Implementing a new archival management system for Queensland State Archives

ABSTRACT

In June 2020, Queensland State Archives went live with a new archival management system including new access interfaces for agency and public users, the culmination of a 2-year project. This article reflects on the design and build experience using an agile development methodology.

KEYWORDS:

• Queensland State Archives
• archival management systems
• agile

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A separate article could be written on as-a-Service arrangements and there is not space to cover the territory in this reflection. Benefits of this approach generally include rapid scalability and economies of scale, particularly for storage costs. See Adrian Cunningham, Ken Thidobeau, Hrvoje Stančić and Gillian Oliver ‘Exploring Digital Preservation in the Cloud’, in Luciana Duranti and Corinne Rogers (eds), Trusting Records in the Cloud, Facet Publishing, London, 2019, pp. 179–206.

2. ArchivesSpace is open-source software originally developed following a grant from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation to integrate the former Archivists’ toolkit and Archon into a single application. It has an active member community and governance framework to guide the ongoing development of the software. See <https://archivesspace.org/about/history>, accessed 15 October 2020.

3. Under the Public Records Act 2002 responsible agencies are responsible for setting the closure periods for records via a ‘Restricted Access Period’ notice that they provide to QSA. The Public Records Act 2002 does not have a default closure period and instead identifies maximum closure periods for different categories of records. It is not unusual for some series – for example a ‘General Correspondence’ series – to contain items with a multitude of different closure periods.

4. PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata version 3.0 June 2015, available at <https://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/v3/premis-3-0-final.pdf>, accessed 15 October 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rowena Loo

Rowena Loo is an experienced archival professional, having worked in Queensland State Archives, State Records Authority of NSW and National Archives of Australia. She was Principal Business Advisor with the Digital Archives Program, Department of Housing and Public Works (Qld) from August 2017 to October 2020. She holds an honours degree in History, a Graduate Certificate in Records and Information Management and a Master of Arts in Information.