Report on the Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited Archival Project
17 February 2009
Michael Jones,Ann McCarthy and Rachel Tropea
Collection details:
Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited Collection, MS 13626, State Library of Victoria, Australia.
Online Guide details:
Barbara Cytowicz, Ann McCarthy, Gavan McCarthy, Michael Jones, and Rachel Tropea, Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited Guide to Records, eScholarship Research Centre, The University of Melbourne, 2008 [date accessed].
On 22 December 2008 we completed the arrangement and description of the Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited collection. The final boxtally for this collection is 132.
Most of the information in this report is based on our Accession notes in the Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited HDMS. We documented any changes to the existing data, or any new information as it came to light, and we included our names and the date with each note we made.
Time taken: We completed the arrangement and description of these records over approximately 60days, working from 31July – 22 December 2008.
Accession:
As there were no accessions listed in HDMS, an accession was done retrospectively on 31 July 2008. The Accession notes were entered following a survey of the PMA records at the State Library of Victoria, and a full review of the ASAP "PIGM" office files.
Provenance:
Little is known about how the Provenance entries found in HDMS were arrived at, or the official structure of the company. On first opening this HDMS database we found that all the provenance entries except for Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited had only titles entered, with no other information.
From our intial investigations we were not sure where the Provenance 'Administration' came from. We could find no evidence of this entity as a department or similar in any of the organisational charts available. Gavan McCartthy, who was present at the original records survey, said that this and many other provenance ‘entities’ listed in HDMS were likely to be general classifications of groups of records assigned during the survey. He concluded the next archivist who came to process these records in 1996 may have mistaken these classifications as Provenance.
We therefore conducted a full review of provenance for the collection, based on the records, organisational information from the collection, consultation with Gavan, and survey documents from 1991.
The provenance of Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited was assigned to those items in this collection where it was not possible to determine a finer provenance attribution. This was noted in the relevant Series and Inventory Item details, and also in provenance entry for PMA Ltd.
Regarding Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand Limited files pre-dating the formation of PMA Ltd, due to the way the records were handled at the time the plant closed the assignation of provenance for some of these items is difficult. Initially, where finer attribution of provenance was not possible, it had been assumed Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited, as custodian of these files from 1970 to the closure of the pigments plant, retained these as an active part of their filing system.
In December 2008, during the final arrangement of provenance, it was decided to create separate provenance entities for Pigments Plant at Laverton (ICIANZ) and departments within the Pigments Plant during this time. As a result, for files pre-dating the formation of PMA Ltd where finer attribution of provenance was not possible and there is no clear evidence they remained part of PMA Ltd's active files, Pigments Plant at Laverton (ICIANZ) has been used as the default.
Changes to Provenance entries:
The provenance assigned to items previously was based on categories of the business which did not represent actual entities or departments within the business. In addition, distinction had not been made between PMA Ltd departments and ICIANZ departments, or the operation of the plant by ICIANZ prior to the formation of PMA Ltd - essentially, different entities. The provenance in place was as follows:
1 - Pigment Manufacturers of Australia (PMA)
2 - Administration
3 - Development
4 - Development - Bozica Bistricki
5 - Development - Training
6 - Health and Safety
7 - Management
8 - Personnel
9 - Production
10 - Production/Development
11 - Production/Laboratory
12 - Sales
To more accurately reflect the structure of the company and changing entities over time, the list of provenance entities (created and arranged based on information on organisational structure contained in the collection, the ASAP office files, original survey documents from 1991, and consultation with Gavan McCarthy) is as follows:
1 - Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Ltd (PMA Ltd)
2 - General Manager - PMA Ltd
3 - Personnel- PMA Ltd
4 - Production- PMA Ltd
5 - Operations- PMA Ltd
6 - Development- PMA Ltd
7 - Pigments Plant at Laverton (ICIANZ)
8 - Works Manager - Pigments Plant at Laverton
9 - Personnel - Pigments Plant at Laverton
10 - Production - Pigments Plant at Laverton
11 - Development - Pigments Plant at Laverton
12 - Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand Limited (ICIANZ)
Assigning Sequence Numbers:
When we began processing, we found the records had been boxed in one sequence, and item processed in a different sequence. Each series was housed randomly throughout the collection. For example, Series 1 Box 1 contained PMA0185-86, Box 2 contained PMA0074-77, Box 61 included PMA1083-86 and Box LB1 contained PMA0140 (this file has not been located). There were no series/sequence numbers.
We wanted to know whether to preserve the current physical order of the records in the Guide. Gavan suggested two options. The first was to assign series/sequence numbers across everything if the order in the cartons (the original boxes) made good sense. Otherwise, we could indicate where in the carton the file was by entering the carton and part numbers in the 'Container and Number' field of the Inventory table, e.g. 01-01 for the first file in carton 1. If using the second otpion, Gavan suggested we also make a note of this in "About the Records". After we could decide if/how we wanted to present this sequence in the Guide.
In the end we decided to:-
a) Record the carton number in the 'Container and Number' field of the Inventory table for every item;
b) Physically re-order the records so that the series are grouped together;
c) Where it was appropriate to preserve the existing physical order, assign series-sequence numbers to the items reflecting their order in the carton;
d) In cases where it was not appropriate to preserve the existing physical order, we put them into the order that was most logical in each series. For example, in Series 5 where notebooks 1-5 were out of order, we put them in numerical order by notebook number and assigned series/sequence numbers to them in this order. In these cases we assigned part numbers reflecting their order as found in the carton, and included the part numbers in the Container and Number field.
We wrote both the unique item ID and series-sequence numbers on the file. In the Guide, we ordered the inventory items under each series by their series-sequence number. The original sequence (recorded in the ‘Container and Number’ field of HDMS) has not been included in the guide.
Series:
We added a PMAS prefix to the Series IDs. A number of items and series were rearranged, with descriptions, titles, dates and other information edited, updated or removed as required based on the collection. Where these changes were significant, the details were noted in the Processing Notes of the relevant Accession.
Due to the large number of series in the collection, some very small series (housing one or two items) were consolidated with other series if the items could be clearly linked by provenance, item ID, physical location, content, etc. These conslidations were recorded in the Processing Notes of the relevant Accession.
On completion of the full re-listing, arrangement and re-housing of the collection, the following series were empty and have been deleted:
PMASS007 - Experimental Records (Owens, J)
PMASS008 - Dispersion Plant Process Development Notebooks
PMASS017 - Technical guidelines
PMASS022 - Health and Safety Committee Meetings, Manuals, etc
PMASS024 - Pigment Yields, Production forecasts etc.
PMASS029 - Standards for Equipment and Working Conditions
PMASS038 - Minutes - Staff Meetings (H2)
PMASS039 - Minutes - Maintenance (H3)
PMASS040 - Minutes - Works Council (H4)
PMASS041 - Minutes - Productivity Meetings (H8)
PMASS044 - Financial Statements
PMASS046 - Audit records
PMASS048 - Colour Slides
PMASS051 - Procedural/Operational Guides
PMASS056 - Staff Objectives, Internal Memos
PMASS064 - Annual Budget
PMASS065 - Operating Budget
PMASS068 - AZO Pigments Development Path
Arrangement and Description:
The item listings for all files and objects in the Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Collection were reviewed, expanded and (where required) corrected.
Some items were moved to different series, based on information in the office files, organisational details in the collection, and the adjusted provenance outlined above. Specific information on these moves has been included, listed by Item ID, in the Processing Notes of the relevant Accession
Preservation:
The full collection has been re-housed in archival acid-free folders and manuscript boxes. Where required, the Preservation department of the State Library of Victoria constructed phase boxes for irregular items. In addition, photographs, negatives and transparencies were removed from envelopes and albums and individually bagged, maintaining their order.
Where files were contained in large folders or binders with metal rings, the covers, spines and other printed surfaces were either removed from the metal sections and retained with the fileor (where this was not possible) digitised and the image attached to the relevant inventory item. For those items digitised, the binders were then discarded.
Large files have been split where appropriate, indicated by including ‘Part 1 of 3’, etc. in the Title Qualifier field of the inventory item. The Inventory ID has been used for Part 1, with additional inventory items created for Parts 2, 3, etc. The range of Inventory Identifiers created is: PMA1122 – PMA1239.
A large number of paint sample cards are included in the collection. These were previously in bundles, with each bundle contained in a plastic bag. Following consultation with Conservation at the State Library of Victoria these were re-housed separately, with one card per plastic bag. However, shortly after, the samples were found to be reacting with the plastic. Subsequently, the four boxes of paint samples which make up Series 53 – Blend Sample Cards have been re-housed in individual paper envelopes. The re-housing of the remaining sample cards in the collection is still outstanding. Arragements have been made with George Matoulas (Conservation – State Library of Victoria) for his department to complete the re-housing of the remaining samples. A list of the boxes and inventory items containing these samples has been provided to George.
Staples, paperclips, bulldog clips and other metal items have been removed from files in 111 boxes of the collection. The remaining 21 boxes still need to be checked and have metal objects removed. As above, a list of the relevant box numbers has been provided to George Matoulas, who will arrange for his department to complete the removal of metal objects from the collection.
Outsized Items:
Three items – PMA0672, PMA0766 and PMA0849 – consist of large plans or other material and require housing in a map or plan drawer at the State Library of Victoria. Kevin Molloy will contact us with the location of this drawer as soon as it has been assigned and the three outsized items will be labelled and moved. At present, the three items remain in SPC Pre-Store, KershawBuilding, Level 4, State Library of Victoria.
Missing Files:
Following a full survey of the collection, nine items were believed to be missing, and a note to this effect was added to each inventory item. These items were PMA0140, and PMA0145 to PMA0152 inclusive. On further investigation, the office file contains correspondence and papers relating to the transfer of items PMA0145 to PMA0151 to Museum Victoria in 1999. Following a request from Dean Wilson at Museum Victoria on 12 March 1999, Gavan McCarthy agreed to the transfer of these items - all safetygraphs - on 23 March 1999. The Museum of Victoria Receipt form (also included in the office file) is dated 30 April 1999. A note has been added to these items indicating they are now held by the Museum, and the previous note [THIS FILE IS MISSING (noted 8 August 2008)] has been removed. The Museum of Victoria registration number for each item has also been included.
Two items - PMA0140 and PMA0152 (listed in the guide as albums of site excavation and construction photographs) are still unaccounted for. An enquiry was sent to Museum Victoria regarding the two photograph albums to ascertain if they are in their collection. A return email was received from Jo Philo stating they have 316 items in their collection and requesting further information to assist her in narrowing her search. I sent a return email with all the information available from the database (titles, dates, formats, and linear quantities for each item), copying in Rachel so the email correspondence can be added to the office file.
On 5 December 2008: an email was received from Matthew Churchward - Senior Curator, Engineering and Transport. Museum Victoria - regarding the missing items. Matthew stated they have no one actively curating this area at present; however, he could not find any reference to the missing photograph albums or similar items in the collection. Museum Victoria does also have a supplementary file on the material from Pigment Manufacturers of Australia Limited they acquired; however, he is unable to locate the file at this time.
Access Conditions and Restricted Files:
Two types of files requiring restrictions have been found in this collection. First, files which were marked during accession as requiring a restriction (presumably due to commercial sensitivity) - for example PMA0311, which contained notes on the box and within the file stating the item is to remain closed until March 2016. Secondly, some files (eg. PMA0056 and PMA0057) contain staff files, including personal information, medical certificates resulting from sick leave, reasons for dismissal, etc.
We checked with Kevin Molloy (Manuscripts Librarian, SLV) regarding the treatment of these files, which have been listed in the database as closed. He requested that restricted files be boxed separately at the end of the PMA collection. These files and boxes will not be labelled restricted. Manuscripts staff maintain provenance files about each collection for papers about access conditions etc. He agreed that a list of the restricted PMA files would be useful for the provenance file for PMA.
We annotated each inventory item and the relevant series note in the HDMS databse to indicate restricted files. A full list of these files has been provided to Kevin.