With the increasing pressures on city office space and high rental costs many New South Wales government departments are seeking to store their non current records off-site. Whether departments choose to store their records themselves, or with the Government Records Repository or with a private operator, they should ensure that their records are stored economically and appropriately and that the storage facilities used meet recognised standards for proper records storage. Departments must be confident that the storage facilities are secure and provide adequate protection from fire, dust and damp. Obsolete factory buildings and premises without a fire sprinkler system are not satisfactory.

Records storage has become increasingly complex and competitive with private sector operators offering a wide variety of storage facilities and services. Claims made and prices quoted are sometimes misleading, offering lower cost solutions of dubious long term value, for example, lower storage costs coupled with high retrieval charges; complicated contracts; and numerous add-on charges for services to be provided later (such as high costs to destroy records held in storage). For more detailed advice on the proper storage of non current government records, departments and authorities should contact the Principal Archivist, Archives Authority of New South Wales, 2 Globe Street, The Rocks, Sydney 2000.

Yours sincerely
R.G. Humphry
Director-General