Australian Society of Archivists

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Stephen Twigge
Public Records, Public Consultation: The involvement of stakeholders in the selection of records at the Public Record Office, the United Kingdom National Archive
The involvement of stakeholders in the selection of records for permanent preservation is a growing development in archival practice. This article discuses recent initiatives undertaken by the UK National Archives to involve stakeholders more directly in the selection process. Issues discussed include the policy framework for public consultation operating within the UK and the practicalities of undertaking a major consultation process. The article focuses on the selection and appraisal policies recently developed by the National Archives and assesses the benefits and challenges presented by stakeholder involvement.

Joanne Anthony
Political Archives: Defining Key Issues in a Significant Private Records Arena
The political archives Project has to date largely involved a comprehensive ‘reappraisal’ of the extensive political collections held by the John Oxley Library. Throughout this undertaking, it became clear that the appraisal of political party records in particular is a domain that has received little attention both within Australia and on a global scale. Very few collecting organisations have sought to systematically analyse what records they are keeping for posterity and why they are keeping them. This article, using the case example of the political archives project, endeavours to share findings and to stimulate further discussion about some of the important appraisal issues and challenges as they apply within this field of private recordkeeping.

Julie Gleaves and Sarah O'Neill
Preserving the Old School Tie ‑ Why school archivists find it hard saying 'no thank you' to the fifth donation of a rowing oar
Preserving the Old School Tie looks at the challenges, influences and real world factors affecting appraisal decisions by archivists in independent nongovernment schools. By exploring the role of the archivist and the archives in the school community, the article examines the complexities of appraisal in school archives.

Barbara Reed
Diverse Influence: An Exploration of Australian Appraisal Practice. Part One
Techniques and methods of appraisal are bound to the context of the theory or traditions of archival practice in which they take place. There are several different traditions of appraisal from European approaches to the UK approach to North American approaches, Australian practice has evolved within the context of these inherited approaches and formed a hybrid model, never fully articulated, in which inherent tensions have never been completely resolved. In recent years, in common with overseas colleagues, Australian archivists have further evolved our appraisal practice to a functions based model.

Review Article

Michael Piggott
The Diary: Social Phenomenon, Professional Challenge

In the Agora

Kevin Lindeberg
The Rule of Law: Model Archival Legislation in the Wake of the Heiner Affair
The rule of law depends on sound archival legislation to promote fairness, transparency, and justice in a democracy. In light of the Heiner Affair in Queensland, where a state archivist was misled, state documents were destroyed inappropriately, and citizens thereby were gravely disadvantaged, this article explores the lessons to be learned for future archival legislation. While the history of Heiner or Shreddergate and its consequences for archival daily practice have been explored elsewhere, and are only briefly summarised here, the weak legal underpinnings of the archival profession revealed by Heiner need to be better understood. Archival law should strive to place archivists or recordkeepers on the same status as government auditors and information commissioners, independent of the executive government, and with much more autonomy of action. Seven generic principles for archival legislation are offered in this analysis.

 

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