News from Brisbane
News from Brisbane - 16
Date Added:16 May 2012
My name is Allison Hickey and I work at Queensland State Archives as a Reference Archivist in the Public Access team. Queensland State Archives is located in the suburb of Runcorn, a 30-40 minute drive from the Brisbane CBD. The archives are surrounded by lush gardens and bushland.
Queensland State Archives, Runcorn
Queensland State Archives’ suburban location allows me to have a beautiful work environment and still live in the ‘hustle and bustle’ of inner-city Brisbane. My apartment is in close proximity to a number of highlights of inner-city Brisbane such as the James Street precinct, the inner-city suburb of Paddington, the food and shopping hub at Emporium and Jan Powers Farmers Markets at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
When I’m not at work, I enjoy spending time with friends and family discovering some of the existing (and new) hidden gems of Brisbane – Map Magazine and The Thousands (Brisbane) are both useful websites with up-to-date information on what’s new in Brisbane. There’s also a vibrant and tight-knit music and arts community in Brisbane with exhibition spaces and venues dotted across a number of inner-city suburbs so there’s always a new show or event to experience and support.
During my high school and undergraduate university studies, I was able to indulge my passion for history with studies in ancient and modern history.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) from the University of Queensland, the first university established in Queensland. I completed my Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Studies at the Queensland University of Technology where I was lucky enough to have Gill Hallam, the then President of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) as one of my course coordinators.
I followed up my Graduate Diploma degree with additional study to graduate with a Master of Information Management from the Queensland University of Technology.
I started my professional career in libraries, including time at Bond University on the sunny Gold Coast, before seizing the opportunity to work in archives.
The Public Access team at Queensland State Archives is responsible for front-of-house services for clients including staffing the Public Search Room at Runcorn, providing reference services for remote and onsite clients, and presenting seminars and other community outreach sessions onsite and at external locations.
My role in the Public Access team at Queensland State Archives covers a wide variety of tasks. With research requests from clients and other staff, I often delve into some of the more interesting and obscure elements of the collection.
There is a wealth of information to be gathered from records in the collection – I particularly enjoy research on court records and correspondence or batch files.
There is a deep sense of satisfaction when I can locate the missing piece of the puzzle which joins everything together!
As well as my research and reference role, I also write stories and other content for the monthly qsa-bulletin e-newsletter for Queensland State Archives - past issues of the qsa-bulletin are available online.
Now is an exciting time for archives as we embrace the possibilities created by new technologies, including Web 2.0 applications, for access to our heritage collections.
I look forward to hearing about the experiences of other archival institutions – both traditional and digital – at the ICA Congress in August and to meeting some of my colleagues from around the world.
Allison Hickey