School Records Rulz! conference papers in demand
Delegates to the 2005 NZ Archives and Records Week School Records Rulz! conference requested copies of the four major papers presented on NZ Government plans for recordkeeping in academic establishment.
The presentations covered new New Zealand legislation and planned regulations and guidance much of which will also apply widely across NZ public sector records and archives management. The Microsoft PowerPoint slide presentations have been released for publication by their authors. The conference organisers, the NZ Branch of the RMAA and the Archives and Records Association of NZ (ARANZ), are most grateful to the presenters and their organisations for their permission to reproduce their work here.
The conference heard Philippa Pidd, Senior Adviser to the Ministry of Education National Operations Network and School Performance group, detailed the department’s School Records Project, including the steps within the project and where the process is currently. The presentation was given jointly with information management services contractor Jackie Jean, ARMA, and covered benefits and issues that the project’s proposed retention and disposal schedules might raise for schools. The presentation, School Records: the good news, is accessible here.
From the New Zealand national archives, Archives New Zealand, Sophie Young, Archives Analyst with the Digital Recordkeeping Futures Team, described the agency’s recent work on advice for schools about recordkeeping. She discussed the importance of schools following best-practice recordkeeping principles and procedures and advised the Archives’ web pages Recordkeeping Publications at http://www.archives.govt.nz/continuum/rkpublications.html for further information. Her paper, Recordkeeping Advice for Schools, is accessible here.
Archives NZ Group Manager, Government Recordkeeping, Greg Goulding, explained the objectives of the Public Records Act, then just approved by a Parliamentary Select Committee, to establish a strong recordkeeping framework with broad coverage of the activities of government providing for the preservation and accessibility of public archives. He lead the group that formulated the legislation. The Public Records Bill was passed into NZ law in April, 2005. Mr Goulding’s presentation, Public Records Bill: What does it man to you?, is available here.
The effects of the Public Records law on tertiary education academies were described by Simon Caseley, the Records Manager at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. He believed that institutions with mature recordkeeping programme would find little difficulty with the legislation. For those without such a programme, the effort to achieve compliance would have real business benefits. His paper, The Public Records Bill and tertiary institutions, is accessible here.
For further information about the conference, held in Wellington, NZ, on March 18, 2005, contact the convenor, Jennie Gallagher
