Brief Guide 29: Short-term use of 'State archives' outside the Archives Office

There are two provisions of the Archives Act relating to the limited, short-term, use of records which are the State’s archives outside the custody of the Archives Office.

Agency retrieval of ‘State records’

Section 19 relates specifically to ‘State records’ and provides a right for the ‘relevant authority’ (e.g. agencies, authorities & councils) to

retrieve records that they transferred, or
retrieve records that were transferred by an authority they have functionally succeeded.

This is a limited right however and, if a record is more than 25 years old, it does not apply ‘except so far as necessary for the proper conduct of the business of the Government department, State authority, or local authority concerned’.

‘Proper conduct of the business’ is taken to mean the activities involved in performing the function for which the organisation exists and was established. This would not normally be taken to mean ‘historical research’ or similar work which could be done by visiting the Archives Office or transferring the enquiry, if appropriate.

Most records will be available to the public after 25 years and the intent of this provision is to minimise the time that records on open access are not accessible to the public. Agencies should therefore clarify the purpose of the request as the Archives Office may wish to assess this in the context of this section of the Act and the overall legislative requirement to preserve ‘State archives’ and make them available.

‘State records’ less than 25 years old may be retrieved from the Archives Office for any purpose as they are still within the period beyond which their transfer would have been mandatory. However, if appropriate and acceptable for both the Archives Office and the requesting organisation, it is often preferable for copies to be provided instead.

The Archives Office State Records Guidelines, No.12 and Recordkeeping Advice No. 11 provide details of the specific procedures to be followed by government organisations wishing to retrieve ‘State records’ under this section of the Act.

It should also be noted that there is a prohibition (Section 21) against adding to a record that is more than 25 years old without approval from the Archives Office.

Use of ‘State archives’ for special events and other purposes

Section 8(2)(f) provides for the possibility of ‘State archives” being borrowed for ‘display at exhibitions and for other special purposes’. This applies to both State and non-government records. Requests to borrow records under this section will be assessed on a case by case basis.

The assessment will take into account

the ownership of the records
the relationship of the ‘borrower’ to the depositor of the records
the storage and management of the records while they are ‘on loan’

A formal written request must be made outlining the purpose of the request, specifically identifying the records involved, and the proposed duration of the loan.

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