NB: The implementation of the Resolutions included in this report was assigned to specific organisations or groups of organisations. The implementation of the Resolutions called 'Advice to Institutions', which are contained in Section B: Final Progress Report on Advice to Institutions, was assigned to a range of institutions with significant collections of Australia's documentary heritage.
The information for this report was collected in June 1994, August 1994 and June 1996.
Conference: March 1992
The Conference, Towards Federation 2001: Linking Australian and their Heritage, was held in Canberra on 16-23 March 1992. It was attended by 140 invited participants, drawn from across the nation's libraries, archives, other national collecting institution and a range of organisations concerned with publishing, collecting and preserving Australia's recorded documentary heritage. The problems and issues affecting access to Australia's recorded documentary heritage were grouped in four broad categories: collecting, bibliographic control, preservation, and physical access. The mission for the conference process was seen as being:
to enable Australians to have the maximum possible bibliographic and physical access to their recorded heritage by the year 2001.
And it was planned that the Conference would:
identify present barriers to Australia's documentary heritage and establish initiatives and mechanisms which will enable the mission to be accomplished by the Centenary of Australia's Federation.
Since 2001 will be the Centenary year of the Australian Federation, the Conference Planning Committee took the view that a carefully identified set of tasks, agreed to by the Australian library community, kindred collecting institutions and related special interest groups, and which would lead to enhanced community access to Australia's recorded documentary heritage by the year 2001, might provide a basis for special funding support over the next decade. Also the time scale was of a length which provided a long range target in which even large tasks are achievable; required a collaborative approach, analogous to successful federation; forced thinking about technological opportunities at that time present only in the early or pilot development stage; and required consideration both of historical records and future needs.
Conference delegates passed a total of 86 Resolutions which fell into the categories of collecting issues, bibliographic issues, physical access issues, preservation issues, issues relating to special communities, and copyright issues.
Review Meeting: December 1993
On 9-10 December 1993, representatives of 29 organisations met to review progress since the Towards Federation 2001: Linking Australians with their Heritage Conference held in March 1992. Over the previous 21 months, the National Library had attempted to monitor progress on the 86 resolutions passed at the Conference. Since early 1993, a planning committee of National Library staff, supplemented by Gordon Bower as ACLIS representative and Fran Awcock as the representative of the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL), had been engaged on a through assessment of each resolution, its progress or lack thereof, and possible changes in the objective or action mechanism which might lead to faster and better progress in the future.
The planning committee prepared a series of assessment papers for the various development areas: collecting, bibliographic access, physical access, preservation, copyright, and services to special communities. The meeting agreed on a total of 59 resolutions, which encapsulated most of the original conference intent, updated in the light of experience and changing circumstances
The National Library, through the DNC Office, took on board responsibility for monitoring progress on all Towards Federation 2001 Review Meeting Resolutions. In May 1994, the DNC Office contacted all organisations with prime responsibility for the resolutions and asked them to report on any progress. This report was issued in August 1994. A further cumulative progress report was issued in August 1995 after updates on progress were received from the relevant organisations. In June 1996, organisations were once again asked to provide information on progress on the resolutions for which they had been assigned carriage. The results of this request is included in the following cumulative report.
A number of resolutions are now considered to have been completed.