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Getting in early: preserving archives from cradle to retirement

Introduction The state archives of New South Wales would no doubt be seen as an entirely public collection. However, while the information has been created by a public entity, the consumption of the information when it becomes an archive is often by individuals for very private reasons. NSW state archives are curious things. Mostly comprising paper documents, the archive also includes the standard anomalies such as film, sound and electronic records, as well as curiosities including models of torpedo protectors, souvenir bicentennial hats, and police exhibits including soup ladles (Figure 1). Collecting only the records produced by government, the State Records Authority of NSW (State Records NSW) might be expected to have boring old bits and pieces like sewerage diagrams, rail plans and minutes of interminable meetings. The opposite is actually the case, and only by ‘rifling’ through state archives do you really understand just how much involvement our governments have in the private lives of citizens. The content and focus of this paper is on the relationships between State Records NSW and agencies and how improving these relationships has, and will, continue to improve the preservation outcomes for the records and archives. The impetus for this paper came from feedback and discussions following a joint paper I presented with Kay Soderlund about the Bridge Street Plan Room project currently being undertaken by the NSW Department of Lands. The general gist of the comments and discussions can be distilled to the following question: how do you get NSW government agencies to agree to what you’re asking them to do? Until I was asked this question, I thought what we were doing was fairly mundane. Surely everyone was achieving similar outcomes in their respective jurisdictions? However, investigations with conservators in other jurisdictions have indicated that perhaps some of our approaches are unique. The approach we take is pragmatic, practical and proactive, backed by legislation that we can enforce where necessary. We actively encourage agencies to contact us about all issues relating to record management, archives and preservation. We try to be as practical in our responses as we can and find solutions that are achievable, rather than sticking with a rigid, idealistic position that may be unattainable. We also try to tailor our advice and assistance according to the individual needs of the agency—this includes the resources they have available to them, their track record and the types of records they create.