What's New in the Archives?
18 November 2011
The City of Sydney Archives is now based on Level 21 of Town Hall House (corner of Kent and Druitt Streets, Sydney 2000). Visitors should enter the building on Level 1 (Kent St level) and take one of the high-rise lifts to L21. Almost all of the archival records continue to be stored offsite at the Government Records Repository, and are retrieved 'as requested' for research inspection at Town Hall House.
The Archives team has been given responsibility for fulfilling requests made under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 [GIPAA] and for subpoenas and other similar legal access applications received by the City of Sydney. GIPAA has replaced Freedom of Information law in New South Wales. We are now responding to over 400 public access requests each month, in addition to research visits to the Archives.
Staff of the Archives are: Mark Stevens (City Archivist); Allison Burness, Naomi Crago, Jill Farish, Ros Kennedy, Natasha Neal (Archivists); Peri Aria (Senior Information Access Officer); Brian Mantel (Information Access Officer;) Elizabeth Matraszek; Maureen Hebden, Makrina Poljakova (Archives Support Officers). Not all these staff are full time, the total is 9.6 full time equivalent staff.
14 June 2011
We have launched a new online catalogue covering the City Assessment Books 1845-1948. This replaces the year-by-year ward-by-ward listings that had been available previously. The new catalogue is a searchable database, so it will no longer be necessary to work out which ward and / or year to look in to find those you are looking for.
The new Assessment Books catalogue is available from our Catalogues and Search Tools page.
The new database has been made possible by the work of a dedicated team of volunteers at the City of Sydney Archives, who started on the transcription project in 2005. The few remaining assessment volumes, covering the period 1925-1937, will be completed and added by the end of 2012.
Over the next couple of years gradually we will add digitalised copies of the original books, so it will be possible to compare the transcribed data with the original record.
28 March 2011
The surviving assessment books for Newtown Municipal Council (1862-1948) have been transcribed by our volunteers team, and added to the Newtown web site. The volumes cover 1863-1882 but quite a few have gone missing over the years. They are arranged by year and then by ward, so to use them it helps to be aware of Newtown ward boundaries. There is a ward boundary map in the maps section of the web site. The assessment books of suburban municipalities like Newtown can be disappointing to those who have used the City assessment books. Comparatively little information is recorded about individual properties, and house numbers are scarce before the 1880s. Nevertheless, used in conjunction with other sources such as Sands Directory, the books can be a help with local and family history details. Click here to go to the Newtown web site.
28 February 2011
The Archives will be moving from level 1 of Town Hall House (our home since 1999) to Level 21, almost at the top of the high-rise tower. The date of the move has not yet been finalised, and depends on the pace of the necessary changes to the L21 layout. Mid June is the most likely time. Researchers, visitors and volunteers will be able to take one of the the high-rise lifts up to the Archives without requiring special security access.
The Archives will be absorbing the Public Access Management team from the Legal & Governance department, during March. We will then be responsible for providing City information to the community in response to 'informal' requests, in cases where it cannot be provided easily at point of first contact (for example over the phone by the Call Centre team). This applies to information in both archival and more current records. The change is part of the City's implementation of the Government Information [Public Access] Act 2009 (GIPAA) which has replaced the Freedom of Information Act.
Thanks to everyone who has commented on our experimental Sands Directory page. A sample data set showing how even very large files can be delivered and searched online, with minimal delay and minimal broadband-budget impact, has now been added. We are continuing to investigate the feasibility of going ahead with the project to make the entire Sands edition (all years 1858-1932) available online in this way. The Sands Directory page is part of our catalogue pages. Click here to see.
[Earlier items now removed]
Last Updated: Friday 18 November 2011
