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First Roundtable on Library and Archives Collections and Services of Relevance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 4 May 1995
Report from State Library of New South Wales

Two Koori staff, Ronald Briggs and Melissa Jackson, were appointed as trainee librarians in December 1991 with assistance from the Professional and Technical Entry Program under the NSW Aboriginal Employment Strategy. Their permanent employment is guaranteed at the conclusion of the traineeships. Melissa and Ronald are based in the Mitchell Library with the main focus of their work being to assist indigenous people to gain access to our large collections of material relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Service to Cients

Customised special programs are offered for indigenous groups who need access to the collection. Last year 304 people used this service drawn from all educational sectors, but especially from programs for indigenous peoples in universities and TAFE and community organisations such as Tranby College, Eora Centre and the Aboriginal & Islander Dance Theatre. Another 50 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people sought individual assistance generally in local history and genealogy. A pathfinder publication on sources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander genealogy in SLNSW and associated Family Find-it seminar will be developed in 1995.

Collection Development

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resources are a collection strength for the State Library of NSW and include significant language materials. Current Collecting Intensity is at Level 4 with publications collected for the whole of Australia and original materials for NSW only. Koori staff assist in collection development especially by making links with individuals and organisations to ensure that contemporary ephemera, manuscript, archival and pictorial material is acquired, especially community based NSW publications.

Enhanced Access to Resources

The Koori Mail is being indexed and also microfilmed. Retrospective indexing is well advanced and should be complete to the end of 1994 in 1995. Access to the on-line index as well as to a published version will be available later in 1995. Work on creating a computerised index to the NSW Tindale genealogies NSW has also started. A biographical index for collections of original pictures and manuscripts has been set up but requires additional resources to compile. The use of volunteers is being considered.

SLNSW holds one of only a few complete sets of The Dawn, an important source for Koori biographical information. This is currently being microfilmed and permission has been obtained to make available duplicate microfilms to other libraries.

Exhibitions

The Koori staff work on all SLNSW exhibitions to ensure appropriate inclusivity. They curated Look again: reinterpreting Aboriginal history in the UN Year to show the range and variety of materials in the collection, including many created by indigenous people. A major exhibition Aboriginal artists of the nineteenth century curated by NGA and including works from SLNSW was shown in 199S Planning and research for an exhibition drawn from the SLNSW collection as part of the 1997 pre-Olympics Festival of the Dreaming will soon commence. Yarrabah: the people of the early years based on mission records in SLNSW and curated by Melissa and Ronald is currently travelling to Yarrabah, Cairns, Townsville and Brisbane, assisted by the Visions of Australia touring program.

Public Pograms

Melissa and Ronald are involved in a variety of public programs such as exhibition related activities offered by our friends group, The Library Society, in-service for teachers on the Aboriginal Studies curriculum and the annual Sydney Writers Festival organised by SLNSW which always includes indigenous writers and publishers

Cross Cultural Aareness Taining

Melissa and Ronald are accredited trainers and are conducting a systematic program for staff of the State Library and NSW public libraries.

Support to Public Libraries

The Koori staff work with our Public Libraries Branch consultants to develop collections and services for indigenous people in public libraries. The current priority to deliver cross cultural awareness training with sessions at SLNSW and in country regions. They support Koori staff employed in public libraries, make visits whenever possible, provide advice and assist with staff recruitment. They have also participated in a range of seminars for public librarians on Koori library services, literacy issues and Aboriginal genealogy. PLB supports non-indigenous library staff to attend development activities such as the ATSILRN conference.

Representation, Liaison, Consultation

Melissa and Ronald represent the State Library in a variety of forums such as the Protocols consultations, and the Jumbunna Aboriginal History Group. They liaise with NSW community organisations such as Tranby College, Eora Centre, Link-Up, the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and with Koori staff in other NSW cultural institutions such as the Australian Museum. They are actively involved in ATSILRN and the relative proximity of Sydney to NZ has also enabled the development of links with the Maori Library Workers Network.

Progress on TF2001 Resolutions

RH1: Establishment of an Advisory Committee planned for early 1995 was delayed by appointment of new State Librarian. This will soon proceed with members expected to be drawn from ATSIC, NSW Land Councils, Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and including country representation.

RII3: The work of the Koori staff has dramatically improved access to collections and services at SLNSW and is widely known within NSW indigenous educational, genealogical and historical communities. The establishment of the Advisory Committee is expected to further improve dissemination of information about their work, as will the process of formal community consultation which is required before access can be provided to the Tindale genealogies.

Where to From Here?

Ronald will complete postgraduate studies in librarianship at UNSW and Melissa will complete undergraduate studies at UWS in 1995. Their contribution to making the Library's collections and services accessible to indigenous people has been outstanding. We hope the Advisory Committee will provide them with additional support and access to other networks.

Much work needs to be done to evaluate collections at SLNSW for secret, sacred and sensitive material. This cannot be achieved with the current staffing and we need to find ways of increasing the Koori staffemployed at SLNSW. We hope that ALIA's proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islnader Recruitment and Career Development Strategy may assist this.


Return to the Aboriginal Roundtable

Margy Burn, Director, Collection & Information Services
Last updated 12 June 1998
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