Hi everyone. I'm wondering what other schools are doing in regards to retention?
“Student Records” – are essentially permanent in ASA Schedule for Independent Schools.That is fine but it’s a lot of paper files to store (costs/ space). And how often are they consulted? When does the transaction end? I know some Archivists do a cull of temporary records off “Leavers” files to reduce the bulk. Have any schools started to think about other options? Anyone looking at microfilming? Or a shorter retention if a summary record is available (paper/ electronic – reliable being the issue!)? Your thoughts would be appreciated cheers Judith
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Hi Judith,
I am holding all school leavers files as laid down in the ASA schedule especially in light of last year's legal action against Geelong Grammar (I think). The semester or term reports and teachers' comments are the details that will demonstrate whether or not a school acts upon students' problem areas and how. This may ultimately protect the school against a charge of failure to act when necessary to assist a student getting appropriate results.
The problem of storage can be overcome by electronic scanning using a system such as that provided by FYB which I must confess I have insufficient knowledge of. This system is Melbourne based and was spoken of at the ASA conference in Brisbane last year by delegates from St Louis, USA who use it. I went to a seminar conducted by the company last year and feel school archives might be able to use depending on costs. Macedon Shire Council and others save their rate records using the system. I believe this would be a good system to follow up on and I will bring it up at the next SIGS executive meeting in May.
Michael Taffe, archivist.
Loreto College Ballarat
Hi Judith
Geelong Grammar School has begun scanning students records beginning with medical which will be linked to the Synergetic record for each student. At the moment all student records will be kept for 50 years (read permanently) either in paper or digital. Probable that paper records may be stored in off-site storage once scanned or possible that they maybe destroyed - no decision on this as yet. Changes to the Evidence Act was a key reason that we could go forward with the scanning. We are not warehousing the digital files to an external provider due to the sensitive nature of the files and the data is stored on Schools servers. Access to these files is restricted to Principal and Commercial Director.
Kind regards
Melissa
Thanks everyone for your comments thus far - greatly appreciated. cheers Judith
Hi Judith,
Perspective from the 'other' side?
In my capacity as a family history researcher I contacted a school in sydney recently to see whether the stories of my grandfather attending the school were correct. He was an elusive fellow and records about him are hard to find. I was thrilled when they were able to supply me with some dates, accounts, and a report card. The dates were in 1887.
I would encourage schools to somehow keep some of the records of past students as these records might be the only link a family member has to find their relative.
Hello Judith,
I agree with the points discussed as our Student Files collected since 1996 are now causing a storage problem.
We have had a review and are hoping that the teachers will use Synergetic more fully, but this needs to be sorted further.I would envisage that some paper files would need to be kept, and the contents of the files be more systematically selected.
The ultimate archiving of electronic student records also concerns me. It concerns me that the matter be addressed.
Hi Judith
I feel Independent Schools have an obligation to former students to be able to produce information for whatever reason. Digitisation may have retrieval issues in the long term? At PC we often have requests for academic results because of women entering certain professions as a mature age student here or overseas. Of recent times however, all our academic results and semester reports are available electronically and rolled over after leaving, so in essence the paper file is a form of back up to the electronic and vice versa. I would recommend that records with a shorter sentence should therefore not be placed on the main student file to allow a less complicated disposal or culling. However, do agree space is always going to be an issue, with offisite storage perhaps becoming the norm.
Trish Montgomery
Perth College
Hi Judith.
Nice thread!
Our school retains everything. Most of the older files are in off-site storage, although I have the "very old" card files in my Archive. I am sensing that the school wants to reduce the cost of keeping these records and will want to "go digital", so I can see a battle looming.
I see the sense in current records being kept digitally if they are born digital, but the time and cost of digitising old files surely is not worth it on the off-chance that these records will be referred to in the future.
Likewise, thinning the files is incredibly time-consuming and mind-numbingly fraught with human error potential.
Brigid
Like the others, student records are retained permanently, and are generally not culled, at our school. They are frequently referred to by various sections of the school. Despite growing like topsy, and the fact that I have now run out of room, we have no plans to change. We just have to find more space! Retrospective digital storage would be a massive and expensive undertaking, probably outweighing storage costs.
I know there are schools in SA that have decided on digital student records only, with retrospective copying and some destroying originals. For me (and for my school) that is not an option. While reports are produced electronically there is too much 'other' information contained in the files to let them go.
Here at MGGS we retain a culled version of the paper files, which still often hold a fair amount of paper, and they are frequently referred to. At the present time we are not convinced that electronic versions are fool-proof long term, given the problems associated with the expense of digitizing and keeping up with rapid changes in format. We have digitized the basic student record cards from 1903 until the mid-1980s both for easy access and to secure the information in case of fire or other disaster, and will continue to work on this aspect.
This is probably one of the most contentious issues for school archivists and I would also like to know what other schools are doing. At our school we very frequently access records of former students and for the time being are retaining everything in those files. Storage costs are a consideration but it is not worth anyone's time to go through and remove 2 or 3 pieces of paper (form letters, etc.) from each file. Our student reports are available in electronic form on a secure server, dating back to 2000, which is terrific and has meant that they don't for the most part end up in the paper file.
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