ISSN 1321-6260
February 2018 - Number 127

Final Report of the Royal Commission

The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was handed down on 15 December 2017. It consists of 17 volumes plus a Preface and Executive Summary of the Final Report.

Volume 8 of the Report, Recordkeeping and information sharing, examines the records, recordkeeping and information sharing of institutions that care for or provide services to children. It includes 23 recommendations.

NSW State Archives and Records is working with the NSW Government Taskforce on the NSW Government response to the Final Report and its recommendations.  We are also undertaking an audit of all retention and disposal authorities as part of our work.  We will be providing further information to public offices once the NSW Government response has been tabled. For more information see our Updates page. 

Annual reports and OpenGov NSW

OpenGov NSW is managed by NSW State Archives and Records and is a searchable online repository for NSW Government publications such as annual reports, strategic plans, guides and policy documents, as well as information released by agencies under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). Agencies must submit their annual reports to the Legislative Assembly and must also make them publicly available. Loading digital copies of annual reports on the OpenGov NSW website satisfies this latter requirement. 

Instructions for NSW Government agencies (including Local Government) on registering with OpenGov and adding and managing content is available from the OpenGov NSW FAQs page.

Recent Future Proof blogposts

NSW State Archives and Records uses its Future Proof blog to post information about current digital recordkeeping issues. On the blog we road-test new ideas, distribute new information and initiate discussion on digital recordkeeping issues. Recent posts include:

• The business and recordkeeping benefits of digitising approval process
• Approaches to managing social media records with long-term retention periods
• Records Managers Forum presentations 
• Review of the general authority for source records that have been migrated

The Board of the State Archives and Records Authority of New South Wales

Elizabeth Tydd, the NSW Information Commissioner, has recently joined our Board and is one of the nine members representing parliament, the judiciary, government/state owned corporations, local government, the private sector and the history profession.

The Board is an advisory board that has a number of functions, including approving Standards and codes of best practice for records management under sections 13 of the State Records Act 1998, and protection measures under Section 21 of the Act. This is the process for approving retention and disposal authorities. More information about the Board and its members is available on our website. 

NSW State Archives Galleries

We have some lovely picture galleries on our website, arranged around particular themes, including hotel plans, the Rocks Plague, the Sydney Opera House, Louisa Lawson, and much more.

Training 

The following training is being offered in March :

• 6 - 7 March 2018 - Records Management Fundamentals  - Queens Square, Sydney
• 8 March 2018  - Implementing a Retention and Disposal Authority for Local Government Records - Queens Square, Sydney

Disposal authorities approved

NSW State Archives and Records recently approved disposal authorities for the following:

• ambulance services
• court reporting services

Copies of our retention and disposal authorities are available from the Retention and disposal authorities page on our website.