Records Management

Chapter 7: Digitising hardcopy records

Follow this guidance chapter to understand digitisation requirements.

Planning for digitisation

Before starting to digitise hardcopy records, consider the following:

• Is the effort or cost worth it? Digitising hardcopy records can be a labour-intensive and time-consuming job. It can also be costly to use a commercial provider. It may not be worth digitising records that only need to be kept for a short period of time or that are unlikely to be accessed often.
• What are the risks of compromising the record? Some records are critical because they contain highly sensitive and important information, for example, student health and wellbeing records. The digital copy must be high quality so it can be relied on as the authoritative record when the hardcopy is destroyed. It’s important to factor in time for quality assurance checks as poor scanning processes can result in unusable or unreliable records.
• Where will the digital records be stored? The records must be kept in an authorised location or system that will protect the record, from unauthorised access, alteration or deletion.

Permanent and historic records

The Public Record Office Victoria has mandatory technical and quality assurance requirements for digitising permanent value records (records that are eventually transferred to the state archives), for example, school council meeting papers.

Some historic and permanent hardcopy records including all those created before 1 January 2000 must not be disposed of after digitisation. This includes pupil registers, corporal punishment registers, inspector’s report books, parents’ clubs/ mothers’ club meeting papers prior to 1980 and teacher time books.

Refer to the School records retention guide (XLSX) (staff login required) to identify other types of permanent value records.

Schools considering digitising permanent value records must contact Records and Mail Services for advice.

Temporary retention records

Before digitising temporary retention records, schools are advised to develop a Digitisation Activity Plan which will support the creation of reliable digital records.

Hardcopy records can only be destroyed after they have been digitised, if the digital records are of sufficient quality to become the school’s official record.

Further information

Contact Records and Mail Services at archives.records@education.vic.gov.au