International Council of Archives

Hi, I’m Debra Leigo.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Information Studies (Records & Archives Management) from Charles Sturt University in 2011. I completed the course through distance education while living on a 102, 000 acre (41,311 hectare) grazing property in far western New South Wales: 140 km north of White Cliffs, 270 km west of Bourke.
Our nearest village is 80 km to the north – east; closest high school 290 km east; our regional shopping centre is Broken Hill, 400 km south-west.

Dust storm, December 2009

 I am a country girl who had spent her life living and working in rural and remote areas but in 1987 I read an article about careers in the 21st century and was most intrigued by the section on information professionals. I realised that librarianship would be the career for me, but it remained a dream for many years; we lived too far from anywhere for me to be able to study or work in that field.

In 1998 we purchased our first computer with an extremely poor internet connection which improved in 2000 when we are able to connect via broadband satellite. Unfortunately we are still using the same service today; technology has left us behind and our access has now become less than adequate.

By 2003 I had completed a number of short ICT courses, I knew my way around the internet and had discovered that several institutions offered librarianship courses by distance education, supported by online content and communications. In 2004 I began my Bachelor of Arts Library & Information Studies at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga campus.
My studies began with a 3 day residential school at Wagga Wagga. This was an essential component of my success as a student as it enabled me to meet other students and staff face-to-face. From the beginning I knew that one of the biggest barriers for me to overcome was the lack of practical experience, not being in a position to even gain experience as a volunteer in my local library. I was constantly searching for opportunities which would enable me to gain that invaluable experience.
During the first summer break I volunteered at the Gatton Public Library in regional Queensland. The following year I did the same thing at the Goolwa Public Library in regional South Australia. By this time I had been exposed to archives management through my studies and had become very interested in pursuing this aspect of information management.

In 2007 I undertook the University of New South Wales Managing Historical Documents Certificate short course. This course ran for 2 weeks in Sydney and involved face-to-face time and an invaluable practicum experience. One of the aspects that I find most intriguing about archives management, as opposed to librarianship, is the breadth of variety; every collection is so different.

Debra Leigo at work, with two pallets of processed records at the Noel Butlin Archives centre, ANU, Canberra (Jun 2011)

Seven years of distance education study was completed with a Charles Sturt University Regional Archives Summer Scholarship which enabled me to spend 8 weeks developing my arrangement and description skills at the Archives in Wagga Wagga.

More recently I have worked on collections at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at Australian National University, Canberra.

Juggling archival projects with life on a remote grazing property has been difficult but rewarding. I hope to be able to undertake more short term projects in the future, especially in regional areas.

Debra Leigo
BInfoStud(Rec&ArchMgt)(CSturt), AALIA,
Professional Member ASA