PROV has developed a new eLearning Digital Recordkeeping training module aimed at upskilling records professionals and all staff with responsibilities for managing business information systems and processes. The module has been developed around the fundamentals of recordkeeping with a focus on the digital environment. Linked to PROVs standards and guidance, the training provides pragmatic thinking to managing the overwhelming amount of digital data and information in line with recordkeeping requirements. This talk will provide a first-hand look at the module and discuss the challenges of providing a pertinent and consistent message to a varied audience. How do you create learning to extend to organisations that have to support and address the complexities and risks for records management arising from increased outsourcing arrangements and advances in technology.

Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) has recently completed two in-house large-scale transfers on behalf of Victorian Government agencies – Ports Victoria (records were held at Queenscliffe Maritime Museum prior to transfer to PROV) and Geological Survey of Victoria (GSV). The records transferred were identified as part of PROV’s ‘records at risk’ program, records which were considered high value but which were largely inaccessible to the public or other agencies due to the lack of description and sub-par storage conditions. Between these two agencies, the transfers included thousands of high interest maps and plans, of maritime and land surveys respectively, as well as records of marine and mining activities and infrastructure. While standard practice sees agency staff prepare records for transfer to PROV, including all arrangement, description and archival packaging, the large scale of these two projects required an alternative solution. Ports Victoria and GSV instead opted to commission PROV to undertake the work themselves, committing the funds to hire archival staff who undertook all appraisal, listing and descriptive and physical re-housing work and ensuring the records were appropriately stored and accessible at the Victorian Archives Centre repository in North Melbourne. This paper will explain the negotiation process leading up to the transfer work, the costs and benefits for both agencies and PROV in conducting transfers this way, and PROV’s resourcing requirements to undertake the project work.

Brett Whiteley was a prominent Australian artist from the 1960s until his death in 1992. Whiteley created thousands of works across a number of studios in New South Wales and abroad, and famously hated to work in silence. As such one of the largest elements of the Brett Whiteley Studio, his last home and work space turned gallery in his memory, is his music collection which has sat untouched for many years, primarily in milk crates This paper seeks to cover the process by which Whiteley’s music collection is being cleaned, documented, and shared with the public. Consisting of 650 vinyl records, 620 cassette tapes, and 50 CDs, the project is currently underway with a third of the vinyls already re-housed, and the project aiming to be completed by the end of July. As the sole archivist working at the Studio, my paper would cover the project in its entirety from research and support from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales conservation department, the setup and equipment purchased and used including the ultrasonic cleaner and vinyl rotator, and difficulties encountered along the way such as space and materials and their solutions. The paper will also cover how the project and collection has benefited internal and external stakeholders and become an important part of outreach for the archive. From using it as a basis to create a new Spotify playlist for visitors and staff to interact with, creating research information for exhibition curators and visiting performers, recording information in the Vernon collection system, and providing education and support for other departments, the project around Brett Whiteley’s music collection has had far reaching effects in addition to the needed practical outcome of preserving an important part of this artist’s story.

My lightning talk is interested in practices around descriptive listing of archives, in particular for records that have significant and complex cultural and historical value. I draw on my experience as a member of the team that archived the records of anthropologist and Indigenous rights activist, Diane Elizabeth Barwick (1938-1986), whose collection contains many records of and about Indigenous Victorians. I reflect on some of the multiple factors I found to be in play in describing Diane Barwick\'s records, including a people-centred aspect of item listing.

Participatory appraisal has been discussed amongst archivists for decades. There is literature reporting on experiences in the UK and the US but there is limited reportage of the practice of building archives with communities in Australia. In January 2023 a project focused on a low-social capital suburb in Canberra was exhibited. This lightning talk reports back with some insights. A challenge for participatory appraisal identified through this project was scale – if successful, the volume of content quickly becomes overwhelming. Another challenge is the responsibility that goes with accepting content from contributors. Expectations are set up that the content will be used or shared. And crucially, participation means everyone. Strategies are needed to connect with contributors that goes beyond relationships in easy reach for the archivist based on existing connections. Recognising who is likely to be overlooked and thinking about how the project might connect with the aspirations of those community groups offered a starting point in this project. Demonstrating that those voices are wanted and welcome is another part of the puzzle. Some strategies include partnerships and focusing on community events where there has been broad participation. A final lesson comes from social engaged art, a practice that focuses on community participation. This calls on the archivist to recognise their standpoint, the worldview they bring. Our sector has recognised that collections and building them is not neutral. For archivists, there remains much to do to work out how to meaningfully share that power and authority as collections are built.

Risk profiles for schools are expanding as we move to share and manage our archival collections online, entering a space where AI is developing quickly and where ethics are lightly considered and applied. A largely unregulated sector of the technology industry, with little knowledge sharing amongst aggressively competing tech giants, the AI sector holds some daunting prospects for our protected and carefully curated images, audio-visual content, personal and collective histories, and private information. School archives, together with many other types of archival collections, are beginning to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies across the board. How will Retention Management, and legal obligations for the school record, be influenced by content intelligence technology? Concurrently, SPAM filters, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Search Engines, and Facial Recognition technologies are some of the simple forms of AI already in use within digital school systems – including digital collections. What is the challenge that we face in the imminent future?