Website Content Archiving and Retention Policy

Purpose

This policy establishes the principles and procedures for archiving and retaining website content to ensure long-term accessibility, authenticity and integrity. It supports compliance with relevant Australian legislation and digital-preservation standards, including the Archives Act 1983, Privacy Act 1988 and the NSLA Digital Preservation Principles.

Scope

This policy applies to all web content published on the Sydney Memorial website including:

• Static and dynamic web pages
• Images, videos and multimedia assets
• Downloadable documents and datasets
• Metadata, logs and associated records

It covers both publicly accessible and restricted (internal) web content.

Definitions

Objectives

• Preserve digital assets of long-term cultural, historical or administrative value.
• Ensure compliance with Australian legal and regulatory obligations.
• Enable reliable public access via recognised digital archives (e.g. Pandora and Wayback Machine).
• Ensure recoverability of web assets in the event of data loss or technical failure.
• Support long-term sustainability through format migration and technology monitoring.

Policy Statements

Content Retention

Archiving Procedures

• The website shall be archived bi-annually using approved tools to capture a full and verifiable snapshot.
• Each archive must include HTML, multimedia and downloadable files stored in WARC format.
• Archive versions shall be timestamped and version controlled.
• Archival procedures must comply with the Archives Act 1983 and organisational digital-preservation plans.
• Archived copies shall be stored securely in both on-site and off-site repositories to support disaster recovery.

Metadata

Each archived item must include descriptive, administrative and technical metadata based on Dublin Core and where applicable, PREMIS preservation metadata.

Metadata must record:

• Title, creator, subject, description, date of capture
• File format, checksum and technical environment
• Source URL and version identifier
• Rights, access level and retention status

Persistent identifiers (e.g. DOI or Handle) should be applied for long-term reference.

Roles and Responsibilities

Format Migration and Integrity

• The Archivist shall periodically review file formats for obsolescence risk.
• When a format is no longer supported, files must be migrated to a new, sustainable format without loss of fidelity.
• Fixity checks (e.g. checksums or hashes) must be performed annually to verify file integrity.
• All migrations and verifications must be logged in the preservation register.
• A preservation risk register shall be maintained and reviewed annually.

Security and Access Control

• Access to archived materials shall be restricted to authorised personnel.
• Sensitive or confidential web content shall be encrypted in storage and transmission.
• Access permissions and audit logs must be reviewed annually.
• Public releases must be approved by the Archivist or Governance Committee.
• All archived web materials that contain personal information must be handled in accordance with the organisation's Website Privacy Policy and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
• Any personal data captured incidentally during web archiving (such as IP addresses or form submissions) must be processed and retained under the same principles of lawful, fair, and transparent use outlined in the Website Privacy Policy.
• Access restrictions must be reviewed every 5 years to determine whether materials can be released publicly, especially in cases involving deceased individuals.
• Robots.txt configuration must allow authorised web archiving crawlers unless restricted for privacy or legal reasons.

Review and Audit

This policy shall be reviewed annually or whenever legislative or operational changes occur.

A digital audit must be conducted every 12 months to verify:

• Completeness of archived materials
• Metadata accuracy
• File integrity and accessibility
• Conformance with retention and privacy requirements

The Records Governance Committee must document and endorse audit outcomes. Audit processes must include verification of WARC file readability and database export completeness.

Compliance and References

This policy is informed by the following standards and frameworks:

Website Privacy Policy – Governs the collection, handling, and disclosure of personal information collected via the website. All archiving processes must comply with its provisions.

• ISO 14721:2012 – Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model
• ISO 16363:2012 – Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories
• Archives Act 1983 (Cth)
• Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)
• NSLA Digital Preservation Principles (2018)
• Australian Government Web Archive Guidelines (AGWA)
• W3C Web Preservation Best Practices

Preferred Formats