Report on Performance

Corporate Plan 2017–18 to 2020–21

PROV’s four-year Corporate Plan provides the strategic direction for the period 2017–18 to 2020–21. The Plan articulates the mission, primary strategic objectives and values of PROV; describes our current and emerging operating environment; and details our three overarching outcomes and strategic initiatives. It also details the guiding principles that we use when implementing these initiatives. .

Initiatives

• Improve recordkeeping practices across the public sector: We will continue to support effective recordkeeping in agencies by creating and mandating standards, promoting their implementation, and surveying and reporting on agency adherence and practice. • Increase use of the collection: We will continue to make our collection more accessible and ensure the needs of different communities accessing the collection are met. • Increase community engagement with public records: By supporting communities and engaging in community interaction, we will increase usage of the PROV collection and encourage good community collection management practices. • Build our profile: Our reputation as an inspiring, accessible and educational agency will be further increased with targeted communication campaigns to highlight the importance of government recordkeeping to the state and to the public, and our important service to the public and community, online and offline. • Identify and preserve records of state significance: We will work with agencies to identify records of significance, determine how long records should be kept to meet the government’s needs, support organisational accountability and meet community expectations. • Strengthen our culture and capability: Our programs over the next four years will ensure that our staff are equipped and supported to work in our changing technology environment.

We will strive to be a leader in diversity and inclusion and develop an employee value proposition. • Deliver, embed and leverage our systems:

We will complete the development and implementation of a new digital archive that is capable of supporting our electronic recordkeeping standard, and deliver additional business solutions to improve the efficiency and delivery of our service to government and the public. Detailed information about our activities under each of these initiatives can be found in the next section of the report.

Strategic Initiatives

Improve Recordkeeping Practices Across the Public Sector

Review of the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic)

In 2021, PROV has continued to work with the Public Records Advisory Council and the Department of Premier and Cabinet on policy issues and possible reforms linked to the review of the Public Records Act 1973 including addressing recommendations made by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office. Public consultation on the Act will take place in the next financial year.

Record and Disposal Authorities

PROV is responsible for the establishment of standards for the management of public records under Section 12 of the Public Records Act 1973. This includes the issuing of retention and disposal authorities (RDAs) to authorise the disposal of public records. During 2020–21 PROV undertook a series of projects to appraise and authorise disposal of records of two of the major Victorian Courts - the Magistrates’ and County Courts - as well as Court Services Victoria, responsible for the Victorian Reporting Service, together they represent a significant portion of the Court system. Redevelopment of key court buildings, requiring hardcopy records to be removed, and a major project to implement a new electronic case management system were key business drivers for the RDA development projects. The Magistrates’ and the County Courts’ holdings represent some of the most significant caches of hardcopy records remaining outside archival control. A report commissioned by Boston Consulting Group in 2015 noted that there were approximately 15,000 linear metres of court records in various locations around the state, both located in court buildings and in secondary storage. The Court records will be well complemented in the future by the transcripts of court hearings created by the Victorian Government Reporting Service, now formally specified as State Archives in a retention and disposal authority for the first time. Having these RDAs in place provides the Courts with a sound basis for dealing with the backlog, reduce costs in the longer term, support the preservation and accessibility of all records and prevent loss of digital records in future. We look forward to working with the Courts on the many records transfers to occur in the coming years.

Victorian Electronic Records Strategy 2020–21

The Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) is about ensuring the creation, capture and preservation of authentic, complete and meaningful digital records by the Victorian public sector. In 2020–21, as part of our 2018–21 VERS action plan, we completed phase 2 of the Machine Assisted Email Appraisal Proof of Concept. Email appraisal and preservation presents a challenge for government archival institutions the world over; key actions and decisions of government officials are documented daily in emails including email records which should be retained as State Archives. To address this challenge PROV is investigating methods to organise and preserve the Victorian Government’s emails for the benefit of government and the public good. Our stage 2 research project concluded in late 2020 during which we investigated automated methods to reduce and organise emails by removing duplicates, non-official and low value administrative emails to significantly reduce the volume to a core of “official emails”, thus reducing ongoing storage and management costs for government and improving information discoverability and re-use. We also explored the possibility of using email threading techniques that organise the emails into a thread or chain of correspondence to enable the reader to follow the chronology of events documented in the email. Our email appraisal projects to date have been focussed on the particular technical challenges presented by Lotus Notes emails and the IT governance regime in Victoria; however, we are keen to broaden our analysis and develop solutions applicable to current and future email and messaging systems used by government. Next steps include further research into email threading and using our test data to create a training set for the application of artificial intelligence technology to remove duplicates and non-official records and retain a corpus of official records for government and the community.

Records Management Network

The Records Management Network (RMN) was established to provide a forum for knowledge exchange and discussion of issues affecting records management within the VPS. We held two RMN events in 2020–21 online via Zoom.

The event held in November 2020 focussed on the Recordkeeping Assessment Tool (RKAT), with presentations from PROV about RKAT’s development, functionality and application in workplaces, as well as from agencies who had already used the tool to measure their recordkeeping maturity. The second event was held in June 2021 featuring presentations about managing records during the pandemic. The events were very well attended and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The events held in 2020–21 were the first RMNs to be held online. We will continue to make use of streaming technology to make future RMNs, even those held on site, more accessible to a broader audience, particularly our stakeholders in regional Victoria.

Review of PROV Standards and Specifications

Under the Public Records Act 1973, the Keeper of Public Records is responsible for issuing mandatory Standards for Victorian public offices. PROV is undertaking a review of these Standards and accompanying Specifications, in consultation with stakeholders. In 2020–21 PROV revised and issued the Storage Standard and the Approved Public Record Office Storage Supplier (APROSS) Specification. The Storage Standard sets the principles and requirements that Victorian public offices must meet when storing or making arrangements for storing physical and digital records. The APROSS Specification sets requirements for commercial storage providers given approval by the Keeper of Public Records to store physical format public records on behalf of public offices. Planning has commenced for reviewing the Disposal Standard and associated Specifications.

Training program

PROV’s online training module, Recordkeeping Essentials, was launched in 2019–20 and continues to be well received by PROV’s stakeholders, with 871 recorded completions in 2020–21 via our eLearning site. We have provided the eLearning package to a further 17 agencies, who have uploaded it into their own management systems, with a further 836 recorded completions via these platforms. We are working to build on our existing package, with a new Digital Recordkeeping module in production.

Recordkeeping Assessment Tool update

The Recordkeeping Assessment Tool (RKAT) is an online self-assessment platform developed by PROV to help organisations measure the maturity of their recordkeeping practices against our Standards, which are mandatory for the Victorian public sector. While RKAT has been designed for Victorian public offices, individuals and organisations outside of Victorian Government are welcome to use the tool, which is free to access. The tool was launched in June 2020 and in its first 12 months of operation has been accessed by agencies across all sectors covered by the Public Records Act 1973 with 260 assessments completed or in progress. PROV has engaged with users throughout this period and made improvements to both the content and the application. PROV recommends that agencies use RKAT as part of an ongoing audit program, to regularly assess recordkeeping practices across their organisation. RKAT is available on our website.

Increase Use of the Collection

PROV volunteers

Our usually vibrant Volunteer Program was paused in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout 2020–21 the volunteers learnt new ways to engage with the collection and each other. Fortnightly Zoom meetings with each group of volunteers were a great way to stay connected. Though normal digitisation and indexing projects could not go ahead offsite, a limited number of online projects such as the transcription of 1850 to 1900 inquest files of “unknown people” were quickly completed and the continued willingness and expertise of volunteers was greatly appreciated. A gala evening was held in the Victorian Archives Centre Gallery in May 2021 to welcome back our very committed volunteers and to celebrate and thank them for the vital role they play at PROV. It was encouraging to see the enthusiasm and eagerness to return to the office. The event coincided with National Volunteer Week and we were delighted to have Scott Miller, Chief Executive from Volunteering Victoria, as the guest speaker.

The Volunteers enjoyed a celebratory evening at VAC for National Volunteer Week.

We are looking forward to a safe resumption of the program and to reconnecting with the very generous and skilled PROV volunteers in 2021–22.

University outreach update

Now in its third year, the University Outreach Program continues to offer course-specific presentations to tertiary students across Victoria, helping them with the fundamentals of archival research and navigating PROV’s system. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all presentations were held online in 2020–21 and our focus was on PROV’s digitised collections which could be easily accessed by students working from home. New to 2020–21 were our ‘research boot camps’ where post-graduate students received one-on-one help for their projects from members of our University Outreach Unit. This team is made up of staff across all sections of PROV with specialist knowledge of the collection. The call-out for applications was made through our network of tertiary lecturers and the response was so enthusiastic that a second boot camp was held, utilising the wealth of knowledge held by the PROV volunteers. The next step in the program focuses on producing video content tailored to specific research areas, which can provide a starting point for students who are new to archival research.

Photographic digitisation project

Due to the support of the Ross Trust we were able to complete the digitisation of two series of photographic negatives from the Education Department Publications Branch and the Public Works Department. The negative collection of the Publications Branch of the former Education Department consists of around 18,000 images used in school curricula and publications from the 1950s to the 1970s and presents a comprehensive picture of Victoria during that period. The Public Works Department captured around 5,000 images of state-funded or occupied buildings in the 1950s and 60s. These are both documentary and evocative, and have been widely used in various heritage projects especially. The Ross Trust grant allowed us to have these images commercially digitised, while our volunteers undertook a project to transcribe the card index created by the Department of Education and Training for their collection. Both sets of images will be made available online in late 2021.

Scott Miller, CEO of Volunteering Victoria, thanked our volunteers for their work.

Increase Community Engagement with Public Records

Exhibitions

January 2021 saw the launch of the Victorian Archives Centre Gallery’s online photographic exhibition entitled A new normal. The exhibition featured archival images from the collections of Public Record Office Victoria and the National Archives of Australia, alongside contemporary street photography, as detailed in the Highlights section of this Report. PROV-partnered exhibitions at Old Treasury Building, including Wayward Women? and Foundations of Melbourne continued throughout 2020–21, with a new exhibition about protests added to the mix. These were seen by an audience of 9,723 Old Treasury visitors.

In addition to our own exhibitions and existing partnerships, we also offer a loan service that provides other museums with the opportunity to display public records from our collection as part of their own exhibition programs. As part of this service our records continued to be featured as part of the Royal Children’s Hospital 150th Anniversary display and a digital copy of a nurses book appeared in Her Place Women’s Museum Unmasked exhibition.

Provenance

Provenance is our free online journal, published annually at prov.vic.gov.au. The journal features peer-reviewed articles as well as other written contributions that contain research drawing on records in the state archives’ holdings. Despite a difficult year for in-person research and access to archival material, Provenance issue 18 in 2020 contained seven original articles that reflected diverse research and innovative use of PROV records to illuminate new areas of inquiry and the relationships between our past, present and future. PROV’s historic plan collection provided sources for two authors in very different ways. Barbara Minchinton looked at the history and significance of the “Bibbs map”, originally created to facilitate the construction of Melbourne’s water supply system in the 1850s, and now a valuable source for heritage researchers and urban archaeologists decoding the built fabric of Melbourne’s gold rush era development. John Burch, Ian D Clark and Fred Cahir’s paper argued that a more nuanced reading of parish plans, in particular cadastral plans of surveys relating to the control and alienation of Crown land in Victoria, presents new opportunities for understanding the ways in which the traditional owners of the Mallee back country region of northwestern Victoria inhabited the land both prior to, and immediately following, the arrival of nonAboriginal people in the area in the 1830s and 1840s. Two companion articles from members of the Melbourne History Workshop examined the richness and scope of inquest records for exploring both individual and community stories from viewpoints including race, class, gender, and family relationships. Methodological concerns about the creation and use of these records inspired questions for researchers arising from the context in which they were created, as well as what they can both reveal and conceal. Howard R Lawson was a progressive Melbourne architect who made innovative use of recycled materials during the early decades of the twentieth century. Virginia Blue’s research on Lawson, including his application for registration as an architect, not only revealed aspects of Lawson’s personality but also the circumstances that saw his application ultimately fail and led to the sullying of his professional reputation. Darren Arnott re-examined the events surrounding the fatal shooting of Rodolfo Bartoli, an Italian prisoner of war, while he was allegedly attempting to escape from the Rowville internment camp on 30 March 1946. Through a thorough examination of the correspondence, reports and court martial files, Arnott’s thoughtful and sensitive narration of Bartoli’s untimely death and its aftermath ultimately raised more questions about this period in history. We acknowledge the authors and peer reviewers, as well as the editorial board which supports the production of Provenance each year: • Tsari Anderson, Editor, Provenance; Coordinator,

Koorie Records Unit, Public Record Office

Victoria • Dr David ‘Fred’ Cahir, Associate Professor of

Aboriginal History, Federation University

Australia • Dr Sebastian Gurciullo, Assistant Editor, Provenance; Collection Management Project

Officer, Public Record Office Victoria • Dr Adrian Jones OAM, Associate Professor of

History, La Trobe University • Dr Mike Jones, Consultant Research Archivist,

Australian National University • Dr Seamus O’Hanlon, Associate Professor of

History, Monash University • Dr Dianne Reilly AM, FRHSV, Secretary, La Trobe

Society • Katherine Sheedy, Professional Historians

Association (Vic) Inc.

• Dr Judith Smart, Adjunct Professor, RMIT

University; Principal Fellow, The University of

Melbourne • Dr Rachel Standfield, Lecturer, Indigenous

Studies, The University of Melbourne

Koorie Records Unit

The Koorie Records Unit (KRU) promotes awareness about Aboriginal records within our collection and aims to improve accessibility of these records to the Aboriginal community. The KRU: • Provides a culturally sensitive Koorie Reference

Service in collaboration with the National

Archives of Australia to provide support and advice to Aboriginal people wishing to access records relevant to their personal and community histories • Develops resources, programs and initiatives that increase the knowledge, accessibility and use of Victoria’s unique collection of government records relating to Aboriginal people. The KRU’s Koorie Reference Service continued to operate remotely (in the most part) during the COVID-19 pandemic, responding to 88 new research enquiries, involving searches conducted for 467 names and resulting in a total of 1543 index results across the PROV and National Archives collections. Digitisation of records about Aboriginal peoples for increased accessibility has been completed, however work on indexing these records for the Koorie Index of Names project slowed in 2020–21 due to volunteering work required for the project not being possible in a remote working environment. Workshops and presentations for community groups and other stakeholders continued via Zoom and other online platforms where possible. Other highlights included: • Participation in the Council of Australasian

Archives and Records Authorities (CAARA) First

Nations Working Group • Staff across the organisation completing the

Australian Society of Archivists online training modules Indigenous Recordkeeping and

Archives, and A Trauma-Informed Approach to

Managing Archives • A formal submission to the Stolen Generations

Reparations Steering Committee, which is

advising the Victorian Government on the design of a reparations scheme for Stolen Generations members who have experienced pain and suffering as a result of separation during childhood from family, community, culture and country.

Map Warper

In 2020–21 our Map Warper tool, that allows maps from our collection to be updated, or rectified, with current day coordinates to create a comparison between the historic map and the present day, continued to gain traction among researchers and map enthusiasts. We now have 12,091 parish plans and historic maps available through the tool, with 6,167 rectified by 850 registered users. In March 2021 PROV’s online engagement officer Asa Letourneau demonstrated the tool as part of an Australian and New Zealand Map Society webinar series. The webinar attracted 70 researchers and geospatial enthusiasts further engaging this niche audience. Asa and the staff and volunteers responsible for developing Map Warper were also awarded with a 2020 RIMPA David Moldrich Outstanding Group Award.

Grants and awards

We run grants and awards programs each year to provide funding and recognition for those who preserve and share local history and heritage for all Victorians. Coinciding with History Month in October 2020, in partnership with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, we announced the winners of the Victorian Community History Awards as part of a virtual ceremony through YouTube Premiere and Facebook. It was the first time in the history of the awards program that the event went virtual, born out of a need to navigate the pandemic. Almost 1,500 people tuned in across YouTube and Facebook with viewers interacting and engaging with winners through chat and social media channels. The event was preceded by a shortlisting media announcement which generated additional excitement in the lead up to the day, and ensured that more of Victoria’s history projects were able to gain promotion and acknowledgment in their local areas. The shortlist announcement gained 36 media mentions and final winners were in the media 37 times.

Asa Letourneau with the RIMPA Award for Map Warper.

The 2021 winners included Nick Anchen for Visions of Victoria: The Magic of Kodachrome Film, and Jen Rose, Well Chosen Words and The Boîte for The Boîte: History Through Music, Song and Story. Amanda Scardamaglia won the Victorian Premier’s History Award for her stunning book featuring images from the State Library collection, Printed on Stone: The Lithographs of Charles Troedel. See the Appendix for the full list of winners. In mid-2021, judging for the new round of Local History Grants was also undertaken. Recipients will be formally announced in the 2021–22 financial year and featured in next year’s Annual Report.

Build our Profile

Mainstream media

PROV’s programs and records from our collection appeared in the media approximately 230 times in 2020–21, with coverage ranging from online to radio, television and print. Highlights included: media coverage across local outlets for the Victorian Community History Awards shortlist and winners and the Local History Grants recipients; West Gate Bridge collapse records used within various publications, online news stories and documentaries for the 50th anniversary; prison registers and police correspondence files used within Michael Shelford’s regular Herald Sun In Black and White features in 2020–21; and ABC online, SBS and various other online news outlets covering stories from our Section 9 record openings. We were pleased to welcome Jeff Fatt and Denise Drysdale to the Victorian Archives Centre in early 2021 to film episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? featuring family connections found in 1850s passenger lists from our collection. These episodes aired in June 2021. PROV’s Dr Sebastian Gurciullo was interviewed for an hour-long podcast by the PlanningxChange in June for a history episode based on his Provenance journal article Learning from the past (freeways and community opposition). We also wrote about various government recordkeeping projects for industry publications such as iQ Magazine and PS News. These media activities, among others, reveal stories from our collection to new audiences, and highlight the value of good recordkeeping practices within the public sector.

Social media

In 2020–21 we continued to grow our online community, from 23,657 in June 2020 to 27,365 in June 2021 across Facebook, multiple Twitter channels, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube. Content on our two main channels, the PROV Twitter and Facebook, resulted in more than 150,256 engagements (comments, shares, and likes). This was up more than 10 per cent from last year’s 134,919 which shows just how important these channels are in connecting Victorians with their history, particularly in times when they are unable to engage with the archives in person. Our collection items were also featured across ABC social media channels, Heritage Council of Victoria, various Public Transport organisations, and numerous other history and arts group pages spreading the reach of the collection even further and encouraging Victorians to explore their history through archival research online.

Amanda Scardamaglia, winner of the 2020 Victorian Premier’s History Award.

The 1852 Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kingdom filmed in Denise Drysdale’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

Website

The web traffic of the PROV website, prov.vic.gov.au, for the year was 902,193 visitors. The most popular pages of the site were our wills and probates page, passenger records pages and online collections. Some new additions to the website included a 2021 calendar featuring archival images and stories for users to download and print at home, a guide to researching records of Ballarat and surrounding regions online, and a deep dive into inquests for those deceased with “names unknown” supported by volunteers who transcribed a cross section of the records. We also continued to publish a range of blog posts showcasing items from our collection. The top three blogs written in the year 2020–21 included a blog post about a 1921 Melbourne robbery featuring prison registers, a post about an exhibition showcasing Bendigo’s queer history, and our January Section 9 record opening post about the first mafia murder in Victoria.

Events and partnerships

Despite some festivals being cancelled, postponed or down-sized this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, PROV continued to build on the relationships formed over the past few years with our program of 2020–21 events, and wherever possible, looked for innovative online solutions to host our tours, talks and exhibitions. The 2020–21 highlights included two online video tours for Open House Melbourne including one tour conducted in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). This was followed by a Q&A session on our Facebook page where our tour hosts answered questions from those who’d watched the tour and were keen to discover more about the archives. Our Melbourne Design Week 2021 event was also hosted as an online video presentation and tour with Provenance author Virginia Blue. Virginia shared her research into local architect Howard Lawson and provided insights into his most famous building, the Beverley Hills Apartments in South Yarra. For International Women’s Day 2021 we held a live talk via Zoom. Our speakers, Odette Best (University of Southern Queensland), Dr Madonna Grehan (University of Melbourne) and Penelope Lee (Her Place Women’s Museum Australia) discussed the history of women working in nursing and midwifery in Australia and how new interpretations can challenge stereotypical narratives of history. This talk, titled Women’s history beyond stereotypes was a companion piece to an exhibition running at Her Place Museum, which included copies of nursing records from PROV’s collection. The talk was recorded and is now available, alongside our Design Week and Open House videos, to watch on PROV’s YouTube channel. Also available on the channel are videos created to celebrate Family History Month, providing genealogy enthusiasts with tips for their family history research.

Andrew Joyce presenting the Open House Auslan tour.

Virginia Blue hosting our Melbourne Design Week event.

For International Archives Day we held a Zoom event with Catherine Dwyer, writer and director of Brazen Hussies, and Adrien McCrory, researcher on transgender Australians and their interactions with the criminal justice system. Both presenters discussed their research into the archives on the topics of feminist and transgender history. Our 2020–21 event videos reached more than 3,000 people and the feedback we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive, enabling us to reach audiences who have previously been unable to attend events at our North Melbourne site. In the future we’ll be looking for ways to complement our physical events with digital content, so this level of accessibility can continue.

Identify and Preserve Records of State Significance

Digital records transfers

During 2020–21 the Government Recordkeeping team, in collaboration with the Cabinet Office, continued the next stage of an archival program to preserve Cabinet Records. All departments have been required to transfer their permanent value Cabinet-in-Confidence (CiC) records to PROV on an annual basis since 2019. PROV worked with all the departments to ensure the records were captured in accordance with our VERS requirements. CiC records must be created, transferred and preserved as digital objects, known as VEOS. A VEO is a record in the standard XML format specified by PROV, allowing it to be stored in, and managed by, the PROV digital archive. As part of this work, a dedicated and highly secure pre-ingest storage area is now operational, replacing our reliance on portable hard drives to store VEOs prior to ingest. In 2020–21 we used the VicPortal – a secure file sharing platform managed by DPC – for secure online delivery of test VEOs into the PROV environment for the first time. PROV also worked closely with the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) to prepare the records for transfer to PROV as required under the Inquiries Act 2014 from the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants (RCMPI), Royal Commission into Mental Health (RCMH) and the Inquiry into Hotel Quarantine. All records from each inquiry body were transferred initially to DPC and the records required as State Archives are scheduled to be transferred to PROV from DPC during the 2021–22 financial year.

Preserving audio visual records

PROV’s audio visual holdings include around 7,000 “moving image” items ranging from films, U-matic cassettes, to VHS and other formats. These items require assessment and preservation in order to make them more accessible to the community. Without digitisation these precious records could be lost to future generations. In September 2020 we entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) to undertake an audit of our holdings to identify which films are the master prints, which are in need of preservation and which would be the priority candidates for digitisation once funding is secured.

Public Programming Officer Natasha Cantwell setting up for the International Archives Day zoom event.

Megan Taylor and Nick Richardson from ACMI with PROV’s Sebastian Gurciullo.

Our holdings include films from agencies such as the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Film Victoria, Port of Melbourne Authority, Melbourne Water Corporation, the City of Melbourne and Victorian Railways/Public Transport Corporation.

Strengthen our Culture and Capability

Our leaders and employees showed incredible agility and resilience in 2020–21. Increased empathy for one another and a greater appreciation for connectedness saw people supporting each other beyond getting the job done. People & Culture’s focus on employee health and well-being was an essential component in driving this culture of open communication and support. Despite the rapidly changing environment and increased challenges brought on by the pandemic, overall employee feedback in the Victorian Public Sector Commission People Matter survey reflected widely shared feelings of well-being and connection across the organisation. This included employees agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statements ‘My manager provides me with enough support when I need it’ (97 per cent), ‘People in my workgroup treat each other with respect’ (98 per cent) and ‘People in my workgroup regularly reach out to support me and my well-being’ (86 per cent). PROV also scored high on workplace practices and processes supporting a climate for good psychological health. People Matter feedback included 93 per cent of employees agreeing or strongly agreeing that ‘Senior leaders consider the psychological health of employees to be as important as productivity’. This is compared to 69 per cent in our comparable group. Key focus areas in 2020–21 included:

Establishing clear, transparent and timely COVID-19 communications

Regular communications were prepared by People & Culture to keep employees abreast of new developments around the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on work arrangements and to provide reassurance. Employees’ immediate needs were addressed as a priority and a variety of support options were always conveyed. People Matter showed staff agreed or strongly agreed with the statements ‘I received sufficient information on how changes due to COVID-19 would impact on me’ (97 per cent) and ‘I received adequate support during the changes due to COVID-19’ (97 per cent).

Implementing safe and flexible work arrangements

PROV remains extremely committed to reducing the risk of COVID-19. Throughout 2020–21 People & Culture worked closely with key stakeholders to implement infection prevention measures on-site at the Victorian Archives Centre. In addition, People & Culture worked with managers across the business to establish strategies and new ways of working that enabled employees to continue to work remotely. Employees working remotely were encouraged to take steps to support their health through the way they worked, with emphasis on the flow-on effects in reducing stress, burnout and illness. This included implementing a good ergonomic set-up at home, taking regular breaks, exercising and switching off. Employees were also asked to consider how they would like to work through flexible work options. In People Matter, employees agreed or strongly agreed with ‘I am confident that if I requested a flexible work arrangement, it would be given due consideration’ (97 per cent). Despite limitations imposed by the pandemic, people reported feeling their work remained meaningful and contributed to individual, team and organisation outcomes. This was reflected in People Matter where employees agreed or strongly agreed with ‘I am achieving something important through my work’ (90 per cent) and ‘I feel that I can make a worthwhile contribution at work’ (88 per cent).

Promoting employee well-being programs and support avenues

Employees averaged over 23 hours of formalised learning and development throughout 2020–21. In addition to job specific compliance training, mandatory training included health and well-being programs such as ‘Mental Health & Well-being’ (DPC), ‘Infection Control Training – COVID 19’ (DH) and ‘Returning to a COVID normal workplace – PROV Policy & Procedures’. Of the total training hours, optional professional general skills made up just under 50 per cent. Popular internal webinars, workshops and coaching sessions promoted included ‘Home Ergonomics Training’, ‘Healthy Brain Healthy Body’, ‘Introduction to Mindfulness’, ‘Healthy Sleep’ and ‘Investing in Volatile Times’. PROVs Peer Support program was launched, replacing our former Contact Officer program. The Peer Support program provides local, trained and trusted peers, known as Peer Support Officers (PSOs), who can link employees into professional services and talk about options available under PROV policies. One in 8 employees are now trained as PSOs, having received training in our Workplace Behaviours Policy, LGBTIQ+ Awareness and Mental Health First Aid. Mental Health First Aid reaccreditation was provided to all Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAiders). These volunteers make up 1 in 5 employees. To help create a stronger unified presence in engagement and well-being, PROV Connect was launched. PROV Connect brings together Engagement, Mental Health, Diversity & Inclusion and Health, Safety & Well-being committees, as well as our PSOs, First Aid Officers, MHFAiders. The PROV Connect community provides employees with a variety of ways to meaningfully connect and share their unique experiences. It also looks to promote relationship building opportunities across the business, which is becoming more important as we move to an increasingly hybrid workforce.

Deliver, Embed and Leverage our Systems

Digital Archive Program

PROV has been undertaking a major program of works over the past five years to update and improve the business systems used for managing and facilitating access to the collection. This involves replacing all key systems including the Digital Archive where we store permanent digital records, the Archival Management System used for managing the collection, and the Warehouse Management System used for managing the location of our physical records. PROV has further developed its new search and browse functionality based on user feedback. During 2020–21 PROV undertook testing, data migration and staff training for the new systems in preparation for their implementation in August 2021. Resources and training materials have also been prepared ready for public users following the launch ensuring they get the most out of the new features.

Technical Services

After the substantial IT changes made in the 2019–20 financial year, 2020–21 has been centred on embedding reliable workflows, ensuring quality of service delivery and stability across our IT environments. The Technical Services team has successfully delivered both functional and stress and volume testing for the Digital Archive project, while migrating infrastructure support to a stable internal model. Further, engagements with external security consultants for environment review have resulted in improved security of PROV’s IT services. On-premises network upgrades such as switches and firewalls have delivered efficiencies, improved performance and have been delivered using inhouse capability. New collaborative tools have enhanced productivity across the organisation as we move to a hybrid working model, allowing those working from home to exchange data and collaborate effectively. Supporting tools for the business such as a booking system for the Reading Room has been deployed and maintained in-house with an extremely rapid delivery model.

Output Measures 2020–21

PROV 2020–21 BP3 Measures

Performance measure Quantity, Quality, Timeliness Unit of measure 2020–21 Full Year Target 2020–21 Full Year Actual Variance (%)

Collection usage: utilisation of physical and digital records held by Public Record Office Victoria Quantity number 4,800,000 6,093,283 27%1

Satisfaction with services provided by Public Record Office Victoria to government agencies and to the public Provision of services within published timeframes Quality per cent

Timeliness per cent 90

95 90

88 0%

7%2

PROV 2020–21 Annual Report Measures

OUTPUT Unit of measure 2020–21 Full Year Target 2020–21 Full Year Actual

Government Services

Public Record Office Victoria records transferred shelf metres 250

Digital records preserved

number of VEOs Retention and Disposal Authorities issued number Number of participants undertaking records management training number 1,300 1,8316

Transfer projects completed number

Access Services

Records deaccessioned from the PROV collection shelf metres Total visitors to PROV Reading Rooms, exhibitions and events number 22 5

3

1,000 11,000

03

04

65

0

0 7,9177

Online visitors to website Volunteer hours

number number Collection storage meeting industry standard percent

Corporate Services

Staff hours spent on L&D activities hours 930,000 902,193 1,500 255

95 95

1,500 1,440

1 The actual is higher than the target due to increased utilisation of digital records as a result of COVID-19 restrictions which saw the closure of PROV’s reading room. Whilst the physical records ordered and utilised in the Reading Room reduced significantly, they only represent a small percentage of the target and the reduction was offset by the increase in use of digital records. 2 The actual is lower than the target as COVID-19 restrictions meant that physical records could not be delivered to the Victorian Archives Centre Reading Room. 3&4 Due to delays with the Digital Archive Program, accessioning of records has not recommenced, carried forward to 2021-22. 5 An additional RDA was completed due to reallocation of resources from the transfer program. 6 Heavy promotion of product and increased public sector reliance on online training due to staff working from home. 7 From 2021–22 the number of Reading Room visitors and visitors to exhibitions and events will be reported on as separate items. The 2020–21 target was revised during the year to account for continued impacts of the pandemic.

Reading Room and Record Retrievals

We operate two public reading rooms; one at the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne and the other at the Ballarat Archives Centre in Ballarat. Records can also be accessed at the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre within Bendigo Library, the Geelong Heritage Centre and at the Burke Museum in Beechworth. For parts of 2020 and 2021, reading rooms closed to the public as required due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When reading rooms were open, bookings were required for all visits to ensure the number of visitors met the Victorian Chief Health Officer’s directions. During 2020–21, 3980 visitors utilised the reading rooms to view public records, 28,808 records were issued to visitors and an additional 3255 were issued to Government agencies and for internal PROV use. Reference enquiries were managed through our online system which received an average of 546 queries per month.

Records Issued

Number of records

Public users

Government users 5,348 3,255

Visitors to Reading Rooms

Victorian Archives Centre

Ballarat Archives Centre

Bendigo Regional Archives Centre

Geelong Heritage Centre 35,287

2019–20

Number of visitors

782

396

48 28,808

2020–21

201

531

67

6,577

2019–20

Visitor numbers in 2020–21 were down on previous years due to COVID-19 closures.

3,181

2020–21