Wellington Branch

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Recordkeeping is Rocket Science after all, Wellington Branch learns
Government Recordkeeping survey
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The Wellington Branch is particularly active, perhaps not surprisingly given the concentration of recordkeepers in the capital. The Branch usually meets in Archives New Zealand's Training Room at 10 Mulgrave Street.

Latest News - AGM

Recordkeeping is Rocket Science after all, Wellington Branch learns

It’s been said often enough: “It’s quite simple. It ain’t rocket science!” Well, now it can be revealed. Recordkeeping is a rocket science and delegates to the 2008 annual general meeting seminar of the ARANZ Wellington Branch have the knowledge.

Didn’t know about this? Have a look at the website of the NASA-backed Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) at http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0b1.pdf and read the committee’s Recommendation for Space Data System Standards, “Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System”. It’s all in there: pure rocket information science.

Archives New Zealand’s new Digital Sustainability Programme Manager, Evelyn Wareham, offered the tip in her presentation, The Next Generation of
Digital Sustainability, following the Wellington Branch AGM in August. The CCSDS recommendations for long-term preservation of digital records came after a quantity of historic NASA Mars exploration records had been jeopardised by changes in the administration’s information technologies.

The space data committee’s model for open archival information systems had become a standard reference for emerging e-sustainability programmes globally, Evelyn said.

Government Recordkeeping survey

She also presented some intriguing statistics from the latest Archives N.Z. recordkeeping survey of government agencies[1]. It revealed, amongst other things:

67% of agencies hold e-records they can no longer access.
14% have records stored on obsolete media.
14% have records where a controlling index is unavailable.
13% have records requiring software or hardware that is unavailable.

However, many were planning steps to deal with this:

37% were undertaking a records audit.
34% were migrating to new hardware/software/formats.
29% were copying or digitising the records.

Archives N.Z. plans comprehensive assistance programmes to help remedy these with its new Digital Continuity Strategy, Evelyn said. “The strategy will fits with our Digital Content Strategy and Digital Strategy 2.0. It will have a vision, approach and understanding of common roles crated by an interdepartmental strategic advisory group,” she told the seminar.

The strategy’s consultation draft had been approved by the Chief Archivist in June, would go before the Government Cabinet and was likely to be released for public consultation late in the year. It should be finalise early in 2009, she said.

An interim digital archive has been established at Archives N.Z. It contains several thousand files and is greatly helping system designers and planners prepare a full-scale system. Archives NZ is inviting other Government agencies to contribute small quantities of digital records to add to the archive for further tests and retention.