Information about State Records Freedom of Information (FOI) General Awareness course during October and November 2008.FOI General Awareness Courses 2008
Details about Certificate III and Certificate IV in Recordkeeping in 2009 and the new alternative to traditional face-to-face delivery of studying via correspondence.Certificate III and IV in Recordkeeping in 2009
Publicising the Christmas and New Year opening hours for State Records City and Gepps Cross Research Centres.Christmas 2008 Research Centre Hours
State Records has recently updated the Adequate Records Management Standard and South Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Standard and created the Contracting and Official Records Standard.Across-Government Standards for Record Management
To promotes the availability of Freedom of Information (FOI) Induction Training as an on-line module via ERNI, State Records E-Resource Network Initiative.Freedom of Information (ERNI) Induction Training
Notifying agencies that May 2007 version of the guideline for agencies making public access determinations for official records which they control is now available.Public Access Determination Guideline for Agencies
This glossary has been developed from a number of sources. Where a definition exists within current legislation such as the State Records Act, 1997, it will take primacy. If no definition is available within legislation, the primary source is Australian Standard AS ISO 15489 Records Management, available from Standards Australia.
Access Right, opportunity means of finding, using, or retrieving information.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Access Conditions The instructions providing access to particular records and archives.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
Access Determination A determination made subject to Part 8 of the State Records Act, 1997 that records in custody of State Records are subject or not subject to conditions of access.
Accountability The principle that individuals, organisations and the community are responsible for their actions and may be required to explain them to others.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Accredited Records Management Practitioner TBA
Action Officer An employee who is responsible for work on a particular task or case in a functional area of an organisation.
Action Tracking Process in which time limits for actions are monitored and imposed upon those conducting the business.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Active Records Those records required for day-to-day functioning of an organisation. Also referred to as Current Records.
Adequate Defined as practices which have the following impacts:
records are created;
records are captured;
records are disposed of systematically;
access to records is managed;
records can be found;
records can be relied upon;
the management of official records is planned;
records management training is provided to staff;
records management reporting mechanisms are implemented;
policies, procedures and practices exist for the management of official records.
Adequate Records Management: Meeting the Standard 2002
More generally, records should be adequate for the purposes for which they are kept. Thus a major initiative will be extensively documented, while a routine administrative action can be documented with an identifiable minimum of information. There should be adequate evidence of the conduct of business activity to be able to account for that conduct.
a person who holds an office established by an Act
an incorporated or unincorporated body established for a public purpose by or under an Act; or established subject to control or direction by the Governor
a Minister of the crown or any instrumentality or agency of the Crown
a department or other administrative unit of the public service
the police force
a municipal or district council
a person or body declared to be an agency.
It does not mean:
a House of Parliament or a committee of the Parliament or a House of Parliament
a present or former officer of a House of Parliament
a present or former member of a House of Parliament (other than a Minister in respect of records made or received in his or her capacity as a Minister) a present or former member of staff of a House of Parliament or the joint parliamentary service.
State Records Act 1997
More generally, an agency may be defined as an organisation that has its own identifiable and independent recordkeeping systems.
Agent A person, or group of persons, a workgroup or organisational unit that creates records as a result of the conduct of business and uses records as evidence of the conduct of such business.
Aggregation Any accumulation of record entities at a level above a document or record, eg digital folder, series.
Application Programming Interface (API) An application program(ing) interface is the specific method prescribed by a computer operating system or application program so that the application program can make requests of the operating system or another application.
Archives New Zealand
Appraisal The process of evaluating business activities to determine which records need to be captured and how long the records need to be kept to meet business needs, the requirements of organisational accountability and community expectations.
AS4390-1 1996
Arrangement TBD
Audit Trail Data that allows the reconstruction of a previous activity, or which enables attributes of a change (such as date, time, operator) to be stored so that a sequence of events can be determined in the correct chronological order, usually in the form of a database or one or more lists of activity data.
Adapted from The National Archives (UK)
B
Business Activity Umbrella term covering all the functions, processes, activities and transactions of an organisation and its employees. Includes public administration as well as commercial business.
Adequate Records Management: Meeting the Standard 2002
Business Classification Scheme An articulation of the functions and activities of the organisation derived from the analysis of business activity. The business classification scheme contains terms and scope notes that represent and describe functions, activities, transactions or other elements and shows their relationships. The number of levels within the scheme can vary depending on level of refinement required and how the scheme will be used. The structure of the scheme is hierarchical, moving from the general to the specific. Each function has activities that are identified in relation to it, and each activity (linked to a function) has categories of transactions that are encountered.
National Archives of Australia
Business Function TBD
Business Information System (BIS)
Organised collection of hardware, software, supplies, policies, procedures and people, which stores, processes and provides access to an organisation's business information.
An automated system that creates or manages data about an organisation's activities. Includes applications whose primary purpose is to facilitate transactions between an organisational unit and its customers - for example, an e-commerce system, client relationship management system, purpose-built or customised database, finance or human resources systems.
National Archives of Australia
C
Capture A deliberate action, which results in the registration of a record into a recordkeeping system. For certain business activities, this action may be designed into electronic systems so that capture of records is concurrent with the creation of the record.
AS4390-1996 Pt 1
Class A Group of documents or an identifiable sub-division of a series, record group or archive having common characteristics or the same archival value. Sometimes this term is used to mean series. Also referred to as disposal class. See also Series.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
Classification
Systematic identification and arrangement of business activities and / or records into categories according to logically structured conventions, methods, and procedural rules represented in a classification system.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Compliance Ensuring that the requirements of laws, regulations, industry codes and organisational standards are met.
AS3806 -1998 Compliance Programs
Conservation The physical aspects and processes of preservation of original archival materials.
Preventive Conservation. Those measures taken in order to prevent or delay future degradation of holdings, eg the provision of environmentally sound and secure storage; the installation of warning devices; the withdrawal, restriction or copying of fragile items. Also referred to as macro-conservation.
Restorative Conservation. Those measures taken to repair or restore damaged or deteriorated archival (and other) material to its original condition. In doing this, it is important that the evidential value of the original be retained, and consequently repairs are usually reversible and visible. Also referred to as micro-conservation. See also Preservation.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
Context The situation, including the creators, their purposes, activities and circumstances that caused events to occur and records documenting them to be created and maintained.
Control Records Records created and maintained by a recordkeeping organisation to help identify, track and retrieve other records. Control records include such records management tools as records management software packages, file registers, subject indexes and name indexes.
Controlled Vocabulary The use of specified terms and combinations of terms to describe a resource. The opposite of free text.
National Archives of Australia
Conversion Process of changing records from one medium to another or from one format to another.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Conversion Conversion is the process of changing from an existing system to a new one.
The responsibility for the care of records, archives or other material, usually based on their physical possession. Custody does not always include legal ownership, or the right to control access to records.
The physical location of the records or archives.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
D
Description The process of recording information about the nature and content of the records in archival custody. The description identifies such features as provenance, arrangement, format and contents, and presents them in a standardised form. See also Arrangement, Finding Aids.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
Destruction The process of eliminating or deleting records beyond any possible reconstruction.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Digital Documents A document created and/or maintained by means of digital computer technology.
Digital Records A record created, and/or maintained by means of digital computer technology. Includes records that are 'born digital' or have undergone conversion from a non-digital format, that is they have been digitised using OCR or imaging technology. It also includes encapsulated objects for example VEOs. See also Imaging and Optical Character Recognition.
Digital Signature A security mechanism included within a digital record that enables the identification of the creator of the digital object and that can also be used to detect and track any changes that have been made to the digital object.
National Archives of Australia
Digital Watermark A complex visible or invisible pattern denoting provenance or ownership information. A watermark may be superimposed on a digital image and can only be removed by use of an algorithm and a secure key. Similar technologies may be applied to digitised sound and moving picture records.
National Archives of Australia
Digitisation The process of converting documents or objects into digital form so that they may be read, stored, managed and transmitted electronically by a digital computer. For example photographs or other images may be digitised by use of a scanner. See also Imaging and Optical Character Recognition.
Disaster Plan
A written procedure setting out the measures to be taken to minimise the risks and effects of disasters such as fire, flood or earthquake etc, and to recover, save and secure the vital records should such as disaster occur.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
Disposal The range of processes associated with implementing records retention, destruction or transfer decisions, which are documented in disposal authorities or other instruments.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Disposal Authority TBD
Disposal Classes Classes of records performing or recording similar activities or transactions and therefore warranting the same retention period and disposal action.
Disposal Sentence The specification as to whether records are to be retained and if so for how long, or when they are to be destroyed. See also Disposal Schedule, Sentencing, Disposal Trigger.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
Disposal Schedule A systematic listing of records created by an organisation or agency, which plans the life of these records from the time of their creation to their disposal. A Disposal Schedule is a continuing authority for implementing decisions on the value of records specified in the schedule. A disposal schedule includes:
The records created by the agency;
The retention period for each series or class of records;
The disposal sentence for each series or class of records, specifying whether the records are to be retained as archives or destroyed;
The custody arrangements for each series or class of records, specifying when the records are to be transferred to intermediate storage and/or to archives.
General disposal schedules cover functions common to a number of agencies, typically used by government archival authorities to cover functional areas such as Personnel, Finance and Stores.
A recent development in appraisal methodology is the view that functional analysis is more efficient than records analysis in producing disposal schedules. The resultant disposal schedules are based on function or activity within function, either across a range of related organisations or to provide a specific disposal schedule for a particular agency.
Disposal Trigger In disposal schedules the event or activity, which indicates that the active life of the record is over and the disposal schedule can be applied. See also Disposal Sentence, Disposal Schedule.
Ellis, J,' Keeping Archives' 1995
Dispose Dispose of an official record means destroy or abandon the record; or carry out an act or process as result of which it is no longer possible or reasonably practical to reproduce the whole or part of a the information contained in the record; or transfer or deliver ownership or possession of or sell the records, or purport to do so. Does not include to transfer or deliver the record to State Records or between one agency and another.
State Records Act 1997
More generally, beyond the definition of dispose within the State Records Act, 1997 can also include the permanent retention of a record. See also Disposal.
Docket A superseded South Australian term used to describe an organised unit of documents accumulated during current use and kept together because they deal with the same subject, activity or transaction. Dockets were typically fastened together and folded. See also File.
Document Recorded information or object, which can be treated as a unit.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
E
Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) An automated system used to manage the creation, use, management and disposal of physical and electronically created documents and records for the purposes of:
supporting the creation, revision and management of digital documents
improving an organisation's work-flow and
providing evidence of business activities.
These systems maintain appropriate contextual information (metadata) and links between records to support their value as evidence. EDRMS are a subset of business information systems whose primary purpose is the capture and management of digital records.
Adapted from the National Archives of Australia
Electronic Records Records communicated and maintained by means of electronic equipment.
Element A piece of information or data about a record(s), or agent(s) or function(s) registration in a business or records system, provides terms and conditions about its use and access, its structure, context, content or history of use.
Element Qualifier Refine the meaning of a data value. e.g. 'Abbreviated' when used with the element 'Title' indicates that the metadata element is the abbreviated title of a record.
Encapsulated Object Digital records that have been 'packaged' with enough metadata to preserve their content and context, and to support their reconstruction at some time in the future. The encapsulated metadata is managed as an integral part of the record.
National Archives of Australia
Encryption The process of converting data into a secure code, through the use of an encryption algorithm, for transmission over a public network. The mathematical key to the encryption algorithm is encoded and transmitted with the data, thus providing the means by which the data can be decrypted at the receiving end and the original data restored.
National Archives of Australia
Evidence Information that tends to prove a fact. Not limited to the legal sense of the term.
Export A disposal process, whereby copies of a digital record (or group of records) are passed with their metadata from one system to another system - either within the organisation or elsewhere. Export does not involve removing records from the first system.
Adapted from The National Archives (UK)
F
File An organised unit of documents accumulated during current use and kept together because they deal with the same subject, activity or transaction.
National Archives of Australia
Finding Aids TBD
Folio A single document or leaf of paper attached to a physical file, and usually numbered in some order (eg chronological order). Essentially a page or group of pages comprising a document.
Function The largest unit of business activity in an agency or jurisdiction. Functions represent the major responsibilities that are managed by the organisation to fulfil its goals. Functions are high-level aggregations of the agency's activities.
Government Record Series (GRS) A record series, which contains official agency records and is registered by State Records as a series that is under the control of the agency. See also Record Series.
I
Imaging The methods and technologies involved in making facsimile images of things i.e. Photography, micrographics, scanning; the act of making an image. See also Digitisation.
Inactive Records Records that are no longer required by an agency for administrative or other purposes on a regular basis. Also referred to as non-current records.
National Archives of Australia
Indexing The process of establishing access points to facilitate the retrieval of records and / or information.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Information Knowledge communicated or received concerning some fact or circumstance.
The Macquarie Dictionary 3rd Ed, 1997
Information Security Classification Hierarchical designation (such as 'Top secret' or 'Protected') allocated to a user, user role, physical and digital document or record, folder or other record plan entity to indicate the level of access allowed in accordance with the which based on the Commonwealth Protective Security Manual issued by the Attorney-General's Department (Refer to the South Australia Recordkeeping Metadata Standard - SARKMS - for classification levels). The security category reflects the level of protection that must be applied during use, storage, transmission, transfer and disposal of the record.
National Archives of Australia
Inherit To take on a metadata attribute from a parent entity.
Adapted from The National Archives (UK)
Item A single document, object or record such as a report, letter, memo or e-mail message. The lowest level of record aggregation.
Interface A mechanism whereby data can be exchanged between applications.
K
Keyword The highest level term in Keyword AAA. See also Business Function.
National Archives of Australia
L
Location Location can be a physical location or an assignment to a workgroup or user.
Lossless A term describing a data compression algorithm, which retains all the information in the data, allowing it to be perfectly recovered by decompression. TIF format is considered lossless as no data is discarded when files are saved.
Lossy A term describing a data compression algorithm, which actually reduces the amount of information in the data, rather than just the number of bits used to represent that information. The lost data is usually removed because it subjectively adds less value to the quality of the data, or because it can be recovered reasonably by interpolation from the remaining data. GIF and JPEG formats discard information in orders to reduce file sizes.
M
Metadata Metadata can be defined simply as 'data about structured information'. Database managers, librarians, archivists, records managers, webmasters and others in the information management business have collected and used metadata for many years. As an example, the heading on each column in an MS Excel spreadsheet can be described as metadata since it tells us about the information in each column. The information in the 'Properties' box associated with a document is also metadata. See also Recordkeeping Metadata.
Migration The act of moving records from one system to another, while maintaining the records authenticity, integrity, reliability and usability.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
N
NAP - Normal Administrative Practice NAP is the concept that material can be destroyed according to 'normal administrative practices'. This provides for the routine destruction of drafts, duplicates and publications, with the test that it is obvious that no information of continuing value to the organisation will be destroyed.
Originating in the National Archives the term is in general use in Commonwealth Government agencies and has been adopted by some Australian states.
Material that can be disposed of under NAP comprises items of an ephemeral or transitory nature created, acquired or collected by agency officers in the course of their official duties. Such material has no ongoing value and is not usually incorporated into the agency recordkeeping system. NAP falls into six main groups:
transitory or short term items, e.g. phone messages, notes, compliment slips, office notices and circulars;
rough working papers and/or calculations created in the preparation of official records;
drafts not intended for further use or reference, excluding official version drafts of agreements, submissions and legal documents;
duplicate copies of material retained for reference purposes only;
published material which does not form an integral part of an agency record;
system printouts used to verify or monitor data, or answer ad hoc queries, that are not part of regular reporting procedures and not required for ongoing use.
NAP in electronic media Just as telephone conversations or other verbal communications that contain information of ongoing value should be documented, so voice mail, email, facsimiles, word processed documents, spreadsheets, etc. should be captured into corporate recordkeeping systems when they contain information of ongoing value.
Agency induction and procedures must ensure that all officers are aware of their recordkeeping responsibilities and that electronic records with ongoing value are captured and retained in an appropriate way.
Only data included in the six categories outlined above may be deleted from electronic systems according to Normal Administrative Practice.
Native Format The format in which the record was created, or in which the originating application stores records.
Non-File Records Records that due to their physical nature or format, are not suitable for managing on a traditional file. They include but are not limited to:
bound documents and publications,
drawings,
maps,
plans,
legal agreements,
films,
tapes,
discs,
and videos.
O
Official Record A record made or received by an agency in the conduct of its business, but does not include:
A record made or received by an agency for delivery or transmission to another person or body (other than an agency) and so delivered or transited; or
A record made by an agency as draft only and not for further use or reference; or
A record received into or made for the collection of a library, museum or art gallery and not otherwise associated with the business of the agency; or
A Commonwealth record as defined by the Archives Act 1983 of the Commonwealth, as amended from time to time, or an Act of the Commonwealth enacted in substitution for that Act; or
A record that has been transferred to the Commonwealth.
State Records Act 1997
Open and Enduring Format A data format for digital documents, which is publicly available and open to public use and is thus able to be read over an extended period without the need to use proprietary software or hardware.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
A method for the machine reading of typeset, typed, and, in some cases, hand-printed letters, numbers, and symbols using optical sensing and a computer.
The process of going from a text printed on paper, or a bit-mapped representation of that text, to a computer encoding of that text as a sequence of ASCII characters. In a scanned image of a page of text, the text is not editable: each character is made of a collection of dots (pixels). The OCR process analyses this image and converts the sets of pixels into an editable text, based on the patterns of the pixels. Typical applications are in 'document capture', where the goal is to make electronically accessible documents otherwise only available on paper.
P
Permanent Record A record that has archival value and will be retained permanently and will be available for research by the general community subject to appropriate access conditions.
Permanent Value The value or use some records have for all time. Records may have permanent value if they have significant research or display value after their original purpose of assisting to administer an activity is completed.
National Archives of Australia
Personal Information Information or an opinion, whether true or not, relating to a natural person or the affairs of a natural person whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.
Information Privacy Principles Instruction July 1992
Preservation The processes and operations involved in ensuring the technical and intellectual survival of authentic records through time.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Provenance
The agency, office or person of origin of records, or the entity which created, received or accumulated and used the records in the conduct of business or personal life. Also referred to as records creator.
The chain of custody that reflects the office(s) or person(s) that created received or accumulated and used the records in the conduct of business or in the course of personal life.
In archival theory, the principle of provenance requires that the archives of an agency or person not be mixed or combined with the archives of another, i.e. the archives are retained and documented in their functional and/or organisational context.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
Q
Quality Records Records used to demonstrate conformance to specified requirements and effective operation of quality systems under the AS/NZS ISO 9000 series.
a disk, tape, film or other object that contains information or from which information may be reproduced (with or without the aid of another object or device).
State Records Act 1997
Record Media The material on which a record is created and held eg paper, magnetic, film etc
Record Plan The records classification scheme plus all the folders. Also called a File Plan.
Adapted from The National Archives (UK)
Record Series Those records or archives having the same provenance, which belong together because they are part of a discernible, filing system (alphabetical, numerical, chronological, or a combination of these). They have been kept together because they result from the same activity, or they are of similar formats and relate to a particular function. Also referred to simply as a series. See also Government Record Series.
Recordkeeping Making and maintaining complete, accurate and reliable evidence of business transactions in the form of recorded information.
AS4390-1996
Recordkeeping Metadata Data describing contexts, content and structure of records and their management through time. See also Metadata.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Recordkeeping System Information systems, which capture, maintain and provide access to records over time.
Records Information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organisation or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Records Classification Scheme A hierarchical classification tool which, when applied to a business information system, can facilitate the capture, titling, retrieval, maintenance and disposal of records. A records classification scheme stems from an organisation's business classification scheme.
National Archives of Australia
Records Management The field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposal of records including processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Referential Integrity Ensuring that all references are updated or deleted as necessary when a key reference is changed in a database environment.
Adapted from Department of Defense (US)
Registration The act of giving a record a unique identity on its entry into a system.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Relational Integrity Ensuring that subordinate (or 'child') objects are updated or deleted as necessary when a superior (or 'parent') object is changed. Preventing 'orphans'.
Adapted from Department of Defense (US)
Rendition Instance of a digital record made available in another format or on different medium by a process entirely within the ERMS control, without loss of content. A rendition should display the same metadata and be managed in a tightly bound relationship with the native format record. Renditions may be required for preservation, access and viewing purposes.
National Archives of Australia
Retention Period The time period records are kept according to requirements including operational, legal, regulatory and fiscal.
Ellis, J 'Keeping Archives' 1995
Risk The chance of something happening that will have an impact on (agency) objectives. It is measured in terms of consequences and likelihood.
Australian Standard AS4369-1999 'Risk Management'
S
Secondary Storage Storage, usually low cost and warehouse style, provided for records once their ready availability is no longer required for current administrative purposes.
Sentence The act of applying the relevant disposal schedules to records.
Sentencing Sentencing is the process of identifying and classifying records according to a disposal authority and applying the disposal action specified in it. Sentencing is the implementation of decisions made during appraisal. It allows agencies to apply the decisions made about classes of records to individual records. Together appraisal and sentencing help agencies to identify how long records should be retained.
Storage The function of storing records for future retrieval and use.
System Administrator A user role with designated responsibility for configuring, monitoring and managing the EDRMS and its use. May exist at various degrees of seniority with a variety of permissions to undertake system administration functions and some records management processes.
National Archives of Australia
T
Temporary Record Records that do not have archival value and may be destroyed when a prescribed retention period has elapsed.
Thesaurus An alphabetical presentation of a controlled list of terms linked together by semantic, hierarchical, associative or equivalence relationships. Such a tool acts as a guide to allocating classification terms to individual records.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Tracking Creating, capturing and maintaining information about the movement and use of records.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Transaction The smallest unit of business activity. Uses of records are themselves transactions. Any dealing or action that involves crossing a boundary from one status or participant to another. Transactions of sufficient importance may require a record attesting to what has occurred. For example, a transaction to withdraw cash from an ATM.
Transfer
(Custody) change of custody, ownership and / or responsibility for records.
(Movement) moving records from one location to another.
AS ISO 15489.1 - 2002
Transfer A disposal process, consisting of a confirmed export of digital records and folders, followed by their destruction within the exporting EDRMS. Records may be transferred from one agency to another following administrative change, from an agency to archival custody, from an agency to a service provider, from the South Australia Government to the private sector or from one government to another.
Adapted from The National Archives (UK)
U
Unevaluated Records Records for which no disposal authority (or schedule) exists and as result have not been sentenced.
National Archives of Australia
Unique Identifier Because records are produced by the thousands, critical access points for identifying individual records as unique to enable ongoing management and use must be part of each record's metadata. These essential identifiers include:
Name of individual or organisation involved in activity or who had responsibility for the activity or transaction which caused the record to be made;
Functional title or topic naming the event, project, product, function, business work/activity or transaction that caused the record to be made - this category is frequently
