Recordkeeping Manual - University Archives
- What are archives?
- What records do I need to archive?
- When do I archive my records?
- How do I archive my records?
- Can I store my old records with Central Archives?
- Transferring your inactive records to Records and Archives?
- Requesting archived records
- Storing your own records and storage standards
- Long term archives
- University archive collections
- Using the university archive
- Preservation
- Access and Security
- Disposal of archived records
- Contacts
Archives are those records that have a continuing value beyond their active life and will be preserved indefinitely for historical purposes.
Many of the records we place in storage are not archives, but are simply inactive records of temporary value that the University is required to retain in accordance with the law, for a specific length of time defined by a Disposal Authority.
Within the disposal authorities used by the Univeristy there are three types of records;
Archival - Those records, which are determined to be of an archival value to the State will have a Disposal Action of “A”. These records are required to be transferred to the State Archives for permanent storage in a controlled environment once they become twenty five years old. If for any reason space at the State Archives is not available the Records and Archives Office will retain these records in storage until a request for transfer is made by the State Records Office.
Permanent – There are some records that may not be deemed valuable to the State as State Archives, but have continuing historic value to the University, these are called Permanent records of the University, within the Disposal Authority these records are marked with a Disposal Action of “P”.
Temporary – All other records that are not Archival or Permanent value to the University are called Temporary Records; these records have only a temporary value and will have a Disposal Action of “D” followed by a number e.g. (D5). These records can be destroyed in accordance to the terms of an approved University and/or State Disposal Authority. A full disposal list must be provided to the Records and Archives Office for approval before destruction may occur.
Refer to Part 12: Retention and Disposal, of the University Recordkeeping Manual for details on how to use the disposal authorities, disposal lists and obtaining approval for destruction of University Records.
2. What Records do I Need to Archive?
The University Disposal Authorities define what records are to be retained and for how long. Staff should familiarise themselves with the University Disposal Authority and understand how it works. Training is provided by the Records and Archives Office, please visit the Records and Archives Office for scheduled training times. More information is also provided in Part 12 of this manual.
If you have records of a type that are not covered within the University Disposal Authority the action will be that those records cannot be destroyed until approval has been provided. In this case staff must provide to the Records and Archives Office a description of the records and a suggested retention period, i.e. how long does the department need to keep these records for in inactive storage.
The Records and Archives Office will then review that list and request authorisation from the State Records Office for destruction approval. These items will then be listed in an updated Disposal Authority for future reference.
Refer to Part 3: What are University Records, of the University Recordkeeping Manual to determine what documents are constituted as a record, what records are required to be captured and record definitions.
3. When do I Archive My Records?
A record goes through various stages after creation of its life cycle; these include active life, semi active life and then inactive life before finally being transferred to State Archives or being destroyed.
Active records are those that are being used on regularly basis this includes referred to regularly, usually in regard to a subject matter that is currently being dealt with.
Semi-active records are those records that are no longer active and used regularly but are still referred to often enough to not warrant transfer to inactive storage. The Records and Archives Office recommends that records are only transferred to storage after two years of becoming inactive, this in most cases ensures the records are no longer active or even semi active.
Inactive records are those that rarely get referred to and are only retained due to requirements as set within the University Disposal Authorities as defined by law. These records are transferred to the Records and Archives Office for central management and retrieval if and when required. The Records and Archives Office has two onsite and two offsite storage facilities to store the various records required to be retained. The records that are deemed State Archives are transferred to State Archives five years after receipt to the Records and Archives Office and will then be deemed as State Archives.
The best time to archive records is when they have not been actioned for more than two years and are no longer or will no longer be used on a day-to-day basis. A general rule is to retain them for a minimum of two years before archiving them.
4. How do I Archive My Records?
When preparing to archive/store your inactive records you will need to review those records that you are about to store.
Firstly duplicates; we have no need to retain multiple copies of the same exact records, across the University many departments for example retain copies of senior committee minutes. In most cases the originals are held by the Secretariat or staff that created the minutes or the Records and Archives Office. Departments also hold copies of financial and staff records of which the originals are usually held by Staff Services or Financial Services, this principle applies to other areas as well, such as Student Services. The idea is to review your records and decide whether the records are in fact originals or copies. If they are copies, is the original held elsewhere in the University, if your not sure contact the relevant are and ask.
A note of caution, a duplicate is no longer a duplicate if anyone has added notes, annotations or some other form of meaningful markings to the duplicate copy, any such annotations will render that duplicate to now be an original record and it will need to be retained and managed as an original record.
Refer to Part 12; Retention and Disposal of the University Recordkeeping Manual, Section 4; Can I destroy duplicate records?
Once you have removed all duplicates from the records you now want to place in storage the next phase is to sort the records into like subjects. This means group similar records together, usually in files, such as place all financial records together, all staff records together and so on. Of course this grouping could result in multiple boxes of records for each category.
When packing poxes do not pack large lever arch or A4 plastic files, these take up valuable room, either move the records to manila style file if not already in these folder types or remove the contents from the level arch file and place a cover document on the group of records and describe the documents. Then tie these documents together with some form of string, be careful not to tie them together too tight as it may tear the records being grouped together..
Pack the files in the boxes on their edges (like brickwork), not on top of each other, and allow enough space for your hand to fit into the box without damaging any records or your hand, this will allow for retrievals if needed and will ensure the box is not over packed which could result in the box getting damaged.
Please only use authorised box types which are available form the Records and Archives Office, no other boxes will be accepted (e.g. reflex or monitor boxes). If incorrect boxes are received they will be returned to you for repacking.
When packing your boxes you will need to make a list of records (files) that are contained within each box. To simplify this process and to eliminate double entry, the Records and Archives Office has developed an online submission system that requires each box to be entered, listing each individual item (file) contained within each box, this process minimises double handling and saves overall costs to departments and the Records and Archives Office. For access to this system please contact the Records and Archives Office to arrange for training and access.
For further information about the Online Archive Submission System you may wish to refer to the Online Archive Submission System Guide available at the Records and Archives Office website:
http://www.records.curtin.edu.au/archives_management/archive_box_submission.html
Once the items have been submitted and approved for inclusion in the archives system, arrangements will be made for collection and transfer of your boxes to the inactive records storage areas.
5. Can I Store My Old Records with Central Archives?
As long as the records have met the criteria as described in the above sections of this part of the manual, your old records can be stored by the Records and Archives Office.
The Records and Archives Office maintains inactive storage in various locations on and off campus. On site storage is used for the more active records such as Student and Staff records while the majority of others are now located off-site. Areas that wish to utilise the central archive/inactive storage services of the Records and Archives Office must read Section 6 of the is part of the manual; Transferring your records to Records and Archives.
If an area chooses not to store their records centrally the responsibility for the correct storage and maintenance will rest with that area and that area must ensure the storage location meets all the storage standards established by the State Records Office. The area however must still submit lists of records due for destruction to the Records and Archives Office for authorisation to destroy. The area is also responsible for any and all destruction of those records in accordance to university approved Disposal Authorities. Staff are reminded that there are penalties for individuals for premature destruction of records of up to $10,000 per breach of the State Records Act 2000. It is therefore highly recommended to reduce risks to the area and its staff to utilise the central storage services.
6. Transferring Your Inactive Records to Records and Archives
Refer to section 3 “How do I archive my Records” making sure that this has been completed before transferring your inactive records to the Records and Archives Office.
The coordination of the transfer of boxes to the Records and Archives Office is fairly automated with the use of the Online Submission System.
Once the inactive records have been submitted through the Online Submission System and have been approved for storage, the Archives Officer will come and label these boxes with a system generated box number and will then organise to have these boxes collected from your area and transferred to an archive location. This normally takes between 1-2 weeks depending on the availability of Site Services staff to collect your boxes.
7. Requesting Archived Records
Requesting inactive records is a very simple process. Available at the Records and Archives Office website is an inactive record request form which can be downloaded. Simply fill out as much details as you are able to provide and email or fax this request to: records@curtin.edu.au or fax: 9266 2255, the request normally takes about 48-72 hours to retrieve and you will be notified when this has been retrieved and is ready for collection.
Inactive records can be requested on an urgent basis, however if they are stored offsite the Records and Archives Office can arrange to have these items delivered to our office from offsite storage as soon as possible, depending on the time of the day the request is lodged, urgert requests can be filled the same day or next day. Urgent requests that are stored onsite will be retrieved as soon as possible.
8. Storing Your Own Records and Storage Standards
Refer to section 4 “Can I store my records within Central Archives”. If this is not suitable to your needs then below is a list of storage standards:
- Records must be stored in conditions that ensure that they are readily accessible and retrievable for the length of time they are retained.
- Records should be stored in conditions that take into account their physical characteristics, sensitivity, retention period and expected access rate.
- The physical environment should be clean and free from dust.
- Records should never be exposed to direct sunlight and should be kept away from other sources of direct light and heat as much as possible.
- The physical area must be free from insects and rodents.
- There should be a minimal risk of damage from natural disaster such as fire, water and mould.
The best result for this would be to have an early fire warning system linked through to a gas flooding system. This way in the event of a fire, it will be extinguished quickly without any harm to the records. Make sure to keep records off the floor in the case of flooding and this also helps keep insects and parasites away from the records. The room should be sealed tightly and kept at an equal temperature, this will help to contain mould.
- It should be possible to retrieve records accurately and in a time period appropriate to the urgency of the retrieval request.
- It must provide adequate security to protect confidential or restricted information.
- All official records must be stored in such a way as to minimise the potential for unauthorised access.
- All record storage facilities used by the University (including those provided by a commercial provider) must comply with Occupational Health and Safety policies of the University as well as associated legislation.
- Access to storage areas should be restricted to staff with appropriate authority.
For a comprehensive explanation of storage standards please refer to the Australian Standards Records Management AS 4390.6-1996, Part 6: Storage , which can be obtained through the Records and Archives Office.
Records that have been identified as having permanent or continuing value are to be stored in conditions that satisfy minimum standards as provided by the State Records Office of Western Australia for permanent records storage. Please refer to section 8 “Storing your own Archives and Storage Standards”.
Those records referred to, as State Archives will be transferred to the State Records Office of Western Australia for appropriate storage under controlled conditions.
The University will store records of a permanent value in an archive location that meets the minimum requirements of a storage facility as recommended by the State Records Office.
10. University Archive Collections
The University currently maintains a number of historical documents; we currently have old WAIT photos, architecture books, committee minutes (original bindings), printing blocks, newspaper clippings and printed materials.
Curtin University is also the site for the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library (JCPML), this houses various historical and significant records that are associated with John Curtin, former Prime Minister of Australia.
The Records and Archives Office is also looking at future projects to ensure that historical items relating to the University are properly preserved and maintained.
11. Using the University Archive
The University archives are stored in a restricted area and can only be accessed or entered by the Records and Archives personnel and staff that have been authorised by the Records and Archives Office.
If you require access to the University archives for information or research projects, you can request to have the materials delivered to you by filling out the archive request form, available at the Records and Archives website. Please refer to section 7 “Requesting Archived Records”.
If you wish to store records within the University archives, your inactive records will have to be submitted through the Online Submission System. Please refer to section 4 “How do I Archive my Records”.
Preservation of records is something that should be observed by all staff of the University. What you do to a record today may have disastrous effects in years to come.
Below you will find a list that will help to preserve University records:
- The physical environment should be clean and free from dust.
- Records should never be exposed to direct sunlight and should be kept away from other sources of direct light and heat as much as possible.
- The physical area must be free from insects and rodents.
- There should be a minimal risk of damage from natural disaster such as fire, water and mould.
- You should never use sticky tape to repair rips or tears.
- When you are printing records, an idea would be to ascertain if the record is of great significance to the University and if so, print it on archival quality paper. This paper is designed to last longer than normal A4 paper.
- Use acid free paper when printing records.
- Use acid free boxes to store your records.
- If you have records of great significance to the University that are handled often for research etc, a good idea would be to have these materials microfilmed. This enables the originals to be stored away and staff & students can have access to the microfilmed copies. Thus preserving the original records.
Access to the inactive storage areas is limited to staff of the Records and Archives Office only. Where there is a need for a staff member or even a researcher to access the records a request for retrieval form must be completed. The records requested will be retrieved, booked out to the requesting officer and delivered to that officer with a signature of receipt request. While these records are being used the requesting officer is responsible for those records.
If required these records may be accessed within the Records and Archives Office, simply make a request and a time convenient to the requesting officer and the Records and Archives Office will be arranged.
14. Disposal of Inactive Records
Records may only be disposed of in accordance with disposal authorities that have been approved by the State Records Advisory Committee to comply with the State Records Act 2000.
A list of records due for destruction must be created and approved by University Archivist before any records are destroyed. A disposal list must contain a complete listing of all records that are proposed for destruction along with the respective disposal authority reference for each record. The Inactive Records Disposal Form can be found with all our other forms on our website here.
Records must be destroyed adequately so that they cannot be recreated in any form and confidentiality of the records must be maintained throughout the destruction process. A confidential destruction bin can be ordered from University Site Services, these bins are locked with a small opening to put records into. Once full Site Services will pick up the bin. The bins are then transferred to a secure destruction company for secure destruction. The cost of destruction is charged back to the area, this is approximately 12 dollars per bin.
A copy of all disposal lists must be retained as a permanent record of those records that have been destroyed. The Records and Archives Office will retain a copy of all disposal lists as proof of items destroyed in accordance to approved disposal authorities.
Destruction of records not listed within an approved disposal authority also requires authorisation from the University Archivist before destruction can commence. The required action is to send a list of these records to the University Archivist with a suggested retention period. Upon receiving this list the Records and Archives Office will develop an ad hoc disposal authority and submit this for approval to the State Records office. Once the State Records Office has approved this ad hoc disposal authority, the University Disposal Authority will be updated to include these records. Only after the new disposal authority has been updated can the records be authorised for destruction.
Approved disposal authorities are available from the Records and Archives Office.
The Records and Archives Office can be contacted during business hours in the following ways:
Telephone: 9266 7050
Facsimile: 9266 2255
Email: records@curtin.edu.au