Australian Society of Archivists

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Erie Ketelaar
The Right to Know, the Right to Forget? Personal information in public archives
The author, an internationally renowned archivist remembered here with great affection for his contribution to the ASA's 1992 annual conference, discusses the universal issue of personal information and privacy. The vast quantities of such information held by governments are protected in four ways which he describes: legislation, conditions of transfer, researchers' undertakings and physical and practical regulations at the archives. He then explores affith 'layer'of professional ethics and approaches to the ethics of closure v. release such as the importance of research affected by closure, and a 'human dignity' test. In the final part, the author examines the factors surrounding whether personal information should be appraised as worth retaining in the first place, drawing in particular on the writing of the Canadian archivists Terry Cook and Heather MacNeil.

Ray Edmondson
Sacrilege or Synthesis? An exploration of the philosophy of audiovisual archiving
One of Australia's leading film archivists argues for the development of a new philosophy of 'archiving' and describes an international network of efforts begun in 1994 to carry out this work. The case is built firstly by an examination of existing ideas from archival science, librarianship and museology and secondly by presenting definitions of three interconnected terms, 'AV media', 'AV Archives' and 'AV Archivist'. Underlying these terms is the challenging assertion that 'the archival profession has no copyright on the word "archive" ‑ others employ it, and define it, as suits their needs . . .'. The extent to which one can thus speak of an emerging AV archiving professional and the impact of new technologies are also covered.

Graham Carbery
Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives
The article recounts the background to the formation of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, describes the scope and rationale of its collecting activities, and covers its services, educative role and policies on access and privacy. ALGA is more a resource centre than an archives strictly speaking, and this is admitted and defended, as is its attitude to the role of public collecting institutions. The work of the State Library of New South Wales and the Noel Butlin Archives Centre is also acknowledged.

Bruce Smith
Archives in Museums
It is a fact of life that museums maintain archival collections. How these collections are managed and the fact that museums hold archival collections raise a number of issues for archivists and the role they can play in their management. This article based on work from the author's MA thesis, attempts to quantify the museum archive scene, looks at the literature of museum archives and raises some of the issues concerned with museum archives.

Karen Anderson
Distance Learning: A new approach to archival education
Consultation with the archival community and market research confirmed a need and demand for a distance education course which would provide a professional qualification for archivists. The Department of Library and Information Science at Edith Cowan University took up this challenge, designing a course consisting entirely of records and archives studies aimed at educating professionals to work in a technological environment. Field work assignments and the practicum provide hands-on experience, but the course emphasis is on the provision of a sound theoretical framework and research skills to equip students to deal with future problems as they are encountered. Use of communications technology in course delivery increases ease of contact with lecturers and access to university services, as well as providing Internet access.

Sue Rosly
Access to Archival Records for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
This article covers recent developments on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, particularly access policy, in the Australian Archives. The author endorses the call to archives and archivists to look closely at the important and complex issues of managing archives relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. If we accept that archives do have a vital role to play in the reconciliation process, the challenge is how best to perform the role. We need to take concerted action and preferably on a national basis.

Review Articles

John Arnold
Scholarship, Nostalgia, Insights and Pedagogical Presentation of the Past

Michael Piggott
Educating for Recordkeeping and Information Management

 

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