Practicum Entry 13 January 2010

Today we began the process of moving the records culled from the Wellington City Council's Permits and Consents department to the Archive. I took a field trip to the offices on Wakefield St. and worked with the people at the city offices. It was interesting to see the records in their initial state as current records that are in a state of more immediate use. The staff had a list of the files that were due for removal to the Archive. I worked with staff to locate, list, and describe the files, box them up and prepare them to be transported to the Archive. This month's cull was exceptionally large and the culling took most of the day to accomplish. This type of work is a bit repetitive but I can see how accuracy would have been important to ensure the future availability of the records. During my time at the Council office we filled over 40 boxes of files for removal. This cleared out a significant amount of space. It is clear to me that this monthly purge of documents requires a stable plan on both the current record side and the archival side in order to maintain a functioning collection. Having a retention and disposal plan and sticking to those directives ensures that there is accountability as well as a recognized pattern for staff to follow.