Output group 2

Output 2.1 – A collection reviewed to current appraisal standards

At 1 July 2000, the National Archives held 416 633 shelf metres of records. To meet the rate set by the performance indicator it would have been necessary to review 83 326 metres of records in the period July 2000 to June 2001. In fact, 37 321 metres, or 9 per cent, were reviewed in that period. It would have been possible to meet the target by reviewing major groups of records that would clearly justify retention as national archives. It was considered more productive, however, to focus review work on records most likely to contain material which could be disposed of, particularly in offices where repositories are being vacated.

Of the 37 321 shelf metres of records reviewed in the reporting year, 7 546 metres were identified as justifying retention as national archives; 5 962 metres were identified as being of temporary value but not yet due for disposal; 3 597 metres were identified for immediate disposal; and 20 192 metres were identified as requiring detailed item-level review (resentencing).

Since the commencement of the collection review project in May 1999, 76 337 metres of records have been identified as requiring detailed item-level review. Of this total, 37 231 metres have been identified as requiring detailed review by Archives staff and the remainder by the agencies responsible for the functions that they document. Work on item-level review by both Archives and agency staff is in progress, but it is not possible to give an exact figure for the volume of records for which detailed review has now been completed.

In future years it may be more realistic for review and resentencing to be regarded as separate tasks subject to separate performance criteria. While the Archives is responsible for the review of records, resentencing depends on the agency responsible for the records allocating sufficient resources to enable both the completion of relevant records disposal authorities and the resentencing of records against those authorities.

In conjunction with the relocation of the Adelaide repository, 915 metres of personal records holdings were reviewed. These records had been deposited with the Archives by current and former Ministers, Members of Parliament and senior public servants. Depositors were approached to authorise the disposal of temporary value records such as electorate correspondence and publications, and the transfer of valuable Commonwealth and personal records to Canberra.

Output 2.2 – An organised and known collection

The project officer responsible for this work commenced in November 2000, which was later than planned. The quality control standards will now be completed by December 2001. Two strategies are being considered to help users find information from the collection more easily. These are the improvement of the description of records, especially where they cover a range of subjects known to be of interest to researchers, and the enhancement of the structure of search terms available for retrieval of information. More efficient ways of carrying out all processes, such as description, preservation and access examination, that contribute to the accessibility of records and the information they contain, are also being developed.

Output 2.3 – Public information

The next omnibus survey of national general public awareness of the Archives is planned for September to October 2001. The Archives carries out surveys every three years.

Anecdotal feedback indicates that advertising, marketing and recent media exposure have enhanced the level of public awareness of, and satisfaction with, the role of the National Archives both in Canberra and nationally. Our yearly Canberra visitors’ survey, conducted in May, shows that a high proportion of visitors were attracted to the Archives as a result of our marketing and promotional strategies. Sixty-two per cent of our visitors were first-time visitors, a reduction from the 70 per cent recorded in the previous year. This finding supports our general impression that we are building a core group of supporters who visit regularly.

Advertising and marketing of the new Federation Gallery, the Wine! exhibition and Robyn Archer’s mini-exhibition, Unexpected Archives, has continued to draw new visitors to the galleries. Other Canberra events promoted were Where to Now, Australia? speakers forums, the Family History Fair in April, and the Archives Open Day in May.

Media exposure increased markedly in 2001 due to national stories about the relocation of State offices and downsizing the collection, and a good deal of attention has been directed to assisting the media to present a balanced view. A revival of interest in records about the possible exposure of personnel during atomic testing at Maralinga has also led to greater than usual media interest in the Archives. Television, radio and print stories about our exhibitions, collection, products and services continue to reach a broad cross-section of the Australian community.

Output 2.4 – Reference services and tools

The Archives undertook a comprehensive national survey of reading-room users from January 1998 to July 2000. Ninety-four per cent of respondents were completely satisfied with the level of assistance provided, and rated the knowledge of staff and reference tools as the most useful features of the reference service. Informal feedback from researchers during 2000–01 indicates that researchers continue to value the reference services provided by the Archives.

Usage of the collection increased in 2000–01. During the year over 25 000 people visited our reading rooms to access the collection. Nearly 50 000 further inquiries were received from people who sought information about or access to the collection but did not visit. More than 110 000 records were viewed in reading rooms or consulted by Archives staff in response to inquiries from members of the public or government agencies.

Research inquiries

The Archives responded to 96.7 per cent of reference inquiries within thirty days, just short of the 98 per cent standard of service. We released 83 per cent of records within thirty days and a further 11 per cent within ninety days (the statutory maximum period for release of records is ninety days). Six per cent of records requested were not made available within the statutory ninety days. Long response times generally resulted when records were referred to agencies or foreign governments for advice or where the record sought was not in the custody of the Archives.

All researchers, including those with special needs such as a physical disability or special language needs, are welcome to visit our reading rooms and are encouraged to let us know in advance of their visit so that we can confirm we hold the records they are seeking and attempt to have them ready when they arrive. We also welcome email, written or phone (including TTY) inquiries and undertake to respond to these within thirty days.

Our standards of service are described in our Service Charter, which will be reviewed in 2001–02. The Charter also outlines the mechanisms that are available if people have a complaint about or problem with our services.

Research aids

Customer feedback, sales figures and the number of hits on our online guides indicate that researchers value our research guides.

The research guide Collections in Perth: A Guide to Commonwealth Government Records was launched in September by noted Western Australian historian Professor Geoffrey Bolton at the Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry in Perth. The guide covers an array of subjects from child migration to the administration of Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and includes unique Western Australian records held in the Archives’ Perth office, such as incoming passenger lists for the port of Fremantle.

Two further guides, Working for the Dole: Commonwealth Relief during the Great Depression by Don Fraser and Near Neighbours: Records on Australia’s Relations with Indonesia by Karl Metcalf, were also published and have been well received. The Boer War guide, first published in 1999, has been updated and reprinted as it continues to sell well.

Eleven new Fact Sheets were issued during the year and 53 existing Fact Sheets were revised and reissued. New Fact Sheets issued in 2000–01 are listed in Appendix H.

During 2000–01, two new subject areas, ‘Foreign relations’ and ‘Federation’, were added to ‘The collection’ pages of the Archives website, and a number of other areas including ‘Service records’, ‘Cabinet’ and ‘Family history’ were restructured and updated. Significant numbers of people continue to visit ‘The collection’ pages and use our online reference tools, including the RecordSearch and PhotoSearch databases. Digital copies of collection material commenced being loaded onto our website at the request of the public from April 2001 and this service has proved very popular.

The Archives has produced ‘text-only’ versions of two of its websites, Archives of Australia and Documenting a Democracy, and is currently developing a text-only version of the corporate website to facilitate access by sight-impaired visitors using special browsers.

Output 2.5 – Publications

Informal feedback from customers and the level of interest shown in our publications through inquiries and sales indicate that a high proportion of consumers rate our publications as satisfactory. The mailing list for our free newsletter, Memento, continues to grow and unsolicited positive comments are received regularly. Strong interest has been shown in the online version of Memento introduced this year.

In November 2000, Sir Richard Kingsland, former head of the Department of the Interior, launched the publication Developing Images: Mildenhall’s Photographs of Early Canberra. The book features over ninety black and white images of Canberra captured by government photographer Jack Mildenhall in the 1920s and ’30s, and includes an introductory essay by historian Mary Hutchison, who also selected and captioned the images. In the first month of publication over 500 copies were sold.

The booklet to accompany the Federation Gallery, Charters of Our Nation, was distributed to all those attending the launch of the gallery and has been selling steadily since then.

Each month there has been an average of over 75 000 unique visits to the National Archives website at www.naa.gov.au, representing a 50 per cent increase since last year. The lower increase this year in visitor numbers is attributed to technical problems affecting website availability, both local and worldwide, and the need to take RecordSearch off-line overnight for backups. In addition to these visits, there were 363 097 individual search sessions on the RecordSearch database on our website during the year.

From September 2000, website visits were boosted by the inclusion of our photographic database, PhotoSearch, in the PictureAustralia website maintained by the National Library. This website offers a single point of access to some of Australia’s largest pictorial collections. In the first month of operation, almost 100 000 visitors accessed PhotoSearch on our website via PictureAustralia.

The Documenting a Democracy website had 144 584 visits and the Archives of Australia website had 74 791 visits.

Output 2.6 – Exhibitions

Informal feedback has been very positive for each exhibition during this period. Results from our annual visitors’ survey show that 89 per cent of visitors felt their expectations were either met or exceeded after visiting our exhibitions in Canberra (1.5 per cent were not satisfied, and 9.5 per cent did not answer the question). Many visitors have recorded comments in the temporary exhibitions visitors’ books, which are largely enthusiastic and very favourable. Of the 890 visitors who signed the Between Two Worlds visitors’ book, over 98 per cent wrote very positive comments, 1.3 per cent did not write a comment and 0.3 per cent were negative. Of the 515 visitors who signed the Ilan Pasin visitors’ book, approximately 97 per cent were very positive in tone and 3 per cent were negative. In the Wine! visitors’ book, 274 comments had been entered by 30 June 2001. Of these, approximately 94 per cent were positive, 2 per cent had both positive and negative points in the same entry and 4 per cent were negative.

Media reviews have generally been very positive, and associated publications and promotional materials have been well received.

The National Archives exhibition Between Two Worlds: The Commonwealth Government and the Removal of Aboriginal Children of Part-descent in the Northern Territory was displayed in the Canberra gallery from May to October 2000 and in Darwin from February to May 2001. Many visitors expressed a powerful response to the exhibition as they came to appreciate the impact that government policy has had and continues to make on people’s lives. For many, the exhibition provided the avenue through which they could better understand the current debates and issues surrounding the Stolen Generation. Many visitors expressed sorrow – this was particularly evident in the visitors’ book. The exhibition brought to life, in a stimulating and engaging way, the records in the custody of the Archives. The presentation of documents, oral histories and photographs within the context of the exhibition environment contributed to an increased public awareness of the existence and significance of the Archives and the opportunities to access the collection in its care.

Ilan Pasin, a well-attended touring exhibition from the Cairns Regional Gallery, was displayed in the Exhibitions Gallery from November 2000 to February 2001. The exhibition displayed many of the distinctive contemporary and traditional artistic and cultural traditions of the Torres Strait Islanders that have withstood the impact of colonialism, globalisation and change.

Ilan Pasin was followed by the very popular Wine! An Australian Social History, an Archives-curated exhibition focusing on the history of winemaking in Australia. The exhibition drew on the collections of the National Archives and the Noel Butlin Collection of the Australian National University, and featured Chateau Tahbilk, Yalumba, Tyrells and Houghtons wineries. Wine! opened in March 2001 and remained on display until July.

Charters of Our Nation, a new permanent exhibition, was opened by the Prime Minister, the Hon. John Howard, MP, in the new Federation Gallery in January 2001. The gallery features seven documents that are arguably the most important in Australia’s history: Queen Victoria’s Royal Commission of Assent 1900, the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, the Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor-General 1900, the Proclamation of Inauguration Day 1900, the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) 1967, and the Australia Act 1986. The gallery also features an innovative video installation, the Constitution Alphabet, which introduces various features of the Constitution and the Australian system of democracy.

Several semi-permanent exhibitions have been presented in the Treasures and Corridor Galleries. These are detailed in Appendix I.

* Total visitation to venue

Output 2.7 – Education programs and events

A total of 166 programs and events have been conducted in Canberra and around the country during the year, attracting 7 964 attendees. Informal feedback and attendance at these has been very positive. Some noteworthy examples of this are the participation of the local Torres Strait Islander community in two celebratory cultural events to coincide with the Ilan Pasin exhibition; the popularity of the Charters of Our Nation education program developed for the Federation Gallery; and the series of Summer Speakers and Where to Now, Australia? talks.

Staff from Archives State offices have travelled throughout regional Australia, often together with people from State libraries and State archives, talking to family and local history societies as well as the media. The Archives continued its program of talks for genealogy and community groups. These talks have enhanced the public’s understanding of the Archives and our collection.

Formal evaluation was conducted for two education products and three events during this period:

• Secondary school teachers were surveyed as part of the formal evaluation of the 1901 and All That kit. Eighty-three per cent said they had already used or were intending to use the kit. Eight per cent said they did not intend to use the kit, and the remaining 9 per cent were positive about the kit but had no immediate requirement to use it. Ninety-three per cent commented positively on the design, presentation and use of primary source documents in the kit.
• Teachers who brought school groups to participate in the education program for the Between Two Worlds exhibition were very positive about the program, and 100 per cent rated it as satisfactory.
• All the participants in the lecture series ‘War and Peace’ conducted by historian Michael McKernan also recorded a satisfactory rating, and many requested that the series be extended or repeated in the future.
• Ninety-one per cent of visitors during the combined National Archives of Australia, Old Parliament House and Australian Parliament House Open Day recorded a satisfactory rating or above.
• Eighty-nine per cent of visitors to the Family History Fair in Canberra said they would return to a similar event in the future. This indicates a high rate of satisfaction with the event. Many visitors added comments that they were very impressed with the information presented through talks and tours on the day.

Other issues

The Prime Ministers’ Papers Project

In May 2000, Cabinet approval was given for $1.6 million funding for the Archives over the next four years to promote and make more accessible the official and personal records of Australia’s Prime Ministers. Initial work for the $600 000 allocated for the first two years has involved research into the location, quantity and nature of Prime Ministerial papers held in Australian archives and libraries. Records of seventeen of the twenty-five Prime Ministers since Federation are held by the National Archives, with other significant collections being held by the National Library, State and university libraries, and Prime Ministerial libraries.

A major collaborative outcome of the project will be a portal website, giving access to information about Prime Ministers and their records and linking directly to digitised copies of documents held by a variety of institutions. Guides to the records of particular Prime Ministers will also be produced in hard-copy and online formats. Work is already proceeding on these outcomes as well as on improving the documentation of Prime Ministerial records held in the Archives’ custody.

The Prime Ministers’ Papers Project aims to make the papers of Prime Ministers more accessible through improved documentation, research guides and digitisation of records. In the first six months of the project, 35 series registrations relating to the records of Prime Ministers Bruce and Holt were improved.

Record releases

During 2000–01, the Archives held media briefings to mark the release of four groups of records.

East Timor

On 19 September 2000, more than 300 files, eighty photographs and fifteen tape recordings about East Timor were released for public access under the accelerated release provisions of the Archives Act 1983. The records date from Portugal’s decision to decolonise East Timor to President Suharto’s signing of the bill to integrate it with Indonesia. The deaths of five Australia-based journalists at Balibo in October 1975 occurred during this period.

At the 19 September 2000 media briefing, Professor Des Ball from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University and Roger Holdich, former Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and a member of the Editorial Board for the Foreign Policy Document Series, spoke to thirty journalists.

The accelerated release of the East Timor records was only the third group of records released under these provisions since the proclamation of the Act.

Annual Cabinet records release

In early December 2000, thirty journalists visited the Archives for the media briefing marking the release of the 1970 Cabinet records. Ian Hancock, historical consultant to the Archives, and Tom Hughes, AO, QC, Attorney-General in the Gorton Government in 1970, spoke about the events of thirty years ago, providing context to the records made publicly available on 1 January 2001.

Privileges Committee records

On 7 December 2000, the House of Representatives authorised the public release of all evidence or documents over thirty years old taken in camera or submitted on a confidential or restricted basis to the House of Representatives Standing Committee of Privileges. As a consequence, the Archives released thirty files that document seven cases investigated by the Committee between 1944 and 1965, including the Bankstown Observer case, on 1 January 2001. The records were made available to the media under embargo at a briefing on 22 December 2000.

Cabinet notebooks

The 1950 Cabinet notebooks recording discussions and decisions of the Federal Cabinet were released by the Archives on 1 January 2001. Because of their particular sensitivity, Cabinet notebooks are made available for public access after fifty years rather than the standard thirty years to which all other Commonwealth records are subject. The 1950 notebooks are the first Cabinet notebooks to be released.

At a media briefing on 12 February 2001, Australian National University historian Dr John Knott and former Cabinet Secretary Dr Michael Keating, AC, spoke to a dozen journalists.

The event was accompanied by the publication on our website of digitised copies of the notebooks, transcripts and contextual background.

Summer Scholarships Scheme

The Archives has introduced a Summer Scholarships Scheme for undergraduate, honours or graduate diploma students to enable them to undertake research at the Archives and to learn more about the organisation. Each year, two scholarships will be awarded. The first two scholarships were awarded in January–February 2001 to Peter Roberts of the Southern Cross University and Kate Fielding of the University of Melbourne.

Frederick Watson Fellowship

This year, seventeen applications were received for the Archives’ Frederick Watson Fellowship. The successful applicant will be announced in September 2001.

2001 Census

The Archives has been working with the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations to promote the census. This year’s census provides all Australians, if they choose, with the opportunity of having their name-identified census information kept by the Archives and made publicly available after 99 years.

Digitising records for improved accessibility

During the past year, the Archives instituted a project to test and evaluate possible directions for maximising use of the collection by providing public access to digitised images of collection items via the National Archives of Australia website. The study aimed to provide virtual access to our collection which, as far as possible, replicated the reading-room experience. To do this, speed and minimisation of cost for image capture and adequate legibility of the finished product were the essential criteria.

Various digitising methods, including overhead scanners, digital cameras, bookeye scanners and flatbed scanners, were tested during the project. Microfilm-to-digital conversions were also tested. The project report endorsed a continuing program of digitising high-use records in order to give remote users access to these records. A digitising model was recommended in which digital cameras are the primary means of image capture. Image manipulation, to the extent it is required at all, is minimal, and images are attached automatically to the Archives’ collection database, RecordSearch.

Digitisation-on-demand service

The Archives is committed to making its collection accessible to all Australians. A digitisation-on-demand service introduced in April 2001 enables researchers to request the loading of digital copies of records held in Canberra to the Archives website. There is no charge for this service, which is aimed to replicate the reading-room experience, ensuring distance and cost need not impede access to records in the collection. The service will be extended to records held outside Canberra in 2001–02.

Since the commencement of this service, the Archives has received 5 548 requests for digital copies and loaded 177 301 pages of collection material to our website. The service is a viable means of delivering faster, cheaper and a more equitable access to the collection for all Australians. The Archives aims to enhance and improve the service.

* This includes records viewed by the public in reading rooms and records consulted by Archives staff in response to inquiries from members of the public who did not visit one of the Archives’ reading rooms.

* An application for access is required when access is sought to records that have not previously been made publicly available.

* A figure was not calculated in 1998–99.

* This service began 11 April 2001.

* Including any record items outstanding from previous years.