3.3 Transfer to Archives - RIM Manual

Authority

Under the Managing Government Information Policy (MGIP), section 4.4, ministries must “work with the CRO to ensure that all physical and digital records in the custody or control that are eligible for archival transfer are transferred to the appropriate government archives.”

The term “government archives” refers to the entirety of government information assets that have been appraised as having permanent value to government and society and are preserved and made publicly accessible. Government’s physical archival records are held by the Royal British Columbia Museum. The CRO is responsible for government’s digital archival holdings.

Archival Transfer

Government information scheduled for full retention under an approved information schedule, will be transferred to the government archives when it reaches final disposition and the information schedule is applied.

Government information, scheduled for selective retention under an approved information schedule, will be transferred to the government archives if it is selected for full retention by an authorized archivist when it reaches final disposition and the information schedule is applied.

The CRO delegates responsibility for administering archival transfers to the Government Records Service (GRS).

Confirm Authority

Records become inactive when their scheduled active and semi-active retention periods have expired, and they have reached the final phase of the records lifecycle, referred to in information schedules as “Final Disposition” (FD). Records scheduled for “Full Retention” (FR), are immediately eligible for transfer to the archives. Records scheduled for “Selective Retention” (SR) are subject to archival selection by GRS archivists before any transfer can occur.
    
Government Records Service administers the transfer process in partnership with the records’ custodians and offsite storage service providers. This ensures that records transferred by ministries to the government archives maintain their integrity, reliability, security and confidentiality during the transfer process and meet any additional requirements set by the CRO.

All archival transfers, regardless of format, require appropriate documentation to support their preservation and the development of effective archival access tools.

Meet Conditions

1. The records are covered by approved information schedules, indicating that archival appraisal has taken place, and been documented. Any transfer of unscheduled government information requires direct CRO authorization.
2. Records’ eligibility, including schedule application authorization, has been documented by GRS (in REMS ORCS 12410-20 accession files and its ARIS database).
3. The information is scheduled for “FR” (full retention) or, if it is scheduled for “SR” (selective retention), the archival selection process has been completed and signed off by an authorized archivist.
4. The information is inactive.
5. The information is to be transferred from storage space managed by GRS. Ministries are required to move government information held in the ministry/agency office, local servers, or other space not managed by GRS to GRS-managed space so it can be transferred to archives.
6. The information is adequately documented, including associated metadata, to:
   • Identify the creating office and its location within government (provenance)
   • Identify specific files or other aggregations of information
   • Enable search capabilities at a level of detail approximating previous business use in its office of origin (e.g. searches by file name, case number, date)
7. The ministry has confirmed that there are no ongoing business needs, anticipated litigation, or Freedom of Information (FOI) requests that would necessitate a delay in transfer (disposition hold).