At a high level, transferring born digital records to The National Archives looks like a familiar process; it follows some of the same steps as transferring paper records. However, the process might not be as linear as for paper records, and you might perform some of these steps in parallel rather than strictly one after the other.

Before digital records can be transferred to The National Archives they must be appraised and selected for permanent preservation and reviewed for sensitivity. Once these steps have been completed and the records prepared, they may be delivered to The National Archives. Open born digital records and their metadata will then be free to view and download from anywhere in the world from our online catalogue, Discovery.

The following pages will provide you with more details on the steps to be taken in the digital transfer process, aligned with the gateways you might be familiar with from transferring paper records.

With regard to digital records, this includes digital continuity, which covers digital records management from the moment digital records are created to when they are ready to be transferred to The National Archives. Digital continuity is about making sure that your information is complete, available and therefore usable for your business needs. For more information on digital continuity see our separate suite of guidance.

Appraisal is the process of distinguishing records of continuing value from those of no further value so that the latter may be eliminated.

Digital continuity loss is experienced in five ways – you can't find, open, work with, understand or trust the information you have. This guidance is aimed at anyone who has experienced a digital continuity loss and wants to understand why and how that loss happened, how they can resolve the problem and how they might avoid it happening again.

This guidance is aimed at Departmental Record Officers, Finance Directors and Internal Audit staff. It covers all internal audit records no longer required for business purposes, which are subject to a formal appraisal process to determine whether they fall within the criteria of selection for permanent preservation.

This guidance is aimed at Departmental Record Officers and staff in central government departments and agencies who handle records relating to the management of information. It is unlikely that any information management records will be selected for permanent preservation.

The information management assessment (IMA) pre-assessment questionnaire

This guidance details the role that the Government’s Information Asset Register (IAR) plays within Freedom of Information (FOI) Publication Schemes and how the IAR can manage some of the demand that FOI generates.

This guidance supports Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) to embed digital continuity into the organisation’s Information Technology (IT) strategy.

The purpose of this guide is to cover the main issues an organisation needs to address when defining its required service level from an offsite storage contract for current or semi-current records offsite with a commercial contractor.

This piece of guidance focuses on understanding the information your organisation holds and how it needs to be used to support your business. Developing this understanding will support you in effectively managing your information assets through change.