ALIA West
July 2005
Net notes: archives
The logical topic to follow April's subject of records management is archives. As followers of the records continuum will know, there is no hard divide between records and archives and that is reflected in the web sites. In keeping with this, the arrangement of this month's column is much the same as for April. Many of the web sites mentioned last time are also relevant to archives, as are the web sites discussed in February's net notes on preservation and conservation.
Associations
Australian Society of Archivists http://www.archivists.org.au/
New Zealand Society of Archivists http://www.archivists.org.nz/
Archives and Records Association of New Zealand http://www.aranz.org.nz/
Society of Archivists http://www.archives.org.uk/
Society of American Archivists http://www.archivists.org/
Academy of Certified Archivists http://www.certifiedarchivists.org/
Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities (CAARA) - formerly known as the Council of Federal, State and Territory Archives (COFSTA) http://www.cofsta.org.au/
National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators [USA] http://www.nagara.org/
Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers http://www.acarm.org
Pacific Regional Branch International Council on Archives (PARBICA)
http://www.archivenet.gov.au/archives/parbica/parbica_main.htm
International Council on Archives http://www.ica.org
Government agencies
See the list in net notes for April 2005.
E-mail lists
Aus-Archivists
Subscribe to the list or view the archives from
http://lists.archivists.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aus-archivists
ICA-L
Instructions on subscribing and unsubscribing are available at
http://www.ica.org/static.php?ptextid=listserv&plangue=eng
Archives list
Join or leave the archives list
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=archives&A=1
Archives of archives@listserv.muohio.edu.nospam (April 1993 onwards)
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
Publications
See the list of newsletters in net notes for April 2005. Other publications of interest include:
Preserving Australia's multicultural documentary heritage: a starter kit
http://www.nla.gov.au/multicultural/kit/
This kit contains fact sheets which are a very basic guide to archival practice. It includes some sample forms which are useful.
International Council on Archives
Electronic records: a workbook for archivists (ICA Study 16)
http://www.ica.org/biblio.php?pdocid=285
Managing archives: a procedure manual
http://www.irmt.org/download/DOCUME%7E1/EDUCAT%7E1/MPSR/maproman.pdf [299kb pdf]
A concise guide (89 pages) with lots of useful advice and some sample forms.
A manual for small archives
http://aabc.bc.ca/aabc/msa/
This was produced by the Archives Association of British Columbia in 1988 with some revisions in 1994. 'It is designed to help persons in small archives, with limited access to training, with few employees, with restricted finances and time.' (http://aabc.bc.ca/aabc/msa/0_preface.htm) That statement means it is designed for all small archives! Have you ever come across a small archives with sufficient staff, sufficient money and other resources? The usual caveats about references to legislation, supplier lists, and other information specific to the Canadian context not being relevant to Australia apply, however, most of the information is at a sufficiently general level to be helpful.
Directories and registers
Directory of archives in Australia
http://www.archivists.org.au/directory/asa_dir.htm
Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM)
http://www.nla.gov.au/raam/
New Zealand National Register of Archives and Manuscripts / Te R_rangi P_ranga, Tuhinga Ake o te Motu (NRAM)
http://www.nram.org.nz/
Archives on the web
NB: This covers Australian archives only.
http://www.archivists.org.au/directory/asa_urls.htm
National union catalog of manuscript collections
http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/nucmc.html
This is an American site as you may have realised by the spelling but its coverage is worldwide as it has a useful set of links to archives and repositories in other countries plus some subject based links at
http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
European archival network
http://www.european-archival.net/
Software
Tabularium
http://tabularium.records.nsw.gov.au/
Tabularium is a 'collection management system for archives' (http://tabularium.records.nsw.gov.au/whatis.html) which is freeware. It does require Access (Access 2000 or a later version if running Tabularium version 2).
Other sites of interest
The fictional world of archives, art galleries and museums
http://www.victoria.tc.ca/~mattison/ficarch/index.htm
It's not only librarians who are a bit concerned about their image - this site lists representations of archives and archivists in novels, films, games and other forms of popular culture.
Ready, 'net, go! Archival internet resources
http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/ArchivesResources.html
Archive builders
http://www.archivebuilders.com/whitepapers/index.html
UNESCO archives portal
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5761&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
JISC electronic records management training package
http://195.10.246.65/intro_0.asp
I did not discover this in time for April's column where it would be more appropriate. As its name suggests, this is an online training package on records management, and it is aimed at the higher education sector in the UK. Some of the references to legislation aren't relevant in the Australian context but there is good general content on e-mail, organising records, preservation, and other topics.
Local history and small archives
This is a guide by the State Library of Queensland to some useful material for small archives. It is international in scope.
http://fhr.slq.qld.gov.au/lhsa/
Camille Peters
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