Transferring records to the Archives: Initial assessment questions

Initial assessment information

When conducting our initial assessment, we will ask you for information about the records proposed for transfer, including:

whether the records are still needed for business use
whether the records are identified as ‘Retain as national archives’ (RNA) in a current records authority
the relevant records authorities and RNA classes used to sentence the records
content, format, and series details
the security classifications of the records or other known sensitivities. Please note that arrangements for transfer of digital records with a classification of ‘Protected’ or above must be discussed on a case-by-case basis prior to transfer.

For physical records, we will also ask you about:

For digital records, we will also ask you about:

how the digital records have been maintained. For example, in an electronic document and records management system (EDRMS), network drive or business system.
whether the records are part of a business system, is the system still in use or being decommissioned
whether there are any unusual or very large file formats
what the records' format is, such as PDF, HTML, TIFF, etc.
what are the sizes of the digital objects and combined total
how many digital objects are in the transfer
what metadata has been applied to the records. This will help determine what additional metadata may be needed to support the transfer process.

We will also need to discuss how the digital records are structured in your system. For example, we may ask you:

if the digital records are part of a hybrid series containing both physical and digital components
if the digital records are in a folder hierarchy, or a flat structure
if all the digital records within a folder hierarchy are sentenced as RNA
what level constitutes a record on your item list — for example, does 1 record on your item list equal 1 digital object, or does it comprise multiple digital objects?