For the Record - May 2025

This issue:

• Review of General retention and disposal authorities
• Seeking feedback on Digital Records Preservation Policy
• Records retention and disposal authorities
• Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise returns in 2026
• New Chair of the Board of State Records Authority NSW
• Records Managers Hybrid Forum 18 March 2025
• Public office satisfaction survey closed
• Update on PSAC
• New public office contact form
• eLearning update
• Searching State Records NSW web pages
• Agency Services spotlight: Series Registration

Review of General retention and disposal authorities

State Records NSW has begun the process of reviewing the following general authorities:

• GA35 - transferring records out of NSW: the focus of this review will be to provide clarity around the creation of records outside of NSW, storage of records in the cloud and the transfer of State archives outside of the State.
• GA45 - original or source records that have been copied: the focus of this review will be the permission to destroy State archives that have been copied and audio-visual material
• GA48 - source records that have been migrated: the review will assess whether GA48 should be combined with GA45 so there is one authority covering copied and migrated records.

More details are available from the Retention and disposal authorities review page.

We would appreciate your feedback to inform the reviews by COB 30 May 2025 to govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au.

Seeking feedback on Digital Records Preservation Policy

State Records NSW is currently reviewing our Digital Records Preservation Policy, which was issued in 2007.

Following initial consultation with Museums of History NSW and members of our Public Sector Advisory Committee, we are proposing to broaden the scope of the policy to focus on compliance with section 14 of the State Records Act 1998.

The new policy to replace the Digital Records Preservation Policy will be known as the Accessibility of State Records Over Time Policy.

More details are available from the Digital Records Preservation Policy review page.

Please provide any feedback on the proposed draft Accessibility of State Records Over Time Policy by COB 4 June 2025 to governance@staterecords.nsw.gov.au.

Records retention and disposal authorities

The Board of the State Records Authority NSW recently approved records disposal authorities for the following:

• NSW Mental Health Tribunal
• Regulation of local government
• Multicultural NSW

These disposal authorities will be made available in the next few weeks on our Records retention and disposal authorities web pages.

Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise returns in 2026

Following consultation with the Public Sector Advisory Committee (PSAC) we have received approval from the Board of the State Records Authority NSW to hold RMEs every second year, starting in 2026.

We heard from PSAC that this change will increase public office capacity to develop and implement improvement programs, while ensuring continued attention to records management performance from senior decision makers.

The change will also create additional opportunities for State Records NSW to engage with public offices on identified priorities, and provide targeted guidance and assistance.

The new 2-yearly cadence takes into account the timing of similar exercises in other jurisdictions, and recognises the steady improvement across the NSW public sector reported in RMEs over recent years.

The 2026 RME will take place over the month of March. Further details will be advised later in 2025. The following RME will be held in 2028.

A revised Records Management Assessment Tool (RMAT) will be released in June 2025. We encourage all public offices to continue using the RMAT as part of internal planning for continuous improvements across both reporting and non-reporting years.

Please contact us at govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au if you have any questions.

New Chair of the Board of State Records Authority NSW

We are pleased to welcome John Faulkner as the new Chair of the Board of State Records Authority NSW.

Mr Faulkner was a Senator representing NSW from 1989 until his retirement in 2015. He held a number of Ministerial portfolios during his Parliamentary service including Special Minister of State (2007-09).

He also served on the Advisory Council of the Australian Archives from 1996-2008 and 2010-2015.

Mr Faulkner has written on the history of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party and is completing a book on the history of the Sydney Fish Markets.

He is also Chair of the Whitlam Institute Board, an Executive Member of the C.E.W. Bean Foundation and a Patron of the Friends of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre.

We thank outgoing Chair Dr Brian Lindsay for his six years leading the Board of both State Records NSW and the former State Archives and Records Authority, driving significant change and improvements in public office recordkeeping.

Learn more about our Board at Meet our Board.

Records Managers Hybrid Forum 18 March 2025

The video and transcript for the Records Managers Hybrid Forum - co-hosted by State Records NSW and Museums of History NSW - is now available.

The event on 18 March brought together more than 200 records and information management professionals, both in person and online, at the Museum of Sydney.

Highlights included updates on the new mandatory Standards and the renewed Code of Best Practice, the Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise (RME) planning year, and transfer plans.

The second half of the Forum was directed to the local government sector, providing guidance on the new Functional authority for local government records (FA450).

Thank you to everyone who participated. The video and transcript are available here.  

The next Records Managers Forum will be held next month during Privacy Awareness Week (16 to 22 June 2025). Please pencil this into your calendar.

Public office satisfaction survey closed

Thank you for your participation in the joint State Records NSW and Museums of History NSW public office satisfaction survey.

The survey has now closed.

We will be reporting the results of the survey at the June Records Managers Forum.

Update on PSAC

Thank you to everyone who expressed their interest in participating in the joint State Records NSW and MHNSW Public Sector Advisory Committee (PSAC).

Dean Saunders from Essential Energy has joined PSAC as the new representative of State owned corporations.

PSAC met in early April for the first meeting of 2025 to discuss a range of matters, including:

• options for future Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercises
• reception of the revised standards and code of best practice
• eLearning modules
• review of 3 general retention and disposal authorities
• Digital Records Preservation Policy/Accessibility of State Records Over Time Policy

New public office contact form

Are the contact details we have for your key public office personnel up to date?

We have introduced an online contact form to make it easier to notify changes to your chief executive, senior responsible officer, and records and information manager.

Accurate contact information ensures we can keep you informed and support your public office with updates, resources, and assistance with meeting your recordkeeping obligations.

Go to the Contact State Records NSW page to share the latest contact details for your public office.

eLearning update

There has been great take up of new eLearning modules, with close to 2,000 module completions since launch in August last year.

Our SCORM dispatch files are also proving popular with more than 50 public offices registered to link to the modules from within their local Learning Management System (LMS).

We are also working on updates of the existing modules to ensure they remain current, and on some new modules which will be available in 2025-26.

If you would like to use the distributed SCORM file solution, check the State Records NSW SCORM Dispatch Guide on how to access these files.

Searching State Records NSW web pages

One of the benefits of our move to the nsw.gov.au platform is an enhanced search function.

Here are some tips to help you find what you need:

1. Every page on the nsw.gov.au platform has a search option at the top of the page -see the magnifying glass in the image below.  This will search all nsw.gov.au pages and allow you to filter the results by agency and topic.
2. On our agency page (below) there is another search bar that is preset to filter for only State Records NSW pages, including all Recordkeeping in government topics pages.
3. There are also tailored searches on relevant pages, such as the ability to search and sort current retention and disposal authorities by agency, function and activity.

Museums of History NSW

Agency Services spotlight: Series Registration

Records in the State Archives Collection are organised by series.

What is a series?

 A series is a collection of records that belong together because they:

• follow the same filing system
• were created as part of the same activity, or
• share similar formats and relate to the same function. 

A series is not necessarily equivalent to a single disposal class in a retention and disposal authority – records in a series may fall under multiple disposal classes. 

When registered, each series is assigned a number an “NRS” number (e.g. NRS 12345). 

Before preparing a transfer, check whether a series has already been registered for your agency using Series Explorer in the service portal. If no suitable series exists, you can request a new one using the Create New Series tab in the service portal.

For more details on registering a series, see Fact Sheet 7 – Series Information.

For assistance, contact Museums of History NSW Agency Services at: transfer@mhnsw.au.