NRS-19503 | Oral history recordings, transcripts and tape logs [Department of Public Works and Services]

This series comprises of recordings of the oral history produced by the Department of Public Works. In the mid 1980s the Department of Public Works established a History project to write departmental histories to coincide with the Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. It was from this initiative that an oral history project was established with a more structured approach and in 1991 an Oral History Committee was formed. The Chairpersons of the committee were:- Michael (Mike) Clarke, Chief Engineer, 1991-1992- Donald (Don) Coleman, Assistant Government Architect, 1992-1995- Elizabeth (Liz) Lennon, Manager Corporate Personnel, 1995-96- Neil Creighton, Manager Human Resources, 1996-1997- William (Bill) Fletcher, Manager Heritage Services (Stoneyard) 1997-2002- Anthony (Tony) Mitchell, Records Manager 2002-2003 Instead of random interviews the committee focused on activity areas of the Department and, to give coherence and structure to the project, planned to produce a 'story' or summary tape at the end of the project that would be a history of the subject. The committee also decided, early on, to commission professional oral historians to conduct interviews and prepare the summary tape rather than rely on departmental staff.In pursuing its objectives the committee adopted the following practices: members proposed topics for the program, suggested possible contributors to be interviewed, and suitable interviewers, and nominated a current or former staff member familiar with the topic who might be able to undertake the project management. The committee would endorse a proposal and appoint a project manager. The project manager would prepare a storyline, contact possible interviewees, and brief and liaise with the appointed interviewer to ensure that the interviews and summary tape were completed.The recordings can be summarised as containing:- Oral history interviews and summary recordings undertaken under the Oral History Program (not all projects resulted in summary tapes)- Interviews with former staff that were not related to the Oral History Program- Interviews for projects undertaken by departmental officers as part of a service to clients, but not undertaken under the Oral History Program- Interviews from projects acquired by or donated to the Oral History Program- Recordings of forums, meetings, addresses and activities of the Department- Radio interviews with Departmental staff related to the Department’s programsAmong the collection are interview tapes with former staff who had contributed substantially through their careers in the public service, but who did not fall into an established project - these are the series of 'General' interviews and 'Biographical Interviews'. Included also are recordings of workshops and forums related to project planning, broadcast interviews relating to the Department's programs, and the interviews of three major projects that were not undertaken under the oral history program but were created or received by the department in the course of its business: interviews for an oral history of Millers Point that was project managed by the Government Architects Branch for the Department of Housing, and of Taronga Park Zoo, and oral history interviews relating to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a responsibility of Public Works Department, that were donated to the Department by the oral historian.The committee determined that the interviews and summary tapes should be on 60 minute audio-cassettes.In January 2010 Information Services in Department of Services Technology and Administration established a program to digitise the recordings to specified formats required by State Records. This program was undertaken concurrently with other programs and completed in September 2010. The recordings were saved to a hard disk for transfer to State Records, and backed up on DSTA network drives. The digitised copies have not been cleaned or enhanced and are as close to the quality of the original recording as it was possible to achieve.Originally transcripts were made of recordings. When it became too expensive, tapes were logged: a project was undertaken to retrospectively log the tapes of projects that were not logged at the time of creation.System of arrangement and controlInitially, each project was assigned a sequential project number. Many projects were proposed and assigned project numbers but did not come to fruitionProjects were identified by subject. A title was given to the summary tape after it had been produced and accepted: some projects did not have summary tapes and some summary tapes were only unedited drafts. Where there is not a finished summary tape the draft, if there is one, has been included in the collection. A number of interviews are covered by copyright and will not be available online until copyright has ceased. Researchers requiring to listen to these interviews may do so in the Reading Room at the Western Sydney Records Centre.

本系列藏品由公共工程部（Department of Public Works）制作的口述历史（Oral History）录音组成。20世纪80年代中期，公共工程部为配合1988年两百周年纪念庆典，启动了部门史撰写项目。正是这一举措催生了采用标准化流程的口述历史项目，并于1991年成立了口述历史委员会（Oral History Committee）。该委员会历任主席依次为：1991-1992年的首席工程师迈克尔·克拉克（Michael Clarke，昵称迈克）；1992-1995年的助理政府建筑师唐纳德·科尔曼（Donald Coleman，昵称唐）；1995-1996年的企业人事经理伊丽莎白·伦农（Elizabeth Lennon，昵称莉兹）；1996-1997年的人力资源经理尼尔·克莱顿（Neil Creighton）；1997-2002年的遗产服务（石料场）经理威廉·弗莱彻（William Fletcher，昵称比尔）；2002-2003年的档案管理员安东尼·米切尔（Anthony Mitchell，昵称托尼）。
该委员会摒弃随机访谈模式，转而聚焦公共工程部的核心业务领域，并为赋予项目连贯性与结构性，计划在项目尾声制作一份“叙事性”汇总录音带，作为对应主题的历史记录。此外，委员会早在初期便决定委托专业口述历史学者开展访谈并制作汇总录音带，而非依赖部门内部员工。
在推进项目目标的过程中，委员会采用了以下工作流程：委员们可提出项目主题、推荐潜在访谈对象与合适的访谈员，并提名熟悉该主题的现任或前任员工担任项目管理负责人。委员会将对提案进行审议通过，并任命项目负责人。项目负责人需制定叙事大纲、联系潜在访谈对象，并与指定访谈员沟通协调，确保访谈及汇总录音带顺利完成。
本系列录音可分为以下类别：
1. 口述历史项目框架下开展的口述历史访谈与汇总录音（并非所有项目都产出了汇总录音带）；
2. 与口述历史项目无关的前任员工访谈录音；
3. 部门职员为客户提供服务时开展的访谈录音，但未纳入口述历史项目框架；
4. 口述历史项目收购或获赠的项目访谈录音；
5. 公共工程部举办的论坛、会议、演讲及相关活动录音；
6. 与部门工作相关的部门员工广播访谈录音。
藏品中还包含了一批前任员工的访谈录音，这些员工在公共服务职业生涯中贡献突出，但未被纳入既定项目范畴——这部分即为“通用访谈（General interviews）”与“传记访谈（Biographical Interviews）”系列。此外，藏品还包括与项目规划相关的研讨会与论坛录音、与部门工作相关的广播访谈录音，以及三项未纳入口述历史项目框架，但由部门在业务过程中制作或获赠的大型项目访谈录音：分别是由政府建筑师分部管理的米勒角口述历史项目访谈、塔龙加动物园（Taronga Park Zoo）相关访谈，以及由口述历史学者捐赠给公共工程部的悉尼海港大桥（Sydney Harbour Bridge）建造口述历史访谈（该项目原属公共工程部职责范畴）。
委员会规定，所有访谈与汇总录音带均需使用60分钟盒式录音带存储。2010年1月，服务技术与行政部（Department of Services Technology and Administration，简称DSTA）下属的信息服务部门启动了一项计划，将所有录音按照州档案馆（State Records）要求的格式进行数字化处理。该项目与其他多项计划并行推进，并于2010年9月完成。数字化后的录音被存储于硬盘中，待移交至州档案馆，并在DSTA的网络驱动器上进行备份。数字化副本未经过清理或音质优化，尽可能保留了原始录音的音质。
原本所有录音均配有文字稿本，但因成本过高，后续改为对磁带进行日志记录：曾开展过一项回溯性日志记录项目，对创作初期未进行日志记录的项目磁带进行补录。
### 整理与管控体系
最初，每个项目均被分配一个连续的项目编号。有不少项目虽已获批并分配编号，但最终未能付诸实施。
项目以主题进行分类标识。汇总录音带在制作完成并验收后会被赋予标题：部分项目未产出汇总录音带，部分汇总录音带仅为未编辑的草稿。若项目无最终版汇总录音带，则将其对应的草稿（如有）纳入藏品。
部分访谈录音受版权保护，在版权保护期届满前无法上线发布。研究人员如需收听此类录音，可前往西悉尼档案中心（Western Sydney Records Centre）阅览室进行查阅。