To the Editor
Image & Data Manager

I refer to the article (Will feds be ready for 2015 digital deadline?) by Stephen Bounds, Director, knowquestion, regarding the Australian Government’s Digital Transition Policy published in Image and Data Manager on 4 June.

To avoid confusion and unnecessary concern for your readers in Commonwealth agencies, I would like to clarify some policy areas that the author appears to have misunderstood.

Firstly, it is a government, not an Archives policy but the Archives is leading the implementation. The Archives’ 2015 target requires that records created digitally after 2015 will be managed digitally. This has no impact on the transfer of records that already exist and there is no requirement to ‘backscan’ records. Rather, the Archives advises backscanning only when there is a valid business reason to do so. The Archives has made these requirements very clear in all its communications with agencies and on its website.

Check-up 2.0 helps agencies assess their information and records management capability, plan improvements and monitor progress. It is not a compliance measure, and there is no ‘mostly compliant’ rating. Agencies have found Check-up 2.0 very useful, and as a result it was included in the Government’s Digital Transition Policy.

Rather than CEO’s being ‘blissfully unaware’, there has been a considerable increase in engagement by agency heads and other senior managers since the policy announcement in 2011. We know this from our frequent contact with people at all levels in agencies, the many business process improvement initiatives underway, some of which are being documented in case studies by the Archives, and the Check-up 2.0 submissions themselves.

As the primary purpose of Check-up 2.0 is for agencies to assess and monitor their own capability and plan improvements, there is nothing to gain by putting a positive spin on their own assessments.

The Archives does not agree that ‘the separation of record-keeping systems from business systems is substantially increasing the risk of records remaining uncaptured or uncontrolled’. It is only when records are not adequately managed in business systems that they need to be integrated with a dedicated records management system. The international standard ISO 16175, endorsed by the Archives for use across the Australian Government and largely based on our foundation work, addresses the effective management of records in business systems.

The author suggests that ‘integrating record-keeping … with process management … is a partial solution at best’. Integration is the Archives’ preferred solution – when records management is embedded into workflows and business systems, it reduces duplication, makes business more efficient and truly digital.

The National Archives offers free advice to agencies through its Agency Service Centre on 02 6212 3610 and runs training programs and workshops that provide targeted and accurate information for agencies.

Anne Lyons
Assistant Director-General
Government Information Assurance and Policy
National Archives of Australia

Stephen Bounds responds to National Archives Click HERE to read