Full Report on 2010 Government Recordkeeping Survey (Local Authorities)

Key findings

Awareness of the regulatory environment

A third (33%) of local authorities reported they have policies and procedures in place to assess whether they comply with the Public Records Act, a further 49% report they are currently developing processes to assess compliance.
 

Requirement to create and maintain full and accurate records (Public Records Act s.17)

Internal records survey

One quarter (25%) of local authorities reported completing an internal records survey in the past two years. A further 14% said they are currently developing a project to undertake one.
 

Tools, resources, programmes and procedures to enable creation and maintenance of records

Seventy five percent of local authorities reported they have specialised staff who are responsible for records management and 57% said they have a senior manager who is responsible for records management.
 
Eighty six percent of local authorities reported having procedures for creating and filing paper documents. Fewer local authorities said they have procedures for creating and filing electronic documents (73%) and electronic mail (59%). Two thirds (65%) of local authorities reported having procedures for storing electronic documents including electronic mail.
 
Twenty nine percent of local authorities reported they have an access policy in place for their records. Less than a third reported they have:

• A vital records identification programme (31%)
• An organisation wide metadata schema (24%)
• A migration plan for electronic records (22%).

Recordkeeping systems

The majority (94%) of local authorities reported they use paper systems. Eighty four percent reported they use shared drives.
 
Fifty nine percent of local authorities said they use electronic recordkeeping systems, and 33% reported they are currently undertaking a project to implement a system to manage our electronic records.
 

Records not in accessible format

Over half (55%) of local authorities reported they have records in a format they can no longer access. Close to half (49%) of local authorities reported they have digital records they can no longer access, and 37% said they have physical records they can no longer access.
 
The three most commonly reported steps organisations report they are taking or planning to ensure accessibility of records over time are:

• Copying or digitisation to improve access (57%)
• Migration of the records onto new media, hardware, software, or file formats to make them accessible (53%)
• A records audit to locate lost records (40%).

Mandatory standards

All respondents were asked if their organisation has performed a risk assessment against the three mandatory standards issued by Archives New Zealand. Storage Standard S2 has the highest reported number of risk assessments performed (51%) followed by Create and Maintain Recordkeeping Standard S7 (29%) and Electronic Recordkeeping Metadata Standard S8 (27%).
 

Types of recordkeeping programmes

Close to three fifths (59%) of local authorities described their recordkeeping programme as a formal one. A further 33% reported they are working towards implementation of a formal programme.
 

Requirement to have authority to dispose of records (Public Records Act s.18, s.20)

Just over half (56%) of local authorities reported they have a regular disposal programme in place. A further 32% said they are currently developing one.
 
Three in five (60%) local authorities said they have disposed of records in the last 12 months.
 
Sixty seven percent of local authorities said we have adopted the recommended disposal actions outlined in the ALGIM Toolkit. This was the most commonly reported type of disposal schedule applied.
 

Records over 25 years old (Public Records Act s.21, s43, s47)

The majority (98%) of local authorities reported they hold records that were created before 1985 (are over 25 years old). Only two District Councils do not hold such records.
 
The most commonly reported measure for managing access to records over 25 years old is open access records under the control of the organisation being available for inspection by members of the public, without charge (75%). However, just under half (46%) of local authorities reported their records over 25 years old have been classified as open access or restricted access.
 
One third (33%) of local authorities reported we have undertaken digitisation of our records to improved access to them.
 
Fifty six percent of local authorities reported the records have been identified for retention as archives, and will eventually be transferred to the council’s archives. Half (50%) of local authorities reported we undertake regular transfers to our council archives.