Australian Society of Archivists

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ASA Membership Survey
Survey Report by Rowena Loo

Council Response by Stephen Yorke

Articles

Jackie Bettington
Standardised Recordkeeping: Reality or Illusion?
Presently recordkeepers in Queensland Government face the challenge of achieving the dual outcomes of improved performance through cost-efficient and effective operations and compliance with a raft of legal and regulatory requirements. In facing this challenge Queensland Government organisations have sought guidance from AS ISO ‑15489 Information and documentation ‑records management' and 'AS 5090 Work process analysis for recordkeeping'. These standards are valuable foundations for addressing compliance issues and seeking a more systematic approach to recordkeeping, within an organisation. However, these standards do not provide sufficient guidance for recordkeepers seeking to standardise and integrate records processes to achieve more performance based outcomes such as cost efficiency and improved service delivery.

Camille Cameron
The Duty to Preserve Documents Before Litigation Commences
This paper explores the nature, extent and boundaries of the duties that exist to preserve relevant documents where no litigation has yet commenced and where such litigation can be reasonably anticipated It uses as the context for this discussion the recent tobacco litigation case McCabe v, British Australian Tobacco. The duties to preserve are considered from the perspectives of prospective plaintiffs, who need the documents to prove a claim,. prospective defendants (and their servants, agents and employees), who may for legitimate reasons have document management policies that call for routine destruction of documents, and judges (and juries), who require evidence to discharge their fact-finding and truth seeking functions. The paper will also briefly discuss the legislation proposed in the Sallman Report, and the effect that the proposed legislation would have on the nature and scope of pre-proceedings duties to preserve documents.

Julie McLeod
ISO 15489: helpful, hype or just not hot?
The publication of ISO 15489, the first ever international standard for records management, provided the profession with a unique opportunity and tool for enhancing the practice and profile of records management. But will the opportunity be grasped? What impact will the standard have and why? This article examines the details of an ongoing two-year study which is assessing the impact of ISO 15489 in a range of organisations in the United Kingdom. It shares some of the early results in an attempt to promote awareness and use of the standard and provides initial views on whether the standard is helpful, hype or just not hot enough to handle yet.

Laura Millar & Michael Hoyle
The Challenge of Records and Archives Education and Training in the Pacific.
Despite the perception of 'the Pacific’ as a distinct and homogenous part of the world, the reality is that the hundreds of islands in the Pacific are geographically disparate, where the scattered populations function in a multitude of languages and cultures. The islands also face severe environmental conditions and significant limitations on transportation and communication. Archivists and recordkeepers in developing countries in the region have few options for education, training and skills development and little opportunity to come together with their Pacific colleagues. There are at present no face to face courses in recordkeeping and it is difficult for individuals to leave their posts to pursue studies or even attend workshops or seminars. Distance education seems a reasonable way to raise capacity in the region, but this approach also poses challenges, including the need to tailor curriculum to requirements in different countries and the need to provide a range of delivery options that suit the limitations on communications technologies throughout the region. In this paper, co-authors Michael Hoyle and Laura Millar report on an investigation conducted by PARBICA, the Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives, into distance education for recordkeeping in the Pacific. They outline some of the educational challenges faced by public sector recordkeepers in the Pacific and offer a strategic approach to action.

Alistair Tough
Records Management Standards and the Good Governance Agenda in Commonwealth Africa
This paper reports on the results of research carried out by means of questionnaires sent to Directors of National Archives and by email `interviews, of educators and consultants in the Commonwealth Africa region. National standards (mainly in the form of policy and procedure manuals for the public service) and both international and external standards are discussed. The responses of Directors of National Archives to 1SO 15489 and their plans to make use of it are reported, as is the role and impact of Public Service Reform Programmes and other major projects in Commonwealth Africa.

Gabrielle Wolski
The Introduction of Youth to the Archival Profession
This paper focuses on representing youth needs and formulating ways of enticing young people into the archival profession. It surveys a small sample of young Victorian archivists and records professionals; under the age of thirty-five. Compiling a questionnaire and assessing the results, insight has been gained into the work related concerns of young archivists. This paper attempts to adapt the social theories of contemporary philosopher, Alain De Botton. De Botton specialises in the philosophy of status anxiety, a philosophy used in this paper to highlight areas of the profession problematic for young people.

‘In the Agora'

Ray Edmondson
What's a Nice Archive Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
I begin in Hanoi, which may seem to be a strange place to be deliberating on the future of Australia's National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA, also known as ScreeenSound) but a conference in the Vietnamese capital may prove to be one historical marker point in the fight for the Archive's institutional survival.

 

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