Australian Society of Archivists

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Verne Harris
On the Back of a Tiger: Deconstructive Possibilities in 'Evidence of Me’
This article offers a deconstructive reading of Sue McKemmish's 'Evidence of me..., published in 1996 in Archives and Manuscripts. McKemmish's essay is of seminal importance, being the first (and still the only) sustained application of a recordkeeping conceptual framework to the realm of personal recordkeeping. The reading shows McKemmish breaching the boundaries of an enchanted wilderness for too long neglected by the recordkeeping Professions. McKemmish, it is argued, demonstrates that in this wilderness we are hanging on the back of a tiger. Using deconstructive techniques, Harris attempts to move into the many openings marked by McKemmish and to point out others missed by her. He suggests that the recordkeeping framework deployed by McKemmish needs to be re-imagined in order to accommodate the realities of a realm fraught with complexity. 1

Frank Upward & Sue McKemmish
In Search of the Lost Tiger, by Way of Sainte-Beuve: Re‑constructing the Possibilities in 'Evidence of Me’
We are indebted to Verne Harris whose evocative article in this issue has stimulated this re-construction of the possibilities in 'Evidence of Me’. In responding to 'On the Back of a Tiger: Deconstructive Possibilities in "Evidence of Me”’, we will deal with archival science as professional theory for a 'known’ group, archivists. 'Evidence of Me' endorses, but is not confined to, the telling of stories, the 'petit recits' in a Lyotardian sense. It had a particular professional audience in mind, and a particular way of integrating the stories it tells, both of which tend to disappear from view in Harris' deconstruction. The manner of integration is metanarrative based, drawing on post-structural and post-functional perspectives from a continuum framework, and using recordkeeping theory. Within its structuring approach, the small stories can become professional metatext. It is these meanings we wish to re-construct. We will be exploring the present which is always present in witnessing; but absent .evidence, the trace which does not exist, the document that never speaks nakedly to us, and how this can be managed within professional theory by concentrating on the way recordkeeping objects are structured by process. In this account, process, metaphorically, is the archivist's 'tiger'.

Andrea Rosenbusch
Are Our Users Being Served?: A Report on Online Archival Databases
The analysis of a dozen websites offering online access to archival finding aids shows that many applications currently do not take their users’ needs sufficiently into account. The Internet is a new medium with larger and more diverse groups of users than archives have so far been concerned with. Before archives start to share their resources to make their holdings more accessible, they should find out who the potential users of archival resources on the Internet are, what they are looking for and which navigational features and contextual information they need to make sense of their findings.'

Catherine Nicholls
The Role of Outreach in Australian Archive Programs
The article outlines the writer's research into the exploration of the concept and practice of outreach in Australian archive programs. The article outlines the purpose of the research, definitions used in the research, methods and sources and an overview of the research results.

Russell Kelly
The National Archives of Australia's New Approach to Appraisal
This article examines recent changes to appraisal and disposal policy and Procedures introduced by National Archives of Australia for use in the Commonwealth government. It looks at the background to the adoption of AS 4390 as the principal appraisal methodology and how the NAA is interpreting aspects of AS 4390 in conjunction with the NAA's roles of regulating disposal and selecting national archives. 1

Tony Newton
Will the Tension Ever End?: Some Observations and Suggestions from an Appraisal Archivist
This article is not a detailed, scholarly re-examination of appraisal theory and methodology. That has been done many times in most records and archives publications over the past twenty years. My article is more a set of observations, looking at a few of the recurring issues in records appraisal that cause tensions 'between community groups, government archives organisations and government agencies, and how current practice in records appraisal and disposal might offer some opportunities to resolve some of these tensions.

Ted Ling
The Commonwealth's First Archives Bill 1927
Most Australian archivists will be aware that the Commonwealth's first Archives Act was passed by Parliament in 1983. What is not so well known is the fact that this was not the Commonwealth’s first attempt at implementing archival legislation ‑ a Public Archives Bill had been drafted in 1927. The Bill went before Cabinet in early 1928 and subsequently faltered during the Great Depression.

Adrian Cunningham
What's in a Name?: Broadening Our Horizons in the Pursuit of a Recordkeeping Profession that Cherishes Unity in Diversity
At the 1999 Annual Convention of the Records Management Association of Australia (RMAA) there was debate about the Possibility of a merger between the RMAA and the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA). Since then the debate has continued on listservs, in Branch meetings and in back rooms. In April 2000 the national executives of the two organisations met with the aim of getting to know each other better and to explore avenues for increased cooperation and collaboration. Following this meeting the two organisations released a 'Statement of joint Purpose and Cooperation'. In December 2000 the full national councils of the two organisations held their first ever joint meeting at which the Statement was endorsed. This paper is the text of a presentation made to the 17th National Convention of the RMAA, held in Sydney in December 2000, by the immediate past President of the ASA. It presents the author's perspectives on the state of current relations between the two organisations and where he would like to see the relationship go in the future.

Review Article

Livia Iacovino
Common Ground, Different Traditions: An Australian Perspective on Italian Diplomatics, Archival Science, and Business Records
This review article focuses on a number of themes in three Italian books on archives, that are relevant to archival theory and practice, and to current professional debates in Australia in particular. These themes include records as evidence and memory, the legal context of recordkeeping, the importance of business archives, and the relevance of diplomatics and archival science to electronic recordkeeping, with an emphasis on our common ground with Italian traditions while noting differences. The themes selected from the books focus on the continuity of archival theory and practice, in particular the elements that are applicable to our current archival endeavour.

 

 

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