Introduction to Recordkeeping
UNSW staff should be aware of three recordkeeping principles. These provide an introduction to recordkeeping at UNSW.
1. All records are valuable assets of the University
All records are valuable assets of the University (but some are more valuable than others.)
A record can be any document made or received as part of your work. The University owns all records created and received by its employees. These records provide the evidence of what was done or decided and together, they form a vital University asset:
- A record can be any document made or received as part of your work.
- It can be in any format, including websites, social media posts, handwritten notes
- It provides evidence of what was done or decided (in some cases in court)
- It is a vital University asset
- It enables consistent decision making on a solid basis of knowledge
The University owns all records created and received by individual employees as part of their day to day business. Priority should always be given to the highest value records, which document the most important University activities. These are also the records that are likely to be retained permanently as Archives.
Although you may have legacy paper records to manage, all newly created records should be created and managed entirely in digital form. Contact Records & Archives for assistance in transitioning your processes to digital.
2. Records must be captured by you.
Records must be captured to an appropriate business system by you
All University records must be captured to a system of record. These systems have already been evaluated for their suitability for the capture and management of University records. If the work you are doing uses one of these systems, there is no need for further action.
These systems do not include your email account, network drives (UNSW or 3rd party hosted) or collaborative tools such as MS Teams and WhatsApp.
If you are storing copies of records in these systems, you must capture an original record to RAMS or an alternative system of record. It is a requirement of all employees of the University that records of your activities are made and kept.
Business system owners retain responsibility for all records captured to the system. Please contact Records & Archives if you feel a business system should be assessed as a system of record.
3. RAMS is available to all staff
RAMS is the corporate recordkeeping system available to all staff
RAMS (Records and Archives Management System) is the University's corporate recordkeeping system, available to all University staff for the capture and management of all University records not already held in official University business systems.
- RAMS (Records and Archives Management System) is the business system available to all staff of the University for the capture (and discovery) of records.
- RAMS is available as a desktop client and/or a web-based application. You can capture and access the same University records using either tool, irrespective of your geographic location.
- RAMS is integrated with Office365 to allow you to capture these business records, such as emails or Word/Excel documents, directly from the application.
- RAMS uses a Business Classification Scheme (BCS) to organise records into containers and a system of Access Control to restrict access to records to only those staff who require access as part of their work.
Have a question?
Contact the Records Team on 02 9385 2861 or email records@unsw.edu.au / Contact the Archives Team on 02 9385 2906 or email archives@unsw.edu.au