News from Access Services at Public Record Office Victoria
February 2005 – Number 9

rEsearch is a bi-monthly update on public access news at Public Record Office Victoria (PROV). Current and past editions of rEsearch are available online here and are also emailed to subscribers. Email a request to ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au if you want to be included on our subscriber list.

Contents
1. Victorian Archives Centre Tours - See Behind the Scenes
2. Seminars 2005
- Archival Support Program, February - November 2005
- Seminar Series, February - June 2005
3. Koorie News
- Koorie Trainees @ PROV
- Finding Your Story
4. Provenance, Call for Papers
5. Exhibitions
- Transported Back
- Forgotten Faces – Chinese and the Law
6. What's New
- New Material Online
- Archives@Victoria
7. Victorian Archives Centre Saturday Openings Calendar, 2005
8. Saturday Openings, February - April 2005
9. PROV Events Calendar February - April 2005
10. Feedback
11. About this publication

1. Victorian Archives Centre Tours - See Behind the Scenes

PROV is now offering free guided tours of the Victorian Archives Centre on the last Friday of every month (excluding public holidays).

The tours are an ideal way for participants to discover more about PROV’s facilities and services while offering a behind the scenes look at the operations of Victoria’s state archives.

VAC tours include: the Harry Nunn Reading Room where the facilities available for researchers are covered; the Repository where over eighty kilometres of government records dating back to the early nineteenth century are stored; and the exhibition space which each year features an extensive program of exhibitions based on the records in PROV’s custody. Tours run for forty-five minutes to an hour and accommodate up to fifteen people.

Upcoming dates for tours are Friday 25 February and Friday 18 March.

For further information and bookings, contact PROV on ph (03) 9348 5600 or via email at ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au

2. Seminars 2005

Archival Support Program, February - November 2005
The Archival Support Program (ASP) is a joint initiative of PROV and the Australian Society of Archivists, supported by the National Archives of Australia. The ASP offers advice and instruction to the many local custodians of collections of historical documents. The variety of topics covered in the program include introductory archival sessions, preservation and conservation and computers and small archives. The first two ASP events for the year are ‘Introduction to Archives’ which will be held on Saturday 12 March at the VAC in North Melbourne, and again on Saturday 14 May at the Community Hall in Maldon.

The February – November 2005 brochure contains a full program for 2005 and an attached booking form. It is available from PROV reading rooms and online at http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/patrn.asp.

Seminar Series, February - June 2005
The PROV Seminar Series February - June 2005 covers a variety of topics including education records, land records, research at VAC using PROV and NAA records, building and plan records and immigration records.
The next Seminar series is: ‘Good Morning Boys and Girls: Education Records at PROV’ on Saturday 12 February. ‘In Search of Land’ will be held on Tuesday 29 March at the VAC and ‘Ancestors in Archives: Research at the Victorian Archives Centre’ Parts 1, 2 and 3 on Saturday 30 April. The Ancestors in the Archives Seminars are a joint presentation by PROV and National Archives of Australia. All events in the Seminar Series are held at the VAC.

Brochures with full details of all seminars this semester and attached booking forms are available from PROV reading rooms and online at
http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/patrn.asp.

3. Koorie News

Koorie Trainees @ PROV
In late February 2005 two Indigenous trainees will start working at PROV. The trainees will be based with PROV’s Koorie Records Unit and will also be part of the Reference Team in the North Melbourne Reading Room. When working with the Koorie Records Unit the trainees will be part of an indexing project that is being lead by Simon Flagg, Koorie Reference and Indexing Officer. The indexing project will name index records in the PROV collection of the Chief Protector of Aborigines and its successors.

Finding Your Story
The Finding Your Story publication is on track to be launched in mid-2005. The Koorie Records Unit is currently sourcing images to be used in the publication design from places such as the Koorie Heritage Trust, the State Library of Victoria and Child and Family Services Ballarat who hold the records of the old Ballarat Orphanage. Photographs from the Lake Tyers school, recently transferred to PROV from the Education Department will also be used in Finding Your Story.

Finding Your Story will provide a comprehensive and cohesive resource of government and non-government record and archival collections in Victoria relevant to the Stolen Generations and their families.

The publication seeks to assist in breaking down the barriers that surround access to records. Finding Your Story will be useful and practical by being written and presented in a clear, concise and culturally appropriate manner achieved by extensive consultation and input from Koorie user groups. As well as in printed form, the Finding Your Story Resource Manual will be available on the Victorian Koorie Records Taskforce website.

4. Provenance, Call for Papers

The first online issue of Provenance – the journal of Public Record Office Victoria was published in November 2004. We are now calling for papers for the 2005 issue which will be published later this year.

The basic requirement for articles to be considered for publication in Provenance is that the research done for the article includes records from PROV’s holdings. There is no subject restriction and we welcome articles from family and local historians, academics, students and anyone who believes they have an interesting story to relate.

A brief for contributions can be found at http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/provenance/cfp.asp. Please contact: The Editor, Provenance by email to ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au or by phone (03) 9348 5600 to discuss submission of an article.

5. Exhibitions

- Transported Back has proven to be one of PROV’s most successful exhibitions with hundreds of visitors coming through the VAC’s doors to view the fascinating black and white photography of the Public Transport Corporation collection. The exhibition has been extended until 18 March, 2005. So if you haven’t had a chance to visit the VAC to see the striking images of Victoria’s public transport history, now is your final chance!

This is what some visitors have said about the exhibition:
Great collection.
Excellent, fascinating but we always want more!
Lovely!
Captured a moment in history
Reliving memories.
Fantastic photography.
Valuable historic records.
Early memories of father, grandfather, g.grandfather.
Excellent – had a picture of my grandparents shoe business.
I particularly enjoyed the then and now pictures of Docklands.
Looking forward to further displays.

Visit http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/access/ptc.asp to search the database of thousands of images from this wonderful collection. You can also visit Museum Victoria’s Victorian Railway website at http://www.museums.vic.gov.au/railways to view a selection of images and other railways material.

- Forgotten Faces – Chinese and the Law, PROV’s first new exhibition for 2005 will be on display from early April.

The exhibition will feature haunting photographs of Chinese male prisoners selected from nineteenth century prison registers in PROV’s custody (VPRS 522 and VPRS 515) that are among the scant original documents available today of the Chinese community in nineteenth-century Victoria. The images will be accompanied by bilingual text panels that describe the crimes, life experiences and struggles of the Chinese prisoners displayed.

For further information, contact PROV on ph (03) 9348 5600.

6. What’s New

- New material online
A digital copy of VPRS 8904 P1 Subject Index to Town Clerks Correspondence Files (VA 511) City of Melbourne is now available online. You can use this index to locate references to correspondence on particular topics in the City of Melbourne records. The images can be found through our 'Records Online' page: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/access/online.asp

- Archives@Victoria
Victorian Public Record Series (VPRS) are occasionally reprocessed as research by PROV archivists uncover more about the records and their context. The lists appearing below may include some reprocessed series, as well as new accessions and transfers of additional consignments to existing series. The lists may also include records that are closed (in part or whole) to general public access in PROV reading rooms. If a record has been closed under section 9 or section 10 of the Public Records Act, you may need to apply for access under Freedom of Information. To do this, you will need to know which Government department is responsible for the particular records and staff in our reading rooms can provide assistance with this. In some instances you can also apply for Special Access to some closed records by writing to the Keeper of Public Records for permission. PROVguide 14 has information on how to go about this.

For further information, please visit http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/archivesvictoria or contact PROV reference staff.

VA 4055 Standing Review and Advisory Committee on Infertility
VPRS 11258 Minutes 1985 – 1997 (Section 10 Closure)
VPRS 11259 Special Report Records 1985 – 1996 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 11260 Unregistered Inward and Outward Correspondence 1985 – 1997 (Section 10 Closure)

VA 2550 Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
VPRS 30/P14 Criminal Trial Briefs 1992 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 30/P15 Criminal Trial Briefs 1975-1992 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 30/P16 Criminal Trial Briefs 1993 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 30/P17 Criminal Trial Briefs 1976-1994 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 30/P18 Criminal Trial Briefs 1994 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 30/P19 Criminal Trial Briefs 1862-1950 (Part Open / Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 30/P20 Criminal Trial Briefs 1995 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 30/P21 Criminal Trial Briefs 1982-1997 (Section 9 Closure)
VPRS 14414/ P1 Prosecution and Litigation Records 1996 (Section 9 Closure)

VA 2807 State Coroners Office
VPRS 24/P17 Inquest Deposition Files 1997 (Section 10 Closure)
VPRS 24/P18 Inquest Deposition Files 1998 (Section 10 Closure)
VPRS 10010/P15 Body Cards 1996 (Section 10 Closure)
VPRS 10010/P16 Body Cards 1991
VPRS 10010/P17 Body Cards 1997 (Section 10 Closure)
VPRS 10010/P18 Body Cards 1992
VPRS 11901/P11 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1991
VPRS 11901/P12 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1992
VPRS 11901/P13 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1994
VPRS 11901/P14 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1995
VPRS 11901/P15 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1997
VPRS 11901/P16 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1998
VPRS 11901/P17 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1996
VPRS 11901/P18 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1994
VPRS 11901/P19 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1995
VPRS 11901/P20 Database for the Management and Control of Coronial Investigations 1996

7. Victorian Archives Centre Saturday Openings Calendar, 2005

Free magnetic calendars featuring all the Saturday openings for 2005 are available from the VAC and BAC. Keep them handy on your refrigerator or filing cabinet for easy reference to VAC Saturday Openings.

PROactive subscribers have received the calendars with the summer issue of the newsletter sent out in January. PROV provided an opportunity for PROactive subscribers to win a free copy of the PROV publication Private Lives, Public Records by being the first person to email us with the typographical error on the calendar.

A winner has been identified, and will be named in issue 34 of PROactive, due out in April / May. Pleas note that the error was not in the advertised open days – all Saturday openings are shown correctly on the calendar.

If you do not receive PROactive and would like to subscribe to receive the free full colour publication 3 times a year, email ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au and provide your details including full name, organisation (if applicable) and mailing address.

8. Saturday Openings, February - April 2005

The Victorian Archives Centre Reading Room is open on the second and last Saturday of each month, excepting long weekends. Saturday openings for February to April are; 12 February, 26 February, 9 April and 30 April. There are no Saturday openings for March 2005 due to the public holiday weekends.

9. PROV Calendar, February - April 2005

Visit the PROV calendar for speaking engagements and other dates: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/events/patrn.asp#speaking

10. Feedback

We welcome your feedback and suggestions on the content of this newsletter via ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au. If you know someone who would be interested in receiving rEsearch, they can subscribe by emailing a request to ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au.

11. About this publication

We have included you on our mailing list because you already receive news publications from PROV, or because you have indicated interest in receiving email information. However, if you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please email us at ask.prov@dvc.vic.gov.au or phone PROV Reception (03) 9348 5600 and we will remove you from the list.

ISSN 1499-0331
Copyright © 2005 Public Record Office Victoria

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