Archives NZ Goes International
Archives NZ Goes International
April 16, 2007: Archives New Zealand has taken its Digital records Standard to the world with Australia, South Africa and the International Standards Organisation ready to adopt its guidance on the digitisation of records.
Dianne, Macaskill, chief executive of Archives New Zealand, says the New Zealand standard is filling a void frequently occurring in public sector recordkeeping across the globe.
“Our new standard setting out how state sector and local government organisations should comply with legislative requirements in the Public Records Act 2005 is filling a gap internationally,” she says. “This standard is a world leading product and shows New Zealand is keeping pace with the fast changing electronic world.”
As more and more government agencies are shifting to imaging technologies to digitise paper records, the benefits of digitisation could be lost if the records are inappropriately managed for the long-term.
“The digitisation process also has its risks, particularly for managing electronic documentation in the long term,” says Macaskill. “Digitisation processes and systems for managing digitised records along with the disposal of the original documents do need to comply with the Public Records Act and the Electronic Transactions Act 2002.”
The standard has been developed in New Zealand after country-wide consultation and works for both local and states levels of government. While the standard seeks to address managing digitised records, the new General Disposal Authority complements this by offering the state sector in New Zealand guidance for streamlining the lawful disposal of captured original paper documents.