It will identify many groups of valuable records which, hitherto, have been almost unusable because of inadequate finding aids. The Collection Review Project will enable these records to be targeted for item-level listing on the RecordSearch database and for inclusion in published guides and finding aids. The general correspondence records of the head offices of Commonwealth agencies form a substantial part of NAA holdings in Melbourne and Canberra. They include records of great value, but inconsistent sentencing has resulted in the retention of material which either duplicates other records or is of dubious value. Systematic review of branch and sub branch office correspondence records Most Commonwealth agencies have offices in each State and Territory capital city.
Agencies involved in large-scale service delivery also have offices in regional centres.
Much of the material of enduring value in branch office records is duplicated in head office records, but in the past branch office records have often been assessed without adequate account of that fact. The project applies new functions-based records disposal authorities to records which came into NAA custody prior to their issue. In general these will all apply to records created since 1960. Individual case files The Commonwealth generates a very large number of individual case records. Many of the records remaining in paper format are not of enduring value and no longer come into NAA custody.