Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

We have recently received a number of enquiries about managing records in specific systems used to support various business activities. These systems range from fleet management systems to child care management systems to fundraising support systems.

These systems contain a mix of data input by users, data imported from other systems and scanned documents (e.g. reports, invoices etc.)

Each of the organisations that contacted us also has a dedicated recordkeeping system (EDRMS) in their organisation. Their question for us boiled down to “What can we manage in our fleet management/child care management/fundraising support system and what do we need to extract and manage in our EDRMS?” In making this decision, there are a number of factors that need to be considered. Read the rest of this entry »

In light of recent media coverage of possible inappropriate deletion of Ministerial emails in Queensland, we would like to remind NSW public offices that email messages sent and received in the course of official business are State records under the State Records Act 1998 (the Act). This includes messages sent and received by Ministers in the course of their official duties. It also includes messages relating to any aspect of official (government) business coming from private email accounts. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this month a small contingent from State Archives and Records NSW enjoyed a day travelling to Canberra to discuss appraisal, sentencing and all things machine learning with our colleagues from the National Archives of Australia (NAA). Glenn Humphries from our Digital State Archives team is undertaking research into machine learning which will be published later this month on Future Proof.

NAA are trialling automated disposal using their functional disposal authority with data from their EDRMS. They need to make sentencing of digital records as easy as possible as their annual survey Check-up has shown that agencies are not routinely implementing disposal authorities to destroy digital records or to transfer digital national archives. They have also found an occasional unfortunate perception that digital records may not need to be sentenced as in the digital space you can “keep it all”. Read the rest of this entry »

State Archives and Records NSW advises that high risk business areas in each organisation should be priorities for information management activity. By identifying its high risk business areas, an organisation can identify and mitigate any information-related risks these areas might face.

At last week’s meeting of the Digital Implementers Group, the members talked about how they have been identifying, assessing and mitigating information risks. The discussion revealed the practical ways in which organisations are considering recordkeeping through a risk management prism.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here at State Archives and Records NSW, we love hearing stories of success/failures in recordkeeping – systems implementations, business process improvements, innovative solutions, etc.

The OneTRIM program which was recently implemented in the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) is a story of successfully consolidating six distinct TRIM databases into a single TRIM instance.

We recently sat down with Tim Hume, CIO, Family and Community Services (FACS) to talk about the OneTRIM program and also his fascinating views on recordkeeping and the role of the “I” in the CIO role.

Below is the transcript of our interview:

Q: How would you define your role in the FACS OneTRIM program?

A: When I joined FACS, it was called FACS but had not yet come together to act as “FACS” – we have the constituent  former Departments of Housing, Community Services and Ageing, Disability and Home Care (ADHC). All of the “One” programs were named that intentionally to highlight the importance of the transformation to one FACS.

As an outsider, coming to the role meant that I didn’t have allegiances to a former Department or faction which also meant that I could come in and help bring the FACS family together and that’s what we have done.

We’ve always had excellent executive sponsorship with Anne Skewes (Deputy Secretary, Land and Housing Corporation) as our inaugural sponsor and Shane Hamilton, (Executive Director & Chief Executive, Aboriginal Housing Office) as executive sponsor for the latter part of the program.  It’s a critical part of success to have such a high calibre of executive sponsorship for major transformation programs.

I was the functional sponsor of OneTRIM and I made sure the speed bumps were ironed out, including negotiating with parts of the business that had competing priorities and different perspectives on the design and rollout of the program. I often played the role of mediator/peacemaker in that process. Read the rest of this entry »

Call for any research or any occurrence of machine learning technologies being used in records management within the State of New South Wales or beyond. This could be in the area of digital classification, appraisal or disposal from either an “off the shelf product” or any “in house development” being used.

Machine learning is the ability for computers to learn without being explicitly programmed, a branch from AI (artificial intelligence) technologies. Machine learning involves computers taking what has been learned from big data and algorithms and enabling computer programs to apply this when exposed to new data.

Information received will be used for a research paper on the current state of play of machine learning within records management to be published on the Future Proof blog next month.

We would be interested in hearing about your experiences. Please contact:

Glen Humphries, Project Officer

Digital State Archives

glen.humphries@records.nsw.gov.au

Transformative change – Digital transformation: an archivist’s journey from a paper world into the digital world (a personal story from Glen Humphries Project Officer – Digital State Archives – State Archives and Records NSW).

My career as an information management professional began accidentally and by chance. After twenty years of working in various jobs (mostly in kitchens cooking) I decided on a sea change and took myself off to university at 39 years of age. It was during this time that I saw a student job advertised at Archives New Zealand. The job entailed the wiping of shelving on one of the below street level floors of the Archives building in Wellington NZ. There were four students employed to wipe concrete dust off the empty movable shelving. These had required repair work to tracks and the job was to ready the shelving for boxed archives to be returned. This was my step into a world which has proven to become a career as an archivist.

Read the rest of this entry »

May is Information Awareness Month (IAM). The purpose of IAM is to increase public awareness of information and its place in all aspects of daily life.

This year’s theme is “The Information Professional – Towards 2020.”

To celebrate IAM, we will be posting all about the information profession. So keep an eye on the blog during May!

To kick off this month, we asked our Digital Implementers what they think they will be doing in 2020.

Some of the digital implementers think they will be focussing more on information systems and other format of records such as SMS, social and web based media. Some see their roles evolving into business analysis, business process analysis or data analysis.

Here are some of the answers:

• I see myself in a technical role moving our systems – as they have come out of paper based records system.
• I see myself in a role where we will need to be very adaptable and work within all areas of the agency to try and get interoperability across multiple systems as well as records compliance.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last October when it emerged that the Prime Minister and Cabinet were using the social messaging tool WhatsApp to communicate with each other[1], the Australian Signals Directorate advised that although the app was not on the approved list for sensitive and classified communications, they had no concerns about the use of it for ‘routine communications’[2]. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we had our first Records Managers Forum for the year and we heard very interesting and informative stories from three NSW public offices.

State Archives and Records NSW uses the Forum to engage with public offices and to provide an opportunity for other NSW public sector organisations to share information about key initiatives or government programmes. Read the rest of this entry »