In 2007, the Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities (CAARA) collected statistics to prepare “the first comprehensive survey of the Australian archive domain comprising archival organisations and services across Australia." This study was intended as the first of a series of periodic surveys of the of the archives domain to be conducted every five years. The study is available online on the CAARA web site at :- http://www.caara.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Report-on-Archives-Survey-2007.pdf
The objectives of the survey were to:
- measure population use of archive collections and archival services
- measure archival activities, including outreach
- identify characteristics of the archive domain as a whole, and sub-domains
- measure archives held and accessible
- describe the archive workforce, both paid and voluntary
- identify issues and challenges faced by the archive domain.
Since 2012, Australian Society of Archivists Inc has also been active gathering data on archival programs and Australia's archives and records workforce. At its meeting on 15 August, 2014 ASA Council looked at options for a new phase of data collection intended to fulfill the original ambition of creating a longitudinal data set describing the Australian Archive domain. Concurrently, it has been discussing options with CAARA and interested researchers.
One way of driving the project forward, is to establish the survey as an applied coursework project done by a student in a masters by coursework program or as a component of a larger research masters. The project might be located at any of the current University post graduate teaching institutions with a suitable program and with the co-operation of a project supervisor.
If you are contemplating a higher degree program with a project component or a research masters and are interested in this topic area, please send me an email advising me of your interest.
Best wishes,
Dr Mark Brogan
ASA Councillor (ict@archivists.org.au)
Replies
Hi Mark
I expressed interest in this issue in 2012 and encouraged the ASA to contact CAARA as there had been no 5-year follow-up survey as promised. I would appreciate being considered as an interested researcher for this project.
Sigrid McCausland