Electronic Recordkeeping - Recordkeeping Manual

Recordkeeping Manual - Electronic Recordkeeping

Part 7 - Contents

What are Electronic Records?
Managing Electronic Records
Managing Website Records
Managing Other Electronic Records
Storing Electronic Records and Backups
What goes on File?
Access and Security
Disposal of Electronic Records
Contacts

1. What are Electronic Records

The State Records Act 2000 and the Australian Standard on Records Management make no distinction between electronic records and paper records, they are to be treated and managed in very much the same way. Electronic records are simply records in electronic format rather than having been printed or written onto paper.

Staff and students are encouraged to generate and disseminate information in electronic formats to enhance learning and research and to improved productivity.

The principles of the management of electronic records are no different to those of the paper record. Records must be created, captured and maintained in a manner that ensures their ongoing integrity and retrievability for as long as they are required to meet the business and accountability requirements of the University.

Electronic records must remain available, accessible, retrievable and useable for as long as a business need exists or as long as legislative, policy and archival requirements exist.

An 'Electronic Record' means any document or record created, communicated and maintained by means of electronic equipment and includes, but is not limited to, electronic organisers, computer-based diaries, appointment books and calendars, electronic mail, facsimile transmissions, websites and databases.

2. Managing Electronic Records

As described above electronic records come in many different formats and are used for many different purposes. They are also viewed in different methods as well which can have an impact on what records are to be kept and how those records are to be retained.

The following provides information on the main formats of electronic records, particularly email, websites and Office software records. Other electronic records types are also briefly covered within this section and the next Part of this manual. Staff are requested if a particular type of electronic record is not covered in this Part of the Manual or the next Part then to please contact the Records and Archives Office for advice.

2.1 Managing your Electronic Mail

A majority of communications to and from the university and also within it are now coordinated through email, this has heightened the importance of email as they contain many critical and important records that are not captured or available elsewhere. Therefore staff must ensure that they manage their email appropriately and ensure that accurate records for evidentiary purposes. Emails that are related to university business are University Records and therefore form a part of the corporate memory of the university and must be managed accordingly.

Staff must be aware that electronic mail is subject to the same legislative requirements as any other record. This includes the State Records Act 2000, Freedom of Information Act 1992, Evidence Act 1906, Electronic Transactions Act 2003 and many other related legislative requirements.

The following is a guide to manage your electronic mail and must be followed entirely to ensure accurate and complete records of business transactions are captured and retained.

The University Records Management Procedures must also be consulted.

2.2 Electronic Records/Document Management Systems

The University currently does not have an electronic document management system and therefore does not have the facility to manage electronic mail in electronic format via a central system. Therefore electronic mail that forms a part of the university record should be printed and attached to the relevant paper files. However it is noted that the effectiveness and resources required to do this can be exhaustive and therefore other options are provided below to maintain your electronic mail in electronic format. As the University moves to a more electronically managed information environment appropriate guidance will be developed.

It should also be clearly noted that electronic mail can only be destroyed in accordance with approved Disposal Authorities as defined in the University Recordkeeping Plan and as subject to the State Records Act 2000.

Please note however; ephemeral information such as advertising, also covered in the Disposal Authority, can be destroyed immediately, this includes such things as SPAM email (unsolicited email advertising) that is received by staff which can be deleted immediately.

2.3 What needs to be captured?

Electronic mail messages quite often contain information that is important to the University and therefore must be retained. Part 3 of this manual provides information on what a University Record is and this should be consulted to determine what records are to be captured. In brief, University records are those that have a value beyond the immediate or local work area; however some records within the local work area must also be retained so this should be verified within the University Disposal Authorities. University Records usually go beyond the local office or work unit and are required to be seen or actioned by others apart from the creator of the email message.

It is also important for users to note that what begins as low level communications may turn out to become a significant or important subject. It is recommended that at least during the life of a discussion on a subject, no matter how low in importance it may seem that those records are retained until the subject discussion has been completed, the creator should then review the records and decide whether they are to be retained or not in accordance to the definition of what a University record is and the authorised disposal authorities.

It is the responsibility of the staff member who is dealing with the issue/subject to ensure appropriate records are captured onto official recordkeeping systems. Each email printed or retained in electronic format must include all header information about the email this includes such things as the address, date, time, copied to, sender, recipient and so on. If maintaining the records in electronic format the electronic records must be maintained in their native format, i.e. the format they were created/received in to ensure the integrity of the record is maintained.

A common question asked is "do we need to save/print each transaction of an email discussion, i.e. to sending, replying and so on back and forth as the last email contains all the information since the commencement of the discussion?" The answer is "yes", as often when replying some of the previous emails may be trimmed, edited or changed in some way so as a rule of evidence each email being sent and replied to needs to be captured regardless of whether it is also included in any transactions after that point.

2.4 Creating Electronic Mail messages

When creating an electronic message the following guide should be used to ensure effective capture onto recordkeeping systems and for effective document retrieval.

1. Determine value of the record

a) Records that are required (continuing value records) to be retained are those that;

approve or authorise actions or expenditure.
are formal communications between staff, eg an alternative to the inter-office memoranda relating to official business.
signify changes in policy or are for policy development.
create precedent, such as issuing an instruction or advice.
relate to official business of the work unit or University.
involve negotiations on behalf of the University.
have value for other people or the work unit as a whole.

b) Records that are considered ephemeral are those that are;

distributed to staff for information purposes only, eg newsletters, circulars, meetings advises, notices, copies of document extracts etc.
drafts, created solely as part of preparation for other records.
personal messages and announcements not related to official business.
SPAM or unsolicited email messages marketing a product or service.

Users should consult Part 3 of this manual for a more succinct definition of a university record to ensure they understand completely what records are to be retained.

2. Provide a Descriptive subject in the Subject field of the Email.

When creating an email message staff are to ensure they provide an email subject that describes the actual contents of the email message itself.

The subject line should be descriptive enough to determine the contents of the email message, basically something that resembles a file title for the contents of the email itself.

Where a file exists, staff must include the file reference within the body of the message, usually at the beginning of the email message. Where a file does not exist, staff are requested to ensure after they print the email message, they attach the email to a new file request form and submit the document immediately to their respective records staff.

Staff and student files should be identified further by using one of the following, depending on whether the subject matter is about a staff member or student.

Staff Records: Emails that are to be attached to staff files should have the subject: Staff File - Staff ID - Staff Name - Subject of the Email.

Student Records: Emails that are to be placed on student file are to have the subject: Student File - Student ID - Student Name - Subject of the Email.

3. If you require confirmation that this message has been received ensure that the 'Confirmation of Receipt' function is activated before sending.

4. All messages other than ephemeral messages should include a file reference as the first line of text in the message body of the electronic message.

5. Send and save and/or print the records of continuing value, including any and all attachments. Messages of ephemeral value may be deleted after sending.

6. Where the email has been printed, staff must ensure they also print any and all attachments and attach them all to the appropriate file.

2.5 Attachments to Emails

Attachments to emails are just as important as the email itself, if either one is separated form the other the integrity of the record is lost and evidence of its accuracy may be questioned.

If you are maintaining the emails in electronic format the emails must be saved in MSG format (for Outlook users) and placed onto an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record and categorised appropriately using the University Classification Scheme. The MSG format will maintain the record and all attachments as the one record.

Staff must not use PST files to maintain University Records.

Where printing is used staff must make sure that when printing emails for filing that all attachments are also printed and placed on file, where the attachment is a format unable to be printed such as video, the user is to copy the attachment onto a suitable floppy or CD Disc and provide that with the printed email to the records staff for safe keeping/attachment to the file.

2.6 How to Manage Emails

As previously indicated a suitable electronic records/document management system does not exist within the University at the time of writing this manual, however the facility to maintain your records in electronic format does exist, but this requires a detailed process and set of procedures to be developed and agreed upon within your area as to whether these records should be printed and/or managed electronically.

It must be clearly understood that the email programs themselves are not recordkeeping systems and were not designed to be, therefore they must not be used as the sole repository for university records at any time. However for reference purposes staff may retain copies of the emails in their mail programs as they desire, but this cannot be used in place of the official file system.

There is also an issue with the volume of storage being placed on University Exchange Servers and this places a large risk on the university of possible Exchange server failure, therefore staff are encouraged to firstly print all valuable records and place them onto correct files and/or save the emails to an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record in the email applications native format, for Outlook this is the MSG format.

Staff must also be aware and must ensure that local folders, or Outlook 'pst' files are not used to store corporate records at any time, these must be only be stored on the authorised and managed University Servers at all times. Where space is limited on the Exchange Server staff are requested to ensure all corporate records have either been saved to an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record in MSG format and/or they have been printed and placed on official file before deleting any records from the Exchange Server. Additional advice should be sought from the Records and Archives Office if staff are unsure about what records can be destroyed. Staff are reminded that there are penalties for deletion of corporate records, including emails, without authorised approval, with a penalty of up to $10,000 per breach.

Emails that are University records must be either saved to an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record and/or printed and placed on official file at all times, this includes those incoming and outgoing and all responses, receipts etc in regard to the subject(s) being discussed.

It is the responsibility of the sender to ensure after sending they save and/or print the email and place it in the appropriate official file. It is also the responsibility of the sender to save and/or print all responses to the subject to which they have instigated.

Printed emails must include all header information, that meaning the print copy of the email should have the sender, recipient, date, subject, and other header information included on the printed copy at all times.

2.7 Saving your email to MSG format

This section is based on the processes required to save an email in MSG format for Outlook users. Outlook is the University standard email system. If you are using another email application please contact the Records and Archives office for assistance.

It has been previously advised to store electronic mail in paper format by printing and filing each and every email. However the practicality of this has not been evident and for the most part has not been followed well.

Saving a MSG file 1 The solution is to then setup a space in a suitable authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record that is backed up at regular intervals and to move the messages to that location from the Exchange server. To do this messages should be opened and then by using SAVE AS under the FILE menu save the message in 'MSG' format, it must be stored in the native 'MSG' format, rtf, or any other format is not suitable. The benefits of the MSG format is that it will retain the attachments (if any) as well when doing the SAVE AS.

Note this is not using PST files, PST files must never be used to store University Records, this is a process of saving each individual email as a document in itself in the MSG format.

Saving a MSG file 2

Please note staff may still continue to print and file electronic mail for attachment to file if preferred.

2.8 Managing your local email

Staff may maintain their email in electronic format only by ensuring that the records are saved to an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record in the appropriate format (MSG format for Outlook users) and that there is documented evidence and an agreed process within the staff members area that this process is accepted to ensure the information is known to exist and is accessible.

While Exchange can be used for storing emails for reference purposes for easy access, they must ensure that this must not replace the official file system, university records are to be saved and/or printed and placed in official university files until such time a suitable electronic document management system becomes available.

Staff must also be aware and must ensure that local folders, or Outlook 'pst' files are not used to store corporate records at any time, these must be only be stored on authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record at all times. Where space is limited on the Exchange Server staff are requested to ensure all corporate records have either been saved to an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record in MSG format and/or they have been printed and placed on official file before deleting any records from the Exchange Server. Additional advice should be sought from the Records and Archives Office if staff are unsure about what records can be destroyed. Staff are reminded that there are penalties for deletion of corporate records, including emails, without authorised approval, with a penalty of up to $10,000 per breach.

Staff may also have local temporary or ephemeral emails they wish to hold onto for their easy access, so long as they are not university records this is acceptable. Personal and ephemeral records only may (and it is recommended) be transferred to local or Outlook 'pst' folders to conserve space if they desire. Again PST files may only be used for ephemeral records and must not be used to store University records at any time, even for archiving purposes.

Staff should arrange their email in folders that describe the subject matter of the email to assist in the retrieval of the information for themselves, saving valuable time in searching. For example if an email is a communication with a student (which should go on official file) then the appropriate method of electronic filing would be to have a directory called 'Students' and then a file for each student with the student ID and Student name.

The University Classification Scheme can be used as a tool to categories emails for all users, refer to Part 3, section 5 and Part 10 of this manual for more assistance.

The following is a guide to filing your emails in a virtual file system. Emails should be stored in a way that relates directly to the subject of the email itself, they should be filed with the aid of the University Keyword Thesaurus with folders created using Keywords and Activity Descriptors, the following is a visual example;

Directory tree example for saving emails
Figure 7.1

2.9 Filing Email Electronically versus Placing on File

Obviously there is an advantage to retain emails as electronic records. It provides the creator/recipient faster access to the message rather than the paper alternative, it saves on paper and also on space required to store (physical space) the messages is far less compared to paper. It also allows for the messages to be easily transferred to other users by electronic means and the records can be sent to more than one person at the same time.

However there are many disadvantages as well, firstly it can create difficulties in capturing the complete information, which is a complete history of the subject matter being discussed. This is normally caused by the fact that not all records of the subject will necessarily be available in electronic format, so if some records are held in paper, some are held electronically, then whenever someone goes to either one they do not have the compete file. Obviously electronic records can be shared with shared folders, but that has its own problems, including security of access, security from alteration, security from deletion and so on.

There is also the issue that unless an appropriate system is in place, no one else outside of those already knowing about shared resource areas, know they exist and thus believe they have the complete information that is available on a file. Emails also if not sent to records for filing, are commonly left on individual staff email accounts without anyone else knowing of their existence. Staff need to be fully aware that emails used for business transactions as part of their employment with the University are university records and therefore need to be captured onto official recordkeeping systems. Without this being done, records files will remain incomplete and of little value to the organisation. The records not on file can also quite often contain critical information and if not placed on file can place the University at great risk of being sued, damage its reputation or cause some other harm to the university image.

Until the University selects and implements a suitable recordkeeping system that caters for the capture and storage of electronic documents with effective capture and retrieval techniques, staff are required and responsible for the saving and/or printing and placement of emails onto appropriate files that are official university records at all times.

3. Managing Website Records

The management of website records can be a difficult issue to decide on the best method of ensuring information is adequately captured. To assist in this process the State Government has released a guide on Managing websites and within that guide section 5 deals with websites as records. With the Introduction of the State Records Act the State Government has also released an appendix to that section 5 on how to manage records of websites in accordance to the State Records Office. Both documents are available on the web and should be consulted by Divisional Web development staff.

Guidelines for State Government Web Sites
Guidelines for Management of Web Information

The guidelines cover many aspects of website development and maintenance, however the most significant of these in regard to recordkeeping are (extracted from the above guides);

'Specifically WA Government web sites should:

Be managed in accordance with provisions outlined in the State Records Act 2000;
Apply appropriate metadata standards;
Take account of privacy concerns of the general public and implement strategies to ensure personal information is respected and protected;
Ensure best practice in security is implemented and maintained in a manner consistent with best practices in IT security;
Adhere to all relevant legal requirements;'

'With agencies conducting an increasing proportion of their business over the Internet, it is essential that web publishing and online service delivery systems have good record-keeping capabilities and/or are linked to corporate record-keeping systems. Failure to capture full and accurate records of web-based activity will leave agencies exposed to considerable legal, financial and political risk.'

'It is essential for agencies to create and retain full and accurate records of all the advice and information published on the web site even after that information is superseded. Agencies can be held to account, sometimes in a court of law, for any advice or information it issues via the web or via other means of communication. If an agency does not have appropriate record-keeping systems and procedures in place to capture and retain these records in a reliable and durable form, it may find that it is unable to account for its actions with reference to authentic evidence of its past decisions and activities.'

The following has been based on those guidelines to ensure that the University processes are in line with State Government requirements and therefore compliant with the requirements of the State Records Act 2000.

3.1 Electronic Records/Document Management Systems

The University currently does not have an electronic document management system and therefore does not have the facility to manage electronic records in electronic format. Therefore electronic records that form a part of the university record should be saved to an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record and/or printed and attached to the relevant files where possible, however for websites this may be impractical and other means such as CD-Rom recording may be used as an alternative. As the University moves to a more electronically managed information environment appropriate guidance will be developed.

It should also be clearly noted that electronic records can only be destroyed in accordance with approved Disposal Authorities as defined in the University Recordkeeping Plan and as subject to the State Records Act 2000

3.2 What needs to be captured

Electronic Records, such as websites, quite often contain information that is important to the University and therefore must be retained. Part 3 of this manual provides information on what a University Record is and this should be consulted to determine what records are to be captured. In brief, University records are those that have a value beyond the immediate or local work area, however some records within the local work area must also be retained so this should be verified within the University Disposal Authorities.

When developing websites it should follow standard concepts of any project being conducted by the University in that the website should be fully planned, discussed, communicated and any risks also assessed. The plan should include how the website is going to meet its legislative requirements, in this case recordkeeping, and that should be factored into its concept, design, implementation and the maintenance of the website itself. Responsibilities for who is going to manage the website and ensure appropriate changes are recorded, logged and entered into a recordkeeping system also needs to be assigned as well as assigned roles of who will actually be doing the maintenance of the website. Obviously staff changes occur so these assignments need to be regularly reviewed and updated as necessary.

For recordkeeping purposes a decision has to be made of the significance of the information and whether the information is actual a university record (see part 3 of the manual), basically does the website have the following attributes;

Is of administrative, legal, fiscal, evidential or historical value and is not recorded elsewhere;
Formal communication and/or a transaction between officers (for example, a memorandum, report or submission) between an officer and another party; or
Documents the rationale behind agency policy, decisions or directives.

The information of a website as a university records does not only apply to static web pages, but also includes dynamic information that can be used, viewed or displayed for information and used for evidence at any time.

It must be recognised that websites derived from the department's business transactions or publication of information are public records and need to be managed, maintained and disposed of in accordance with the State Records Act 2000.

When capturing website information a standard set of metadata elements needs to be recorded, many of these are already included within the metadata elements of the templates for websites used by the University, that have been developed by Online Solutions of Information Services. The templates and other tools for metadata and website creation are available at http://online.curtin.edu.au/resources.html.

The following metadata (information) must be captured for each website;

The page URL;
The Business Owner;
The Author;
Title of the site:
Description of the site;
Keyword(s)/key phrase(s);
Categories (for retention);
Date of Creation;
Date of Modification;
Backup procedures;
How significant changes to the site will be captured; and
Where the application code resides.

The above information should be included with a backup of the website as the university record.

3.3 How to Capture Websites

Websites across the University are available in many formats and delivered in many ways, these include, but are not limited to, html, shtml, xml, dhtml, php, cgi and of course dynamic database driven websites using such things as content management processes/systems and other back end database processes.

Capturing static html web pages is probably the easiest exercise, simply a snapshot of the website before a change is made can be taken and archived, this process is fairly simple. However what constitutes a change, and what levels of a change and how much of a change?

The basic principle is if the sites' information is being changed in a way that it has a different meaning, structure or even design style, resulting in the information, even if its the same information being presented differently, then a backup (snapshot) of the site must be taken and archived before changes are made.

The backup must be able to be fully restored if necessary, to allow for the display and access to the information as it was available at the time of the snapshot being taken as if still active on the website. The sites content, images and all related links between documents must be maintained.

Backups should be made onto CD or other optical device. Once complete, a test restore should be conducted to ensure it is complete and error free. A second copy should be made and sent to the Records and Archives Office for preservation.

Dynamic data on the other hand can be a little more difficult as the information being displayed on the website is usually being pulled from one or more other sources as data and then displayed as information. The process here for capture is that the database must be able to be backed up at any given time and that all changes to the database are logged with an adequate audit trail and log showing all changes made to the data held within the database. It may be useful for editors/developers of these systems to ensure that a written log is also maintained defining what has been changed, when and by whom.

The backup, audit trails and logs must be able to be used to identify what was available within the system at any given time in the past and must be able to have that information viewable in meaningful form in the style and structure it would normally be available.

Where templates, style sheets and other styles are used to display the data these documents must also be captured, and if a change is made to the way the system displays the information through any design, style or any other changes these must also be captured showing the changes and enabling if required a restore of styles if necessary.

The general principle in capturing website information is that information on corporate websites must be able to be retrieved and displayed as if it was still active and/or have sufficient audit trails and change logs sufficient to meet evidence requirements that the information was as it is captured when it was active in the past.

When taking snapshots or backups of the websites for recordkeeping purposes the following metadata (information) must be captured for each website;

The page URL;
The Business Owner;
The Author;
Title of the site:
Description of the site;
Keyword(s)/key phrase(s);
Categories (for retention);
Date of Creation;
Date of Modification;
Backup procedures;
How significant changes to the site will be captured; and
Where the application code resides.

The above information should be included with a backup of the website as the university record.

Staff must ensure that whatever method they choose to capture websites for recordkeeping that they adhere and meet the requirements of the State Records Act 2000, the University Recordkeeping Plan and the Records Management Procedures.

More information can be obtained from reading the following guidelines:

Guidelines for State Government Web Sites
Guidelines for Management of Web Information

4. Managing Other Electronic Records

With the advent of the desktop PC many staff are creating records on their desktop PC and often these records are the only ones in existence, whether they are backed up or not, is another issue, but the sheer fact is that no one else knows that those records even exist.

Just as this manual was produced on a PC using a word processor many other documents are created using many other applications readily available to University staff, but the question is; are those records being placed on official files? The answer may be yes for some and no for others, the requirement however is that if a record is created and is a university record, it must then be captured onto the official recordkeeping system. This will, until appropriate electronic systems become available, require printing the record out and placing that record on file.

Much of the following is a duplication of what is covered in 2.0 Managing your Electronic Mail, that is simply because the same principles apply, and to ensure, in case section 2.0 was not read, the information and principles are available.

Staff must be aware that electronic records are subject to the same legislative requirements as any other record, this includes the State Records Act 2000, Freedom of Information Act 1992, Evidence Act 1906, Electronic Transactions Act 2003 and many other related legislative requirements.

The following is a guide to manage your electronic records and must be followed entirely to ensure accurate and complete records of business transactions are captured and retained.

The University Records Management Procedures must also be consulted.

4.1 Electronic Records/Document Management Systems

The University currently does not have an electronic document management system and therefore does not have the facility to manage electronic records in electronic format. Therefore electronic records that form a part of the university record should be saved to an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record and/or printed and attached to the relevant paper files. As the University moves to a more electronically managed information environment appropriate guidance will be developed.

It should also be clearly noted that electronic records can only be destroyed in accordance to approved Disposal Authorities as defined in the University Recordkeeping Plan and as subject to the State Records Act 2000. Individuals face a fine of up to $10,000 per breach if they are not compliant to the legislative requirements.

4.2 What needs to be captured?

Electronic Records quite often contain information that is important to the University and therefore must be retained. Part 3 of this manual provides information on what a University Record is and this should be consulted to determine what records are to be captured. In brief, University records are those that have a value beyond the immediate or local work area; however some records within the local work area must also be retained so this should be verified within the University Disposal Authorities. University Records usually go beyond the local office or work unit and are required to be seen or actioned by others apart from the creator of the email message.

It is also important for staff to note that what begins as low level communications may turn out to become a significant or important subject. It is recommended that at least during the life of a discussion on a subject, no matter how low in importance it may seem that those records are retained until the subject discussion has been completed, the creator should then review the electronic records and decide whether they are to be retained or not in accordance with the definition of what a University record is and the authorised disposal authorities.

It is the responsibility of the staff member who is dealing with the issue/subject to ensure appropriate records are captured onto official record keeping systems. When printing an electronic record it must include all parts and sections of the records, including any metadata.

4.3 How to Manage Electronic Records

As previously indicated, a suitable electronic document management system does not exist within the University at the time of writing this manual, however the facility to maintain your records in electronic format does exist, but this requires a detailed process and set of procedures to be developed and agreed upon within your area as to whether these records should be printed and/or managed electronically.

It must be clearly understood that the various programs used to create electronic records themselves are not recordkeeping systems and were not designed to be, therefore they must not be used as the sole repository for university records at any time. However for reference purposes staff may retain copies of their records in electronic format on their local or shared directories as they desire, but this cannot be used in place of the official file system.

Records in any format, including electronic records that are University records must be either saved to an authorised and managed university server and/or printed and placed onto official files at all times, this includes those incoming and outgoing and all responses in regard to the subject(s) being discussed.

It is the responsibility of the document creator to ensure they save and/or print and place the record on the appropriate official file. Responses are also to be captured and placed on the appropriate file.

4.4 Managing your local records

Electronic records are commonly created on a user desktop PC and the documents are usually saved on that users C, D or even I drive, especially when that record is only in draft stages. For reference purposes staff may retain copies of records they create in electronic format on their local storage drive for their easy access, but this must not replace the official file system, university records are to be either saved to an authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record and/or printed and placed onto official university files.

Staff may also have local temporary or ephemeral records they wish to hold onto for their easy access, so long as they are not university records this is acceptable.

Staff should arrange work directories/folders that describe the subject matter of the records subject to assist in the retrieval of that information at a later date for themselves and others saving valuable time in searching. For example if a document is about communication with a student (which should go on an official file) then the appropriate method of electronic filing would be to have a directory called 'Students' and then a file for each student with the student ID and Student name.

The University Classification Scheme can be used as a tool to categorise documents for all users, or refer to Part 3, section 5 and Part 10 of this manual for more assistance.

example tree for saving electronic records
Figure 7.2

Figure 7.2 above is a visual guide to filing your documents in a virtual file system. Records should be stored in a way that relates directly to the subject of the email itself, they should be filed with the aid of the University Classification Scheme with folders created using Keywords and Activity Descriptors.

4.5 Filing Records Electronically versus Placing on File

Obviously there is an advantage to retaining electronic records in their electronic format, it provides the creator faster access to the records rather than the paper alternative, it saves on paper and also on space required to store (physical space) the record. It also allows for the records to be easily transferred to other users by electronic means and the records can be sent to more than one person at the same time.

However there are many disadvantages as well, firstly it can create difficulties in capturing the complete information, that is a complete history of the subject matter within the record. This is normally caused by the fact that not all records of the subject will necessarily be available in electronic format, so if some records are held in paper, some are held electronically, therefore whenever someone goes to either one (presuming they know the electronic record exists) they do not have the compete file. Obviously electronic records can be shared with shared folders, but that has its own problems, including security of access, security from alteration, security from deletion and so on.

There is also the issue that unless an appropriate system is in place no one else outside of those already knowing about the shared resource know they exist and thus believe they have the complete information that is available on a file.

Electronic Records are commonly only available on user's desktop computers without anyone else knowing of their existence. Staff need to be fully aware that all records, including those that are electronic, used for business transactions as part of their employment with the University are university records and therefore need to be captured onto official recordkeeping systems, without this being done records files will remain incomplete and of little value to the organisation. The records not on file can also quite often contain critical information and if not placed on file can place the University at great risk of being sued, damage its reputation or cause some other harm to the university image.

Until the University selects and implements a suitable recordkeeping system that caters for the capture and storage of electronic documents with effective capture and retrieval techniques staff are required and responsible for the saving and/or printing and placement of electronic records they create onto appropriate file that are official university records at all times.

5. Storing Electronic Records and Backups

As provided in the above sections staff may maintain their electronic records in electronic format, however clear processes and procedures need to be written and agreed on within the area you work in. University records can only be stored on authorised and managed university server in an appropriate shared space as the official record.

As mentioned within the above sections staff may retain documents in electronic format on their local workstations, but this must not be used as the official storage of official records, but rather in addition of the official records and only retained for reference purposes.

Staff should make it as s standard rule that as soon as a record is created on their PC, that is a University record, it is saved to the designated approved university servers for your area and/or printed and placed on the relevant file, this may include drafts. For more information on what needs to be captured please see Part 3 of this manual on what is a university record?.

There may be in some cases that electronic records must be stored in electronic format, websites for example, they continue to change and commonly cannot be reproduced in a printed format, especially if a dynamic system. In this case a snapshot or copy of the records needs to be taken periodically or as changes occur to the system, this snapshot/copy is to be placed on to CD-Rom, non rewritable and then a second copy made. One copy should be retained by the department, while the other is transferred to the central Records and Archives Office for safe keeping and appropriate storage.

There are also many other records such as databases, including corporate applications that contain data that can constitute records when queried, i.e. displayed to the end users when they request information through a search or similar request. This data is commonly vital to the university and is commonly the only record of that data. In these cases, backup copies are to be made on a regular basis so as to be able to fully restore the database system and all its data without loss of data at any time, whenever needed. Where the data is vital, such as that held in corporate applications, backup copies must be also stored off-site in the event of a disaster occurring.

In all cases with backups of electronic records simply having a backup is not sufficient, regular testing of the backups should be conducted to ensure that the data can be restored without error otherwise the backup is worthless.

All areas must develop as part of the backup process, internal processes and procedures for backup of their database systems, whether they are local databases or corporate applications.

6. What goes on File?

In most cases, all records as part of an employees duties, are official records and should be placed on file, however there are many different types of records and different importance of records created daily by staff. Many records have little to no value beyond the local area, while others will have ongoing value beyond the local unit, some examples of records that must be placed on file are those which;

constitute formal communication between staff; or between staff and students. Often what appears to be an informal exchange may develop into a more serious matter requiring formal intervention. A "file note" which briefly records the principal matters discussed, the people involved, and the date and time of the exchange should be made and filed;
constitute formal communication between a University entity and another internal or external entity
approve or authorise actions or expenditure;
signify changes in policy, procedure or record policy or procedural development;
contain an instruction or advice which will constitute a precedent;
involve negotiations on behalf of the University;
impact upon other members of the University community individually or upon organisational entities within the University.

Please refer to Part 3 of this manual for more information about what University Records are.

7. Access and Security

Access and security to electronic records is similar to those of paper records, however there are other security issues that need to be noted.

Staff should consult the various procedures under the Information Management Policy to ensure they understand their responsibilities in regard to using the ICT services of the University. This policy and its procedures are available on the University Policy and Procedures website (http://www.policies.curtin.edu.au).

8. Disposal of Electronic Records

Electronic records may only be destroyed in accordance to approved Disposal Authorities as defined in the University Records Management Procedures and the University Recordkeeping Plan. As a general rule no distinction is made between the retention and disposal of electronic records or paper records.

However the ability to delete electronic records is far easier, it's as simple as a touch of a button on a keyboard in many cases, this is particularly why' without appropriate electronic document management systems in place' university records should be printed and placed onto official hard copy files. Staff must be made fully aware that it is their responsibility to ensure records they receive and/or create must be captured and managed accordingly and are protected from accidental deletion. Staff must be aware that there are penalties for disposal of records whether electronic or paper based.

Where staff have retained copies of records in electronic format for their reference purposes only and those records have been placed on official files or on to official authorised and managed university servers in an appropriate shared space as the official record, then those copies on their local desktop workstation may be destroyed when reference or the need for those records no longer exists. Staff must ensure they understand their responsibilities in regard to recordkeeping as there are fines for breaches of the State Records Act by individuals, at a penalty of up to $10,000 per breach. Staff must consult appendix 2 of the University Records Management Procedures to fully understand their responsibilities in regard to managing university records.

Care must be taken when computers or other hardware that store electronic records, copies or otherwise, are being disposed off (including selling), or transferred to another area. Users must ensure all data on the device is adequately removed and cannot be restored, simply deleting it from a hard disk for example is not sufficient disposal of the records on a hard disk, hard drives should be wiped clean through deletion, reformatting, writing to it and reformatting again. Staff are advised to contact their local IT support area for assistance in this area.

Disposal of electronic records on other media must also be sufficiently destroyed so that the data cannot be recovered in anyway, this may involve the actual destruction of the physical media to ensure data cannot be recovered.

9. Contacts

IT Support

Please contact your local IT Support Helpdesk

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

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