Australian Society of Archivists

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David Hanlon
The Chill of History: the Experience, Emotion and Changing Politics of Archival Research in the Pacific
'The Chill of History' explores how the legacy of colonialism affects and complicates the use of libraries and archival collections in the contemporary Pacific Islands region. Particular attention is paid to the encounters of indigenous or native scholars with these depositories, and to the culturally specific procedures and protocols that govern access to the historical knowledge they house.

Monica Wehner & Ewan Maidment
Ancestral Voices: Aspects of Archives Administration in Oceania
The paper investigates archives administration in the Pacific Islands. Claims by Pacific Islanders for greater access to and control over Pacific archives and ancestral voices are considered in the light of structuralist and post‑structuralist concepts of the archive. Current theory of archives administration, and the history of archiving in the Pacific Islands, are considered in relation to Pacific Islanders' intellectual property rights over specific Island archives (such as the Western Pacific Archives and the records of the Samoan Land and Titles Court and the Tonga Traditions Committee). Liberal academics' rights of access to such Pacific archives are also considered. The only existing systematic attempt to classify Pacific archives and manuscripts ‑Harry Maude's report, The Documentary Basis for Pacific Studies: A Report on Progress and Desiderata, 1967 ‑ is reviewed and his 'manuscripts library' approach questioned. Maude's report was the basis for the formation of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau in 1968 and set its agenda for many years. In this paper, we suggest that a broader assessment of the range and forms of Pacific archives is guiding the Bureau in the post‑colonial era.

Peter Horsman
Dirty Hands: A New Perspective on the Original Order
One of the basic concepts propounded by the Manual for Arrangement and Description by Muller Feith and Fruin ~ and probably the one most criticised and misunderstood ‑ is the Respect of the Original Order. The Manual focuses on a logical order rather than on the original physical arrangement. In particular, Muller did not attach great importance to the work of the originating secretaries. For him and his colleagues the binding of the records with the administrative function, not the way that the records were stored, was the predominant consideration. This opinion, however true, may be considered somewhat limited. Often the physical arrangement demonstrates how the creator used its records ‑ or did not use them. As an example, a reconstruction of the physical arrangement of the medieval, seventeenth and eighteenth century records of the Dutch town of Dordrecht show clearly that the town administration did not and could not use a part of its most critical records. Instead they used duplicates or copies. However, in accordance with the Manual, the first generation of professional archivists in Dordrecht destroyed the basic physical arrangement, because they did not see any system in it. This article argues that archivists should respect such original order and leave the interpretation to the user. Whereas in the past archivists could not deal with parallel original orders, today database technology enables them to logically arrange a fonds by means of archival description simultaneously from various perspectives. The next step is to develop new, powerful user interfaces to represent over time the complex relationships between records, between records and the administration, and between records and their storage. Such a plural (not just multi-level) description methodology must be built into current recordkeeping systems, to safeguard the variety of original orders for the future.

Eric Ketelaar
Archivalisation and Archiving
Archives are created in an organisation to support and manage work, to record why, when, where, in what capacity and by whom what actions were carried out. Every citizen, every family is archiving too. Archiving is preceded by archivalisation: the conscious or unconscious choice (determined by social and cultural factors) to consider something worth archiving. Archivistics is concerned with questions such as:
what makes a society, an organisation or an individual create and use archives the way they do?
Will a better understanding of the way people create and maintain archives enable us to make statements about an efficient and effective way of creating records?

Francesca Jury
Invisible Boundaries: a Paradigm Shift
Much has been written about the recordkeeping practices of institutions ‑ the reasons, the requirements and the results. However, as writers such as McKemmish and Cunningham have suggested, personal recordkeeping and its contribution to a society's collective understanding of itself has not been addressed to the same extent. 71is article takes as its case study the recordkeeping practices of scientist Norman Barnett Tindale, investigating the factors that influenced Tindale's work and the records he kepi whilst undertaking that work.

Richard Summerrell
Improving the Education and Professional Development of Reference Archivists
While providing reference access is acknowledged to be a core archival function, it receives little formal attention within the archival profession. The present state of research and writing on reference theory, methodology and practice is moribund, and the coverage it receives in the professional education curricula is superficial. No-one within the profession, be they archival educators, the professional associations or practitioners, has taken a leadership role in devising research agenda or delivering education programs which focus on the integration of reference into the archival process. Without the framework, stimulus, discourse and networks that only these educational foundations can provide, reference archivists have little acknowledged professional identity. As practitioners they lack the intellectual and professional support and encouragement increasingly needed by information professionals of all kinds. Archival institutions are hindered in the recruitment Of suitably qualified staff and in the planning and delivery of comprehensive reference services. This article examines the lack of professional and continuing education opportunities for reference archivists. Further, it describes an initiative by the National Archives of Australia which offers one approach to an institutionally based program of professional development. The Program has the potential to be further developed and built upon by collaboration and cooperation with other areas of the profession.

Justine Heazlewood, et al.
Electronic Records: Problem Solved?
In 1998 Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) initiated a project to examine the capture and long term preservation of the electronic records of the Victorian Government. The project team, consisting of computer scientists from CSIRO, business process analysis from Ernst & Young, and archivists from PROV, built a system which successfully demonstrated that it is possible to capture electronic records with existing technology and from existing systems in such a way that electronic records can be preserved in the long term.

Danielle Wickman
What's New? Functional Analysis in the Life Cycle and Continuum Environments
This paper explores the place of functional analysis in archival tradition in both the lift cycle and records continuum models. It contrasts the place of functional analysis in the work of more traditional life-cycle theorists such as Schellenberg with the approach taken in Australia, particularly in more recent times.

 

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