Business Records At The Australian National University

Butlin, N G. Business Records at the Australian National University (foreword by Sir Keith Hancock), Canberra: Australian National University (first edition 1957, second edition, revised and enlarged, 1966)

This pamphlet is an important contribution to the early history of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, as well as to the historiography of archival studies in Australia. It was first published by N G Butlin in 1957 to report to the research community "on the series of business records, collected on an Australian wide scale …housed at Canberra". Here N G Butlin not only lists the first companies who agreed to transfer their records to the Australian National University, but also, significantly for his time, makes a clear statement that the Archives is not a library and requires differently trained staff to operate properly. He also held an advanced view at the time that organisations, which deposited records at the Archives, would also benefit from this in their "actual business operations" and envisaged the "fruitful liaison between the business and academic communities [that] can be established from this venture". The second revised edition of 1966 included updated information on the Archives’ holdings and its services, and re-iterated his views on the importance of preserving historical records of Australian businesses.