1. > CONTACT ARCHIVES NEW ZEALAND

Contact us as soon as you know you have records you want to transfer, before you start doing any work on preparing the records. This will make sure everything is done right and the transfer process runs smoothly. Contact either the Head of Arrangement and Description or your Regional Archivist.
They will assign an archivist to help you prepare the records for transfer.

Archives New Zealand is setting up a booking process so public offices can book transfers in advance. This will help us make sure we have staff available to help you process the records.

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2. > CHECK THAT YOU HAVE A VALID DISPOSAL AUTHORITY

Only records that have a valid disposal authority can be accepted for transfer to Archives New Zealand. A disposal authority is legal permission from the Chief Archivist to dispose of public records. It is important to get a disposal
authority for all your organisation's records before they have existed for more than 25 years.

If you do not have a valid disposal authority, contact Archives New Zealand, Appraisal on (04) 499-5595 or appraisal@archives.govt.nz

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3. > PREPARE THE RECORDS FOR TRANSFER

Contact us before doing any work to prepare the records for transfer. We have some specific requirements about how the records are listed and packaged. For example the records must be listed accurately and according to our standards, so the lists can be imported into our systems. Lists must be provided electronically.

Records must be boxed in Archives New Zealand boxes, which are provided free of charge. This is so they are easy for us to handle and to protect them from damage during their move.

Once your records are ready to be transferred you need to fill in and supply a Transfer Agreement form.

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4. > DECIDE THE ACCESS ARRANGEMENTS FOR RECORDS BEING TRANSFERRED

You need to decide whether your records will be open for everyone to see or placed on restricted access.

The administrative head (e.g. Chief Executive) of your organisation must classify the records as either open access records or restricted access records. This should be consistent with access arrangements for similar records already transferred to Archives New Zealand from your organisation. Sometimes this means you need to review the arrangements you've made for records we already hold.

Once you've decided on the access arrangement you need to fill in and supply an Access Authority form. You can re-use the provisions of an existing Access Authority for similar types of records.

• See Advisory Notice A6 Making Access Decisions Under the Public Records Act for more information.

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5. > INITIATE TRANSFER

Once everything is ready, you submit the signed Transfer Agreement, Access Authority form and a transfer list. When the transfer archivist is satisfied the records are ready for transfer, they will arrange a time for delivery to Archives New Zealand. The records are usually subject to a box check before being accepted for transfer.

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6. > AFTER TRANSFER

Archives New Zealand will send you countersigned copies of the Transfer Agreement and Access Authority and, later, a copy of the processed transfer list. These documents are your record of what was transferred and what arrangements were made for access to the records. You should keep them for your records.

Your office is also responsible for proper disposal of records authorised for destruction. This must be done in an appropriate and secure manner.

For further information or advice, contact Archives New Zealand on (04) 499-5595 or at transfer@archives.govt.nz or contact your regional office of Archives New Zealand.

For further tools or advice, see www.archives.govt.nz/continuum

For boxes contact boxes@archives.govt.nz

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