View the presentation slides  (1 Mb)

Abstract

This paper tells the story of an archival project that came about because current researchers recognised that value of data and related research records created by one of their academic colleagues who died unexpectedly at the height of her career. Diane Elizabeth Barwick (1938-1986), political and historical anthropologist, was renowned for her depth of knowledge about Aboriginal history and culture and her commitment to Aboriginal justice and equality. She migrated from Canada in 1960 to research kin networks among Aboriginal Victorians. In her subsequent career she helped pioneer the discipline of ethnohistory in Australia. The records in this collection were collected in 2005 from her family home in Canberra where they were in the custody of her widower Richard Barwick. The collection documents the research behind Diane Barwick's extensive body of published works, her PhD on regional kin networks and group identity among Aboriginal Victorians, the major roles she played in the establishment of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and the Aboriginal History journal, and many other aspects of her life and works.

In 2007 JISC published "Paradigm: Workbook on Personal Digital Archives" which represents a thorough-going analysis of the state of digital archiving technologies and associated archival processes. This paper compares the archival processes used in the Diane Barwick project with those described in the workbook and reflects on a general archival documentary process for collections of any media.

About the speakers

Ann McCarthy is currently studying for her PhD at the University of Melbourne and working on a part-time basis at the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre. She worked full-time as the archivist on the Diane Barwick project from June 2005 until November 2006 and has subsequently remained connected with the project.

Gavan McCarthy has worked in, with and around archives since 1978 with a particular focus on the records of research and the role of researchers in helping document other research collections through their use of archival materials. He is currently the Director of the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre, a position that evolved from his work with the Australian Science Archives Project and its successor, the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre. He has an ongoing interest in the history and archives of Australian science, and the emergence of contextual information frameworks that will help make records meaningful and provide more pathways for discovery.

From 2002-2007 Gavan worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency looking at the issues surrounding the preservation and transfer of information about radioactive waste disposal facilities – the worst case scenario when measured on any scale. Over the last decade he has participated actively in national and international standards development for archives with a particular interest in the role of authority records.