Guideline 5 - Counter disaster strategies for records and recordkeeping systems

Foreword

The Standard on Counter Disaster Strategies for Records and Recordkeeping Systems and supporting guidelines have been produced to assist public offices to better meet their responsibilities under the State Records Act 1998. Under the State Records Act 1998,

each public office must ensure the safe custody and proper preservation of the State records that it has control of'
(s. 11(1)).

State Records' annual records management surveys have revealed that only a small percentage of public offices have planned for and put into place counter disaster strategies for records. As a result, organisations are placing themselves at great risk through this failure to protect records from disaster. Should records be lost or damaged, public offices may not being able to operate effectively, account for their actions and decisions, or comply with legal requirements. These guidelines aim to specifically support compliance with the Standard on Counter Disaster Strategies for Records and Recordkeeping Systems.

In these guidelines

• 1 Introduction
• 2 Records and disasters
• 3 Risk assessment
• 4 Planning
• 5 Vital records protection
• 6 Response
• 7 Recovery
• 8 Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Critical needs questions
• Appendix 2: Model disaster plan
• Appendix 3: Contents of a disaster recovery bin or water damage recovery kit
• Appendix 4: Suggested contents of a disaster recovery room
• Appendix 5: Packing records in a recovery operation
• Appendix 6: Stabilising and drying methods
• Appendix 7: How to recover records
• Appendix 8: Disaster management team checklist
• Appendix 9: Recovery of water damaged 3.5 inch diskettes
• Bibliography

 Printable version

 The guidelines are available in PDF format (344 kb) for printing.

© State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority, 2002.
This work may be freely reproduced and distributed for most purposes, however some restrictions apply. ISBN 0-7313-9369-4