University of Melbourne

Records Services

Records Services is comprised of four service areas who offer services relating to records management from the point of creation onwards. Our mission is to assist the University in achieving an international reputation for academic excellence by providing quality service and best practice in records management. The four areas include - Central Records, Minutes Office, Records Management Program, Imaging Centre.

Central Records is the service area of Records Services which is responsible for the information storage and retrieval of the University's administrative and policy files, serving the information management needs of the University administration and ensuring the development of the "corporate memory".

Enquiries concerning student matters including requests for Academic Transcripts, are handled by a different area called Student Administration.  The Minutes Office is a service area of Records Services which is responsible for indexing of Minutes, Agendas and Agenda Papers of the University Council. The Minutes Office also provide advice and guidelines on the preparation and forwarding of Minutes, Agendas and Agenda Papers, along with providing an information retrieval service for Council and Committee records in their custody.

The Imaging Centre (formerly the Micrographics Centre) is a unit of Records Services whose role is to provide an archival quality microfilming service to the University community and to provide a medium volume business document scanning service to Administrative departments.
The Records Management Program offers a service to all University Faculties, Departments and Offices. Their main objectives are to:

* develop and implement an integrated records and information management programme within the University;

* ensure the efficient retrieval and storage of information within the University and safeguard all administrative, legal and archival requirements with respect to University records.

They  also develop and deliver training programs.

University Archives

The University of Melbourne Archives was established in July 1960, initially to collect and preserve records relating to the University and to business and business people for the purposes of historical research.  The University's own records date from its foundation in 1853 and as well as administrative records, records of student societies and the personal papers of many former academic staff are available for research. The business collections include the records of wholesalers and retailers, factories and foundries, solicitors and architects, along with the records of some of Australia 's largest mining companies.

From 1973 the Archives began to collect trade union and other labour history material; more than one hundred trade unions are now represented in the Archives' collections. During the same period, the Archives began also to collect records of professional, community, women's, peace and political organisations.

Records are collected to be used, and the highest priority of Archives is making its collections available for research. Whether interested in the history of the University, or architecture, manufacturing, commerce, economics, trade unionism, engineering, art, theatre, mining, science, politics, the professions, biography, education, law, the women's movement, pacifism or war, researchers will find major resources in the Archives' collections.

The University of Melbourne also undertakes responsibility for FOI, Privacy Policy, and Copyright. Although Records Services and University Archives may play a in role in some of the activities related to these responsibilities, they do not carry the full responsibility for these areas.
 

Link to Melbourne University Records