Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

In May 2012 we posted a summary of what key digital recordkeeping enquiries we had received from NSW agencies in the month and what responses we gave. We thought that perhaps it might be helpful to others pondering the same issues. A number of people viewed this post, so we have decided to do a similar […]

Government Recordkeeping staff at State Records spend a lot of time answering enquiries from NSW public sector organisations on a range of digital recordkeeping issues. We thought it might be valuable to highlight, in monthly blog posts, a few of the key enquiries and how we answered them. Perhaps you may have the same questions […]

We are currently reviewing our Future Proof blog to improve its structure and navigation and have discovered that, since its inception in 2008, the most commonly searched for terms is ‘EDRMS.’ We have been advising agencies for a number of years about EDRMS and implementation projects. We have published some information about EDRMS on the […]

Kate and I visited the Process and Records Services team at NSW Police headquarters recently. We were very impressed with a number of initiatives the team are undertaking and how they are reaching out to IT and the business. The main goals driving their projects include the desire to streamline business processes, reduce inefficiencies and […]

Executive Summary This research paper discusses three problems with using the term transfer to describe the processes that precede ingest into the digital archives and recommends instead the adoption of a project-based, system migration approach.

photo credit: Glenn Waters ぐれんin Japan. I have just finished reading (at lunch time today!) John le Carre’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It was fantastic! My first le Carre experience and I loved it. My appreciation of the story was enhanced even further because a crucial aspect of the case against […]

State Records’ digital archives project has been underway for 6 months now, so before we all collapse for the Christmas break, thought it might be a good time to let you know how we’re travelling. 1. We’re developing systems to support digital continuity partnerships We see the protection, preservation and accessibility of digital records of […]