When strategic planning, Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) is asking all Victorian Government Departments to consider whether a digital record transfer project is required.
A record transfer is the process of PROV taking custody (but not ownership) of records of permanent value from a Government body. A digital transfer is when the records sent to PROV are digital files, rather than physical documents, like the cabinet records transfer you do every year.
Should your agency be planning a digital record transfer?
Ask yourself these questions to determine whether your Department should be undertaking a digital transfer in the next financial year:
- Are you decommissioning a system? Migrating from an EDRMS to SharePoint? Or commissioning a brand-new system?
- Have you recently completed a significant program or campaign?
- Are you paying significant storage costs for digital files that staff no longer need?
- Do you hold high-risk digital records you no longer need?
- Do you hold digital records that are of permanent value and should be preserved as state archives?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, contact us to determine whether a digital transfer project should be included within your next strategic plan.
Why transfer your records to PROV?
Reduce your storage costs, reduce your risk of holding sensitive personal data, and ensure your Department’s significant projects are captured for posterity. You will also be helping your department meet its legislative obligations under the Public Records Act.
What you will need
- Executive support
- A records manager with the experience and knowledge to manage transfer requirements
- A subject matter expert who understands the recordkeeping system in place
- 1-2 technical specialists with business system knowledge and data access.
- Digital transfer project included in strategic planning
- Permanent value records identified for transfer
- Access arrangements identified in consultation with PROV
- Authorisation from the Department’s records manager.
How can PROV assist you
We can accept a wide range of digital formats and provide standards, policies and guidance on our website which, if followed from the start, will make eventual transfer easier. We can also offer Departments:
- a step-by-step process to digital transfer
- a free tool for of converting digital records into the appropriate format (such as a VERS encapsulated object, or VEO)
- VEO Validation to ensure the digital records have been converted correctly.
After transfer, your authorised staff will still retain full access
Once your Department’s digital records are transferred to PROV, they can still be easily accessed by you and your authorised staff – follow our website guidance to find out how!
A recent digital transfer success story
When a Victorian Government website is no longer operational, ie. after a short-term project or awareness campaign has ended, agencies must ensure that any information of ongoing value, not being carried forward elsewhere, is saved prior to the website’s decommissioning.
A recent website that was captured and transferred to our collection for posterity is the Deadly and Proud Campaign website and associated videos. The Deadly and Proud Campaign was a 2021 collaboration between the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria that aimed to build a collective understanding among Victorians of the importance of the process of Treaty. The website featured an interactive map sharing stories of Aboriginal Victorians and a timeline up to the establishment of the Yoorook Justice Commission.
The website records have been saved in a format called Web ARChive to ensure preservation into the future.
Learn more about this transfer project and access the records here.
