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16 February 2017
Ngā Tapuwae, the Footprints, is the newsletter of Archives New Zealand. It tells the stories of our people, our work and achievements.
In this issue...
- Editorial
- Archives 2057 - what you said
- He Tohu opens to public on 20 May 2017
- Optimising our Regulatory Role
- What’s hot on Social Media
- Regional News
- Digitisation
- About Us
Editorial
Welcome to our first edition of Ngā Tapuwae for 2017.
Looking back on 2016, overall we had a productive year and made some great progress on our major projects. However, the November earthquake caused major service disruptions for our Wellington customers. I really appreciated the patience shown by our users as we were unable to open to the public until 24 January. We also received messages of support from many of our fellow national archives institutions in Australia and beyond.
Image: Buckled shelving on the ground floor of the Mulgrave Street building
To recap, the Mulgrave Street building did suffer some non-structural damage as a result of the 14 November earthquake. The remediation work was completed and our staff members were able to return to our office spaces on 4 January. While we have opened to the public (and it’s great to see our readers back in the Wellington reading room!) 16% of our holdings are inaccessible because of shelving damage. So if you are ordering archives that are unavailable at present, we will let you know when they become available as soon as possible.
While we were closed, our staff were focused on ensuring the holdings were in the safest place possible, that building systems were working as they should, and carrying on with some business as usual activity. We are very fortunate that there was no irreparable damage to any of our archives. With the possibility of more seismic events, we are making sure plans are in place to protect people and archives.
This quarterly issue provides an update on our long-term strategy development, how we are improving our regulatory role through engagement with Executive Sponsors and the work we are doing to make our holdings more accessible through digitisation.
Nāku noa nā
Marilyn
Marilyn Little
Chief Archivist
Archives New Zealand
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Archives 2057 – what you said
Last year we consulted on the Archives 2057 discussion document and received 145 formal submissions – 460 pages worth! The summary of submissions, and the submissions themselves, are now available via our website: www.archives.govt.nz.
Submissions were generally supportive of the overall strategic focus areas posed, which were:
- Celebrating, using and connecting the growing scale of the enduring record of government;
- Open government through access from the point of creation; and
- “Design in” good recordkeeping practice through quality system design.
Our stakeholders did identify some gaps, a couple of areas that require clarification and other insights that we need to carefully consider. This work is taking place now and a final strategy document will be prepared shortly. We are aiming to release the strategy before 30 June 2017.
Thank you for your submissions and taking the time to provide us with your ideas and insights.
He Tohu opens to public on 20 May 2017
An opening date for our new permanent exhibition of constitutional documents, He Tohu, has been confirmed. The Governor-General, Her Excellency Dame Patsy Reddy, will officially open the exhibition on Friday 19 May 2017 in an event described by former Prime Minister Rt Hon John Key as “an event of national significance”. The exhibition will be open to the public from Saturday 20 May 2017.
Teams from across the Department of Internal Affairs have worked hard to ensure that the people of New Zealand and those visiting our country can have a meaningful interaction with the Taonga. This is shaping up to be a great exhibition and we hope you will all make time to visit it.
The latest Pānui can be read here.
In the meantime, the Constitution Room in Mulgrave Street will remain open throughout February and March.
Optimising our Regulatory Role
The planned December release of new guidance was impacted by the earthquake. We are aiming to get the information initially planned for December into the March quarterly release, including our guidance on digitisation.
We are working with our DIA colleagues in the Government Enterprise Architecture Group to seek information that will help us better understand the status of “information as an asset” across the public sector. A survey was initially sent to the core public offices that form part of the Government Chief Information Officer mandate. It has now been circulated to all other public offices (with the exception of schools) and to local authorities.
The survey responses will provide some base data for preparing for digital transfers by providing an indication of how well organisations understand their information holdings. This information helps us to identify capability requirements across the sector and will also feed into the development of the Archives 2057 long-term strategy.
Executive Sponsor visits
In a previous issue, we touched on Executive Sponsors and our plans for more direct engagement with public offices. Executive Sponsors are those people who have an organisation-wide influence and are organisational decision makers. During November, we started our programme of meetings with Executive Sponsors. We have drafted the 2017 programme and the Chief Archivist and senior staff will be out and about throughout the year. Executive Sponsors should be receiving an invitation soon.
What’s hot on Social Media
Last year, across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, our content was viewed over 3.4 million times. We built up our number of Facebook followers from around 700 to nearly 1,400 and it would be great if you joined us!
In 2016, the most popular Facebook post was about Split Enz for New Zealand Music Month, with 12,000 views. Rock stars are always good click bait, but perhaps more unusually, the most popular film on our YouTube channel is The First Half Million Volt DC Transmission Line, with 53,000 views so far. Over on Flickr we had 1.7 million image views in 2016, pushing us up to 4.4 million views overall since 2009.
You can read more about our year on social media here.
Digitisation
Digitisation is one of the ways that we provide access to our holdings. This year we are ramping up our digitisation efforts to make more content available online to our users. We have secured Departmental funding and will be scoping three primary projects: Crown Purchase Deeds, Colonial Correspondence, and Negatives and Photographs. Stay tuned for more information!
Image: Steve and Daryl Eccles from FamilySearch in the Auckland office
FamilySearch digitisation
Probates were created by local courts throughout New Zealand and contain all the documentation required for the legal administration of an estate, and often include a copy of the will itself. The holdings cover the period 1843 – 1998. While the index contains entries up to 1998, the images for probates issued during the past 50 years are unavailable for viewing through FamilySearch due to privacy reasons.
For the past several years, FamilySearch volunteers from the US have been hard at work digitising probate records across all of our offices. Christchurch and Dunedin probates have been completed and Wellington’s should be finished around March. The Auckland office started digitising later and so only 40% of these probate records have been digitised so far. The following are available to view online at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1865481
For records that are not indexed by name yet, you can obtain the Court, year and record number for the will and probate by searching Archway (www.archway.archives.govt.nz), and then searching through FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1865481. Scroll to browse images, choose the Court, and browse by year and record number.
We would also like to thank the volunteers from the NZ Society of Genealogists who assist with preparing the documents for digitisation in Auckland.
Police Gazettes are available online
If you follow us on Facebook, you will know that we have recently finished digitising the Police Gazettes. These records have a 70 year restriction, but the Police Gazettes from 1878 to 1945 (Series 5803) are available online. They are a rich source of information for researchers and genealogists.
Our Facebook Note explains it all nicely! https://www.facebook.com/notes/archives-new-zealand/police-gazettes-online/1333972446666035
About Us
Archives New Zealand has four offices; Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Feedback
Do you have feedback on this newsletter? Drop us a line at ngatapuwae@dia.govt.nz
For further information or advice about functions relating to government recordkeeping, please contact rkadvice@dia.govt.nz
To make an enquiry about access, preservation, or digital copying, please contact general.enquiries@dia.govt.nz
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