GROUP ASSIGMENT 1 :

ONLINE VISIT TO THE

NATIONAL ARCHIVE
OF AUSTRALIA (NAA)
GROUP MEMBERS :
1.
2.
3.
4.
INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION OF ARCHIVE :

An archive is an accumulation of historical records – in any media –

or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain
primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of
an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the
function of that person or organization.
THE PROJECT : ONLINE VISIT TO THE
NATIONAL ARCHIVE OF AUSTRALIA
 We have chosen The National Archive of Australia as our project scope. In this section, we
will talk about a brief history of this repository and how to access its via online.
 WHAT IS NAA = The National Archives of Australia is an Australian Government agency that
collects, preserves and encourages access to important Australian Government records. It
describes itself as the memory of the nation. The Archives' collection of 40 million items
traces events and decisions that have shaped the nation and the lives of Australians.
 BRIEF HISTORY
During World War II, historian CEW Bean saw that early World War I records were missing. Along with other historians, he asked
the Australian Government to preserve war records so people would remember the stories and events that have shaped Australia.
Bean chaired the War Archives Committee, which created the country's first guidelines for preserving and disposing of war records.
In 1944, Ian Maclean became Australia's first Archives Officer. He set standards for handling government records, but realised he
needed to show public servants why preserving them mattered. This proved to be a challenge as government agencies were being
cut and reshaped in the post-war era. In the 1950s, the National Library held all records, which were housed around Australia to
cope with storage demand. The team expanded and ran training programs for government staff who managed records. When the
team took over the War Memorial's archives, they became the authority for record keeping in Australia. Later, historians made the
case that archives should not be housed in a library. In 1961, when the National Library Act came into force, they gained
independence. The Commonwealth Archives Office was born. Later, it would be renamed as The National Archives of Australia, to
reflect the full scope of their work. In the early days, historians and even our staff were unable to access the records. The
Commonwealth Archives Committee put the case to the Australian Government that the archives were not just records; they were
valuable cultural resources. The Australian Government soon saw that better storage and formal guidelines were needed to give
better access to staff and researchers. While the first purpose-built repository opened in Sydney in 1972, the plan to open a National
Archives building in Canberra stalled. Storing records was costly and budgets were tight. When a 1976 flood at Lake Burley Griffin
nearly wiped out the bulk of the archives, historians demanded action. In 1981, the first National Archives building opened in
Mitchell. Over time, this repository have opened up access to the archives. When the National Archives of Australia first gave
limited access to the records, only a select few had access and only to records from 50 years before. In time, the limit on access was
reduced to 30 years and now, peoples can access many of this records from 20 years ago, with more records becoming available
every week. In 1983, the National Archives Act opened the door for anyone to request access to the National Archives of Australia's
records.
AN ACTUAL ONLINE VISIT TO THE NATIONAL
ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA

The Interface of the National Archive of In the explore page, this online repository allow users
Australia website. to search for collection.

This page is for the contemporary Since COVID19 pandemic, The National Archives of Australia are
operate via online. Hence, we can visit this repository through online
conversations and trending topics matter.
LIST OF ACTIVITIES

In this section of our report, we would like to talk about the how the National Archives of
Australia operate. For this purpose, we have asked for their information management to access
this repository’s activities.
ACQUISITION AND
COLLECTION
Archives acquire historical material through the action of law or through internal institutional
regulation or policy. "Manuscript repositories" are archival institutions primarily responsible for personal
papers, artificial collections, and records of other organizations. Hence, acquisition of archives is the process
of identifying and acquiring, by donation or purchase, historical materials from sources outside the archival
institution. The Australian Government creates and receives vast amounts of information every year in
conducting its business. Digital technologies and business processes, while improving government efficiency,
have contributed to rapidly increasing volumes of digital information being produced and stored by the
Australian Government. The National Archives is responsible for selecting and preserving the most valuable
information of the Australian Government and facilitating its use by the public, regardless of format or
technology dependency; and promoting good information and records management by Australian Government
agencies. The Archives Act 1983 provides the authority for the National Archives to select and retain
Australian Government information of permanent value. The National Archives also authorises the destruction
of information that is not required to be kept permanently. The National Archives only keeps Australian
Government information that is identified as being of permanent (or continuing) value. That is, information
of national significance or public interest that will continue to have value to the Australian Government and
the community for generations to come. The material that are selected for permanent retention is known as
'national archives'.
APPRAISAL AND DISPOSAL
In an archival context, appraisal is the process of determining whether records and
other materials have permanent (archival) value. Appraisal may be done at the collection,
creator, series, file, or item level. Appraisal can take place prior to donation and prior to physical
transfer, at or after accessioning. The basis of appraisal decisions may include a number of
factors, including the records' provenance and content, their authenticity and reliability, their
order and completeness, their condition and costs to preserve them, and their intrinsic value.
Appraisal often takes place within a larger institutional collecting policy and mission statement.
The use of significance is important in determining the selection of records in this the National
Archives of Australia. Significance refers to the value or importance of the information. The
National Archives assess the significance of functions, programs, issues and associated
decisions and actions as to how critical, important or memorable they are, or were, in relation to
the administration of the Australian Government. The institution also consider their actual or
potential impact on Australian and world affairs. We select to preserve necessary evidence of
Australian Government activity and other purposes including meeting research and community
needs.
ACCESSIONING
 Accessioning refers to the process of transferring records to the custody of an archival repository. Once
potential donors have made a decision to place materials in a repository, the archivists must complete the
legal and physical transfer of the records.
 The accessioning process in the National Archives of Australia consist of the identification and
registration of series, where possible, is done before or at the time of transfer. This allows for the
processing of new transfers as serialised accessions. In some urgent, difficult or unimportant cases,
however, control numbers may be allocated to accumulations of records that comprise several series
according to the CRS System definition, to facilitate accessioning and to meet physical control
imperatives. These are known as unserialised accessions and can be identified accordingly. Records are
considered to have been accessioned when they are formally received into the Archives' custody as part of
an approved transfer and located in the repository. Where archival value records to which the public have
a right of access remain in the custody of agencies, they are registered and controlled under the CRS
System, but are not accessioned into Archives' custody. Each series may be subdivided into several
transfer jobs or consignments for control purposes. At least one transfer job or consignment for each
series is required if items are controlled in custody. Records that document a records transfer are prepared
when accessioning some or all of a series being transferred to the archives custody, or when changes are
required to facilitate the management of records already in custody. While their primary purpose is to
facilitate physical control and management, accession records help to document the transfer history and
content of the records in the transfer job or consignment.
ARRANGEMENT AND
DESCRIPTION
 Archives are already arranged supposedly. That is to say, an arrangement was given them by the agency of
origin while it built them up day after day, year after year, as a systematic record of its activities and as part
of its operations. This arrangement the archivist is expected to respect and maintain. Arrangement is built
into archives; it is one of the inherent characteristics of "archives," differentiating them from nonarchival
material. Theoretically in the archives of an agency of government, or of any organization and therefore in
the archival depository that has custody of such archives each document has its place, a natural place, so
that its association and relation with all other documents produced or received by the creating agency
remain clear. The archivist preserves and uses the arrangement given the records by the agency of origin on
the theory that this arrangement had logic and meaning to the agency and that if the agency's employees
could find and use the records when they were active, in connection with the multitudinous daily
transactions of the agency, the archivist surely can do the same, using the contemporary registers, indexes,
and other finding aids that came with the records as part of them. Thus artificial finding aids that the
archival establishment must create are reduced to a minimum. The filing system used by the agency may
not have been the best that could have been devised to start with, or it may not have been effectively carried
out. It may even have broken down badly because of inefficient filing, sudden expansion or shifting of
programs without adequate assistance in the file room, or for other reasons. Still, no major archival
establishment will ever be given money to revise filing systems.
PRESERVATION AND STORAGE
The preservation activities of the National Archives of Australia include, preserving digital information,
preserving paper files, preserving photographs, preserving cds and dvds, preserving maps and plans,
preserving magnetic media, preserving microforms, preserving motion picture film, preserving electrostatic
copies (photocopies and laser prints), preserving gramophone discs, preserving objects, integrated pest
management, recovering fire-damaged records and recovering flood-damaged records. Storage is the first and
best means of defense in safely preserving archival holdings. Choices made in storage type and methodology
have the greatest influence on the long-term preservation of records. For the National Archives of Australia,
digital information a range of sophisticated technologies can be used. Electronic storage can save space and
costs, but digital information may be more susceptible to inappropriate access. Storing digital information
introduces the options for electronic storage. Cloud computing and information management explains the
information management issues associated with cloud computing and lists contractual requirements for
business information in the cloud. Outsourcing digital data storage provides information on storing
Commonwealth records in data centres, digital repositories and the cloud. Physical information can be
effectively stored by keeping it in vaults and warehouses with appropriate access, temperature and humidity
controls. Preserving information provides specific information on how to store and preserve records in
various physical formats. The National Archives charges for the storage of temporary or unevaluated records.
ACCESS AND REFERENCE
SERVICE
Access is the availability of records for consultation as a result both of legal authorization and
the existence of finding aids. These standards cover finding aids, one of the two key elements of
archival access; they have transformed the practice of description. In the National Archives of
Australia, the Archives Act 1983 governs access to Commonwealth archival records. Under the
Act we can access most Commonwealth records in the open access period. The time before a
record enters the open access period is currently transitioning from 30 years to 20 years. The
time for Cabinet notebooks is transitioning from 50 years to 30 years. The 99-year access rule
for Census records remains unchanged. Some personal information may require exemption for
at least the lifetime of the individual. This can include medical histories, or details of personal
relationships. A record may be withheld if its disclosure could adversely affect Australia's
defence, security or international relations. This could include details of the design and
construction of weapons, or records about intelligence-gathering, or information passed to the
Australian Government in confidence by a foreign government.
Reference Services refers to the facilities and services the archive provides once access to the
material is approved. Enabling use involves helping researchers find and select material,
providing effective delivery systems for commercial and public access and may include quality
restoration where needed. Reference involves a meeting of minds: people who have questions
come together with people who can guide them to sources for answers. And, don’t forget,
everyone using the archives benefits from the minds of the past who speak to us through the
records they have left behind. Staff who provide reference services in an archives can include
archivists themselves as well as reference clerks, archives assistants, or reception staff.
Reference also involves technical specialists who digitize analogue records or convert electronic
records into special access copies. Researchers who use references services come from all walks
of life, from students to seniors and from archeologists to artists. Inquirers may be writing book-
length studies or they may be casually exploring a single historical fact. Of course the user
group of a particular archives is partly determined by what the archives collects. So why are
reference services needed in the first place? There are two major reasons. One is to help archives
users match their research inquiries with potentially useful archival material. The other is to
mediate access to the records themselves. In the National Archives of Australia, researcher are
provided basic reference work for free and aim to respond to any question within 30 business
days. Users via online can also visit frequently asked question on the reference service page.
Archival outreach programs serve a key role in the HERE ARE SOME OF
preservation and promotion of public history. Community THE OUTREACH
ACTIVITIES PROVIDED
based educational programs sponsored and implemented by BY THE NATIONAL
archival repositories allow actual, as well as potential, ARCHIVES OF
patrons to learn about their local history and to familiarize AUSTRALIA SINCE
COVID19 :
themselves with archival materials. The National Archives of
Australia have a few outreach activities. For example, the
National Archives has a free Virtual Reading Room for
schools. It has classroom resources, primary resources
arranged by curriculum topic, and more. Since this pandemic
have swept the world, most of the outreach activities are only
available online
CONCLUSION
The terms that are used in records management and archives are essential, particularly
documents, knowledge, records, and information. Briefly stated, knowledge is identified as that
which a person knows (through accumulated experience); information is that part of a person’s
knowledge that can be communicated (via various channels); information can be stored in a
document, which is like an information container. The content of a record, or the information it
contains, can have a strategic and competitive value, thus becoming the object of interest for
strategic information managers and competitive intelligence professionals.
The National Archives of Australia may best be described as the memory of Australian
nation – collecting and preserving Australian Government records that reflect our history and
identity. As well as preserving Australian history, the National Archives plays a key role in
helping to ensure the Australian Government and its departments are effective and accountable
to the people.