Records that cannot leave
Search across an archive that is not permitted to move.
NSK·SOL·03
A ministry holds forty years of files: scanned, unindexed, and legally resident. A single freedom-of-information request costs a fortnight of somebody’s time.
The same fifty documents are found again from scratch each time, by a different officer.
Riffle the drawer.
Riffle the drawer. Each card is stamped as the index accepts it.
A request answered from the archive itself, with the page cited and the officer who ran it named.
Earlier decisions found by their substance, so a new one is taken against what was decided before.
Contracts, amendments and correspondence read together, on hardware that never leaves the premises.
Data resident on ministry hardware, with an air-gapped index.
Every query attributable to a named officer, and every citation to a page.
Retention and disposal schedules are honoured by the index itself.
Bring us the case you have not been able to close.
We will tell you which part of it is a model problem and which part is not.