More detail of the digitising here in an article from the Archives NZ website
Taking action on managing digital informationFri, 09/10/2009 - 1:19pm
Archives New Zealand's Digital Continuity team are raising awareness of the Digital Continuity Action Plan among public sector agencies based in the regions.
Dunedin Regional Archivist, Peter Miller says he was delighted that the first Digital Continuity Action Plan Roadshow was held in Dunedin at the University of Otago’s Centre for Innovation (on Monday 28 September).
“A group of fourteen people attended from the University, local government, and public offices to hear Digital Continuity Manager Evelyn Wareham and Adviser Mick Crouch outline what has been achieved so far, future plans, and expectations for managing digital information efficiently in the future,” Peter Miller said.
Two of the biggest public sector agencies in Dunedin are the University of Otago and the Dunedin City Council. Evelyn met with them separately before the forum and says they both have a strong understanding of the work Archives New Zealand is doing with the Digital Continuity Action Plan. They have been assessing their current standards and policies around managing digital information she says but still had a few issues they needed to talk through.
“One of the big issues for the council is property records. With their current resources they anticipate it would take about 80 years to digitise what they hold. They are also worried about small councils and local authorities, whether managing their own digital records, from creation to archiving, may be too much for them without the resources the larger councils have.
“Otago University on the other hand has to think about how to manage data and records from academic research as well as the huge amounts of records they accumulate during the day-to-day administration of the university.
“Members of the record keeping community who attended the forum were also very interested in what we had to say. Some of them hadn’t really been thinking about it so it was all new information for them,” said Evelyn Wareham.
Feedback from the forum was positive with attendees saying it was “…very interesting and very impressive to hear of these developments…excellent, practical/demystifying/useful – made you feel you could do something” and that they "…Found the hints on how to deal with digital material in a practical way very helpful. It reinforced knowledge of practices we are doing, as well as giving us some further ideas to take this forward – setting polices, forming communities of practice."
The Roadshow will be in Christchurch 21 October, with visits to Auckland planned for November.
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ANDwww.archives.govt.nz/about/news/2009/10/all-blacks-line-nzdf-filesAll Blacks line up in NZDF files
October 9, 2009
The military details of some former All Blacks who died in World War One are contained in the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel records now available on Archives New Zealand’s online search engine Archway.
Thirteen former All Blacks were killed in World War One — four of them within a fortnight in June 1917 when the New Zealand Division took part in the assault on the Messines ridge.
The most famous former All Black to lose his life during the war was Dave Gallaher, who captained the All Black Originals on their 1905-06 tour of Britain, France and North America. Gallaher was mortally wounded during the attack on Gravenstafel Spur and died a few hours later. He is buried at Nine Elms Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium.
The Gallaher Shield, awarded to the winner of Auckland’s premier club competition since 1922 and the Dave Gallaher Cup, awarded to the winner of the first rugby test between New Zealand and France in each calendar year since 2000, were both named in his honour.
The personnel records contain such information as next of kin, a summary of the date of enlistment, embarkation and discharge dates and length of service spent at home and overseas. They also record an individual’s postings to military units as well as promotions, medal entitlements, decorations and any gratuity payments made to them or their families after the war. Marriage and children’s details are also often recorded.
Archives Support Assistant (ASA) Norm Gough is in charge of the daily process of digitising the files. He says there are approximately 4600 of the 128,000 files now online.
“This has been a good learning curve for the staff involved in the project. It’s been a great effort and we have had good feedback. It means the department will provide a much improved customer service for people wanting to access these files,” said Norm.
To view NZDF personnel records go to Archway and enter ‘digitised record (surname)’ into the search function.
The NZDF personnel records available to view on Archway are for the following former All Blacks:
Albert Downing died 8 August 1915 at Gallipoli, aged 29 (26 matches for the All Blacks)
Henry Dewar, died 19 August 1915 at Gallipoli, aged 31 (16 matches for the All Blacks)
Frank Wilson, died 19 September 1916 at Somme, aged 31 (2 matches for the All Blacks)
Robert Black, died 21 September 1916 at Somme, aged 23 (6 matches for the All Blacks)
George Sellars, died 7 June 1917, at Messines, aged 31 (15 matches for the All Blacks)
James Baird, died 7 June 1917, in France aged 23 (1 match for the All Blacks)
Reginald Taylor, died 20 June 1917, at Messines, aged 28 (2 matches for the All Blacks)
James McNeece, died 21 June 1917, at Messines, aged 31 (11 matches for the All Blacks)
Dave Gallaher, died 4 October 1917, at Passchendaele, aged 43 (36 matches for the All Blacks)
‘Jum’ Turtill, died 9 April 1918, in France, aged 38 (1 match for the All Blacks)
Eric Harper, died 30 April 1918, in Palestine, aged 40 (11 matches for the All Blacks)
Ernest Dodd, died 11 September 1918, in France, aged 38 (3 matches for the All Blacks)
Alex Ridland, died 5 November 1918, in France, aged 36 (6 matches for the All Blacks)
