Sigrid McCausland
BA (ANU), Grad Dip Information Management – Archiv Admin (UNSW), PhD (UTS)
Position: Lecturer
Location: Building 5, Wagga Wagga Campus
Phone: (02) 6933 4892
Fax: (02) 6933 2733
E-mail: smccausland@csu.edu.au
Bio
I have extensive experience as an archivist, working mainly in government and universities. This included the role of University Archivist at the Australian National University where I had responsibility for Australia’s longest established business and labour archives, the Noel Butlin Archives Centre and the University’s own archives from 1998 to 2005. My other experience has been as a researcher and as Education Officer for the Australian Society of Archivists where I was involved in accrediting university courses and in developing workshops for professional and volunteer archivists.
My research has two main streams – one concerned with how archives and other cultural institutions including libraries and museums are valued by citizens while facing continual difficulties to secure adequate funding to meet expectations of their users and of government. The other stream is concerned with the impact of digitisation and the transition to digital records on the provision of reference services to users, in particular the challenge to the concept and practice of the reading room.
Research
- The future of the archives reading room
- Advocacy for archives, libraries and museums
- Labour archives in Australia
Teaching
- I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students in the records and archives management and collections management areas.
Professional Engagement
- Professional member, Australian Society of Archivists
- Member, Editorial Board of Archives and Manuscripts
- Corresponding member, Section on Archival Education and Training, International Council on Archives
Publications (selected)
- (2010) ‘Formation des archivistes en Australie: le rôle de l’Association des archivistes’ Gazette des Archives. 218, 2012-2, pp. 253-262.
- (2007) ‘Access: The success of advocacy’ in Australian Society of Archivists Made, kept and used: Celebrating 30 years of the Australian Society of Archivists, Canberra: ASA, pp. 18-27.
- (2005) ‘Labour’s memory: Comparing the evolution of, and challenges to, labour history archives in Australia, England, Wales and Scotland’ (with Alan Bell and Janette Martin) Labour History, 88, pp. 25-44. Available at http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lab/88/bell.html
- (2004) ‘The Australian business archives scene: Comments and comparisons’ (with Michael Piggott), Business Archives: Principles and Practice, 87, pp. 1-15.
- (2004) ‘Prospects’, in Barry Howarth and Ewan Maidment, editors, Light from the tunnel: Collecting the archives of Australian business and labour at the Australian National University, 1953-2003, Canberra: Friends of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, pp. 154-159.
- (2001) ‘Voices of opposition: Documenting Australian protest movements’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol 29, no 2, pp. 48-63.