ID: 42

SHAPLEY, Maggie

Curriculum

Maggie Shapley is the University Archivist at the Australian National University, with responsibility for the University Archives, the Noel Butlin Archives Centre and the Pacific Research Archives. She has previously worked at the National Archives of Australia and at the World Bank Archives in Washington, DC. Maggie is an active member of the Australian Society of Archivists as a past National Treasurer, Convenor of the Canberra branch, and editor of the Society's journal Archives and Manuscripts from 2000 to 2004. She was a member of the Working Group on Access which developed the International Council on Archives’ Principles of Access to Archives (2012) and is currently a member of the Management Committees of the Australian Memory of the World Register and the Australian Women's Archives Project.

Title:	Implementing the Principles of Access to Archives: Challenges and Opportunities
Brief summary:	This case study on the implementation of the ICA's Principles of Access to Archives at the Australian National University Archives reports on both the challenges and opportunities that arose in relation to existing practice at the Archives. Among the challenges faced was the existence of past agreements on access with depositors.
Content:	This case study on the implementation of the ICA's Principles of Access to Archives (2012) is presented by a member of the Working Party on Access which developed the Principles and the accompanying Technical Guidance on Managing Archives with Restrictions. Implementing the Principles at the Australian National University Archives,  both an in-house university archives and the largest collecting archives of business and labour in Australia, involved both challenges and opportunities in relation to existing practice. Among the challenges faced was the existence of past agreements on access with depositors which contradicted the aspirations expressed in the Principles. Implementation of the Principles meant revisiting and renegotiating these agreements to encourage a more equitable access policy. Another challenge was to make finding aids as accessible as possible by providing online access to draft archival descriptions and lists where previously access had only been given to finding aids once processing had been completed. The implementation of the Principles also provided the opportunity to review procedures and identify hidden barriers to access. The presentation brings out the tension between aspirational principles and their practical application to actual archival collections.
Scientific contribution:	As the Principles on Access to Archives have only recently been ratified by the ICA, there have not been to my knowledge any reports yet on their implementation in archives institutions. This presentation is intended to encourage other archives to adopt the ICA's Principles of Access to Archives in their own institutions.
Keywords:	access; case study; standards;