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What do you do with the hardcopies of records that have been digitised?

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Here at Archives New Zealand we’ve had a number of queries from people thinking about digitising physical records held in their office. The question that comes up is about what can be done with the original hardcopies.  In today’s blog post we’ll look at the guidance Archives has issued around this question.

The key piece of guidance is the Authority to Retain Digitised Public Records in Electronic Form only. We’ve also issued two sets of explanatory notes to help interpret and implement the authority. One for public offices:

Explanatory notes for retaining digitised public records in electronic form only

And another directed at local authorities:

Explanatory notes for retaining digitised local authority records in electronic form only

We’ve also produced a checklist to help with the decision making:

Checklist: Destruction of source records after digitisation

There are exceptions but the view of Archives New Zealand is that: for the vast majority of records that a public office or local authority digitises you can safely destroy the original hardcopy once a full and accurate digital version of the record has been created.

This advice is based on the Electronic Transactions Act 2002 Section 25. As long as the digital copy is a full and accurate reproduction of the hardcopy original we do not consider that the destruction of the original hardcopy constitutes a form of disposal. The digitised record has become the record for all intents and purposes. The authority explains that you do not need to notify us when you destroy the original hardcopy version. All of the obligations around retention and disposal that previously applied to the hardcopy original have transferred to the digitised record and those obligations no longer apply to the hardcopy original.

Local authority protected records are included as well. A local authority can destroy the physical original so long as the digitisation is up to standard and none of the exceptions apply. See the explanatory notes for further detail.

This advice differs from most other pieces of guidance that we have produced in that it is based on the Electronic Transactions Act 2002 rather than the Public Records Act 2005 (PRA). It is vital that the digitisation creates full, accurate and functionally equivalent copies. If the digitisation fails to meet these requirements the destruction of the physical original is a disposal action. This makes it very important that the digitisation is up to standard. The Chief Archivist has adopted AS/NZS ISO 13028 Information and documentation – Implementation guidelines for digitization of records as a standard under section 27 of the Public records Act 2005. By using this standard the digitised records should meet the requirements of being full, accurate and reliable.

Exceptions

There some exceptions to the general rule that the physical copy of a properly digitised record can be destroyed. The first exception applies if there is a statutory requirement for the hardcopy to be retained. This applies to primarily certain types of legal documents such as wills or instruments and some types of documents that may need to be sent via registered mail or presented in person

The second exception is where there is a value in the original hardcopy that would be lost in the digital copy – this value could be a cultural, artistic, historical or monetary quality. This value could take a variety of forms but one example would be if a paper record included handwritten correspondence, submissions or sketches by a well-known person or group. The historical criteria also includes any records created prior to 1946.

If there is something unique or irreplaceable about the physical item you should strongly consider retaining it.

The third exception is for physical audio-visual records. Records on film stock, microfilm or magnetic media (e.g. VHS or cassette tapes).

The fourth exception is likely to be the most common one – ‘functional equivalence’. The test here is whether the digitised item can fulfil the same purpose (business need) as a hardcopy. If there is something the physical record can do that the digital copy cannot it may be the case that the digital copy is not functionally equivalent.

Functional equivalence can be difficult to determine. It does not necessarily mean that the digital copy needs to work in exactly the same way nor that every aspect of the related process needs to be digital. For example, an organisation might send out inspectors to sites. The process at some organisations might be entirely digital (the inspectors use tablets on-site and the reports immediately exist as digital records) while other organisations might use a mixed process, scanning forms and reports once the inspectors return from the site visit.

In the latter case the question is whether the physical reports serve any unique role at the point of record capture. There might be good reasons for the inspectors to continue using physical forms during the site visit (cost, robustness, site safety). This is fine, but it is separate from the question of whether scanned reports are functionally equivalent to retaining physical copies.

The key question is whether the digitised record can meet the same demands that your organisation has of the physical copy.

We hope that this advice and the related resources give some useful guidance. We welcome any questions or observations you may have – either in the comments below or by email sent to rekadvice@dia.govt.nz


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