A repository of change: the redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial's Research Centre.

Abstract

The repository at Research Centre at the Australian War Memorial was completely refurbished in 1998. The authors were closely involved in this project from early in 1997. The refurbishment has been part of the major redevelopment of the Memorial's galleries. The paper will cover the part the redevelopment played in the overall renewal of an important national collecting institution.

The paper sets the context for the refurbishment of the repository within the redevelopment of the Research Centre and of the Australian War Memorial. It outlines the process followed during the planning stage of the redevelopment, before discussing the many challenges faced by the Research Centre during the construction phase. A service to the public was maintained from two main locations, the 7km of collections were housed in three different places, and there were three major, and four minor, collection moves, as well as two major staff moves, between April and November 1998.

The paper describes how the challenge, to move and rehouse safely and efficiently a burgeoning collection in one of Australia's premier heritage buildings, was met. It discusses some of the innovative solutions designed and employed to transform the repository, which houses the Memorial's unique comprehensive written record of Australia's involvement in wars in the twentieth century. The collection includes both archival and library material. It comprises Australia's official records of war, private records and special materials created during conflicts, together with a vast collection of published material including books and maps. The paper also outlines the data and the skills that were developed during the process, including how to calculate the time, equipment and staffing required to achieve a collection move of any size.

Introduction

The Australian War Memorial (AWM) was established to commemorate the sacrifice of Australians at war. Under the Australian War Memorial Act, it conducts commemorative events, maintains a museum, an archive, a library and an art gallery. It aims to be the centre of excellence for the study of the Australian experience of war and warlike operations.

The activities of the Memorial are much like those of other museums. It maintains a collection and makes it available through exhibition and interpretation. It conducts and encourages research and disseminates information.

Its collection has mainly been acquired through official programs to collect evidential material and material which documents historical events. The most notable collecting activity occurred during the First World War, when C.E.W. Bean set up the Australian War Records section. Similar programs were conducted in subsequent conflicts. Continued development of the collection occurs through donation and purchase. The Memorial now holds a large variety of relics (armoured tanks, planes, weapons, uniforms, flags, medals). It has over 30 000 works of art, 6 000 private documents, 800 000 photographs, 25 000 maps, 60 000 books and 3 million feet of film. Unusually for a museum, the Memorial also holds 3.75km of official or Commonwealth archives.

The Research Centre

In the early 1970's the Memorial provided very rudimentary public research facilities. Bill Gammage, author of the Broken Years, published in 1973, recalls the problems of locating a desk and chair so he could consult the letters and diaries of World War 1 soldiers. Over the years, the public demand for research services has risen and a range of different strategies have been adopted to meet it.

The Memorial's Research Centre was established in 1982. It consisted of a reading room where visitors could access the reference library, original documents and copies of photograph and film collections. Curators provided reference services and responded to enquiries received by letter and telephone.

In 1989 a small team of information services staff was created within the Research Centre. They became the first port of call for all enquiries, with only the more specialist enquiries being referred to curators. In 1993 it was necessary to increase the size of the team and to establish clear service level standards.

The Research Centre's activities have been supported by a philosophy of 'collection management for access'. Official and private records, photographs and films, and art works have been documented and copied for preservation and access purposes. The first automated collection management system was installed in 1986. A second system was implemented in 1989, incorporating a public access catalogue and video disk images. When technology allowed, these images were converted to digital format. The Memorial's large holding of Commonwealth records is listed on ANGAM, the National Archives of Australia database, and its library collections on a separate new system, FIRST.

The Research Centre now responds to over 40 000 enquiries per year for information and access to the collection. Our clients include professional researchers, academics, post-graduate students, ex-service people, documentary film-makers, publishers, the media, government departments, local governments, schools and the general public, many researching their own or their relatives experiences.

The process of renewal

By the early 1990s it was obvious that the Memorial's galleries and the heritage building which housed them, required upgrading. The senior management group began some long term planning resulting in a series of Master Plans outlining redevelopment strategies for the galleries, the building and the site. A program was established to raise funds from government, corporate and private sponsorship. Submissions were made to government to address capital works associated with the heritage building and to address the Occupational Health and Safety Audit problems in the Research Centre.

In 1997, the Gallery Development Program was established. It provided the opportunity for the redesign of the physical layout of the Research Centre and the review of its services. Under its umbrella, a team of two coordinated the liaison with staff, stakeholders, designers and the project architect.

Staff and clients provided significant input into the planning process. Staff had been frustrated for years by poor storage facilities, crowded staff areas, noisy and congested public spaces, limited online access to the collections and by the fact that many visitors were never aware that the Centre existed. They knew a lot about the things they were not doing well, and had many ideas for improvements. A major survey of clients was undertaken in 1993. In 1997, the survey was repeated and a series of focus group sessions were held with identified client groups.

From the information gathered some clear goals were distilled. These could be summarised as:

• better integration of the Research Centre into the galleries
• increased client self help services
• efficiencies in servicing the growing demand from visitors and remote clients
• improved physical layout and facilities of the public areas
• improved collection security and control
• removal of Occupational Health and Safety problems in the staff and storage areas
• establish a basis for future improvements (and engender a continuous improvement culture)

Challenges we responded to

While the redevelopment included the repository, the staff work area and the reading room, the following remarks refer to the repository, which was the most complex aspect of the work and in which the authors were most closely involved.

Initially the project seemed mammoth and mysterious. As one staff member put it, there was no path to follow; we had to make it, with machetes. We gradually realised that the planning phase was not all going to be done for us by knowledgable extra staff or consultants. Indeed, it had to be done in addition to our normal jobs and while we maintained our usual service. None of us had any major experience in large-scale redevelopment of a repository. The knowledge and skills required did not seem to fit well with those usually expected of archivists and librarians. We were not allocated a budget. We had to work with an arm's length relationship with the architect and designer through an intermediary.

We soon realised that being part of a larger scale redevelopment of the Memorial meant that the attention of the human resources of the organisation was largely focussed elsewhere, and that we were expected to take care of the Research Centre because "we would know about that", a phenomenon with which many librarians will be able to identify. Our task was transacted entirely behind the scenes, which meant we lacked any limelight that may have shone on other aspects of the Memorial's renewal. The task had to be done within the constraints of an old heritage building which could not be extended and which had hidden traps which were only discovered once the work commenced.

We set out to find out what others knew. Some of the available literature was useful, and we were able to call on contacts at the Australian Defence Forces Academy, the National Library of Australia, the State Libraries of NSW and Victoria, the Powerhouse Museum and the Australian Geological Survey Office. No other project closely matched what we were planning, but there were lessons to be learned from all of them. We were reminded of the truism that librarians are a co-operative and resourceful group.

At first we thought to move all the collections offsite. With hindsight this may have been a better approach. At the time we had no budget and no control over other organisational budgets. This lack of funds was alleviated somewhat later in the project with the start of a new financial year. By this time we had taken certain decisions which had set our course. We also had enough experience to negotiate more convincingly for the resources required. We were able to analyse the reactions of staff to changes in type and load of work and advise management when specialist assistance was critical. We learned to pay attention to individual's special needs and allocate jobs with which they were comfortable.

Renting storage space had proved too costly an option and we consequently decided to keep a lot of collections on site. This meant a lot of extra work, especially as some of the collections had to be moved several times to allow for building work. It also exposed the collections to a risk from dust. Despite our best efforts the collections became very dusty and it was tedious and expensive to have them cleaned. This money could have been spent on offsite storage. The project was not resourced in a systematic way.

An early accomplishment was to locate a consultant to assist us in the complex job of designing a new repository, profiling the collection and planning the logistics of rehousing it. We benefited enormously from this relationship, as he was able to assist us in all sorts of ways, specialised design software and practical experience in such matters as compactus construction and the reuse of existing equipment with modifications. Prior to the refurbishment our book collection was in a single run. The consultant convinced us that separate runs for different size materials would enable storage efficiencies. He provided different scenarios for what we could store off site helping us to balance considerations of security and access. His time was split between several projects, some much bigger than ours, so we needed to be flexible in how we used his time.

We identified duplicate and low use material for offsite storage or disposal and established a relationship with a service provider to assist us. We planned the move ourselves and our own people performed much of the collection moving work, with assistance from hired casual labour at key points. We learned to play one company off against other and to make them keep their large promises. Next time we would make them prove they had an employee assigned to us who knew Dewey before we engaged their company. During construction the collections were stored both onsite and offsite. Concern for the safety of the material boxed and kept on site was a constant preoccupation.

The Research Centre closed from April to November 1998 to enable the building works and the collection moves to proceed. A limited service was conducted through the reading room of the National Archives of Australia, and the letter, telephone and e-mail enquiry and Image Sales were maintained. This meant we were providing service at two separate locations, while our collections where in three places, when we could least afford to duplicate staffing. After much thought we had decided it was better to provide a skeleton service than to close everything down; indeed, it was not possible to close when we were bound to provide access under the provisions of the Archives Act. We also needed to keep faith with our clients as far as possible.

Much of our time was spent physically moving the collections while the building work was going on. We had to keep one step ahead of the builders, and they released parts of the building to us as they finished. We had to juggle our plans and rosters to fit in with variations in progress by the builders. At times this meant we had to fill rosters during school holiday periods, and through Winter's illnesses, which we had hoped to avoid.

Our staff members were dispersed across several locations, some were kilometres apart, making communications difficult at a time when we needed to enhance team spirit in order to achieve a large, complex and physically demanding move. While all staff rose to the challenge there were some who enjoyed the transformation from sedentary intellectual worker to physical labour more than others.

Outcomes

We are very happy with the new repository. It is more coherent and efficient. Material is housed in an accessible way, thanks to the detailed profiling we did before it was replaced in the new storage area. High use material is located closest to the Reading Room so as to speed retrieval. It is a bright and clean area with space for PCs. Due to other organisational requirements, our storage space is smaller than when we started. Consequently, some of our collections are stored offsite; much of this material is low use or duplicates. We are still trying to achieve the right balance of ideal security and access.

As well as our new Repository, we gained valuable skills and data. We learned the value of project management tools like Gantt charts in planning and executing the three major and four minor moves we did. We learned how to successfully negotiate for the resources to do the task at hand. We now have an excellent set of data about the size and housing of each of our collections. On a purely practical level, we have learnt how to measure collections and space, how to keep collections in order while they are being moved, and how to calculate time, equipment and staffing requirements for a move of any size. We learnt how to provide access to collection items and to keep track of them. We learned when to use expert assistance, and when to rely on internal skills and resources. In the end, we found that that which had been mysterious, became familiar, and the mammoth became manageable..