New Zealand ArchivistVol II No 3 Spring/September 1991 ISSN 0114-7676

A Regional Framework For Local Government Archives

Mark Stevens

In the midwestern US State of Illinois, local govern­ment began with admission to the Union in 1818, and it has always been based on the County. The State now comprises one hundred and two counties, including Cook County which contains the city of Chicago. When the IRAD local government archives scheme was estab­lished in 1974, Cook County and Chicago were terrae incognitae to the Archives, for reasons intimately re­lated to the peculiar political complexion of Illinois at that time. It took years of patient and skilful effort by the State Archives, and a little luck, to bring the City and County within the IRAD scheme. This is a story in itself, and it has been told by John Daly (Director of the State Archives) in American Archivist (Vol 51 No 4, Fall 1988, pp470-474).

The State Archives is based in Springfield the State capital, and has overall responsibility for the archives of the state government as well as for local government. It also provides records management (meaning records disposal) advice to state and local government agen­cies. During the period from 1974 to the early 1980s, the State Archives developed and implemented a program for the management of local government archives, that will repay study by New Zealand archivists and local government leaders.

Local government in the US in general, including Illinois, differs considerably from local government in New Zealand. Its mandate derives from a constitution rather than legislation, and it isconcemed withabroader range of functions and activities. Unlike New Zealand counties and boroughs, which are essentially limited to the provision of mundane infrastructural services and utilities and to land-use planning, Illinois county gov­ernments also deal with many aspects of: law and order (including police powers, and judicial functions both criminal and civil); school education; management of public land; social welfare; and civil registration.

The local government archives program developed in Illinois is called IRAD, which stands for the Illinois Regional Archives Depository scheme. It is a co-opera­tive venture between the county governments (later joined by municipal governments), some of the univer­sities in the State, and the State Archives.

Negotiations between the State Archives and the uni versi ties during the mid 1970s resulted in six univer­sities, one in each region of the State, agreeing to be­come repositories for the local government archives

In This Issue

A Regional Framework For Local Government ArchivesMark Stevens

ASA Conference Report

Book ReviewsThe High-Technology Company: A Historical Re­search & Archival Guide (Joanna Newman)Directory of Archivists in NZ 1990-91 (Peter Orlovich)Understanding Archives & Manuscripts (Sheila Robinson)

UK PRO Under Scrutiny Shades of the Wards Report

Archival ExchangeWould you like a year in Canada?

NZSA NewsWhat Council did; Conference 1992; Change of editorial address for NZA; International Directory of Archives

Kicking the Sacred Cows Nanny Knows Best?Cheryl Simes

News ItemsNZ Professional Conservators Group; Records Man­agement Technology a Strategic Product; The Pit­falls of Private Sponsorship; Canterbury Museum Hands Back Archives; Radioactive Records; How Public Access Differs From FOI; New Appraisal Strategy in Canada; Microimaging Half-Plate Nega­tives; Archives Courses at Monash University Mel­bourne; Tinker Tailor Soldier Archivist; Turnbull Library's Tapuhi' Project; Life in Australia; Transi­tions

About the Contributors

Supplement: Archivists' Codes of Ethics

from their region (a defined group of counties). When Cook County and Chicago belatedly joined IRAD, a seventh region and repository were added, opening in late 1990. Each university agreed to make suitable re­pository space, including processing and research space, available for free in its library. The State Archives agreed to manage the repositories, through university staff on a day to day basis, but with a senior archivist at the State Archives in overall charge of the IRAD pro­gram. The whole IRAD program, including the field­work, is managed by a small team of State Archives staff.

The State Archives finances an internship program at each university repository. Graduate history students, usually two at a time for each repository, are nominated by the History departments and paid by the State Archives to work a set number of hours per week, providing processing and reference services to the ar­chives. On selection, the students are trained by the State Archives in basic archives procedures before com­mencing work. The use of interns in this way, without close direct supervision by an archivist, is made feasible by the highly structured, standardised processing given to the archives. This is discussed below. In its first ten years of operation (1976-86) the IRAD scheme provided tuition fees and stipends to 142 master's degree candi­dates in history and political science in return for their services. Many have gone on to full-time archival ca­reers.

The IRAD archivists conduct negotiations with local government officials, to establish the archives program. Initially, county governments were targetted. Gener­ally speaking, archival awareness at this level had pre­viously been lacking, although in some counties pride in the historical records was considerable, and in many counties microfilming of records had been done as part of records management procedures. To help raise ar­chives awareness, the State Archives produced an ex­cellent audio-visual aid (a tape-slide sequence) on the role of county government in the lives of Illinois citi­zens, and the intimate connection between that role, and the records created. Since the mid 1980s, local governments other than the counties have begun to participate in IRAD. These are principally municipal precincts within counties: villages, townships, or cities.

Critical to the success of IRAD, both initially and on a continuing basis, has been the ability of the State Archives to associate the program with good records management advice and support to local government officials. In this way, the identification and transfer to archival custody of permanently valuable records has been within the context of an overall records manage­ment approach, rather than a 'raid' on the good stuff created by local government over the years. Without the co-operation of local officials, won in part by pro­viding them with a service they want, the IRAD scheme could not work. Much the same point was made by New York State Archives personnel, describing the state-wide programme recently established there (LozowskyJ., 'Local Government Archives and Records in NY', NZ Archivist Summer/December 1990).

Local government records are surveyed for records management purposes, and archival records identified. Agreements are concluded to transfer the archives to the regional IRAD repository. In some cases, microfilm is accessioned when a local government wishes to re­

tain possession of the original archives. Not surpris­ingly, the initial process of winning the support of the county governments took several years. During the earlier and most time-consuming parts of the archives survey, and negotiations with the counties and univer­sities, the State Archives deployed only three staff to work on IRAD: a Program Co-ordinator; a Field Archi­vist; and an archivist in charge of checking and advising on the processing of accessions, so that this statewide program must be considered very efficient in personnel terms.

The idea of regional repositories for local govern­ment archives in New Zealand has been raised from time to time. Examples are the LARCH proposals put forward by Jolyon Firth at the ARANZ Conference in Auckland in 1985; the Taranaki Archives Survey Project 1986; and the Canterbury Regional Council initiative reported in the Christchurch Press, 26 October and 15 December 1990. None of these have borne visible fruit, as yet. In Illinois there is a working model that could be adapted or reinterpreted to suit this country. Regional repositories, whether arising from a National Archives initiative or from the co-operation of local authorities in a particular region, are a way in which local govern­ments can act together to gain the advantages of sound archives management. The quantities of archives brought together in this way are more likely to be large enough to justify a properly equipped repository. Joint funding could also be the basis for hiring a qualified professional archivist, which might not be justifiable for the archives of a single local council by itself. The idea of tapping the universities as suitable regional sites, geographically as well as for resources of personnel and (perhaps) accommodation, has not been considered publicly before.

The IRAD scheme does not consist solely of a co­operative venture to house the archives. The other component is a standardised format for the processing (arrangement and description) of county archives. Standardisation is possible because the structure of local government, and the functions it exercises, are the same for all practical purposes in all local government units of the same type. Therefore, much the same types of records are created in each county, township etc. The same points could be made about local government in New Zealand, and so a similar standardisation of ar­chives arrangement and description could work here. The advantages are that processing of the archives becomes more straightforward and requires less exper­tise because they can be fitted into a pre-determined pattern, and researchers can quickly master the guides to the archives of local government, because of the common patterns.

Arrangement and description is based firmly within the traditional archival pattern of Record Groups (relat­ing to the provenance of the records) and Record Series (relating to the original order of records). The main finding-aid is the Guide to County Records in the Illinois State Archives, published as a hardcover book in 1983, and about to be revised to take into account develop­ments to IRAD since then. Originally there were sixteen Record Groups identified within county governments, but the number has increased to 23 now that municipal governments are also within the scope of IRAD. Illus­tration (1) shows the finding aid /guide entry for one of them. The original groups were:

1 County Supervisors/Commissioners2 County Clerk3 Recorder4 Circuit Court/Circuit Clerk6 Probate Court5 County Court7 Sheriff8 Coroner

The archives themselves form Records Series accord­ing to standard archival principles, and each series is placed within one of the Record Groups. Illustration (2) shows two examples of Records Series entries in the guide. Series are numbered sequentially within each Record Group (1.1,1.2,2.1,2.2 ...). Within each Series, the archives from all local governments for which such archives have been accessioned into IRAD, are grouped, county by county.

The three-part numbering system at the foot of each county entry is the archives reference code, referring to: the regional repository where the archives are located, and the accession/archives retrieval systems. For ex­ample, the archives of Carroll County (region 1) are at Northern Illinois University, and the archives of Chris­tian County (region 4) are at Sangamon State Univer­sity. Total holdings within IRAD are now approxi­mately 2500 linear metres, plus roughly 7500 reels of microfilm.

The archives from any one county are also grouped in a separate list, in effect an index by name of the county. A section of this is shown as illustration (3), along with a section of a rudimentary subject index (showing series codes only against each subject entry) that covers the major topics with which county archives deal.

9 County Treasurer10 Superintendent of Education11 Board of Review12 Surveyor13 Justice of the Peace14 Drainage Districts15 County Home16 County Mine Inspector

The IRAD archives in their six (now seven) regionally based repositories have become a significant research resource. They attract many family historians. Refer­ence requests have increased considerably, though un­evenly, as this table shows. Before 1981, annual statis­tics were less than 600.

IRAD Reference Requests 1981-19901981 1480 1986 22061982 1458 1987 18501983 2036 1988 19921984 2501 1989 27751985 2313 1990 2869

The repositories reply to written reference enquiries, as well as meeting the needs of visiting researchers. The standard format of the descriptive information about the archives, and availability of the Guide to County Records and supplementary information and advice sheets, helps ensure that the IRAD system is kept in the public eye. New services have been added over the years, including inter-repository loans of microfilm, and accessioning of state and federal census microfilm for the region, to enhance the usefulness of the IRAD repositories to researchers. The LDS (Mormon) micro­film projects have also contributed copies of Illinois local records.

RECORD GROUP 16

COUNTY MINE INSPECTOR

The office of county mine inspector was created by the General Assembly in 1872. Mine inspectors oversaw the health and safety of Illinois coal miners, and were authorized to inspect any coal mine. Inspectors were also required to investigate all coal mine explosions and accidents; to collect specified information on county coal mines for the Illinois State Geologist; and to collect maps and plans of all coal mines in their counties. From 1872, this office was filled by the county surveyors on an ex -o ffic io basis.1 From 1877 to 1899 county mine inspectors were appointed by county boards for one-year terms. County boards were required to hire experienced miners for the position, and could reappoint the incumbents. Only counties with mines were required to appoint county mine inspectors.2

In 1899 a new mining code transferred mine inspection duties to the state district mine inspectors. The district inspectors were authorized to order the county boards to hire county inspectors, who served, when ap­pointed, as assistants to the state inspectors. The state inspectors were authorized to deputize their authority to the county inspectors, at their own discretion.3 In 1953 the county mine inspectors were required to report monthly to the state inspectors.4 The office of county mine inspector was abolished in 1967.5

(1) IRAD Record Group Description: concentrating on the functions o f the office whose records the Group con­tains, and on administrative changes relevant to the office. Illustrations from A Guide to County Records in the Illinois State Archives (Springfield 1983). Repro­duced with permission o f the Illinois State Archives. A revised edition o f the Guide is due to be published soon, incorporating new accessions and other changes (inclu­sion of municipal governments, consequential amend­ments to the Record Groups).

1.2 Board of Supervisors’ Proceedings 10.32 School Trustees’ Minutes

Proceedings contain all business of the board, including committee Minutes show the date of the trustees’ meeting, the township,and other reports, appointments, oaths and bonds, resignations, section, and range numbers of the district, the business con-petitions from citizens, treasurer’s and collector’s receipts, bills ducted during the meeting, the names of board members, andand vouchers, orders, bids and contracts, plats and surveys, elec- the location of the meeting. Business includes the formation oftions, roads and bridges, jury duty, licenses, the county jail, tax school districts, inspections of the treasurer’s records, estab-levy, assessment, delinquency, and sale, indentures, applications lishment of policies for the loan of school funds, and elections offor relief, and care of the poor and indigent. school officials.

Carroll County Bureau County1839-1889; 1915-1926. 1846-1954.7 1/4 cubic feet, no index. 24 volumes, no index.1/192/1 1/214/3

Christian County Coles County1866-1893; 1898; 1900. 1880-1928.5 cubic feet, no index. 5 volumes, no index.4/184/1 5/53 /6

DeWitt County DeKalb County1837-1912; 1914-1916; 1937. 1846-1858; 1912-1954.15 cubic feet, no index. 16 volumes, no index.3/77/2 1/71 /1 ; 1/226/1.

Gallatin County Madison County1813-1904. 1861-1962.1 cubic foot, no index. 2 rolls of microfilm, no index.6/28/2 6/246/3

Greene County Mason County1829-1835; 1839-1840; 1845-1846; 1851-1852; 1857; 1861-1862; 1860-1954.

1866-1934; 1943-1947; 1955; 1959-1960; 1962. 11 volumes, no index.9 1/2 cubic feet, no index. 4/186/3

4/215/1

(2) IRAD Series Descriptions: records group and series identification codes; series title, series description containing information about records function and contents. Series contents county by county include date ranges, quantity/format o f the records, access tools if any, and archives reference codes.

D e l in q u e n c y , J u v e n i le

L A K E C O U N T Y5 .1 3 , 5 .1 9 , 5 .2 0 , 5 .2 1 , 6 .75 .

1 .2 Board of Supervisors’ Proceedings2.21 Collector’s Books D e n tis ts2 .25 Delinquent Tax Lists2.31 Tax Judgment Record 2 .76 , 2 .80 , 2 .81 , 2 .82 .2 .34 Tax Sale Record2 .37 Tax Sale and Redemption Record

D o g s2 .49 Birth Record2 .55

1 .2 , 2 .2 4 , 2 .9 4 , 2 .95 .6 .55 Unknown and Non-Resident Heir Account Book7 .3 Jail Registers8.1 Coroner’s Inquest Files D r a in a g e8 .4 Coroner’s Inquest Record8 .6 Time Book and Payroll Record 14 .1 , 14 .2 , 14 .3 , 1 4 .4 , 14 .5 , 14 .6 , 14.7.9 .20 County Annual Audit Reports

11.1 Board of Review Minutes

L A S A L L E C O U N T Y

2.2 Assessor’s Books2.21 Collector’s Books4 .6 Chancery Record5.1 Case Files5 .2 County Court Record7 .5 Jail Reports8 .5 Coroner’s Annual Reports9 .20 County Annual Audit Reports

10.8 Superintendent’s Annual Reports10.2310.37

Director’s Annual ReportsSchool District Annual Financial Reports (3) IRAD Indexes: By County, showing the records series

10.38 School Trustees’ and Treasurer’s Annual Reports with their identifying codes; and by subject, showing the codes only, o f relevant records series.

ASA Conference ReportThe 1991 Annual Conference of the Australian Soci­

ety of Archivists took place at the Sheraton Wentworth Hotel, Sydney, 11-16 June. More than two hundred archivists and others registered for the Conference, including seven from New Zealand: representing Na­tional Archives, Westpac Bank, Auckland City Council, and the Auckland Public Library.

Although the Conference as a whole was spread over six days, tire first two days were given over to work­shops and seminars, and the final day was devoted solely to the Annual General Meeting of the ASA. Even so, it was a marathon undertaking, and signs of tired­ness were beginning to show in attendees towards the end. The ASA has only just switched from biennial to annual conferences, and questions are now being asked about whether the Society can cope with an event on this scale every single year. There were twelve work­shops or seminars, eight meetings of special interest groups, and twelve plenary or concurrent sessions, in addition to social events committee meetings and so forth, during the six days.

At the AGM, the draft Code of Ethics was tabled. It will now be discussed as widely as possible throughout the ASA during the coming year, with a view to being finalised and adopted at the next AGM. Also discussed was a move to, in effect, eliminate Institutional mem­bership as a category of ASA membership, to turn the Society into an organisation for archivists only, without archives institutions. The latter now have their own body (the ACA, or Australian Council of Archives). This motion was lost, but the Council of the ASA is now to review all categories of membership in light of the draft Code of Ethics - which by setting standards for professional behaviour by individual archivists, im­plies a different status for institutional members.

The next Conference will be in Wagga Wagga (which is in the Riverina district of southern New South Wales) in June 1992, arid the 1993 Conference is scheduled to be in Melbourne. The possibility of, some time after .that, a joint Conference with the NZ Society of Archivists in New Zealand, has been informally discussed.

One of the highlights of the Conference was an all­day workshop on Ethical Issues, which was devoted in part to discussion of case studies involving various situations in which archivists might find themselves, that raise ethical questions. The areas covered were : Acquisition and Appraisal, Security, Sponsorship and Charging, Privacy, Administering Access., and Refer­ence Services. Discussion was lively, and conclusions by no means unanimous!

A session on Acquiring Resources focussed on the strategies that in-house archives (such as business ar­chives) could adopt to ensure survival in tough times. Among the points made, was the necessity for aligning the archives with the prevailing corporate culture within your organisation, and for providing the quality and focus of service to the business, that managers expect from other corporate areas. It was seen as vital to promote the practical benefits of the archives, rather than preaching about the importance of archival princi­ples, and to express archival programs in ways that were relevant to the needs and preoccupations of the resource allocators.

The guest speaker at the Conference was David Bearman, of Archival & Museum Informatics, based in Pittsburgh. He is internationally known as a writer and consultant on matters relating to electronic records and archives. He spoke at several sessions, and delivered a whole-day seminar on current issues in the manage­ment of electronic archives. Mr Bearman's speaking style is not conducive to ready appreciation by his listeners, and despite the interesting, thoughtful, some­times provocative and always challenging points he made, some participants considered his talks disap­pointingly lacking in focus. Among the points that did emerge from his discussions:□ Archivists are properly not at all concerned with

information, but with records - that is the evidence of transactions, that legitimise and witness human and organisational activity. The proper role of an archivist is not to provide information per se, but to identify and ensure the preservation of knowledge of the record. Archivists compile and preserve an organisation's knowledge-base of itself, through meta-data (information about information) not through information. They should be the source of intellectual control over the legitimacy and continu­ity of the organisation for which they work.

□ It follows that Archives need not be (indeed should not be, except when absolutely necessary) custodial institutions. Their correct role is as regulatory bod­ies, and the records should remain with the creators, who are better resourced to provide (and usually more knowledgeable about) contextual information (ie provenance). There should be archivists in the records creating agencies too.

□ In the case of electronic records the current wisdom (of appraising and transferring whole systems in­cluding systems documentation, of importing ASCII or other 'flat files' that are 'software and hardware independent', and a preoccupation with permanent storage media) is entirely irrelevant. Any storage medium will be around for longer than the hard­ware or software environment necessary to access it. Accessioning 'flat files' strips the records of their context and therefore a key aspect of what makes them records in the first place, as opposed to merely 'information'. The 'whole system' approach is fruit­less because in practise the system documentation rarely exists in accessible form for the archivists. And all these approaches commit the archives insti­tution to an insupportable burden of resourcing. The only preservation solution is continual migra­tion of the records to new environments as the technology changes. This is wildly expensive and Archives will never be able to afford to do it, so should not try. Instead they should leave it to the creating bodies to take care of. The archival role should be to be able to identify the records of con­tinuing value and mandate the migration, but should not be to accession the records.

□ The concept of permanent value is obsolete, and the expression 'intrinsic value' is an oxymoron. A thing of value, including a record, is valuable only until tomorrow, at which time its value is reassessed. All archives, but especially electronic records under the

requirement for frequent migration, must be con­tinually reappraised - especially as migration will never be total and contextual information will tend to erode at each stage, and as migration is so expen­sive. The concept of'continuing value' is preferred: this record is of value to us, as of today. Tomorrow we will reconsider its value...

□ Archives are significant not because they are infor­mation but because they are records, and this raises questions about the relevance of archival methods to the management of manuscript collections. Such collections, removed from their context of creation and use and retained principally for research pur­poses, are merely information. So the application to them of archival principles is a convenience not a

necessity. It would be better to index them compre­hensively, the use of 'provenance' and 'original order7 to provide access is only a reflection of lack of resources by the curators.

□ Archives have cultural value not because they are 'old stuff' but because, as records, we recognise that they link us to the transactions and activities of the past that continue to be important to the present generation - for symbolic or concrete reasons. The cultural value of archives is therefore a reflection of, and derivative of, their 'recordness'.

Chris Hurley (Chief Archivist, Public Records Office of Victoria) described Bearman's vision of the archival future in Vietnam War terms: "we had to destroy the [archival] village in order to save it".

Book ReviewsBruce H Bruemmer & Sheldon Hochheiser. The High- Technology C om pany: A H istorical R esearch and Ar­ch iv al Guide. Minneapolis 1989 (Charles Babbage Insti­tute) 131pp softcover. Available from the SAA, $US13 members, $US18 others. Reviewed by Joanna Newman.

The High-Technology Company: A Historical Research and A rchival Guide is written by Bruemmer and Hochheiser under the auspices of the Charles Babbage Institute, an alliance of industrialists, professionals and academics founded to record and study the evolution and use of the computer and modem electronic com­munication technology. The Institute is dedicated to the study of the history of information processing and fostering the development of historical archives in the area of information processing.

The guide was written to better equip archivists and historians to document high-technology industry. It gives a description of industrial activity, in particular relating to high-technology industry, and introduces a 'documentary probe' technique for obtaining general historical and documentary information about these companies. The aim is to increase the effectiveness of both the historian and the archivist by providing them with the background necessary to work with such companies. It acknowledges that many of the difficul­ties the two professions face in working in this area stem from the voluminous nature of records, the continually changing organisational structure of the companies, and die lack of background information. High-technol­ogy companies also present particular problems be­cause of the technical nature of their records, and the fact that appraisal of their historical value often requires specialist knowledge.

The first part of the guide provides a description of industrial activity and outlines seven business functions.planning, basic research, research and devel­opment, production, marketing, sales, and product sup­port and enhancement. It also covers the basic support functions of legal, financial, facilities, personnel, librar­ies, public relations, purchasing, records management, and 'traffic, as they are typically structured in business. The purpose and operation of each of the principal functions is described, then the documentation that is typically generated by it is discussed, and finally addi­

tional observations are made on some of the issues arising from the type of documentation or organisa­tional structure. Cases from computer companies, in particular the Control Data Corporation, are mentioned throughout, making the guide very accessible and read­able. For the archivist, the book is not only intended to provide background to the industry, but also to serve as an appraisal guide. The authors do not often make judgements about what records are of historical value but describe what records are likely to be found and how they are used. In doing so, they highlight some of the difficulties in appraising business records - for example the lab books in one company (even those kept by particular individuals) may be valuable historical records while in another they are totally worthless.

This part of the guide would, I believe, be extremely valuable for anyone new to a business archives, not only for those dealing with high-technology compa­nies. While the results have been based on experience in large computer development and manufacturing com­panies, there is much that is relevant to any business, in New Zealand and Australia as well as the United States. The functions of basic research, research and develop­ment, and product support, may be more common to those high-technology companies, and hence not so prevalent in Australasia, but all the other functions are found in almost all large companies. Furthermore, I do believe it can be used as an appraisal guide, always bearing in mind that every company has a slightly different way of operating.

The second part of the guide deals with 'documen­tary probes'. These are product studies which generate historical, organisational and documentary informa­tion from all facets of a company in order to aid in the selection of historically valuable records. They use re­search, a description of industrial activity, interviews and records surveys to identify historical issues and activities that should be documented, to ascertain how well those issues and activities are represented by exist­ing documentation and to identify gaps in knowledge of the firm and its products that may be filled through other sources. For example, through selection of prod­ucts which are strategically important to the company and an investigation of every stage of their life in the

company (through all the functions on which it im­pacts), one can develop a very complete picture of the documentation relating to them, which would enhance historical analysis of the business. As the authors state, this is a technique which is most effective in a company manufacturing products, and in particular a high-tech­nology one where the life cycle of a product is relatively short. As a whole, it is possibly a tool which is more useful for the historian than the archivist but the con­cept of supplementing on the whereabouts and impor­tance of documentation for an area strategically impor­tant to a company through interviews and other re­search is also a useful one for archivists.

The guide also has a brief appendix on the effect of business acquisitions on records. The experiences the authors describe are exactly those encountered here in New Zealand and, again, would be very useful back­ground to anyone new in the business archives area.

As an experienced business archivist I found this guide interesting reading and the concept of documen­tary probes was thought provoking, although I feel more relevant as a total 'package' to the historian. I would highly recommend this as reading for anyone new to business archives in particular, because it is a very readable description of business functions, the records which accompany them, and some of the issues which arise in appraising them.

Mark H S Stevens (compiler). D irectory o f A rchivists in N ew Z ealand 1990-91. Wellington 1991 (NZ Society of Archivists Inc) 36pp softcover. ISSN 1170-313X. $27.00 posted, from NZSA PO Box 27-057 Wellington NZ. Reviewed by Peter Orlovich.

In a report on the Development o f the National Archives submitted to the Under-Secretary of the Department of Internal Affairs in August 1946, the Chief War Archi­vist, Eric McCormick (successor to Guy Scholefield, first Controller of Dominion Archives, appointed in 1926) remarked that "it is apparent that... New Zealand is far behind many other countries in archival experi­ence". Some thirty years later, in 1978, Wilfred Smith the Dominion Archivist of Canada, in his report on Archives in New Zealand commented that, with certain exceptions, "... archives as distinct entities, with ad­equate facilities, a separate budget and full-time staff simply do not exist in New Zealand". [Archives in New Zealand: A Report. Wellington, ARANZ 1978. plO].

A careful reading of the first edition of the Directory o f Archivists In New Zealand should leave no doubt in the mind of any reader that the 'archivist profession' in that country is now both numerically strong and profession­ally diversified. Wilfred Smith attributed much of the credit for the development of the archival profession in New Zealand to the then nascent Archives & Records Association (ARANZ). Describing its formation in Oc­tober 1976 as 'a landmark in the development of ar­chives in New Zealand", Smith predicted that ARANZ, and by inference its more recent companion the New Zealand Society of Archivists, would continue to have "a significant impact on the development of a profes­sional identity and the establishment of improved stand­ards in every aspect of archival activity" [p33].

Though it does not list all Archivists engaged in keeping archives in New Zealand, the Directory in­cludes a total of eighty-three entries, covering Archi­

vists who are in professional practice as well as retired archivists, voluntary or honorary archivists, and col­leagues in related professions, such as librarians records managers and museum curators, whose responsibili­ties also include the custody of archives. The biographi­cal details provided within each entry include name and place and year of birth; present occupation or employment; academic qualifications, and archives- related training courses completed; career synopsis and highlights; membership of professional and other asso­ciations; principal publications; special archives-related interests; and address There are some unavoidable dis­parities in the length of entries, attributable, one sup­poses, to the reluctance of some Archivists to complete the questionnaire, or to furnish little more than their name, place and date of birth, present appointment and address.

The Directory includes photographs of sixteen of the eighty-three Archivists listed, a pleasing feature which, it is hoped, will be enhanced in future editions by the inclusion of more photographs. There are two appendi­ces, consisting of a 'Nominal Index of Entries' and an 'Index of Employing Institutions', the latter indicating the 'present occupation or employment' field of the entries. In addition to self-employed consultants, of whom there are seven listed, forty-three separate archi­val and other custodial institutions and organisations are listed, reflecting a wide range of national and local government, ecclesiastical, corporate,, academic and museum archive services.

The Directory o f Archivists in New Zealand 1990-91 nicely complements the earlier Archives New Zealand: A Directory o f Archives and Manuscript Repositories in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Tokelau, Tonga, and Western Samoa compiled by Frank Rogers (Auckland, Archives Press 1984). The two volumes will serve as indispensable additions to the reference shelves of all Archivists, as well as useful guides to all persons and organisations seeking information about the archival holdings of New Zealand repositories and other custo­dial institutions and organisations, as well as profes­sional assistance from New Zealand archivists. The New Zealand Society of Archivists Inc is to be congratu­lated for conceiving and bringing the Directory to fruition. It reflects creditably on the archival profession in New Zealand, and dispels any doubts which may have been entertained in the past about the professional identity and vitality of New Zealand Archivists.

James O'Toole. Understanding A rchives & M anuscripts. Chicago 1990 (Society of American Archivists Inc). 79pp softcover. ISBN 0-931828-77-5. Reviewed by Sheila Robinson.

[For further details see the item on the SAA Archival Fundamentals in the previous issue of NZ Archivist, and the SAA book catalogue enclosed as a supplement with it]

Before reviewing this book, I ought to explain my standpoint, which is that of an archivist who has had very little formal training, has read very little archival literature, and works alone in her institution. It is prob­ably for those reasons the editor asked me to undertake this review. I expect I am typical of many archivists throughout New Zealand in all respects except perhaps the geographical isolation.

Very early into the book I warmed towards O'Toole when I recognised myself, in this very apt description, as someone who had fallen into their profession on the way to or from somewhere else. The more I dug around in the book, the more i felt O'Toole had us 'accidental archi­vists' (my words this time) in mind as being the reader­ship for whom his book would be most useful. He talks about the specific tasks and techniques they had picked up as they went along ... learning by doing in apprenticeship arrangements (if one was lucky!) what form al training there was came in the form o f post-appointment workshops. Comfortingly familiar experiences.

O'Toole's first chapter 'Recording, Keeping and Us­ing Information' reads like the sort of introductory lecture we 'accidentals' never had. Every observation is made twice over, which is a good idea when listeners are taking notes, but somewhat irritating when the obvious is being dealt with. I skipped through it as the author moved from the oral society to the literary one, and wished he had summarised it. However, once he started in on the usefulness of archives, my attention was focussed, and Chapter (2) captured my interest. As The History of Archives and the Archives Profession' it is very much a history of the profession in the USA. An English or European trained professional could well find fault, but this unchronicled, unbiassed Antipo­dean enjoyed tracing from it the parallels that exist here, especially now that extended archival training has taken root.

In Chapter (3) 'Knowledge and Values', the lecturer is back at work in the style of Chapter (1), sharing such gems of wisdom as All archival knowledge is acquired by archivists through a combination of means. Once again I skimmed and dipped until under the subheading of 'Values', seven numbered paragraphs appeared, writ­ten with much more crispness and clarity. The seven leading sentences, printed in bold type, would serve admirably as an archivist's desiderata.

The last chapter can best be regarded as an introduc­tion to practical work, from planning an archive, through the practice of identification, appraisal, preservation, arrangement, description, and access, to a final brief look at ethics, publicity, exhibition, and outreach, to cover all this in the course of eight and a half pages is to put matters briefly. In the scope of this book however,

UK Public Record (In December 1990 the Lord Chancellor's Department

(to which the PRO reports) released the report of a management audit of the Public Record Office (Scrutiny o f the Public Record Office, 2 vols {£10.00}), conducted by the Efficiency Unit of the Prime Minister's Office. The report found that although the PRO was well respected by researchers, and an important national institution, it was hampered by poor management and a low public profile. Major changes were recommended to correct these problems.

The reporting team considered and rejected the alter­natives of privatising, contracting out, and abolishing the PRO, splitting its functions between more than one body, and turning it into a public corporation. It ac­knowledged that maintenance of what is in effect the nation's collective memory, is properly regarded as a

which seeks to provide an introduction... for the beginning archivist, for the archival student, for the administrator contemplating the establishment o f an archives, and for the potential donor... it is probably sufficient. The directions that need to be taken by those who intend to proceed, are quite clearly signposted.

The last section of the book is called a Bibliographical Note, but it could quite properly have been called Chapter (5). For over four pages, the author discusses in some detail the types of reading that can be undertaken. Although I found it made interesting reading, I am not competent to pronounce on his choice of recommenda­tions, except to say that the vast majority of publications originated in the United States. The author is aware of this state of affairs, and writes: With a provincialism that is all too common in the United States, American archivists do not take as much notice o f foreign archival periodicals as they should. He goes to recommend journals from else­where.

The book is illustrated without particular distinction or interest, and contains an index.

Archivists in sole situations need, perhaps more than anything else, to be reassured they have their work priorities right and their job fundamentals in place from time to time. When another professional cannot do that for them, perhaps because there is not one around to talk to, then it has to come from books. This book may have been written for beginners, but even after eleven years solo I found it helpful. Many years ago I spent several days observing at National Archives, and came back to my job thinking I was an archivist only part of the time. O'Toole has dispelled uncertainty. He main­tains, particularly in his last chapter, that an archivists's role encompasses far more than appraisal and arrange­ment. He is aware of the sole archivist, the keepers of non-regular collections, the people who train through experience rather than through formal courses. If you are a beginner, or one of these, I recommend a session of note-taking from this book. You should then have before you, a model of a concise guide to the purpose and practice of keeping archives. You could also have had confirmed the suspicion that you are, basically, a juggler. I shall place this book in the hands of anyone who shows a smidgeon of interest in the role of an archivist in my comer of New Zealand.

fice Under Scrutinycore function of government. Enoch Powell is quoted as saying "it's really collective memory that makes a na­tion".

Among the main problems that the review identified within the PRO, are:□ A lack of management leadership and systems, and

an absence of meaningful strategic planning. There is no effective strategic planning, in the sense of setting priorities and managing progress towards them, and no matching of resources to priorities in a systematic way. Financial management systems, including delegations and allocation of funds, are quite inadequate. There is also an unusual lack of internal or external pressure for improvement in efficiency or effectiveness. Almost the only exter­nally-imposed deadline on the PRO is the require-

ment to open 30-year old records on 1 January each year. Performance measurement is essentially non- existant. Management responsibilities and work­load are unevenly divided.

□ An unbalanced staffing and grading structure be­tween functional areas, so that the reference services for example are under-managed; and an inflexible staff structure, with a distinction between 'curato­rial' and 'administrative' staff that stunts career development and does not correspond to the reality of the tasks for which staff are responsible.

□ Inadequate attention to promotion and outreach activity, and failure to respond to changes in the pattern of research use that is made of the PRO. Family and local historians have increased to about 50% of total users in recent years, but the PRO is still oriented to academic researchers. The opening hours were unfavourably compared to those of overseas institutions, and delays in searchroom production of archives (originally 15 minutes at Kew in 1977, now typically 30 to 60 minutes) were also noticed.

□ The selection or appraisal advisory role of the PRO suffers from a lack of expertise by staff of non­standard formats of records (especially computer records). There have also been problems with the appraisal of scientific records. The IOs (PRO In­specting Officers who liaise with Departments) and DROs (Departmental Records Managers) lack archi­val expertise. The report cites widespread criticism of the PRO'S seventeen-year delay in meeting De­partmental needs for clear guidance on technical and archival questions associated with computer records.

□ The report also refers to other problems faced by the Public Record Office: the disadvantages of split accommodation (the main building is at Kew, with offshoots at Chancery Lane and Portugal Street, as well as the records centre at Hayes); a resistance to change on the part of some staff, and unwillingness to consider radical solutions to problems; and cut­backs to the real resource levels allocated to the PRO during the last decade.

The report makes numerous recommendations, de­signed to enhance the use made of public records through better management. The highest-profile recommenda­tion is to change the name from Tublic Record Office' to 'National Archives'. The new name is suggested as more informative, better reflecting the nature of the organisation, and more consistent with international practice. It is recommended that it be prominently displayed on the outside of the Kew building, which is at present totally anonymous in appearance. Among the other recommendations are to:□ Abolish the distinction between the two staff grades,

and replace them with a single 'Archives Officer' classification, so as to improve and broaden the career prospects of staff. More part-time staff should be employed, particularly in the reference area to improve services. The use of volunteers for this purpose, and the contracting-out of some services such as security guards, is also recommended.

□ Restructure the management hierarchy of the PRO so as to more equally balance workload and respon­sibilities. This includes some restructuring of the various divisions of the PRO. Also recommended is the beefing up of management by appointing, from

outside, experienced managers to take charge of the corporate services area (including financial man­agement), and a Chief Executive Officer to "work alongside" the Keeper during the change process.

□ Concentrate the whole PRO at Kew (except for mi­crofilm reading facilities in central London), aban­doning the Chancery Lane building in particular. The PRO should also abandon it's role at Hayes, the records storage centre, because this is a drain on resources, and of limited relevance to the PRO'S core function of preserving records selected by Depart­ments. However the report also recommends, but without supporting detail, that the PRO investigate the option of combining its records appraisal advi­sory role with more wide-ranging records manage­ment advice, for which there is a demand from the DROs. This service should be charged for.

□ Searchroom hours should be increased (all day Sat­urday and two evenings per week by April 1994) and resources devoted to reader services given a clearer focus, and managed more efficiently. There should be a greater emphasis on educational and outreach activity (such as exhibitions and retailing), and on popular publications of interest to a far wider audience than the academically-oriented works pro­duced at present.

□ Charging for services and products should be either introduced at once, or considered for introduction later. The reprography and publications sections of the PRO should aim to be completely self-funding within three years. Charges for access to public records should not be introduced just now, but reconsidered in 1993/94 in the light of governmen­tal and public attitudes at that time. The report gives this possible model for charging for readers tickets:

Day ticket: £3.00Annual Ticket £40.00 Annual concession £20.00

The point is made that if the additional funds are to benefit the PRO, it requires the Government not to siphon them off, and requires the PRO to have a plan

• about how the funds are to be used. The main difficulty the report forsees with introducing access charges at once, is that public opinion is not yet willing to accept such charges, and that the outcry will tend to distract attention from the other recommendations for improved management at the PRO.

A comment by Peter Clarke about the report ap­peared in the Times Literary Supplement (8 February 1991). It was generally favourable - "this is no cosy, complacent, insider account of the PRO but a brisk application of new thinking to the old country". The reference is to the fact that the leader of the review team was an Australian public servant on secondment from the Department of PM & Cabinet in Canberra, to the UK. Reservations were expressed about the implica­tions for researchers of charging, about the future of the Chancery Lane building, and about the reality of the cost-savings the team identified and how they could improve the overall resourcing of the Public Record Office.

Quoting in part from the report itself, the TLS con­cluded: "we do not consider it likely that efficiency savings, new revenue-generating service or even the introduction of charges will ever produce more than a small proportion of the PRO'S annual budget". So such

measures could not in themselves remedy the widely- acknowledged problem that the PRO is underfunded. Instead the way forward lies in showing "that its present resources are being used as efficiently as possible. The PRO will then be able to put a case for increased funding on a sounder basis".

"It would be pleasant to suppose that this logic will prevail over the next five years, giving us a National Archives with high prestige, high staff morale, high reader satisfaction and, somewhere at the end of the rainbow, the higher level of public funding which may well be indispensable in achieving the rest. If that is what the Report means, two cheers".

New Zealand readers will inevitably be reminded of the Wards Report' of 1979 on National Archives, which was the output of a management audit conducted jointly by the State Services Commission and Internal Affairs. In terms of major findings, the two reports are remark­ably similar. Here are five of the findings on the PRO in 1990, with in italics after each one, a finding on National Archives in 1979.□ the Office is too inward-looking, giving inadequate

attention to outreach activities and positive promo­tion of the records / there is a need for National Archives to play a more active part in the promotion o f archives, and of archives institutions throughout the country.

□ there was evidence that the Office has been insuffi­ciently responsive to the changing profile and needs of its users / there is a need for greater involvement by interested groups and organisations in thepolicies adopted by National Archives.

□ the present division between curatorial and admin­istrative staff has led to inflexibilities which hamper management in deploying staff in the most effective way / there is at present an imbalance between the professional archixnst resources and the amount ofadmin­istrative support available.

□ the organisational structure is out of balance and poorly suited to the most efficient performance of its functions ... management and financial planning and information systems are inadequate for the 1990s / there is a need to restructure the organisation to more effectively perform the archival and records manage­ment functions required.

□ there was wide concern within the Office about a lack of clear leadership and direction in managing resources effectively / there is a need to upgrade the status o f the institution in government, and most particu­larly that of the Chief Archixnst.

The focus was a bit different - for example the Wards Report was able to recommend additional resources whereas the Scrutiny report did not have this as part of its brief, and the whole concept of charging for archives services grew up only during the 1980s. The importance of the Wards Reportwas as an attention-grabber rather than the blueprint it set out to be, but it (rather than the 1978 Smith Report to which it was nominally a re­sponse) set the scene for a decade of growth and im­provement at the National Archives of New Zealand after a generation of neglect by government and bu­reaucracy alike. May the same prove to be true for the Public Record Office, over the next decade!

NZSA NewsWhat Council Did

At its meeting on 5 August, the Council:□ Agreed to write to the Secretary for Internal Affairs

pointing out that the short time allowed for applica­tions for the position of Director of National Ar­chives (the advert appeared 27 July with a closing date of 7 August) ruled out any overseas applicants, and that the position should have been advertised overseas as well as within New Zealand, to increase the possibility of attracting a strong field.

□ Agreed to investigate using conference calls to lessen the expense of bringing the Council together in Wellington for meetings.

□ Accepted a proposal to undertake a wide survey of archivists in NZ to see what range of activities they undertake. A key element will be to examine where, in organisations that are not primarily archives or records oriented, the archives are located in relation to reporting levels and to other units of the organi­sation. The intention is to provide members with information to show whatNZ archivists actually do, and to provide benchmark information about sala­ries and conditions of work.

Conference 1992Council has established a Conference Committee,

which has begun planning. It has been decided to proceed with a two-day seminar, on Thursday and Friday 14 & 15 February 1992. Please mark these dates in your diary, now. The venue is planned to be Archives House in Wellington (the new National Archives build­ing), but this is yet to be confirmed. The two foci of the event will be (i) on the new building, and (ii) on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Polynesian Society.

Change of Editorial AddressPlease note that the Editorial address for the New

Zealand Archixnst has changed (again). All communica­tions should now be addressed to the Editor at: PO Box 136 Beaconsfield NSW 2014 Australia. Contact num­bers are (Sydney) telephone 313-6799, fax 313-6680. The postal address of the NZSA remains PO Box 27-057 Wellington New Zealand.

ICA Directory of ArchivesFrank Rogers has now completed his project on

behalf of the Society, and forwarded the New Zealand entries to the International Council on Archives. As far as possible contact information, such as seven-digit telephone numbers, is what will be operating in 1992 when the work will be published. It is planned to appear just before the Montreal Congress.

The work of compiling the information was done by Frank in conjunction with the work for a revised and updated edition of Archives New Zealand, editorial work on which is now proceeding apace. If your institution has not yet received and responded to the questionnaire for this, and wishes to be included, please contact, promptly, the Editor, ArchivesNew Zealand, 43 Gordon Road, Plimmerton (Tel (04) 338-155).

Supplem ent: A rchivists'Codes of Ethics

With the last issue on New Zealand Archivist, mem­bers received a copy of the SAA publications catalogue. As a further supplement, enclosed with this issue you will receive copies of two Codes of Ethics. The first was presented to the Annual General Meeting of the Aus­tralian Society of Archivists in June, and will be moved for adoption at the 1992 AGM after a year of discussion by ASA members. The second was presented to the Annual General Meeting of the Association of Cana­dian Archivists in May, and at press time the Editor had not heard whether it had been adopted, amended, deferred or rejected.

As readers will be aware from Mark Stoddart's arti­cle in NZA (Spring/Sept 1990), Codes of Ethics have

had a problematic history. The UK Society of Archivists rejected a draft put up for consideration. The SAA Code, and a US National Archives Code for internal staff use, consist of little more than inoffensive plati­tudes. The Codes circulated with this issue of NZA represent the two main strands in thinking about the place of ethical codes in the world of the archivist. The ASA draft embodies what might be called the 'hard' school of thought: it is fairly specific about ethical do's and don'ts, and covers not only directly archives-re- lated areas (such as Integrity of Materials', section 3.5) but also the wider role of archivists (for example sec­tions 2.2 and 2.4, 'Criticism [of peers]' and 'Misrepre­sentation'). Most importantly, it envisages dealing with cases of non-compliance, even though this section has not yet been completed. The AC A Code represents the 'soft' school of thought. It is relatively more vague and generalised in identifying ethical do's and don'ts, ex­hortatory rather than prescriptive, and does not incor­porate any means of enforcement. The two subhead­ings 'Principles for Ethical Behaviour' and 'Guidance for Practice' make the point.

The NZ Society of Archivists is committed to devel­oping a Code of Ethics, to which all Ordinaiy Members, including Associates, will be required to adhere as a condition of membership. The Constitution already embodies the basic mechanisms required for this (sec­tions 2.3, and 2.6). Although development of our Code is not yet very far advanced, partly because of the usefulness of waiting and 'borrowing' from Codes adopted elsewhere, there is an implication in the foun­dations already laid that the NZSA Code will be in the 'hard' rather than the 'soft' tradition. Whether this is appropriate will no doubt be one of the points to be debated when further work takes place on our Code.

Directory of Archivists in New Zealand1990-1991

The Directory is a 'who's who' of the archivist profession in New Zealand, containing over eighty individual entries. Information in entries includes present position, qualifications,

career synopsis, professional and other affiliations, principal publications, special archivesinterests, address.

36pp, A4, printed on the same high quality paper as the New Zealand Archivist. ISSN 1170-313X

$27.00

Cheque or institutional order form to NZ Society of Archivists Inc PO Box 27-057 Wellington. GST not payable. Price includes postage

Kicking the Sacred Cows"Nanny Knows Best"?

Cheryl SimesNannies were wonderful beings, with an answer for

every question. Great to have looking after you when you were young, protecting you from hazards you were too small to understand, and insisting that you did what was necessary to grow up a healthy and tolerable addition to society. But there were things you never told nanny, because she would be disappointed in you. There were things you kept from her, even though you knew she knew, because nanny was, well, nanny.

Today, alas, we are becoming a 'nanny society' - to adults as well as children, protecting them from them­selves as well as from each other. All those television community notices for 'people with disabilities aren't really different', 'exercise is good for the elderly7, 'can­dles for 1990 togetherness', 'smoking is uncool', 'safety equipment for boats', 'don't electrify your caravan', 'don't drink and drive', etc etc are symptoms of a 'nanny knows best' attitude that seeks to impose its views of society on adult individuals who might other­wise fail to make the 'right' decisions of their own accord.

We do the same in archives and records manage­ment.

And in archives and records management, just as in the wider society, we are surprised when people resist our nannying efforts and insist on doing their own thing with even greater determination.

We have a bias towards centralism, believing there must be centralised records keeping in an agency, and that there should be only one archives repository in an organisation. We view with suspicion departmental efforts to hold archives apart from National Archives, for instance, and we view with horror the unofficial current files created by individual employees.

The reality is that human beings have always rejected centralism and the 'nanny knows best'attitude thatitso often implies. If we do not allow individual sections of an organisation to manage their own records, they will do so unofficially, because that is the human way. If we insist on policing a centralised system, we will spend our already scarce resources on coercion rather than on service, and our perfect, centralised system will soon

break down.We know, of course, that They need to manage their

recordsefficientlyandbyusingtrained people,and that centralism has been the 'best' way to do this. But centralism has never eliminated additional, unofficial systems - not even in the days before desktop PCs.

Surely it is better to reassure Them of their right to efficiency and to training and make Them intelligent users rather than file fodder, and let Them decide whether centralism or localism best suits the needs of Their own operation. We, after all, may be the records experts, but They are the operational experts in the field for which the records are being created.

We know, of course, that They cannot be trusted with records disposal, and that They either destroy or hoard things that ought to be in the archives. But we know that, only from a history of mutual distrust. Might there not be a change, if we demonstrated our co-operation in improving Their records system and Their archives administration, rather than insisting that they adopt ours?

Now that computers are the norm, we could even tap into Their file lists and share information - but only if we recognised Their systems as legitimate and They could trust us. (Otherwise They would use our centralised system but hold all the really important material in their unofficial system - and then it would indeed go with Them on their resignation, redundancy, or retirement).

We could maintain our role as a centralised source of information from outside organisations, and as an op­tional supplier of records and archives services for inside the organisation. We could act as a co-ordinator of records systems, and maybe even maintain a record of the records series used throughout the organisation (but not need to maintain those records series them­selves). We could offer training and advice without coercion or centralism. We could be a catalyst for con­sultation on an archives policy. We could maintain a record of the archives held, but it would be complete only if we did not insist on holding the archives them­selves.

We could cease to be a nanny, and start to be a friend.

Radioactive RecordsA few years ago, the National Archives [of Canada] acquired stock from a Crown corporation that bears witness

to the beginnings of the nuclear industry in Canada. But as a result of the documents' pitiful condition, many damp, mouldy records had to be dried and cleaned, and those attacked by insects temporarily frozen, before their content could even be appraised. And only after these conservation treatments were initiated was the surprising discovery made that some significant collections were composed solely of photocopies. The Crown corporation had destroyed the original records because they had been exposed to nuclear radiation.

The A rchivist (Nov/Dec 1990)[Had the contaminated originals survived to be accessioned, one wonders what the access restriction would have

been. And where does one buy lead-lined archives boxes? -ed]

Archival ExchangeI am the University Archivist at the University of

Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I am inter­ested in arranging an archival exchange with an archivist in New Zealand or Australia for next year, hopefully beginning after the September 1992 meet­ing of the International Congress on Archives in Montreal. The starting date is negotiable. The ex­change would be for a year's duration, with each of the candidates assuming the other's position and duties. Salaries and benefits would continue to be paid to the candidates by their respective institu­tions. The University of Regina serves 12,000 full and part-time students. The Archives has approxi­mately 3,000 feet of primarily university records, with small collections of private papers in the areas of fine arts, Saskatchewan literature and journalism. The Archives is staffed by the University Archivist and an archives assistant, with secretarial support from another office.

If anyone is in a position to consider this venture, please contact me at the following: FAX - (306) 586­9862; Electronic Mail - sweeneys® max.cc.uregina.ca; Address - University of Regina Archives, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S 0A2, Canada; Telephone - (306) 585-4014.Shelley Sweeney

NZ Professional Conservators Group Inc

The NZPCG is an association of professional conser­vators of cultural property employed in public muse­ums, art galleries, libraries, archives, and in private practice. There are regional branches in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Full member­ship is confined to professionally qualified working conservators, but associate membership is open to peo­ple who can further the aims of the NZPCG but are not necessarily employed or qualified as conservators.

The Group can assist with disaster preparedness and recovery programs, and has emergency equipment available for hire at a nominal charge. Your enquiries about locating a conservator available to discuss and assist with your conservation needs, can also be an­swered. Proposals for conservation subsidies from the CCAC (see NZ Archivist Spring/March 1991) usually require input from a qualified conservator.

The NZPCG has produced the New Zealand Directory o f Conservators o f Cultural Property 1991, which is avail­able, with other information, from: NZPCG, c /o Auck­land City Art Gallery, PO Box 5449, Auckland.

Records Management Technology A Strategic Product

A brochure recently received from Canon Inc de­scribed their 'Canofile 250' (sic) desktop electronic fil­ing system, based on laser scanning and magneto opti­cal disk. In one comer a discreet notice warned that

"this product is a 'Strategic Product' subject to the COCOM regulations. It must not be exported without authorisation from the appropriate governmental au­thorities".

Could it be that the technology is too secret to allow it to fall into the hands of unfriendly governments, or is it the belief that improved records management would increase the threat they pose?

The Pitfalls of Private Sponsorship

In these days of tight budgets, some archives institu­tions are more or less seriously considering private sponsorship of facilities, exhibitions etc, as a way of stretching funds.

The US National Archives & Records Administra­tion (NARA) in 1989 accepted $US600,000 from the Philip Morris cigarette company to promote the Bill of Rights through an exhibition. In association with this sponsorship Philip Morris launched a two-year televi­sion and print media campaign on the Bill of Rights - at an estimated cost of $US30 million! The not-so-subtle subliminal message of the campaign, which invites viewers and readers to "join Philip Morris and the National Archives in celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights": Americans have the right to smoke.

Controversy over the campaign led to an investiga­tion by the House Sub-Committee on Hazardous Mate­rials of the US Congress to determine whether the TV advertisements violated broadcasting laws prohibiting cigarette advertising, and to calls for Congress to nullify the NARA-Philip Morris agreement. NARA claimed it was merely encouraging the company to demonstrate its civic spirit. A spokesman for the Public Citizens' Health Research Group insisted that the agreement "smears the Bill of Rights with the blood of all Ameri­cans killed as a result of smoking Marlboro and other Philip Morris cigarettes".

Canterbury Museum Hands Back Archives

Public archives that had been deposited in the Can­terbury Museum since the late 1950s (by Ministerial edict, over the strenuous objections of Michael Standish then Chief Archivist) have finally been returned to the custody of National Archives. The Christchurch office has now accessioned the archives of the Canterbury Provincial Government, Canterbury Association, and material from the Lands & Survey Department in the region.

The proper location of these archives had been a matter of discussion between the Museum and Na­tional Archives for some years. In 1986 the Museum Trust Board vigorously rejected the idea that the ar­chives should be returned, and the disagreement re­ceived considerable publicity in the Christchurch news­papers (see for example: Christchurch Press 21 Nov 1986 'Museum Bristlesat Bid to Wrest Archives'; Christchurch Star 19 Dec 1986 'Museum Clings to Archives'). The transfer was made without publicity, and is believed to be a result of the financial difficulties faced by the Museum. It means that National Archives now holds

the major surviving groups of archives of all the provin­cial governments.

How Public Access Differs From FOI

Recent events in Victoria Australia, during which the Keeper of Public Records (=Director of the State Ar­chives) was summarily removed by the Minister, have led to unprecedented public interest there in the ar­chives and records policy of the State Government. We plan to publish a feature on the events, in the next issue of NZA when the dust may have cleared a bit more. The affair raises many questions about the proper role of a government archives institution, what its priorities should be, and the degree to which direct political intervention in public archives-keeping is inevitable, desirable and justifiable.

The access policy to public archives in Victoria has come under scrutiny (though not the main focus of attention in the affair), as it is governed in part by the State archives legislation, and partly by State freedom of information legislation, with the Government apearing to favour the latter as the prime means of access.

The following notes, from the Newsletter (v2 n3 29 March 1991) of the Public Records Support Group, point out some undesirable results of administering access to archives through FOI laws.

FOI confers a statutory right of access to government records. It differs [from archives legislation] however, in several significant ways. Thesedifferences in sum tell us why archives (public access) systems are to be pre­ferred to FOI for older records.

The applicant must specify which document(s) he wants. FOI systems assume knowledge of the existence of a document or of an intermediary to search the records to find documents on the topic nominated. Archives (public access) systems arrange for records to be "cleared" in bulk and in advance of any request. This allows the applicant personally to search through the records, using the finding aids provided for this pur­pose by the Archives.

This process of sifting and selection is an essential part of the research process. It is to be preferred as the method of access to archives for research.

Moreover, because all the work of selection and clearance is done after a request is received under FOI there can be long delays between request and release. Under the [ ] archives system, records are prepared in advance of any request. In a research project, the user's 'requests' are typically shaped by what is found; the user moves along a chain of documents from one refer­ence to another. The exact nature of the request cannot be specified at the outset. Direct access by the user to the records is an essential part of this process.

FOI requests are dealt with by agency staff from the resources of their own agency. While there is provision for 'transferring' a request, agency staff will not be familiar with the whole range of records available within government on any topic. This is especially so as records get older, when agency staff will become increasingly unfamiliar even with the ancient records of their own agency.

Over time, departments and agencies are abolished,

split up, and amalgamated. It becomes harder and harder for agency staff to identify and locate the current whereabouts of older records. This in itself eventually becomes a serious impediment to research. Under ar­chives public access systems, the records are all brought together in one place, guides and finding aids are produced to outline the administrative history of agen­cies and describe the records for easier location and retrieval.

Under FOI, users are charged for access. Research use of archives is frequently voluminous. The implica­tions are obvious.

M icroim aging H alf-Plate Negatives

If your archives contains half-plate negatives as a photographic format, you may wish to take advantage of a new service offered by Microdata Systems Ltd. They can copy the plates onto 35mm roll microfilm or aperture cards, so that the images can be accessed using standard readers and reader-printers. For more infor­mation, contact Mark Stone on tel (04) 859-474, fax (04) 859-341.

Archives Courses at Monash University, Melbourne

Applications for enrolment in the MA (Archives & Records) course and the Diploma in Archives & Records are invited. Admission to Part I of the MA is open to applicants with a Bachelors degree at a satisfactoiy level. Direct entry into Part II is open to holders of Graduate Diplomas in archives or records, or practi­tioners with a Bachelors degree and considerable pro­fessional experience. Admission to the Graduate Di­ploma is open to applicants with a Bachelors degree, there are also special entry provisions for those with no formal qualifications. The closing date is 1 November 1991 for the 1992 academic year, although late applica­tions will be considered if there are places available.

For an updated brochure and application form, con­tact: The Head, Graduate Dept of Librarianship, Ar­chives and Records, Monash University, Qayton, VIC 3168 Australia. Telephone enquiries to Frank Upward (03) 565-2949.

New Appraisal Strategy in Canada

[Since the end of WWII] the National Archives has been a key player in the disposal of government records. Simply put, government records could notbe destroyed or disposed of without central authority, and depart­ments and agencies were responsible for bringing for­ward proposals to dispose of records. Through the exercise of the authority, archival records were to be identified and protected by the National Archives. This approach has resulted in the acquisition by the Ar­chives of a great many important archival records. At the same time, the sheer quantity of records in modem government and the accompanying concern about fall­ing even further behind, as well as the fragility of the electronic record, have suggested the need for a change.

That is why the National Archives is developing an alternative strategy.

Archivists have often had to scramble to provide rationale for the retention or destruction of records as proposals were received from government departments. Henceforth, research efforts will be directed in a more holistic way, towards the identification of important records through study of the functions of institutions and the context in which their records are created. The first stage, to be completed in 1990, will result in a ranking in priority order of all institutions subject to the National Archives o f Canada Act. Important programs and records within institutions will be identified in further studies.

Government institutions have their own records pri­orities. Archives perspectives will need to be married, through discussion, with these priorities. Records dis­posal plans, agreed to by individual institutions and the National Archives, will be the result.

Harold Naugler & Eldon Frost The A rchivist (Nov/ Dec 1990)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Archi­vist

"The Circus archives were not accessible from the main entrance. They rambled back through a warren of dingy rooms and half landings at the back of the build­ing, more like one of the secondhand bookshops which proliferate round there, than the organised memory of a large department. They were reached by a dull door­way in the Charing Cross Road jammed between a picture-framer and an all-day cafe that was out of bounds to staff. A plate on the door read Town and Country Language School, Staff Only' and another 'C

and L Distribution Ltd'. To enter you pressed one or other bell and waited for Alwyn, an effeminate Marine who spoke only of weekends. Till Wednesday or so he spoke of the weekend past, after that he spoke of the weekend to come ...

Seeing Guillam standing at her desk, the archivist smiled. Quite often, when Brixton was dead, Guillam would spend a day here searching through old cases for one that would stand refiring. She was Sal, a plump, sporting girl who ran a youth club in Chiswick and was a judo black belt."

John Le Carre Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (London, Hodder & Stoughton 1974) Chapter 20.

The Editor is looking for more examples of archives and archivists in literature. If you have any favourites, please send him a copy.

Turnbull Library's 'Tapuhi' Project

The Alexander Tumbull Library has begun to imple­ment its first 'made to measure' computerisation project. The project has been named TAPUHI, a handy acronym for Turnbull's Automated Project for Unpublished Heritage Items. In Maori the word (meaning to nurse or nurture and care for) provides an apt description of the Library's role in preserving and protecting original historical material. The Library has about 5000m of archives and manuscripts in its collections, comprising nearly 5000 separate collections. These are being added to at the rate of about 300m and thirty collections, annually.

The system, when completed, will give access to information about the Library's holdings of archives and manuscripts, from time of initial contact with a

CommentElectronic records are supplement­

ing paper, and being created for wholly new functions, on an increas­ing scale by large and small organisa­tions alike. Even small organisations now have their own desktop comput­ers, and bureau services provide main­frame computing capacity and appli­cations to any organisation that can pay for them.

Appraisal which takes into account not only the informational content of the records, but also the design and structure of the information system itself, is essential.

The archival issues that emerge from the nature of electronic records seem to be having the effect of forcing archivists to reexamine approaches to appraisal in general. The 'systems' orientation that is appropriate for elec­

tronic records is also appropriate for paper records, but one is led to suspect, by its current rediscovery, that it has not in practice been the basis for appraisal of paper records.

Perhaps if archivists appraising paper records were made to wear blindfolds, and so were in the same relationship to the files as sighted archivists are to electronic records (unable to scan them at will, reliant on intervening parties/technology to provide the access), the importance of systems and functional analysis as a basis of appraisal for all records, would become more apparent.

potential donor, through all processes, up to the record of a fully arranged and described collection. There are three primary areas in which the TAPUHI system will improve collections management: (i) improved user access to the collections (through automated finding aids); (ii) improved stock control, and issue and return of items for researchers; and (iii) more rapid processing of collections from accession to final arrangement and description.

The new system will therefore be modular in nature, in the sense that it will be developed in sections to meet the requirements of the three functional areas referred to, and also in the sense that data about the collections will not all be available to researchers - for example 'staff only7 data about donors and the processing status of collections.

An advantage of computerised archives manage­ment systems is that they can be used (if correctly designed) to generate useful reports. For example the 'issuing7 module of TAPUHI will track the location of individual archive items whether on issue to readers, on exhibition, or in storage. It will be able to provide statistical reports on the pattern of research use being made of the collections. This will alert staff to changes in research trends, and to those parts of the collection that may need protection from overuse.

The whole TAPUHI system is scheduled to be in­stalled and running by late 1992. The first module, covering the issuing of archives and manuscript mate­rial, will be operational in mid 1991. Once it is well established in the Manuscripts and Archives Section, the intention is to extend the system into the pictorial collections (beginning with the photographic archives), and link it with an optical imaging system, giving access to copies of the pictures as well as to the docu­mentation about them.

The system is being developed using the General Automation development suite called AW AIRS. It re­sides on a GA 3000 minicomputer which has 1.3 gigabytes of disc storage. For more information about this, contact Kevin Bourke (Systems Specialist) at the Manuscripts & Archives Section, Alexander Turnbull Library, PO Box 12-349, Wellington Fax (04) 743-035).

Kevin Bourke

TransitionsRay Grover retired unexpectedly as Director of Na­

tional Archives on 4 July. An informal celebration was held to mark the event, at Archives House on 19 July. Ray joined National Archives as Director in late 1981, following service in the Turnbull and Auckland Teach­ers' Colleges Libraries. He presided over the first dec­ade of real growth in resourcing of National Archives since it was founded. During the 1980s the agency

emerged from the twin shadows of the Internal Affairs Department and the Turnbull Library, to take its proper place as the archives and records management leader for the public sector in New Zealand. Michael Hodder has been appointed Acting Director in the meantime. Ray will continue to work on contract to National Archives for another year, on aspects of the move to Archives House. Monica Sevil has joined the Welling­ton Maritime Museum as Museum Officer, which in­cludes some archives responsibilities. She was formerly at the Powerhouise Museum in Sydney. The new archi­vist at the Bank of New Zealand is Priscilla Hill, who comes with a background in library reference work, after the BNZ was unsuccessful in attracting an experi­enced archivist into the position. Her appointment is most welcome, because it means that both Westpac (see the previous issue of NZA) and the BNZ have now reappointed archivists after a tricky period last year, when it seemed that both these Archives could be closed down. Mark Stevens has moved from the State Archives of NSW to take charge of the Archives at the Council of the City of Sydney. At the New Zealand Film Archive, Te Aue Davis hasbeen appointed to the Board of Trustees for a two year term. She is a distinguished Maori scholar, recently completing a Maori oral history atlas He Korero Purakau Mo Nga Taunahanahatanga A Nga Tupurn as a 1990 project. Sarah Davy left the Film Archive in August to undertake the new MA degree in film archiving at the University of East Anglia in the UK, and Jane Paul is studying for the Archives Certifi- cateat the Wairarapa Polytechnic this year. HuiaKopua has joined as the new Secretary. At the Turnbull Li­brary, Lynn Benson has joined the Manuscripts & Archives Section, from the Broadcasting Reference Li­brary of TV New Zealand. Also new is Elizabeth Henry, who has come from a sub-editor's desk at The Listener to be the Editor of the National Register of Archives & Manuscripts.

About the ContributorsJoanna Newman is Corporate Archivist of Fletcher

Challenge Ltd. She is a leading member of the Auckland Chapter of ARM A. Peter Orlovich is Senior Lecturer in Archives Administration at the University of New South Wales, and an Honorary Member of the Australian Society of Archivists. Sheila Robinson is Senior Cura­tor of History and Archives at the Gisborne Museum & Arts Centre. She is Chair of the Regional Committee of the Historic Places Trust, and Convenor of the Gisborne/ East Coast Working Party, Dictionary of NZ Biography. Cheryl Simes is a former staff member of National Archives. She is now an archives consultant, specialis­ing in arrangement and description. Mark Stevens is the Archives Services Officer, at the Council of the City of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.

New Zealand Archivist (ISSN 0114-7676) is the quarterly journal of the New Zealand Society of Archivists Incorporated. It is published each year in: Autumn/March; Winter/June; Spring/September; and Summer/ December. The editor is Mark Stevens, whose authorship may be assumed for all items not otherwise credited. Copyright NZSA & contributors 1991. Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the NZSA. The editorial address is PO Box 136 Beaconsfield NSW 2014 Australia (Fax {2} 313-6680). All other correspondence to the Secretary NZSA, PO Box 27-057 Wellington New Zealand. Contributions for publication are invited. Deadlines for next issues are: 15 November 1991, and 14 February 1992. The journal is available through membership of the Society ($35.00 annually in NZ, $50.00 overseas) or separately by subscription ($40.00 in NZ, $50.00 overseas). Overseas airmail, add $10.00.