Census 2011

[Joanna Baker]

interesting article reporting on some research by ancestry.com.au

"Brad Argent, from Ancestry.com.au, said the survey found the age group with the largest proportion likely to say no to having papers preserved were those aged 18-34.

In that group, 68 per cent said the greatest barrier to agreeing to have their paper preserve was apprehension about having their personal details made public.

"It's ironic that Australia's Facebook and Twitter generation have no issues posting personal details about where they are and what they're doing online, but feel that leaving behind a record of themselves for future generations infringes on their privacy," Mr Argent said."

see the full article here http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8280560/say-yes-to-keep-history-researchers-urge

 

and are You saying Yes to question 60?

[David Bloomfield]

Bizarre indeed Joanna,

I've just posted that to my fb friends this morning for comment

[Joanna Baker]

You might be interested in the following IDM article which descibes the technical and volumentric details of mananging the census data (including the 28% uptake of eCensus).

How Australia captured Census 2011
11.08.11
With census forms flooding in to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Melbourne Data Processing Centre at the rate of up to three container loads a day, IDM spoke with the Executive Director Andrew Henderson to learn how the massive job of capturing and analysing Australia’s census data has evolved since the last census in 2006.http://idm.net.au/article/008734-how-australia-captured-census-2011

[Louise Trott]

There was a terrific programme on ABC Radio National Rear Vision this morning (3.8.11) about the history of the Census.

You can read the transcript and download the audio file.

There are several links to relevant websites.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/stories/2011/3279033.htm

Who Counts? A history of the census

Next week Australia holds its census, and so Rear Vision traces the recent history of this ancient institution, to make sense of who counts, and who does the counting.

While there have been systems of "enumeration" in place since the Romans, Egyptians and Chinese wanted to keep track of populations and landowners, fighting forces and minorities - the Australian system owes its origins to both English naval "musters" and colonial forms of control, and international statistical developments.

So today on Rear Vision we compare the Australian census with the British census of the nineteenth century, and the census in the USA - mandated in the constitution and posited as central to nation-building and politics.

[Joanna Baker]

I'm adding this to the discussion as Michael has raised some good questions we should be discussing in all our discussion fora

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: michael piggott <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 7:59 AM
Subject: [archives-and-records-australia:291] The centennary census
To: [e-mail]

Colleagues

In the latest ASA Bulletin (1 August), under the heading 'Who Will They Think You Were?', Jo Baker urges us to 'log on, get counted as an archivist, and say YES to 60 so we can ponder on our professional forebears in the years to come'. Q 60 is the so-called time capsule question where one can indicate your name identified data be preserved for posterity. While I have great respect and regard for Jo, I have several worries about this urging but thank her for perhaps inadvertently begging some good questions.

There is no predetermined menu of occupations for questions 38-9 (after following several false leads re inquiry numbers, I've just come off the phone with the ABS re this very point). You get to use your own word/s for your occupation. So should we use archivist or records manager or recordkeeper or recordkeeping professional or manuscripts librarian or digital curation officer? If the aim of having us all say yes to 60 is to show people in 99 years time that there were lots of archivists, this has some point I suppose, but there'd be other ways too to discover that in 2112, surely. If the idea is to help those planning current government policy (as the case for the census budget traditionally argues), even if the aggregated tables show there are now two thousand people who say they're archivists, what then? Perhaps some clever data linking will highlight some need we don't realise exists?

Whether it will be known in 99 yrs time how many people self identify as archivists (or one of the alternatives), isn't there a pressing problem now? How many archivists (or one of the alternatives) are there in Australia? In advocating for and representing archival causes, can our President say "Yes, and I represent X members and a sector employing Y people, mate"?

There's quite an irony here too: as Jo indicated, NAA will be doing good things to ensure data is preserved for this first eCensus. But how many government (and other) archives refer to positions as archivist positions? Also, in my experience, a good number of staff performing professional work in archives actually say 'oh I'm not an archivist'.

Finally, what compelling reason is there as to why anyone should say yes to question 60? Retrosepctive pride in professional identity? Last time I believe about 44% said no or left the answer blank. Millions of people feel the less is known about them the better. The ASA was a Save the Census supporter if I recall, and presumably is not happy with the opt-in approach. Are we about to campaign for a 'Make yes to 60 compulsory' policy change?

Michael Piggott

Canberra