1.1 Purpose
As the NSW Government rapidly transforms to digital business operations, the challenge for public offices is to manage the legacy of paper and physical records until these older paper records are time-expired and can be destroyed or transferred as State archives.
The purpose of this standard is to establish minimum requirements for the storage of physical State records and to guide decisions for storing records. All public offices should ensure that:
- storage for records is cost-effective and efficient
- all records are secure, protected, and accessible for as long as they are required, to meet business and accountability needs, and that
- all records identified as required as State archives are stored in the best conditions possible.
1.2 Authority
This standard is issued under section 13(1) of the State Records Act 1998 which enables State Records NSW to ‘approve standards and codes of best practice for records management by public offices.’
1.3 Who should use this standard
The standard applies to records created and maintained by contractors and service providers on behalf of public offices in the course of outsourced government business.
The requirements of the standard are applicable to all storage areas and facilities which are controlled and managed by the public office. Public offices engaging commercial storage services should ensure that the storage area/facility and services to be provided under a contractual arrangement meet the requirements of the standard.
1.4 Scope of this standard
1.4 Scope of this standard
This standard covers records in the control of the public office which have a physical format. It covers:
- paper files and documents
- maps, plans, charts and drawings
- photographic media including photographic prints and negatives, film, microforms, and x-rays
- magnetic media such as digital tape, video and audio cassettes,
- optical media such as CDs and DVDs, and
- digital records stored on tapes, disks, or portable hard drives.
USB memory sticks should not be used for the short or long term storage of records.
This standard does not cover:
- active records, as these are likely to be created on a digital format and stored in network servers or data centres, or the cloud
- storage of digital records on network servers, in data centres, or in the cloud, or the
- storage of State archives.
Records identified as required as State archives in retention and disposal authorities are to be stored in the best conditions practically possible while the records are still under the control of the public office. This includes records that are subject to still in use determinations under section 28 of the State Records Act 1998. At the very minimum, records required as State archives, should be kept according to the requirements in this standard. The storage of State archives in the custody of a public office or other body under a distributed management agreement, made under section 30 of the Act, is governed by the terms of the agreement rather than this standard.
The standard covers the following:
- short term storage of records (records required to be retained for up to 10 years);
- medium term storage of records (records required to be retained 10-30 years); and
- long term storage of records (records which have long retention periods of more than 30 years) and those that potentially may be required as State archives.
This standard is supported by a range of guidance available from www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping. <need to update>
1.5 Background
To assist public offices in understanding and implementing this obligation, State Records NSW has previously issued Standard on the physical storage of State records (Standard No. 3, 2000) and the Standard on the physical storage of State records (Standard No. 11, 2012). Each standard was accompanied by a range of guidance to assist public offices in implementing the standard. Following consultation with public offices, the 2012 standard has been revised.
1.6 Structure
This standard sets out six principles for managing the storage of semi-active State records. Under each principle there is a brief explanation of the principle, and identified compliance requirements.
1.7 Definitions
For the purposes of this standard the following definitions apply. Terms that have not been referenced are taken from State Records NSW sources. All other sources are provided in brackets after the definition.
Integrated pest management
A program of good housekeeping and cleaning, regular inspections and monitoring for pests. (ed. Jackie Bettington, Kim Eberhard, Rowena Loo, and Clive Smith, Keeping Archives, 3rd edition, Australian Society of Archivists, 2008, p. 86)
Integrated pest management also includes response strategies such as spraying and appropriate treatments.
Records
Record means any document or other source of information compiled, recorded or stored in written form or on film, or by electronic process, or in any other manner or by any other means (State Records Act 1998, Part 1, Preliminary, Section 3(1), Definitions).
Semi-active records
Records required infrequently in the conduct of current business and stored in a secondary storage area or facility.
Senior Responsible Officer (SRO)
The Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) is the individual within the public office who has been delegated strategic and corporate responsibility for records and information management. The SRO is responsible for ensuring that records and information management is in place and operating effectively to support business operations and is usually a senior manager reporting to Chief Executive or to the Chief Information Officer. The role of the SRO is established under the Standard on records management, minimum compliance requirement 1.3.
State record
Any record, made and kept, or received and kept, by any person in the course of the exercise of official functions in a public office, or for any purpose of a public office, or for the use of a public office (State Records Act 1998, s.3(1), Definitions).
Storage area
A room, compactus or space within a storage facility or building whose primary purpose is to store records.
Storage facilities
Any building that houses records, including commercial storage facilities, in-house storage facilities and archival storage facilities.
1.8 Acknowledgements
State Records NSW acknowledges the use of the National Archives of Australia and the Public Record Office Victoria storage standards and specifications in the development of this standard.
1.9 Further information
For more information on this standard, please contact State Records NSW.
