ASA NSW BRANCH UPDATE
February 1998


ASA NSW BUSINESS MEETING

The next meeting of the Branch will he held on Wednesday the 18th February 1998 in the Jean Garling Room, enter via the Mitchell Library at 5.30 for 6pm. The guest speaker will be Emma Jolley who will be talking about recent developments at the Noel Butlin Archives centre.

Agenda - February 1997
  1. Apologies
  2. Confirmation of Minutes of the Previous Meeting
  3. Matters Arising from the Previous Meeting
  4. Reports
    (a)Secretary’s Report
    (b)Treasurers Report
  5. Other business

ALRC DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS PAPER 4

Please click above to view the Review of the Archives Act 1983
Submission of the ASA NSW Branch, February 1998

Movements at Sydney City Council Archives

 Ross Connell joined the Sydney City Council Archives recently, when Council decided to transfer the Local Studies Collection (and the Local Studies Librarian) from the Sydney City Library to the Archives. Ross is a qualified archivist so he was welcomed with open arms. (Ross is not the only archivist in disguise at Sydney City Council, Rachel Anderson, previously with the Archives Office of NSW and Westpac Archives, is the Freedom of Information Officer). The General Manager recently agreed to theArchives coming in from the cold at Beaconsfield to occupy part of thespace on Level 1 of Town Hall House at 456 Kent Street. We hope to sharing our space with the City Historian and the Jessie Street Women's Library.

Anne Picot

Anne will be leaving NSW to take up a temporary lectureship for 12 months at Monash University's new School of Information Management and Systems. The Branch wishes Anne all the best in this new and exciting venture and looks forward to seeing her return to NSW and the RTA next year.

NSW School Archives SIG Meeting

The first NSW School Archives SIG meeting for 1998 will take place at Sydney Grammar School, College St Sydney, on Tuesday 24 February. The meeting will commence in the 'Trustees Room' at 3.30pm.

Tabularium: a shareware control system for archives

A database for the control and management of archives, called 'Tabularium', has been released as shareware. Tabularium (the name is Latin for a record office or registry) is a Microsoft Access database, that is, a collection of tables, queries, on -screen forms and reports tied into a coherent system. Tabularium is not a standard software product: Microsoft Access is needed to run it. This makes it easier to customize and without the need for programming skills.

Tabularium is strongly based on the Australian series system, using the essential elements of ‘classic’ practice under that system. Tabularium adds 'functions' and 'activities' as elements of its intellectual control structure and produces a a range of finding aids reports. Tabularium supports the physical control of archives, including the accessioning process, location, lending and destruction of temporary records. It enables the user to register and enter the content of disposal authorities and link them to series, agencies and functions. Finally, Tabularium produces basic management statistics.

Tabularium is designed for small archives but has been successfully tested and used by larger archives operations. A simplified version, however, is also available, focusing on agencies, persons, series and accessions. The full version can be "switched on" at any time.

Tabularium is available as shareware: you can try it before you buy it and there is no obligation to pay a fee if you decide not to use it. You are welcome to pass copies to other people. Tabularium is not a commercial venture: the registration fee is $25, which covers distribution costs and helps fund tools for further work.

Tabularium will be available for downloading as shareware from the Internet, probably by the time you read this. As details for this are not yet firm, readers interested in obtaining a copy or more information should contact David Roberts by e-mail at davidandangela@Bigpond.com

by phone on (02) 9568 2601 (home number with answering machine)

or by post to

131 James Street
Leichhardt NSW 2040

 or fax details to (02) 9700 9047

Tabularium fax form

Archival Opera House tiles

The following was in the Sydney Morning Herald on 20 November 1997 under the heading "Utzon tiles to go as Opera House changes its skin". "The Sydney Opera House is to be given a new roof and all 8,500 tiles are to be replaced... the Minister for Public Works and Services, Mr Scully, said that while many of the tiles must be kept for archival and official purposes, the Government would explore the possibility of providing left-over chunks of Opera House tiles as souvenirs."They may need to build yet another wing out at Kingswood!

Archive boxes for sale

Archive Type 1 boxes are still available from Angela McGing for $1.50.See Committee Member list for contact details

Presentation on the National Records and Archives Competency Standards by Barbara Reed and Anne Picot, Wednesday 19 November 1997

Barbara and Anne gave an interesting and informative talk about the origin, implications and future of the Competency Standards. The National Records and Archives Competency Standards have recently been endorsed and it is timely to look at where they have come from and where we need to go from here.

Development of the standards took several years and was from the start a controversial project. One of the dangers lay in codifying the work of both archivists and records managers and seeking a shared view of records work. The resulting standards challenge the definitions of these separate professions by effectively integrating the skills and knowledge required by archivists and records managers into coherent recordkeeping competencies, in which circumstances or context differentiates the type of work carried out. The continuum approach to recordkeeping, promoted by the Australian Standard AS 4390, Records Management, was crucial in achieving this integration.

On top of this integration, the standards have managed to demarcate recordkeeping work from clerical, library and other related professional activity as well as establish the notion of everyone as a recordkeeper. The standards relate the skills and knowledge required of those who specialise and identify as recordkeeping professionals to common recordkeeping skills required across all industry areas. Ultimately, it was essential that we define recordkeeping work before someone else defined it for us.

The impact of the standards may be uncomfortable and the implementation may be difficult. They are likely to impact most where records and archives work is currently separated by organisational structures based on the records life cycle approach. For example, if the standards are suggesting that archivists and records managers are doing the same kind of work but in different contexts, then the question may be asked: what is the organisational value in retaining separate positions or separate units? Rates of pay and job status are just two of the areas which may be affected.

The future development and use of the competency standards is uncertain given the rapid changes happening in the education sector, such as the blurring of distinctions between tertiary and vocational education schemes. Registered training organisations will be the future deliverers and assessors of vocational training and these organisations can draw on any competency standards which have been endorsed.

To ensure that we retain control over the standards of training offered to our profession it is crucial that we develop the standards into training packages. When the project first started, competency standards themselves were the product, but now they are one component of industry training packages. As recordkeeping does not comfortably fit within the eighteen identified industry areas there is the added problem of finding a base from which we can do the necessary development of the training packages. Barbara and Anne left us with an urgent plea to establish and stand by a definition of ourselves as professional recordkeepers so that we don’t risk having others defining the way we perform our work.

Tony Leviston

National Records and Archives Competency Standards Workshop
20 November 1997

 The day after their presentation at the Branch meeting, Anne and Barbara led a workshop attended by twelve members which looked at the Standards in more detail.

(The following definition of competency standards is taken from the July 1997 draft). Competency standards describe what people do in the workplace at various levels and the standard to which they do it. They identify the characteristics possessed by individuals that enable them to be either assessed or judged competent in a particular task, and specify how these characteristics are to be applied and reflected in the workplace. They cover all aspects of work performance, including the particular skills and knowledge required to do the job and all the necessary safety, communication and attitudinal aspects of undertaking the job.

National Competency Standards for Records and Archives work identify the competencies required at different levels of employment and work within the Records and Archives industry throughout Australia. They identify the standard at which these tasks are carried out competently on a national basis. Achievement of these standards enables employees to move throughout Australia with skills at identified levels that are transferable and uniformly recognised.

The Standards apply to all types of recordkeeping environments, including current records, archives, collecting archives, and secondary storage environments. They also apply to small and large organisations.

The Standards are divided into five units of competency:
· Overall units, which affect all areas of the recordkeeping regime within an organisation, such as developing recordkeeping strategic plans and providing user education programs

· Designing, creating and using systems that keep records, which includes the design of finding aids and development of thesauri

· Creating records and capturing them into recordkeeping systems, which includes accessioning, arrangement and description, classification and filing

· Managing and maintaining records over time, which includes appraisal, compiling finding aids, and storage

· Making records accessible, which includes access clearances and restrictions, reference, research and information services.

Competency Standards range from levels one to eight. Level one describes work undertaken by an entry level worker at the lowest level of activity. The Committee managed to avoid having any recordkeeping competencies at level one. They were not allowed, however, to have any competencies at level eight, the highest level of activity within the working environment. (Apparently this is reserved for exalted beings such as heads of Government departments etc).

Level two, which is where these Standards begin, describes such things as the movement of bulk records, maintenance of record locations and simple sorting of records. Level seven, which is the highest level for the Records and Archives Competency Standards, has responsibilities over the entirety of the jurisdiction, where decisions made will impact on all streams of recordkeeping activity. Anne and Barbara likened this to the state-wide work on standards and policies being carried out by the NSW Records Management Office.

The workshop included an introduction to how the continuum model informs the Standards. The continuum approach to recordkeeping recognises that archivists are not just involved with records when they are no longer used for current business, but can become involved at the point of records creation (or even before). This is not to say that people will no longer specialise in certain areas, or that people working in the traditional archives areas will now need to become current records managers, and vice versa.

Following on from this, participants appraised the census forms using a functional appraisal approach. We also spent some time identifying the work that we do in the Standards. This sort of analysis makes you see what you do every day at work in a new light. For example, opening correspondence and classifying it, or bringing a van load of material into custody, is described as part of capturing a record into a recordkeeping system.

There was some discussion at the end of the workshop about the impact the Standards will have on university courses in recordkeeping. There are concerns that the Standards appear to be de-professionalising - that they downplay professional qualifications. The evidence guides, which define what is needed to carry out a particular aspect of work, do not mention tertiary qualifications. It is hard to argue these sorts of qualifications are essential when there are archivists working in the field without formal qualifications who are extremely competent. There was also some discussion about the pros and cons of an amalgamation of the ASA with the RMAA.

Anne and Barbara left us with the following questions:

What should entry-level recordkeeping practitioners have as competencies?

What qualifications should recordkeepers have?

Should we amalgamate the ASA and the Records Management Association of Australia?

What should a recordkeeping association look like?

Workshops

The NSW Branch Committee hopes to run a program of workshops for members in 1998 which is both relevant and interesting. To that end, we would appreciate your suggestions regarding workshop topics. We will be asking for ideas at the February meeting. If you are unable to attend, please feel free to contact one of the committee members.

Christmas Party

A great time was had by all at the Christmas Party. Thanks to everyone who made it such a terrific day!!



(The NSW Update is normally put together two weeks before the next NSW Branch meeting. If anyone would like something added to the newsletter, or an enclosure sent out with the mailout, please contact a member of the Committee prior to this date.)