Records storage should be a planned and coordinated activity within your organisation. This ensures that storage arrangements and strategies are efficient and cost-effective.
2.1 Responsibilities for storing records
Principle 1 of the Standard on the physical storage of State records requires that the Senior Responsible Officer for records management or their delegate, has ensured that all records storage areas and facilities used by the public office, including arrangements with commercial providers, have been inspected to ensure that they are appropriate for the storage of records and approved for use by the public office. The Senior Responsible Officer should also have oversight of the organisation’s storage plan and thus the organisation’s storage strategy.
Your organisation should assign responsibility for decision-making about records storage to the Senior Responsible Officer or their delegate. Additionally, the Senior Responsible Officer should ensure that it is standard practice for records to be sentenced, using current approved retention and disposal authorities before records are sent to storage, and that records are regularly disposed of, either through physical destruction when minimum retention periods expire or transfer as State archives.
Records identified as required as State archives in a current approved retention and disposal authority which are no longer in use for official purposes in the organisation should be routinely and systematically transferred to NSW State Archives and Records’ control and care. Your organisation should not retain records required as State archives unnecessarily, particularly if your organisation is unable to provide a suitable storage environment for such records.
In many cases, the Senior Responsible Officer will also need to ensure that the organisation has established a strategy and program to sentence and dispose of older accumulations of “unsentenced” records already held in storage areas and facilities. Undertaking such activities will assist in managing and reducing records storage costs. This is in keeping with Ministerial Memorandum M2007-08 Efficient and cost effective management of records.
2.2 Matching records to appropriate storage
To effectively plan and manage records storage, your organisation needs to know:
- the types of records it creates and receives
- the format of these records, are they in digital or physical format
- the yearly quantity of creation/generation of records that are in a physical format
- how frequently/urgently each type of record may need to be retrieved from records storage, and
- how long each record type needs to be retained.
This information will assist you in determining what types of records storage your organisation needs, the environmental conditions required, and how much records storage your organisation requires now and into the future. If you have an accurate understanding of the types of records storage required and how much storage you need, then you can achieve economies of scale in your records storage arrangements and procurement.
Generally records storage decisions will correspond to the business usage of the records.
| If you have ... | Then you will need ... |
|---|---|
| active records in a physical format which are frequently used and are required for the day to day functioning of your organisation |
primary storage for physical records located near the office or work areas so that records can be quickly retrieved. This type of storage is usually expensive. Note: Generally, most NSW Government organisations are creating records in a digital format. If your organisation is creating active records in a physical format, the organisation will need to establish business rules for the creation, management and storage of 'active records'. |
| semi active records which are required infrequently or are inactive and awaiting disposal |
secondary storage or semi-active storage which is located away from the centre of the city, in a storage repository managed by the organisation or a commercial facility. Note: Secondary or semi-active storage offers low cost bulk storage but retrieval costs need to be factored in. |
| State archives or long term temporary records | archival storage facilities. These are specially designed repositories with suitable environmental conditions to ensure that the records will survive as long as possible. |
Here is an example of how you could start to identify your storage needs. This example is based on General retention and disposal authority: local government records (GA39):
| Type of record | Accumulation per year | Retention period | Disposal action | Storage requirements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accounts receivable records (invoices, purchase orders etc.) | 50 type 1 boxes (10 metres) per year | Retain minimum of 7 years after end of financial year in which record was created (GA39 12.1.1) | Destroy | Secondary or semi-active storage |
| Development application files and associated plans | 100 type 1 boxes (500 metres) per year | Required as State archives (GA39 7.2.1) | Transfer to NSW State Archives and Records | Archival storage |
| Retain minimum of 10 years after action completed or until structure is removed or demolished, whichever is longer (GA39 7.2.2) | Destroy, depending on nature of application | Secondary or semi-active storage | ||
| Time sheets (excluding those employees who work with children) | 5 metres per year | Retain minimum of 6 years after action completed (GA39 22.16.2) | Destroy | Secondary or semi-active storage |
| Infringement notice books | 6 metres per year | Retain minimum of 7 years after action completed (GA39 19.2.1) | Destroy | Secondary or semi-active storage |
| Companion animal registration and microchipping records | 2 metres per year | Retain minimum of 2 years after creation of record (GA39 19.4.4) | Destroy | Secondary or semi-active storage |
| Minutes of Council (includes agenda papers) | 10 metres per year | Required as State archives (GA39 13.6.1) | Transfer to NSW State Archives and Records | Archival storage |
| Parking permits (includes applications and determinations) | 1 metre per year | Retain until expiry or termination of permit (usually 1 year) (GA39 30.8.1) | Destroy | Secondary or semi-active storage |
| Vehicle log books (paper log books) | 20 books (1 box) per year | Retain minimum 5 years after end of FBT year (GA39 23.14.4) | Destroy | Secondary or semi-active storage |
In the above scenario, the organisation will need approximately 540 linear metres of shelving for these records.
Each year, the organisation may need to add to this quantity of records storage. This is where understanding the patterns of growth (i.e. how many metres of physical records do we create and receive each year? Are we still creating these records in a physical format?) becomes important. Additionally, the organisation should estimate how many metres of records it will dispose of annually, either through transferring records identified as required as State archives to the State Archives Collection and destroying time-expired records. With these two estimates, the organisation can then predict how much storage it is likely to need each year. Based on this forecast, the organisation can then make appropriate arrangements and achieve greater efficiencies in storage procurement.
One way to estimate and forecast the growth of records held in offsite storage is to compare quantities of records stored in offsite storage over a number of years.
Moving to digital recordkeeping and reducing the quantity of paper that is stored will also assist in reducing storage costs.
2.3 Storage planning
To assist in managing the storage of its records, organisations are encouraged to develop a comprehensive storage plan covering:
- all types of records (semi-active, State archives and long term temporary), storage media and storage locations
- forecasts of future storage needs, including growth of quantities of records requiring physical storage
- planned upgrades required for storage areas/facilities
- projected reductions of storage areas/facilities due to better disposal practices, imaging of records and destruction of hard copy originals under General retention and disposal authority: original or source records that have been copied (GA45) and reduced quantities of records.
A storage plan will ensure that appropriate arrangements for storage are in place which will assist the maintenance, security and accessibility of your organisation’s records, and that future storage requirements have been forecast and included in planning.