Establishment of Athletics Auckland Archives

By Linda Rosvall

At the December 2007 Board Meeting, support was given to establish archives for Athletics Auckland. To manage this, a committee was formed, including: Murray McKinnon, the Athletics Auckland President; Mic Baker, an Athletics Auckland Board Member; and Linda Rosvall, a Record and Information Management student. Mark Stoddard, the Auckland Regional Manager of Archives New Zealand, and Roma Niemirska, the Information Manager at the Humans Rights Commission, have agreed to act as mentors.  A working group was formed to discuss the purpose, scope and collecting interests of the Athletics Auckland Archives, and market research undertaken to identify the needs of potential user groups. All respondents indicated they wanted archives to become established, and there was equal interest in being able to visit a reading room and in being able to access digital images online. 

Last summer we found a wealth of records scattered around different buildings at Mt Smart Stadium. Some of these included: past administrative and financial records of Athletics Auckland; periodicals such as New Zealand Runner; scrapbooks; event programmes; photographs; trophies and cups; along with a number of athletics reference books.   Possible funding sources were identified which do not conflict with usual funding streams, such as the New Zealand Lottery Board Environment and Heritage Grant. ‘Archivists Toolkit’, an Open Source software solution, was chosen as the most suitable application for our needs, and this is to be used with MySQL server - another ‘free’ option.

Space remains a challenge for the archives and at present we are using what was once the storeroom.  An ideal archival space - with a high stud and no windows - was found at Mt Smart Stadium within the John Walker Lounge, however the Auckland Regional Council have this ear-marked for other purposes. We are continuing to discuss the feasibility of building an extension to the existing office, as well as the possibility of using the adjacent Auckland Soccer building which is to be vacated in the near future. 
 
Over the 2008-2009 summer, I plan to finalise the archives’ policies and procedures, and will begin to arrange and describe the records of ‘continuing value’ which are currently held at the Auckland Centre. I also plan to continue recording oral histories with athletes.

A number of people have contacted us regarding donating material to the archives, including Mark Cubbitt of the Glen Eden Athletics Club and Auckland Masters Athletics, who has kindly offered to donate digital copies of 8mm footage from 1950’s -1970’s athletic meetings. If you would like to know more about Athletics Auckland Archives, please email athletics.auckland.archives@gmail.com or contact the Auckland Centre office.