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(11) Australian joint copying project
ht. Libr. RBV. (1975) 7, 209-211
(11) Australian Joint Copying Project C. SANTAMARIA
The agreement between the National Library and the Library of New South Wales forming the Australian Joint Copying Project was drawn up in October 1945. It became operational in 1948 and since then has provided for the filming of official documents in the Public Record Office in London and other records in archives, libraries, societies and in private possession in the British Isles and Europe relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. In the past 26 years over five and a half thousand rolls of negative microfilm have been produced and positive of this film distributed to libraries participating in the project. The project partners can be justifiably proud of its reputation both for longevity-the A.J.C.P. is believed to be the oldest continuous manuscript copying project in existence-and its geographical and subject scope, and for the degree of co-operation between Australian, New Zealand and Pacific libraries which it has fostered. While all the Australian state libraries and the National Library of New Zealand are partners in the A. J.C.P. their degree of participation has generally altered over the years. Currently the state libraries of Victoria and Queensland and the National Library of New Zealand along with the National Library of Australia and the Library of New South Wales are full partners in the project. In 1973 the Library Board of Western Australia withdrew from all categories of material except those having specific Western Australian orientation. The material copied by the project is still heavily dominated by Colonial Office records. However in recent times the filming programme of the A.J.C.P. has tended to be preoccupied with non-public record material. This has been designated the M (i.e. Miscellaneous) Series. Since the publication by the principal partners, the Library of New South Wales and the National Library, of part 1 of the explanatory and descriptive handbook to the project, a copy of which is supplied, much additional material has been filmed in this series. Included are the records of a number of English county record offices-those of East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Chester and
210
C. SANTAMARIA
Bedford; the papers of the Coghlan family, records of the German Foreign Office archives relating to Samoa and the 58-reel set of records of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, referred to in the Library’s Annual Report for 1972-3. P.R.O. material tends increasingly to be filmed in response to specific and often urgent requests. In such a manner two major Colonial Office series have been completed in the last year. These are C.O. 418Australia (General) Original Correspondence and C.O. 209-New Zealand. Original Correspondence.The A. J.C.P. office is currently working, as other duties allow, on extract searching of Admiralty 97 Medical Departments In-letters and Admiralty 51 Captains’ Logs. These series will be followed by further Admiralty material and a number of Audit Office series. The past 12 months have seen the preparation of further parts of the A.J.C.P. Handbook. Work is continuing on the class and piece lists designed to provide a reel/piece correlation for the material in each record group. The largest record group is the Colonial Office; the class and piece list comprises some 200 pages. This part of the handbook is currently at the printers. The Home Office and War Office class and piece lists are also completed and awaiting publication. Work is continuing on another major record group, the Foreign Office. A preface, containing historical notes on each Office and explanatory notes for the records copied by the A.J.C.P. is to be included with each class and piece list. In December 1970 the participants in the Australian Joint Copying Project agreed to help finance compilation of the Handbook, for at least one year, by a contribution to the salary of Handbook editors. Western Australia and Queensland sent $1000 each, Victoria and New Zealand (National Archives and the Alexander Turnbull Library) promised $1000, and South Australia and Tasmania promised $500 each. The National Library and the Library of New South Wales were to meet the balance of salary costs for the compilation of the Handbook. At a conservative estimate the National Library has since the end of 1970 spent $21 000 on salaries associated with the production of the A.J.C.P. Handbook. Until recently however, work on the Handbook has often been of a spasmodic nature, and contributions promised by other libraries towards the cost of compilation have not so far been necessary. With the publication of part 2 of the handbook A.J.C.P. the partners will be reminded of their financial obligations. At present there are two officers in London and one in Canberra engaged on work associated with the project. The Canberra officer is also the Handbook editor (librarian class 2). It has lately become apparent that a need exists for the creation of a librarian class I position to deal
NATIONAL
LIBRARY
OF
AUSTRALIA
211
with the lengthy and often laborious work involved in film examining that is necessary for the compilation of the Handbook. A second position which will be sought in the near future, will enable the librarian class 2 to give much needed attention to planning the future filming programme, and other aspects of the work. In London, for some time past, the searching of records for filming has lagged behind the camera. To overcome this situation and to allow for speeding up copying in the M series, a proposal has been made to increase the London staff from two to three. Many of the problems associated with the operation of the Australian Joint Copying Project are not unique to this scheme but inherent in the nature of the library co-operation on such a scale. These include difficulties in administering a filming programme taking place predominantly in one part of the world, at virtually its opposite ends, delays in the receipt of correspondence, and misunderstandings that may arise where all communication is by letter. More recently problems have arisen that are likely to have a direct bearing on the role the project plays in the future. Since 1972 in addition to producing film on its own camera, the A.J.C.P. has accepted material filmed under schemes operated by the Public Record Office itself, This will almost certainly have repercussions at a future date, in that the P.R.O. itself is likely to be producing film that formerly lay within the purview of the A.J.C.P. It has become apparent that the project will have to also accept both 16 mm roll film and microfiche filmed by the P.R.O. A decision must therefore be taken by the principal partners about the shelf listing and general arrangement of material filmed in this form. Over the last few years a number of other schemes have evolved and consortiums been arranged for the copying of material that could roughly be described as falling within the A.J.C.P. area of geographical interest. Examples of such schemes include the South Asia Microform Project (SAMP), a co-operative acquisition project initiated in 1967 by the Association for Asian Studies and administered in Chicago by the Center for Research Libraries; the scheme initiated last year by the Kebangsaan National University in Kuala Lumpur to microfilm factory records, and a consortium planned by the Archivist of the Public Records Office of Hong Kong to film large series of Colonial Ofice records relating to the area. The time has come to re-examine the role of the A. J.C.P. and to decide whether or not its filming programme should be reassessed and perhaps redefined. The Library will be arranging a conference of the principal partners with a view to seeking their opinions.
(11) Australian Joint Copying Project C. SANTAMARIA
The agreement between the National Library and the Library of New South Wales forming the Australian Joint Copying Project was drawn up in October 1945. It became operational in 1948 and since then has provided for the filming of official documents in the Public Record Office in London and other records in archives, libraries, societies and in private possession in the British Isles and Europe relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. In the past 26 years over five and a half thousand rolls of negative microfilm have been produced and positive of this film distributed to libraries participating in the project. The project partners can be justifiably proud of its reputation both for longevity-the A.J.C.P. is believed to be the oldest continuous manuscript copying project in existence-and its geographical and subject scope, and for the degree of co-operation between Australian, New Zealand and Pacific libraries which it has fostered. While all the Australian state libraries and the National Library of New Zealand are partners in the A. J.C.P. their degree of participation has generally altered over the years. Currently the state libraries of Victoria and Queensland and the National Library of New Zealand along with the National Library of Australia and the Library of New South Wales are full partners in the project. In 1973 the Library Board of Western Australia withdrew from all categories of material except those having specific Western Australian orientation. The material copied by the project is still heavily dominated by Colonial Office records. However in recent times the filming programme of the A.J.C.P. has tended to be preoccupied with non-public record material. This has been designated the M (i.e. Miscellaneous) Series. Since the publication by the principal partners, the Library of New South Wales and the National Library, of part 1 of the explanatory and descriptive handbook to the project, a copy of which is supplied, much additional material has been filmed in this series. Included are the records of a number of English county record offices-those of East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Chester and
210
C. SANTAMARIA
Bedford; the papers of the Coghlan family, records of the German Foreign Office archives relating to Samoa and the 58-reel set of records of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, referred to in the Library’s Annual Report for 1972-3. P.R.O. material tends increasingly to be filmed in response to specific and often urgent requests. In such a manner two major Colonial Office series have been completed in the last year. These are C.O. 418Australia (General) Original Correspondence and C.O. 209-New Zealand. Original Correspondence.The A. J.C.P. office is currently working, as other duties allow, on extract searching of Admiralty 97 Medical Departments In-letters and Admiralty 51 Captains’ Logs. These series will be followed by further Admiralty material and a number of Audit Office series. The past 12 months have seen the preparation of further parts of the A.J.C.P. Handbook. Work is continuing on the class and piece lists designed to provide a reel/piece correlation for the material in each record group. The largest record group is the Colonial Office; the class and piece list comprises some 200 pages. This part of the handbook is currently at the printers. The Home Office and War Office class and piece lists are also completed and awaiting publication. Work is continuing on another major record group, the Foreign Office. A preface, containing historical notes on each Office and explanatory notes for the records copied by the A.J.C.P. is to be included with each class and piece list. In December 1970 the participants in the Australian Joint Copying Project agreed to help finance compilation of the Handbook, for at least one year, by a contribution to the salary of Handbook editors. Western Australia and Queensland sent $1000 each, Victoria and New Zealand (National Archives and the Alexander Turnbull Library) promised $1000, and South Australia and Tasmania promised $500 each. The National Library and the Library of New South Wales were to meet the balance of salary costs for the compilation of the Handbook. At a conservative estimate the National Library has since the end of 1970 spent $21 000 on salaries associated with the production of the A.J.C.P. Handbook. Until recently however, work on the Handbook has often been of a spasmodic nature, and contributions promised by other libraries towards the cost of compilation have not so far been necessary. With the publication of part 2 of the handbook A.J.C.P. the partners will be reminded of their financial obligations. At present there are two officers in London and one in Canberra engaged on work associated with the project. The Canberra officer is also the Handbook editor (librarian class 2). It has lately become apparent that a need exists for the creation of a librarian class I position to deal
NATIONAL
LIBRARY
OF
AUSTRALIA
211
with the lengthy and often laborious work involved in film examining that is necessary for the compilation of the Handbook. A second position which will be sought in the near future, will enable the librarian class 2 to give much needed attention to planning the future filming programme, and other aspects of the work. In London, for some time past, the searching of records for filming has lagged behind the camera. To overcome this situation and to allow for speeding up copying in the M series, a proposal has been made to increase the London staff from two to three. Many of the problems associated with the operation of the Australian Joint Copying Project are not unique to this scheme but inherent in the nature of the library co-operation on such a scale. These include difficulties in administering a filming programme taking place predominantly in one part of the world, at virtually its opposite ends, delays in the receipt of correspondence, and misunderstandings that may arise where all communication is by letter. More recently problems have arisen that are likely to have a direct bearing on the role the project plays in the future. Since 1972 in addition to producing film on its own camera, the A.J.C.P. has accepted material filmed under schemes operated by the Public Record Office itself, This will almost certainly have repercussions at a future date, in that the P.R.O. itself is likely to be producing film that formerly lay within the purview of the A.J.C.P. It has become apparent that the project will have to also accept both 16 mm roll film and microfiche filmed by the P.R.O. A decision must therefore be taken by the principal partners about the shelf listing and general arrangement of material filmed in this form. Over the last few years a number of other schemes have evolved and consortiums been arranged for the copying of material that could roughly be described as falling within the A.J.C.P. area of geographical interest. Examples of such schemes include the South Asia Microform Project (SAMP), a co-operative acquisition project initiated in 1967 by the Association for Asian Studies and administered in Chicago by the Center for Research Libraries; the scheme initiated last year by the Kebangsaan National University in Kuala Lumpur to microfilm factory records, and a consortium planned by the Archivist of the Public Records Office of Hong Kong to film large series of Colonial Ofice records relating to the area. The time has come to re-examine the role of the A. J.C.P. and to decide whether or not its filming programme should be reassessed and perhaps redefined. The Library will be arranging a conference of the principal partners with a view to seeking their opinions.