Core Paper Records Project

Standards for Core Paper Records (January 2000)

Forward

Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) (Toitu te Whenua) was established in July 1996. It is a government department with roles and responsibilities in the following key areas:

Regulatory Responsibilities	LINZ Regulatory Groups
National spatial reference system and cadastral survey infrastructure	Office of the Surveyor-General
Topographic and hydrographic information	National Topographic/Hydrographic Authority
Land Titles	Office of the Registrar-General of Land
Setting rules for rating valuations	Office of the Valuer-General
Crown Property	Office of the Chief Crown Property Officer (Crown Property)
Assisting the government address land related aspects of Treaty of Waitangi issues	Office of the Chief Crown Property Officer (Crown Property)

The main role of the department is a regulatory one, to set guidelines and standards and manage contracts with the private sector for carrying out the day to day business associated with each of the key areas.

LINZ also offers a range of services to customers related to land titles, survey plans and Crown property. Land Titles and Survey services are carried out by the Operations Group based in LINZ regional offices throughout New Zealand.

LINZ's overarching objective is to be recognised as a world leader in providing land and seabed information services.

Introduction

This document was developed by Susan Skudder (SWIM Ltd Information Management Consultancy) and John Roberts (Statutory Regulatory Group, National Archives) for the Core Paper Records Working Party to safeguard the Core Paper Records and the processes of access to the records. The standards provide a framework for physical management of the records, whether held in LINZ custody or not. Standards will be a part of any tendering process that may take place, in that any organisation wishing to manage Core Paper Records will have to abide by agreed standards.

The standards have been reviewed and commented upon by members of the Working Party. The standards were sent to Regional Managers for information on 28/09/99 and they were then reviewed and amended by the local office records coordinators at a workshop on 5 October. John Roberts of National Archives has reviewed the standards against the Regulatory Chiefs Access Policy to ensure that there are no contradictions between the documents. The standards have been reviewed by the Core Paper Records Steering Committee and altered according to comments from the Steering Committee.

1. Scope

These standards apply to all core paper records for which LINZ is the steward. They apply to any organisation or agency or group undertaking the physical storage and/or management of LINZ records, including but not limited to LINZ regional offices, commercial off-site storage providers, local authorities, local archives, museums, and other organisations.

2. Related Policies and Standards

SSC Policy Framework for Government Held Information

LINZ Information Management policy

LINZ Non-Current Records Management policy

Specifications for Storage and Access to the Topographic/Hydrographic Data and Records Library

Policy on the Storage of and Access to Topographic Information (TH 99/4)

Specifications for the Storage of and Access to the Crowns Aerial Film Negative Collection (TH standard 4)

Protection of Survey Records (Surveyor Generals Office May 1998)

Access to Core Paper Records (Regulatory Policy 1999/2)

3. Access

• Access to information may be provided in either a paper or an electronic format
• Where LINZ core paper records are in the physical custody of another organisation and LINZ requires access to information, the information in the record may be transmitted rather than the record itself being delivered
• Where the information in a record is transmitted to LINZ or to another user the information transmitted must be in a readable format (by either machine or person) and must be as readable as the original from which the information was taken
• Authorised users must be able to view records in an appropriate viewing area
• No smoking, food or drink is to be allowed in any such designated reading room or document viewing area, and users are to be advised that this is the case
• The location of records and their status (retrieved, returned etc) must be known and recorded at all times
• Any records identification system applied to the records (such as barcoding) must be for location purposes only, must not supersede or overwrite the systems used to classify the records when they were created, and must be reversible
• The LINZ system of classification and arrangement of the records must be maintained and not overwritten or superseded by any other system of classification and arrangement, although records may be kept physically in another order to facilitate retrieval

4. Timeliness

• Delivery of records from a storage facility (ie not a LINZ regional office) will conform to LINZ operational standards of timeliness and to LINZ operational service delivery standards

5. Storage

5.1 Storage environment

• Core paper records must be stored in a manner which ensures a complete, reliable and accurate record
• Core paper records must be stored in such a way that they:
  • Can be retrieved by authorised staff
  • Are secure from unauthorised staff
  • Do not suffer physical damage that means that the information they contain becomes unusable
• Where records are considered living archives they will be stored in accordance with the Archives Act
• All buildings used to store LINZ records will be certified safe and will be fit for purpose and hold a Building Warrant of Fitness under the Building Act 1991
• All buildings used to store LINZ records will be in a location considered safe from risk of natural disaster (eg floods) and human-engineered disaster (eg chemical spill)
• Disaster recovery plans must be in place for all facilities which store LINZ records, whether owned and/or managed by LINZ or not, and the plans must be made available to LINZ
• Records must be stored in containers appropriate to their format and in a manner that minimises the risk of damage:

5.2 Handling of records

• Records must be handled in a manner that minimises the risk of damage

5.3 Transportation of records to and from storage

• Records will be transported between facilities in a manner that minimises the risk of damage

6 Security

• Core paper records containing sensitive information will be identified and stored securely so that only authorised users may access the information

• Core paper records will be stored in such a way that protects them from unauthorised access to the information they contain, or alteration of that information