challenges. If you have feedback on the advice we have given or if you have additional suggestions, we would love to hear it.
It’s been another busy month for enquiries! Lots of organisations are being really proactive about assessing their business systems, managing business risks and understanding their requirements to make and keep records in the digital business environment.
This month we have featured some enquiries on digital ways of doing business, digital disposal, compliance with the Standard on digital recordkeeping , the definition of records and retention periods, SharePoint, cloud computing and the ever popular digitisation.
