Project Overview

The City transformed the management and access to over 1 million archives and history resources, rationalising thirteen outdated systems into a single innovative user-centred digital solution that has been embraced by its communities. The project's strategic objectives were to: • Replace 13 systems with a single cloud based solution providing a public access portal, collection management, and digital preservation • Reach untapped audiences • Ensure customer-centred design and positive user engagement • Analytics to inform archives management and continuous improvement. When walking through a city you may wonder what it once looked like 50 or 100 years ago, or who once lived in your house. Municipal archives hold a city’s memory – capturing the changing nature of buildings, streets and suburbs and how people lived, worked and communicated with each other. Future generations will use archives to understand our current environment, celebrations and experiences and responses to challenges such as COVID-19. Archival information provides insights into long term environmental, economic, social, communication and cultural trends. The fundamental challenge is that archives are often difficult to navigate by the layperson. The project achieved a simple, easy to use, solution that connects people to the information they seek. While this sounds straightforward, similar projects elsewhere often fail to reconcile a user-friendly experience with the underlying complexity of archives data structures.

Organisation

City of Sydney

Team

The project team consisted of: Project Sponsor - Director of People, Performance and Technology Business Owner Manager of Information Management Business SME City Archivist Program Manager Project Manager Business Analyst Representatives from many teams provided advice and assistance to the project over time including Information Governance, Information Access, Document Services, Technology and Digital Services, Planning, Web Team, History team, Curatorial team, Spatial Information Services, Data Services, Marketing and Communications.

Project Brief

The City Archives Team manages a collection that extends back to the establishment of the Sydney City Council in 1842 and consists of over 10,000 shelf metres of archives in a wide variety of formats. An effective, functional and efficient system for managing and publishing the City Archives Collection stands at the core of the work of the Archives Team. This was a critical issue as existing systems were to become inoperable in the near future. Records and data managed in this system are unique to the City and are legislatively required for permanent retention. The State Records Act, 1998 (NSW) in particular impacts to a significant level on the management of the City Archives. This innovative solution: • leveraged customer-centred design underpinned by extensive research into user wants and needs • delivered a multitude of self-service pathways by which users of varying experience can access information • challenged industry norms through complete overhaul of the data model, data, and metadata • involved significant augmentation to data, for example geotagging 80,000 records • delivered an all-in-one cloud solution, providing collection management, digital preservation, and public access portal • removed impediments to use, for example no charge for downloading high-resolution images • delivered unprecedented analytics into back-end management activities (e.g. digitisation, conservation, and cataloguing) to inform strategic planning decisions • uses Google Analytics to identify the most popular items for continual evolution of the user experience.

Project Need

The CAMPAS project was conceived in 2015 out of necessity. An audit had highlighted that the City’s key archives management system, introduced in circa 2000, was unsupported and becoming obsolete and this was a risk to the accessibility of the City’s information. CAMPAS was conceived to replace ailing systems and to amalgamate as much archival information as possible into one user-friendly system. A research survey demonstrated that users found it difficult to understand, and most simply avoided it. In fact, by 2015 it was only receiving 1000 hits a year, and most of these were likely to be archives staff. In addition, the City was struggling to meet increased public demands for information, exacerbated by the introduction of the Government Information Public Access Act in 2009. Over 5000 requests for information were received yearly. Many request required the expertise of the Information Access or Archives teams to navigate the number and complexity of systems where information resided, many of which were not accessible to the public. This was resource intensive and unsustainable.

User Experience

The City took a pioneering approach when designing and implementing a new archives management system and public user portal. With the view that in this age of competition for attention with unprecedented volume of online information, adopting user-centred design is critical for archives to remain relevant and accessible in the 21st century. The user centred design methodology involved initial phases of workshops to identify existing and potential user groups and what their needs might be. User groups were defined including staff, the media, historians, family history researchers, architects, heritage architects, developers, members of the public. Every decision was made with a user lens: Is it giving users what they want? Will they understand intuitively how to use it? How can engagement be encouraged? All aspects of arrangement and description were reviewed and revised to ensure a better user experience. A vast increase in metadata capture (from 3 to 35 data elements), increased searching and filtering capability. Now you can search on anything from building plans to trams to a letter from Thomas Edison all in one place. You will find photos, documents, plans, files and people. A policy decision was made to waive fees for the provision of digitised or digital objects to the public, even those in high resolution, as charges an unnecessary impediment to access. Some GLAM sector organisations in Europe, such as the Rijks Museum, made similar decisions.

Project Marketing

The system, now known as Archives & History Resources catalogue, was launched to the public during 2020. The official launch of both the catalogue and the Developing Sydney exhibition (see below) was planned for 25 March 2020 at Customs House. Preparations included creating an invitation list, designing an invitation (in liaison with the Lord Mayor’s Office), organising catering and photography and an order of events and speeches. Unfortunately, with the outbreak of Covid-19, the launch was cancelled one week prior to the expected date. No official launch took place.

Project Privacy

Please find a link to the City’s Privacy Management Plan which details how the City of Sydney manages the privacy - https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/policies/privacy-management-plan. This document includes details on: How the City of Sydney manages personal and health information The legislation that regulates the collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information This application also meets the legislative requirements of: State Records Act, 1998 (NSW) Government Information (Public Access) Act, 2009 Privacy & Personal Information Protection Act, 1998