Author: Public Record Office Victoria
Public Record Office Victoria’s (PROV) Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) ensures the creation, capture and preservation of authentic, complete and meaningful digital records by the Victorian public sector. As part of VERS, agencies must transfer digital records to PROV as VERS Encapsulated Objects (VEOs) to ensure long-term preservation and accessibility.
We now have a validation program available for agencies ready to transfer digital records in the VERS 3 VEO format.
Launched in November, the VERS 3 VEO Validation Program provides agencies with an assessment of their VERS 3 VEOs to ensure they are compliant with PROV Standards before a record transfer project is undertaken.
Validation includes both a technical and archival assessment. The technical assessment addresses the requirements outlined in PROV standards and specifications (under PROS 19/05) to ensure a technically valid VEO is created and has the capacity to capture full and accurate records. While the archival assessment will determine whether the VEOs represent the way the records were created, arranged, and managed within the originating agency recordkeeping system.
The validation program will be particularly useful for:
- agencies undertaking a digital records transfer for the first time
- agencies using a product not seen by PROV before to create VERS 3 VEOs as part of a digital records transfer, with or without vendor consultation
- agencies testing, procuring, developing, or implementing a new system that will be capable of generating VERS 3 VEOs
- vendors independently developing new products or a new version of a product that will be capable of generating VERS 3 VEOs.
As part of the new validation program, we’ve published a step-by-step guide for digital transfers and a step-by-step guide for commercial products.
You can learn more about the VERS 3 VEO Validation Program here.
This Validation Program has now also been incorporated into the Digital records transfer step-by-step as part of Step 6 (Generate valid VEOs).
Material in the Public Record Office Victoria archival collection contains words and descriptions that reflect attitudes and government policies at different times which may be insensitive and upsetting
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples should be aware the collection and website may contain images, voices and names of deceased persons.
PROV provides advice to researchers wishing to access, publish or re-use records about Aboriginal Peoples