Social Science and Related Professionals
Research and study human behaviour, society, heritage and institutions from current and historical perspectives, and plan and organise gallery and museum collections.
A week in the council archive
You are the archivist at a regional council, looking after the old records of the town: registers, maps, letters and plans. It is Monday morning and the archive is quiet, which will not last. A box has arrived, a department wants space back, and a researcher is waiting at the door.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I have found the 1890s rate register I have been after for months. It is falling apart, but I only need a quick photo of one page. Can I use the flash and press it flat? It will take a second.
Let her do it quickly, since she has waited months and it is only one page
The page is photographed, but pressing it flat cracks the spine a little further. A record that cannot be replaced is now less likely to last for the next person.
Explain why, then photograph the page yourself using a cradle and soft light
Gwen gets her photo within minutes and the register is barely touched. She understands why you were careful, and tells other researchers. Protecting the record and helping people use it can go together.
Say the register is too fragile to handle and ask her to wait for a digital copy
The register is safe, but the digital copy is months away and Gwen leaves disappointed. Caring for records matters most when it still lets people reach what is inside them.
We are clearing the old depot store. There are dozens of boxes of old job files and drawings taking up room we need. I would like them gone by Friday, so can I just get the shredding bin booked?
Book the bin, since the department owns the files and decides what it needs
The boxes vanish by Friday. Months later someone asks about the original drainage plans for the old swimming pool, and they no longer exist anywhere.
Ask for a few days to look through the boxes, and agree a list of what can go
Mr Vass grumbles but agrees. You find material that must be kept, but the checking takes you most of the week, and a better system for future clear-outs would have saved time.
Offer to sort the boxes with his team against the retention rules, and keep a record of what is destroyed
Together you find the drawings that have to stay, and clear most of the space on time. Mr Vass starts calling you before he clears anything. Keeping records is partly about knowing what to let go.
Mum wrote to half the town for forty years. I want these in the archive and open for anyone. Some letters mention people who are still alive, but I am sure nobody would mind. Is that all right?
Thank her and put everything on the open shelves straight away so researchers can start using it
The letters are available at once and Mrs Daniels is delighted. A reader later finds a private family matter about a person still living, who is upset, and you have to withdraw items in a hurry.
Accept the box, then review it for privacy and agree access conditions with her
Mrs Daniels is happy her mother's letters are safe. Some stay closed for now, and she signs an agreement that opens them later. An archive protects the past and the living people who appear in it.
Decline the donation, because the letters could cause trouble for people who are still alive
Nothing goes wrong, but a whole record of the town is lost, or goes to a skip. Handling a hard donation carefully is the job, and refusing it avoids the job.
How it went
By Friday the register is safe, the depot boxes are sorted and the letters are in the archive with rules attached. Archive work is patient and detailed, with a lot of judgement about who may see what and what to keep. Would you enjoy being the person who decides what the future gets to know?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The scarred tree at the edge of the paddock
A fictional case set in a council archive and a small heritage consultancy in a regional town.
The situation
Wattlebird Heritage was hired to assess a paddock on the edge of Kerrabee before a developer built houses there. Priya, the consultant, had a tight timetable written into the contract. During the site walk with representatives of the local Traditional Owner group, Aunty Joan pointed to an old red gum with an odd scar in its trunk and said it deserved a closer look. The project manager checked his watch and asked whether the tree could simply be noted in the report so the survey could be signed off on Friday.
What they did
Priya said the tree needed proper recording before anything else was decided. She asked the Traditional Owner group how they wanted it documented and who should speak for it, and only photographed and mapped it in the way they agreed. She explained to the project manager that a rushed report could be challenged and could cost him far more time later. Then she wrote to the developer suggesting changes to the layout so the tree and the ground around it could stay.
How it turned out
The developer redrew two streets and the tree stayed, with a fence and a sign written with the Traditional Owner group. The timetable slipped by a few weeks and the project manager was not pleased. He still asked for Priya on his next project.
What would you do?
- How would you handle a client who is watching the clock while you are listening to someone?
- Why might it matter who decides how a cultural site is recorded?
- What would you want to know about a place before you wrote a report on it?