Core Paper Records

Core Paper Records - Early Project Outline May 1999

Land Information New Zealand is engaging in a major information gathering exercise as it consults with users of its core paper records. As part of the process, options for future management and access to records will be canvassed with users. Transparency and openness underpin the project.

The department is the steward of untold millions of paper records, dating from records of transactions between Māori and the Crown in the 1840s, through to records of new subdivisions approved only hours ago. And the pile is growing by about a million records a year. We can't purge our old records, even if they haven't been searched for decades, because their retention is among our statutory obligations to the Government, though occasionally LINZ has transferred some to National Archives.

With the increase in outsourcing of LINZ operations, access to these records is required by an ever-widening group. The amalgamation of the former Land Titles Office and Valuation New Zealand into LINZ added to an already complex inventory of records - titles, plans, letters, maps, easements, field books and much more.

Some records are accessed on a regular basis; others haven't seen the light of day for decades. How to manage this fast-growing resource is becoming an urgent issue.

The LINZ Automation Project, Landonline, will see new survey and title records (and some existing records) transformed into digital files, but while this will greatly improve access to these documents, it won't erode the paper mountain to any great extent.

A Core Paper Records project team headed by Information Services Manager (of that time), Jenny McDonald, is assessing how LINZ can manage and provide access to its hard copy records into the future.

Essentially, the project is to decide:

• how to respond to changes in the business environment that affect the way LINZ can manage its records; and
• how to improve the current systems and process for record management.

The team is investigating how best to respond to changes in the business environment that affect records management; and how to improve systems and processes for record management. At this stage, no decisions have been made as to preferred options.

Stage One of the project is now completed. That involved an office-by-office inventory of what exists now. This is a high-level index and lists the types of records held by LINZ - for example, abstracts, documents, plans, and registers for each of the business categories such as Crown, Survey, Titles and Corporate. Offices were asked to identify what records are accessed most and by whom. These patterns will help guide planning.

Stage Two is a scoping exercise looking at all possible options for the way paper records can be managed in future. Jenny McDonald says the team is looking at all options from doing nothing to capturing every paper record as a digital file.

"Neither of those two extremes is viable," Jenny says, "but we need to look at the whole range before narrowing it down to the most likely options and looking at the practicalities.

"As part of the exercise we are finding out what records our staff and clients are accessing the most. We are also undertaking benchmark research with agencies who are addressing similar issues."

Consultation is an important part of the process, Jenny says. "We?re using a number of techniques to build a picture of our client and staff needs. The Landonline project has already yielded a lot of useful information about usage of paper records. As we start to firm up our ideas we'll continue and develop this process of consultation."

While this is going on, the project team are researching the external records management services that are available.

"Stage Three is likely to be seeking expressions of interest from service providers. That should happen between July and October. By the end of the year we will be preparing a business case for LINZ management on the preferred option."

Stage 4 by December 1999, a business case will be prepared for LINZ management on the selected option, outlining its cost, benefits etc. Guidelines and a transition plan for record storage and access for the period following the close down of offices during the Landonline roll-out will also be prepared. As part of the project, an information "road map" will be developed by February 2000 showing staff and clients how all the different types of record fit together and who looks after them.

While this is happening, a transition plan is being prepared to ensure paper records will be secure and accessible if they are moved to a new physical location.

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