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
The following Guidelines have been created by State Records of South Australia to assist government agencies in meeting their responsibilities for Adequate Records Management within the State Records Act, 1997.
This guideline provides an overview of selected South Australian legislation and highlights recordkeeping implications. The guideline provides a starting point for Agencies wishing to examine legislation that is relevant to the functions and activities of their agency.
This guideline provides a generic plan for Agencies implementing an adequate records management program. Agency records management practices need to progressively achieve the identified outcomes.
Agency assessment of their records management systems, tools, practices and resources is an important aspect of achieving 'adequate' records management
State Records has developed the following guideline to assist agencies assess the status of their strategic and operational records management programs. Agencies need to demonstrate that they are making incremental improvements with the intention of achieving adequate records management by 2010.
The Adequate Records Management Improvement Matrix and Evidence Toolkit has recently been reviewed and now includes an eleventh Outcome, Resourcing. State Records has developed the Records Management Resourcing Benchmarks and Classification Equity Guideline to assist agencies meet the adequacy requirements for this Outcome. This guideline will assist agencies to determine the following:
the roles needed to deliver all required recordkeeping outputs
EDRMS Procurement and Pre-Implementation Guideline
To support the formation of an Across Government EDRMS Panel, State Records has produced a guideline to assist all Agencies in the activities that need to be performed prior to implementing a new EDRMS solution.
State Records has identified a number of tasks Agencies will need to undertake in order to select the most appropriate EDRMS to meet their specific business requirements. The completion of these tasks is expected to identify and in some instances address fundamental project management risks that otherwise could jeopardise the viability, stability and/or quality of an Agency's EDRMS implementation. The complexity and size of these documents will be dependant on the scope and level of risk associated with an Agency's EDRMS project.
State Records has developed a toolkit to accompany this Guideline for Agencies to reference which includes the following elements:
a defined process
a Matrix to assist in the selection of a fit for purpose solution
a checklist of pre-implementation development and post implementation phases.
The purpose of this guideline is to provide policy, guidelines, and technical considerations for the management of e-mail as official records. This document applies to all State and Local Government Agencies within South Australia, as defined by the State Records Act, 1997.
Elections or decisions of the South Australian Government can result in 'administrative changes' to South Australian agencies. An 'administrative change' refers to a change in the responsibilities for the administration of government functions. These changes can occur as a result of:
an agency losing a function to another agency
an agency gaining a function from another agency
the undertaking of a new function of Government
the abolition of a function of Government.
This guideline focuses on the management of official records during the above examples of administrative change.
This guideline is for agencies making public access determinations for official records about to be transferred to State Records, or already in our custody. The guideline was amended in May 2007 and advises when records should be open, when they should be closed and what period of restriction should be applied.
Section 26 of the State Records Act, 1997 empowers an agency to make access determinations in consultation with State Records. Those determinations may do one of three things:
declare a record to be immediately open to public access, or
declare it to be open after a certain period, or
declare it to be indefinitely closed.
For State Records to administer public access under section 26 of the Act, agencies need to make public access determinations, irrespective of an individual's right of access to the records under the Freedom of Information Act, 1991.
Where agencies do not advise State Records of a restriction or make a public access determination for official records, public access to such records will be open.
Determinations that agencies may have made prior to May 2007, in accordance with the previous version of this guideline, only need to be reviewed if the agency considers that it would be prudent to do so.
The Public Access Determinations Guideline has been reviewed to include new terminology in regard to the provision of access and to take into account the amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, 1991. Public Access Determinations Guideline (118 KB PDF File)
This guideline outlines the policy of State Records for the appraisal of official records and the fundamental objectives used to identify records of ongoing value to the State of South Australia.
This guideline considers the disposal of records in relation to Native Title and Separation of Families issues. Records which shed light on these two issues should not be disposed of, even if they are contained within a series or records that otherwise have only temporary value. Native Title and the Separation of Families must be considered in relation to the disposal of any official record.
This guideline is to be used as a guide for identifying records that may be relevant to Native Title claims. It is by no means an exhaustive list but is illustrative of classes and types of records that may be relevant.
Actual relevance is a matter to be determined by officers of the Crown Solicitor's Office.
This guideline provides Agency staff with advice and a step-by-step guide and checklist, which list the actions to be taken when re-sentencing records.
This guideline provides an overview of the management of records that have been sentenced to be of temporary value. The principles in this guideline are to be adhered to wherever the temporary value records are stored. The guideline cover all types of hard-copy record formats (e.g. paper, tapes, disks) but does not currently cover the storage of electronic records.
All agencies are now responsible for their own temporary records within a policy and standards framework established and monitored by State Records. This guideline covers the process for managing temporary records. Guidelines for the Management of Temporary Records (212 KB PDF File)
Many Agencies in South Australia are currently digitising official records by using scanning or imaging technologies. Typically the records created and captured by imaging are managed using a database or an Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS).
This guideline deals with the digitisation of paper source records and the subsequent management and disposal of these and their digitised counterparts. It does not currently relate to other forms of conversion or migration of official records 'born' electronically.
The guideline primarily addresses the application of digitisation technologies when integrated with electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS). It aims to minimise the risks to Government (State and Local) in terms of records of longer-term temporary or permanent value being lost or destroyed without limiting the application of digitisation technologies for efficient office administration or other purposes.
The guideline and the complementary General Disposal Schedule No 21 (GDS 21) do not authorise the destruction of any source documents that have been deemed to be of permanent value in accordance with an approved and current disposal schedule.
Guidelines to assist State and Local Government in South Australia to enable them to digitise official records and manage the source documents. It is directly related to GDS 21. Digitisation of Official Records (197 KB PDF File)
A thesaurus is an alphabetical listing of terms derived from a classification scheme and arranged in a hierarchical manner that shows relationships between the terms. It prescribes what terms can and cannot be used when classifying records.
A thesaurus helps to ensure that an Agency uses a uniform set of terms to classify records. This cuts down confusion when searching for records and saves time and money.
This guideline has been developed to assist Agencies in complying with Outcome 5 of the Adequate Records Management Meeting the Standard - 'Records can be found'.
This guideline has been developed by State Records to provide Agency staff with an outline of the steps and issues inherent in developing a functional thesaurus.
The Records Management Adequacy Audit is a management control designed to examine and evaluate the degree to which outcomes detailed in Adequate Records Management: Meeting the Standard 2002 (Adequacy Standard) are being met across South Australian Government agencies and authorities.
The purpose of the auditing program is to establish records management audit standards in government in South Australia and to provide a guide for its conduct across agencies and authorities. Specifically, it will determine the degree to which agencies and authorities comply with the ten outcomes comprising Adequate Records Management.
State Records has developed this guideline for the Audit Program. It is comprised of four parts:
Audit Policy - which prescribes State Records requirements
The Audit Plan - which describes the expected scope and conduct
Work Instructions - which assist the conduct of the processes involved in auditing
The Audit Report - which documents the results.
The Adequate Records management audit policy and toolkit for all Agencies who will have to be the subject of an audit. It contains the audit policy, work instructions, checklists, procedures and auditor's reports.. Adequate Records Management Audit Policy (266 KB PDF File)
State Records has issued this guideline in accordance with section 7(g) of the State Records Act, 1997. Disaster planning is an important component of an adequate records management program. Planning for disasters is a benchmark for Outcome 7 in Adequate Records Management: Meeting the Standard (2002) and is also identified as part of a high quality recordkeeping system in the national Australian Standard AS ISO 15489 - 2002: Records Management.
The purpose of the guideline is to assist South Australian Government agencies in developing and maintaining a Disaster Plan for records and recordkeeping systems. Agencies are encouraged to use this guideline in conjunction with the Records Management Disaster Planning Toolkit.