The State Archives and Records Authority of New South Wales (commonly known as State Archives and Records NSW) is the archives and

records management Records management, also known as records and information management, is an organizational function devoted to the information management, management of information in an organization throughout its records life-cycle, life cycle, from the time of ...

authority of the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

in Australia. It can trace its history back to the establishment of the office of Colonial Secretary and Registrar of the Records of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 1821.''Colonial Secretary Agency Details''
State Records New South Wales. Accessed 12 January 2008. However, in the early years of the Colony's history, little attention was paid to the management and preservation of non-current public records. This was mainly because the government of the day was fully focussed on the administration of the

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

system, law and order, immigration and land settlement. Documents which were not required for the day-to-day running of the government were usually neglected or were destroyed.

Background

It was not until the late nineteenth century, with the approach of the Centenary of the Colony, that an awareness of the value of public archives as fundamental sources for Australian history was recorded. This interest led to the appointment of an Archivist of New South Wales, and the publication of ''Historical Records of New South Wales''.Russell Doust, The Administration of Official Archives in New South Wales 1870 – 1980, M Lib thesis 1969 At the time the term 'archives' was used broadly to include manuscripts, pictorial material and maps from a wide range of private sources as well as to denote non-current official records.'The Archives Authority of New South Wales – The First twenty Five Years' in Archeion – The Newsletter of the State Archives, No. 5, June 1987, p.7 The Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales were active from about 1870 in the preservation of books and manuscripts relating to Australia, but it was the opening of the

Mitchell Library The Mitchell Library is a large public library and centre of the City Council public library system of Glasgow, Scotland. History The library, based in the Charing Cross district, was initially established in Ingram Street in 1877 following a ...

in 1910 that provided the first real stimulus to action in the area of public records. At the request of the acting Premier and the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, The Trustees of the Public Library prepared a report on the present and future dangers of the neglect of State records, which included recommendations on the establishment of an Archives Department in the Public Library Building. This proposal lapsed but during the period 1911–1918, some action was taken towards establishing an archives office. A number of instructions were issued by both the

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

and the Public Service Board, advising departments to transfer non-current records considered to be of historical value, to the

. On the authority of these instructions, the Trustees of the Public Library became in effect, the archival authority for the State, and much work was done in the Mitchell Library to collect and preserve NSW State archives. In November 1953 an Archives Department was established within the Public Library of New South Wales (subsequently

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

) by which time there was an estimated 2,300 metres of archives in the custody of the

. The Archives Department in the period following 1953 adapted and put into practice recognised archival principles and procedures, both in the management of State archives in the custody of the Trustees and in the management of the Government Records Repository, which was established in 1955. The management of the repository was overseen by the Public Service Board. The foundations for establishing a statutory authority to administer official archives in New South Wales had been well laid by the mid 1950s and preparatory work on Archives legislation began in 1955.

Archives Act 1960

In September 1960, the Archives Bill was approved by Cabinet. It was introduced into the Legislative Assembly in October and in November the ''Archives Act, No 46 of 1960'', received

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

. The Act was proclaimed to commence of the first day of June 1961.''Archives Management''
State Records New South Wales. Accessed 9 July 2008 A new era in the management of public records in New South Wales had begun. The Act stated that the "Archives Authority of New South Wales shall undertake the preservation, storage and arrangement, repair, cataloguing and calendaring, and have the custody and control, of the State archives and shall have the management of the Archives Office of New South Wales". The Archives Authority was also made responsible for the management of the New South Wales Government Records Repository and the Records Management Office of New South Wales.''Archives Authority Agency Details''
State Records New South Wales. Accessed 12 January 2008.

Archives Authority

The Archives Authority consisted of nine members, appointed by the Governor of New South Wales from the judiciary, legislature, universities and the New South Wales Public Service. The first Chairman of the Authority was Dr H.S. Wyndham CBE, MA, Ed D. Dip Ed and the Principal Archivist was Gordon D. Richardson. The work of the Authority mainly related to the examination of recommendations for the retention and disposal of public records.

Archives and Records Management Offices

The Archives Office was housed in extensions to the Public Library of New South Wales, which had been commenced in 1959 and included three floors specifically designed to accommodate the new office.''Public Library of New South Wales stage 1''
tate Records New South Wales. Accessed 9 July 2008 In 1976 the Archives Office became administratively separate from the Public Library of New South Wales and in late 1978 moved, with the Records Management Office to a new purpose built archives building at 2 Globe Street, The Rocks.

Challenges for the Archives Office of New South Wales

In the 1980s challenges facing the Archives Office were primarily related to the burgeoning interest in family history which reached a peak in 1988 and has never subsided. During this period there was a massive increase in the use of the archives and staff had to be reallocated to public areas to deal with the demand. The response to this almost overwhelming increase in the use of archival resources led to the establishment of a "Genealogical Research Kit" consisting of some of the more popular archives available to researchers. This was purchased by many libraries around NSW and reduced the demand on original documents.

Government Records Repository

In 1987 an extension to the Government Records Repository at Kingswood was completed. This included a public reading room, an exhibition area and conference facilities as well as specialised storage. At this time the reading room could accommodate up to fifty people and many of the key documents were available to users on microfilm, with the originals in storage at Globe Street, The Rocks.

Regional Repositories

Initially the concept of Regional Repositories started as an "archives on loan" scheme to place records which had been created in country areas, close to the originating community. The early 1980s saw a move to place archives at the University of New England, University of Newcastle,

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of ...

, Riverina Murray Institute of Higher Education (now

Charles Sturt University Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus public university located in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. Established in 1989, it was named in honour of Captain Charles Napier Sturt, a British explorer w ...

) and

Newcastle Region Library Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England * Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastl ...

. Archives were loaned to these institutions on the condition that they be properly looked after and made available to the local community for research. The regional repositories, with the addition of

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

have grown into an informal network of archives in New South Wales that by 2005 contained a total of 4% of the State's archival holdings.

State Records Act 1998

The most significant event in the 1990s for the management of archives and government records in New South Wales was the advent of the State Records Act in 1998. Not only did this mean a change of name for the organisation, but also meant a change of direction and additional responsibilities. For many years it had been realised by the Archives Office of NSW that the focus of the Archives Act 1960 was almost exclusively on archives, rather than on the full life cycle of government records from their inception to their archiving or destruction, the so-called records continuum. To address these issues the new legislation took into account the need for mandating the creation and capture of records, the creation of standards and guidelines, protection of records, recovery of archival "estrays" and public access to records over 30 years old. The span of control of the act also brought local councils, universities and area health services under the umbrella of State Records which added significantly to the workload of the organisation.''State Records Agency Details''
State Records New South Wales. Accessed 12 January 2008.

Access to archives

During the 1990s the Genealogical Research Kit which contained microfilm copies of popular key archival documents was expanded, renamed the Archives Resources Kit (ARK), and deposited at forty Community Access Points (CAPs), mainly public libraries, throughout New South Wales. This had the effect of reducing demand in the Reading Rooms at the Sydney and Western Sydney Records Centres. In addition to the Archives Resources Kit, work was going on behind the scenes to make more State archives available to external users electronically. In 2000 Archives Investigator was developed jointly by the State Records Authority of NSW and the Council of the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

. (The name refers to HMS ''Investigator'', in which

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

completed the first circumnavigation of Australia, 1801–1803, and mapped much of the coast for the first time.) This made a large number of archival series available online via the Internet. Work on Photo Investigator, a related database commenced in the early 2000s and by 2006 a considerable number of photographs from the archives were available to users online.''Archives in brief 99''
State Records New South Wales. Accessed 10 July 2008.

Expansion of Government Records Repository

2005 saw the opening of the Stage 6 Building at the Government Records Repository at Kingswood by The Hon

Bob Debus Robert John Debus (born 16 September 1943) is a former Australian politician who served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives and the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the Labor Party. Debus has been a minist ...

, Attorney General and Minister for the Arts. This building is equipped with geothermal air conditioning, high thermal mass insulation and an argon gas fire suppression system. In 2005 it was estimated that this building would fulfil the storage requirements of the NSW government for non-current records until 2011.

Archives in New South Wales Timeline

For information on archives in New South Wales see

Timeline of archives in New South Wales This article highlights the timeline of the establishment of the State Records Authority of New South Wales. 1821 Establishment of the position of Colonial Secretary and Registrar of the Records who is responsible for government administration in ...

Bibliography

* Archives Act 1960 * Archives Authority of New South Wales Annual Reports 1961–1997 * State Records Authority of New South Wales Annual Reports 1998 to 2005 * Michael Allen ed. Archeion (Archives Office of NSW) No 5 June 1987 pp 7–11 * Doust, Russell The Administration of Official Archives in New South Wales 1870–1980, M Lib thesis 1969 * Peter J. Tyler, State Records New South Wales 1788 to 2011. Annandale, NSW: Desert Pea Press, 2011

References

External links

Official site

State Records Act 1998
{{authority control Government agencies of New South Wales Archives in Australia