Australian Society of Archivists

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Chris Hurley Problems with Provenance To many archivists, documenting provenance means identifying who created a body of records which is being described. Traditionally this has been done by nominating a single person or corporation as records creator. Changing administrative patterns and recordkeeping practices make it increasingly difficult and inappropriate for ideas about provenance to be limited by the need to establish identical boundaries between records creator and records created. The provenance of records is established by showing a relationship to (rather than an identity with) their context. Once free of the self-imposed obligation to make records and provenance statements co?extensive, archivists can explore new and valuable ways of enriching provenance statements by documenting many relationships between records and a multiplicity of contextual

Louise Anernaat
The 'Banks on CD?ROM' project at the State Library of New South Wales
A project to digitise the papers of Sir Joseph Banks held in the collections of the Mitchell and Dixson Libraries, and make them available as indexed images on CD­ROM, is currently underway at the State Library of New South Wales. The extensive manuscript collection contains correspondence, sketches, plans and journals of Banks dating from 1768 when he left England on the Endeavour voyage which took him to the east coast of Australia, until his death in 1820. The CD?ROM will contain around 10 000 facsimile images of the papers, indexed such that the user can gain quick access to a single document or to a series of documents.

Don Boadle
Origins and Development of the New South Wales Regional Repositories System
The author explores the origins, and traces the development, of Australia's only successful statewide archival network, the regional repositories system established by the Archives Authority of New South Wales. Challenging Russell Doust's account of its establishment, he shows how the reluctance of Archives Office staff to commit themselves to a policy of regionalisation has effectively prevented the system's members from exploiting the full potential of networking.

Nancy Lutton & Hilary Rowell
Return to Port Moresby ?the survival, copying and restitution of rescued records
With two major Australian Archives microfilming projects involving pre-1 942 Papua New Guinea records nearing completion, the authors outline the complex and chequered history of these records ? including wars, a volcanic eruption, burial, brick kilns and a morgue ? and the part the records have played in the histories of the Australian Archives and the National Archives of Papua New Guinea. The records were forwarded to Australia from the 1930s to 1950s for safekeeping and have now been or will be sent to Port Moresby with microfilm copies being sent to other successor governments with an interest in the records. In effect, this account completes the story told in Kevin Green's 1969 article 'A group of archives rescued from war-damaged Port Moresby'.'

Jenni Davidson et al
The Australian Society of Archivists' 1993 Membership Survey
The background to and results of a comprehensive survey of the ASA's membership is related and analysed. On the basis of a 43.5 per cent response rate, a typical ASA member is profiled and questions raised about respondents' views regarding education and training, their membership of the ASA and other professional bodies, their work situation and the ASA's role and activities.

Sandra Mowbray & Sigrid McCausland
Archives and Local Government ­ the ASA New South Wales Branch Local Government Archives project
The paper covers the situation in New South Wales regarding local government records, largely during 1991?1993. It also looks at the Australian Society of Archivists Incorporated New South Wales (ASA NSW) Branch's response to the situation of councils with growing responsibilities for records and minimal resources. It is a report on a major initiative of the ASA NSW Branch in securing and administering project funds.

Review Article

Barbara Reed
Texts, Frameworks and Electronic Records

 

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