Transfer records to QSA

Any public records to be transferred to QSA must be designated as permanent . This is done through a current retention and disposal schedule or a decision by the State Archivist. QSA can accept both physical and born-digital records.

Public records for transfer need to be inactive and no longer required by your public authority for business use – it should be unlikely that your public authority needs to recall these records after transfer.

Physical records

Results from a survey undertaken in 2019 under section 10 of the Public Records Act 2002 indicated that public authorities have in their custody over 100 kilometres of paper public records older than 25 years and a further 2.3 million registers and records in other formats. The volume of public records held by public authorities that may potentially be transferred to QSA far exceeds the physical storage space remaining in QSA's repositories at Runcorn.

Given this limited space, and to ensure QSA safeguard the public records of most potential value to Queenslanders, priority for the transfer of physical public records will be given to those public records which rank highest against the following criteria:

• age–e.g. public records created prior to 1900
• accessibility–e.g. public records that are open to public access or near to being open to public access
• underrepresentation–e.g. public records on topics/regions/public authorities that are underrepresented in the archival collection
• significance–e.g. public records with high political/social/cultural significance
• demand–e.g. high anticipated demand by the community
• risk–e.g. public records at risk of loss or damage due to age, format, or poor storage conditions.

Please contact the QSA Transfers Officer if you have any questions.

Digital records

QSA is now accepting transfers of digital public records from public authorities. Digital public records can and should be transferred soon after they are no longer required for ongoing business purposes to ensure they are not at risk from technological obsolescence, failure or change. For further information on what digital public records can be transferred to QSA, please contact the Digital Archives Team.

Transfer of at-risk records

Under s26 of the Public Records Act 2023, Queensland State Archives (QSA) may choose to direct the transfer of public records considered at risk of loss or damage.

This measure is designed to safeguard records of permanent value for future generations and will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and after consultation with your public authority.

Damage to a public record may occur if a record is changed or neglected in a way that leads to, or is likely to lead to, harm or deterioration.  Records may be at risk of loss or damage due to factors such as age, format, software obsolescence or storage conditions. For instance, hard copy records stored in a facility prone to flooding, or digital records in a system scheduled for migration or decommissioning may be particularly vulnerable. QSA is committed to working with your agency to ensure public records are properly preserved and protected.

QSA will contact your agency and provide a proposal notice for your review if we are considering directing a transfer under s26. The notice will:

• explain why this provision may apply
• outline planned actions
• suggest possible timelines for any record transfers
• offer an opportunity for your agency to share feedback or raise any concerns.

QSA values your input and will consider all submissions received in response to the proposal.

Only after issuing the notice and undertaking agency consultation may Queensland State Archives:

• direct the transfer of a public record
• make a copy of a public record
• provide instructions on how a record should be stored or preserved
• provide guidance on maintaining information management systems.

QSA will not direct the transfer of:

• your active records that are still required for business use OR
• all records older than 25 years.

Records transferred to QSA will still be available for access to your agency via File Issue, ArchivesGateway and the QSA Reading Room (if they are in a fit condition).

As part of the implementation of the Public Records Act 2023, Queensland State Archives will keep public authorities updated regarding this provision.

For more information about protecting your agency’s public records, see our advice on Maintaining physical records, Maintaining digital records, and Risk and disaster management for records.

Have another question? Please contact us or phone on (07) 3037 6777.

Public records with a disposal action of 'retain permanently by agency' are not eligible for transfer to QSA.

If physical public records have certain types of pests or damage, contain active mould or are excessively dirty, QSA may not be able to take them until the condition has been addressed.  Fragile records (e.g. glass plate negatives) or records in poor condition, bespoke or complex digital formats, must be discussed with QSA first.

Digital records affected by corruption, viruses, or severe data loss may prove challenging or impossible to transfer.  Contact QSA for more information or to assess damaged records.

Contact the QSA Transfers Officer to discuss your transfer and any potential issues, such as timeframes, eligibility, condition or packaging of records.

All proposals and transfers are created and managed in ArchivesGateway.

For instructions on how to complete transfer proposals and transfers in ArchivesGateway see the Training and user guides section of the Use ArchivesGateway page.

A transfer proposal will need to be submitted through ArchivesGateway for approval by QSA.

For the assessment of the transfer proposal, QSA may need to gather further information regarding the public records proposed for transfer. This information is crucial for efficient management of the transfer and for decision-making. More information regarding the assessment phase can be found in the “Overview of the Transfer process” section below.

If the transfer proposal is approved, a transfer number will be generated, which should be used as a reference for any further documentation and correspondence.

The records will then need to be listed on an item list template and submitted in ArchivesGateway, boxed ready for transfer (for physical), uploaded to ArchivesGateway (for digital) and restricted access periods set.

Ensure plenty of time to prepare for and manage the transfer is allowed.

If the transfer proposal is not approved, we will explain why the records will not be accepted.

Each single physical transfer must not exceed 400 type 1 archive boxes or equivalent. A sequence of transfers can be arranged if necessary. For advice on how many digital records can be transferred in one single transfer, please contact QSA.

Public authorities can transfer digital and physical public records or a mix of both in one single transfer.

The transfer process can be broken down into four phases:

Phase 1: Assessment of the proposed transfer

QSA will gather details related to the public records proposed for transfer. This information is crucial for efficient management and decision-making. For all records, QSA will inquire about:

• Retention Status:  Whether the public records are designated as ‘Retain as permanent’ in an existing retention and disposal schedule and the relevant disposal class.
• Relevance: Whether the public records are still necessary for ongoing business purposes.
• Metadata: Can include, but is not limited to - description of content, title, format, date range, and whether public records contain First Nations content
• Access Requirements: Potential Restricted Access Periods and access classification of the public records and any other known sensitivities.
• Resources: Whether the public authority is ready to allocate appropriate resources for the transfer.
• Acceptable for Transfer: Compliance with any other QSA relevant policies.
• Structural Aspects:  Whether the public records are part of a hybrid series (physical and digital components); how the records are organised, the quantity, condition and packaging or housing of records and where they are stored.

For digital records, QSA might require additional information:

• Maintenance: Details on how digital public records have been managed (EDRMS, network drive, or business system).
• Structure: How are the records organised and are they stored in a folder hierarchy or in a flat structure?
• System Status: Are the records stored in a business system that is still in use or that is being decommissioned?
• Unusual Formats: Information on unusual or large file formats (e.g. MXF, MKV).
• Format Type: Details on the format of the digital records (e.g., PDF, HTML).
• Size Information: Sizes of individual digital objects and their combined total.
• Quantity: Total number of digital objects in the transfer.
• Metadata: Overview of applied metadata to assess additional requirements.

This comprehensive information gathering ensures informed decisions and effective management for both physical and digital records, meeting specific needs and regulatory requirements. In this phase, the public authority doesn’t start processing records but confirms key aspects of the proposed transfer.

Phase 2: Pre-Transfer (Transfer Proposal)

Following the initial approval, the public authority completes and submits a Transfer proposal in ArchivesGateway. QSA can provide support in using ArchivesGateway and setting up users.

Phase 3: Transfer Preparation

Depending on the type of transfer (whether physical, digital or mixed), this phase can vary in duration. It involves support from QSA for advice, guidance and technical assistance. Key areas include:

1.  Completion and validation of the transfer list in ArchivesGateway. For more information about the transfer list, please refer to “List the records” Section below.

2. Provision of a signed access classification authorisation form (DOCX, 133.4 KB). This form, signed by the public authority’s Security Administrator, authorises the access classifications applied via the transfer list and will need to be provided to QSA when the final version of the transfer list is uploaded. For more information about access classification labels please refer to the public authority Toolkit for Access Classification Labels and Access Permissions (DOCX, 89 KB)in ArchivesGateway.

3. Provision of a Restriction Access Period Notice signed by the public authority’s delegate. See the Determine Access to Public Records at QSA  section for more information. Receipt of the Restricted Access Notice (RAN) at the same time as the transfer list is preferred, however QSA will advise if providing it after QSA has examined the records is a better option.

4. Preparation of Records:

• For digital: Extraction/migration from public authority systems or digital carriers, running of Anti-virus checks prior to transfer, generation of checksums.
• For physical: boxing of the records in readiness for transport to QSA (check with QSA as to the appropriate boxes to use). Please refer to “Box the records” and “Transport of records” sections below

At this point, a transfer date for physical records/digital/mixed can be discussed and arranged. Please note that, for the transfer of mixed records, two different transfer dates may be arranged for the digital and physical components.

Phase 4:  Transfer of records and Transfer Completion

• For physical records: the boxes can be transported and delivered to QSA via courier/transportation company.

Once records are delivered, QSA will physically check the items received against the supplied transfer list (records must be boxed or packed in the same order as the list), check for pests, mould or other issues, make any required metadata amendments and then import the transfer into ArchivesSpace. The list must not include any items not being transferred, such as items missing or on loan.

• For digital records: The digital files can be uploaded via the ArchivesGateway. This mechanism enables some key data integrity checks like checksums and anti-virus to happen at the time of upload. In case of errors and failures, remediation can occur immediately.

Where size of transfer or bandwidth limitations are present, alternative transfer methods can be agreed upon with QSA.

It is also important to distinguish between digital records and the digital carriers they are sometimes stored on. The digital transfer process requires public authorities to upload their digital records at the individual file level. Any content saved to digital carriers including (but not limited to) CDs, floppy disks, USBs or hard drives will need to be extracted from the carrier first and then uploaded via the public authority portal (ArchivesGateway). Carriers will need to be removed and are not to be transferred. For more information, please refer to the public authority Toolkit for Moving Records from Digital Carriers (DOCX, 353.5 KB).

The file upload process should be completed within 10 business days.

Once digital records have completed quarantine (28 days) and are ready for ingest, QSA will complete additional anti-virus scans on files over 4GB and make any required metadata amendments, then import the transfer into the digital archive.

Use the transfer list template to list all public records (both physical and digital) for transfer. The template can be downloaded from the transfers screen in ArchivesGateway.  It includes specific fields to be completed and is used to import the information into QSA's archival management system.

For detailed information about how to complete the transfer list, please refer to the public authority toolkit for Transfer list and metadata requirements (DOCX, 285.2 KB).

All items must be listed individually (e.g. file, folder, register, map, digital file).

All items should be on the same template. If a transfer has multiple series, use the Series ID column to add a series number or title to distinguish series.

Archival boxes

Items should be physically arranged, boxed and listed in their original order where possible.

Use a Type 1 archive box to transfer standard-sized records to QSA.

Archive boxes are a certain size and shape and are the best type of storage for hard copy records.

For records that are not an A4 size, contact QSA about suitable archival containers.

Type 1 boxes are available from the following suppliers:

• Grace Records–Kraft/plain cardboard boxes, referenced as QSA Cleanskins or QSA Type 1 boxes
• Archival Survival–Kraft/plain cardboard and buffered archival quality boxes.

Boxes must not be over–packed as this can damage the records. An open hand should be able to fit down the inside of the box.

Loose attachments such as reports, brochures or specifications should be physically housed in a folder or file cover with the related item. There should be no loose documents in boxes.

All details on the box should be written in black permanent marker pen. Do not use adhesive labels. Write the box number at the bottom of the box face and the departmental number or alphabetical range (if applicable) in the middle. Leave the top third of the box face vacant for QSA use.

Registers and other volumes

Registers and other volumes do not need particular boxes as they are usually too large and will be placed directly onto shelving at QSA.

Any suitable box can be used for transportation purposes.

Maps and plans

Maps and plans are not boxed and are placed into suitable repository storage at QSA.

For large volume transfers of maps or plans, you may need to provide suitable plan folders.

Issues relating to housing and transporting of maps and plans should be discussed with the QSA Transfers Officer, email transfers@archives.qld.gov.au.

Public authorities are responsible for the costs of transporting public records to QSA.

Transportation companies must be aware of specific requirements in handling permanent archival value records. Vehicles should be covered, locked and attended to at all times. They must not be used for transporting other materials, such as chemicals, that may damage the records.

Security and confidentiality requirements can be included in the transportation contract. Consider if insurance is necessary.

Large quantities of registers or volumes should be placed on pallets with a protective layer of cardboard between the pallet and the items. Pallets should then be shrink-wrapped to prevent movement and damage to the records. Boxes can be on pallets if necessary, but it is not required.

Email the QSA Transfers Officer, transfers@archives.qld.gov.au, if you have any questions regarding transport options. Records must not be delivered until an agreed date has been determined.

The delivery address is:

Queensland State Archives
435 Compton Road
Runcorn Qld  4113

A checkpoint and status bar within ArchivesGateway will provide a progress overview of the transfer through to completion.

A transfer report, with item details, is available within the transfer screen once the transfer is complete.

A list of variations may be provided if substantial issues with the original list were identified during checks (e.g. missing items, incorrect descriptions).

Past transfer reports are also available in ArchivesGateway.

If your transfer has a physical component, QSA will confirm all details are correct and check for pests, and damage once records have been transferred.

QSA then catalogues public records according to archival standards.

Physical records can be temporarily recalled back to the owning public authority after they have been transferred through the File Issue service.

From May 2024, digital records transferred to QSA and digitised copies of physical records will be visible to their controlling public authorities via ArchivesGateway. Because this access includes not only the metadata of the digital records but also the ability to download the record itself (or a digital copy of a physical record), the system has been set up to provide public authorities with a means to control user access.

Access classification Labels have been implemented as a mechanism to ensure that sensitive information is only accessible to users with the approved and allocated permissions. For more information about user access permissions please refer to the public authority Toolkit for Access Classification Labels and Access permissions in ArchivesGateway (DOCX, 89 KB).