Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

State Records is currently reviewing the General disposal authority for imaged records (GA36). This authority authorises the destruction of the originals of records that  have been imaged (provided that certain conditions have been met) including records required as State archives or required to be retained in agency. Currently the originals of records required as State archives or required to be retained in agency are only authorised for destruction after imaging if they were created on or after 1 January 2000.The main focus of the review was to examine if an earlier date would be appropriate.

We also sought feedback on issues with technical specifications, metadata requirements, the inclusion of microfilm, exclusions and conditions. We would like to thank all the people who responded to our requests for feedback.

We have now prepared an exposure draft of the revised authority that incorporates the comments received and are seeking feedback on the exposure draft. The main proposed changes are:

• rolling the date range back to 1980 from 2000
• widening the scope of the authority to include source or original records that have been imaged, copied or converted
• adding original film negatives and recordings to the excluded records
• adding to the types of records that are excluded as they have intrinsic value in their original format.

Please forward any feedback on the draft to Angela McGing, Project Officer, Government Recordkeeping, by Friday 21 November at angela.mcging@records.nsw.gov..au