Outcome 4 - Resources for outcomes

Increased use, enjoyment and safety of Australia's audiovisual heritage

* Budget estimates as at 2002-03 Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements.

** Budget estimates as at 2003-04 Portfolio Budget Statements.

Note: There are a number of changes in the outcome and output structure in 2003-04. For the purposes of the Annual Report, these changes have been amended to fit the 2002-03 outcome and output structure.

The 2003-04 changes are:

• Outcome 4 ceases to exist as it has been merged with Outcome 1 in 2003-04 (has since been transferred to the Australian Film Commission effective from July 1 2003.
• Outputs 4.1 and 4.2 cease to exist as they have been merged with Output 1.2 in 2003-04 (has since been transferred to the Australian Film Commission effective from July 1 2003.

Performance indicator index

EFFECTIVENESS

Overall achievement of the outcome

ScreenSound Australia - the National Screen and Sound Archive, develops and maintains an audiovisual collection reflecting Australian culture and the audiovisual industry. It promotes, interprets and encourages access to, and use of, the collection throughout Australia, as well as providing advice and assistance for overseas archives.

Safety of the national collection

All accessioned collection material is stored in the appropriate environment

Treat collection material identified through risk assessment

During 2002-03, all accessioned materials were stored in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. Storage areas maintained the required relative humidity for 95 per cent of the time and temperature for 99 per cent of the time.

ScreenSound Australia continued to treat collection material identified through annual quantitative risk assessment. Preservation activities were conducted according to agreed priority listings established through an annual collection risk assessment.

Development of the national collection

Three per cent increase in the size of the national collection

Deselect items that no longer suit collection policy

As a result of collection development activities, the collection grew in size by approximately 34 600 items, which equates to a 2.7 per cent increase from 2001-02.

During 2002-03, ScreenSound Australia removed 3637 items from the collection according to de-selection protocols. Approximately 100 000 items were removed from the collection in 2001-02, largely a result of the Collection Security Registration project, which was completed early in 2002-03.

Control of the national collection

Accurate description of all new acquisitions entered into database

All new material registered upon receipt

No content of cultural significance is lost during the year

All new material was registered on receipt and 100 per cent of priority acquisitions were accessioned within 12 months of receipt. No content of cultural significance was lost during the year.

Access to the national collection

Total annual viewing audience of 65 per cent of the Australian population (12.35 million people)

A total of 390 000 visitors to exhibitions/shows and viewers of ScreenSound products

It is estimated that at least 65 to 70 per cent of Australia's population viewed or listened to some part of the National Collection during the year via media distribution channels. This equates to 12.9 to 13.9 million people.

There were 458 834 visitors to exhibitions/shows and viewers of ScreenSound Australia products - a decrease of 11 per cent from 514 533 last year. This decrease is due to a combination of downturn in visitor numbers with the Canberra bushfires in January 2003 and a general downturn in visitor numbers to Australia, as well as the re-allocation of resources in order to undertake preservation budget activities. This re-allocation of resources resulted in a reduction in the number of products released and the number of venues visited by travelling exhibitions, such as Big Screen.

DEPARTMENTAL OUTPUTS

Output 4.1 A high-quality, safe and accessible national audiovisual collection

The internal re-allocation of resources during 2002-03 resulted in a focus on activities that involved preserving or copying collection material. This focus on preservation activities and the creation of a dedicated still image services unit resulted in significant increases in the amount of preservation film and still images treated from 2001-02.

Work continued on expanding ScreenSound Australia's digital capability with the completion of work on the digital mass storage system and significant enhancements to the Merged Audio Visual Information System (MAVIS) collection database.

Despite a reduced focus on collection development and information activities during the year, the Collection Security Registration project was completed. This practically eliminated the accessioning backlog.

An analysis of storage facilities is underway to deal with the predicted long-term growth of the collection. This will involve the optimisation of existing storage facilities over the next five years. More efficient storage systems will be installed which will increase ScreenSound Australia's storage capability and the accessibility of the collection. This rationalisation will also assist in ongoing risk management activities and the preservation of the collection.

One hundred per cent of priority acquisitions accessioned within 12 months

ScreenSound Australia achieved its aim of accessioning 100 per cent of priority acquisitions within 12 months of receipt.

The Collection Security Registration project was completed and all unaccessioned material was documented into the collection quickly and effectively. A stocktake of the entire preservation collection was also completed, being one of the first such programs in the world.

As a result of these two exercises, a total of 65 750 items have been added to the collection management database and are now controlled and accessible. Of these items, 13 000 were added in 2002-03. This virtually eliminates the backlog of unaccessioned audio-visual material.

Accessioning work was completed on several large and significant collections. This included more than 2500 16mm film reels for Crawford Productions, covering several major television series and miniseries, and over 2000 discs, tapes, posters, still images and memorabilia items for the Australian rock band, Mental as Anything.

Staff performed quality assurance on data for two major projects undertaken by the Archive during the year:

• Music Australia - a joint pilot project with the National Library of Australia to develop a web-based service to bring together and deliver music resources from a wide range of collecting institutions and agencies across Australia; and
• the Learning Federation - an initiative to develop online interactive curriculum content specifically for Australian and New Zealand schools.

Demand for digital content and the associated upgraded data is expected to increase over coming years. Work continued on developing methodologies and processes for streamlining the delivery of content and metadata.

Ninety-five per cent of the time storage conditions maintained at optimum standards

ScreenSound Australia currently stores some 1.33 million items in the collection. During 2002-03, optimum environmental storage conditions were maintained at the Mitchell facilities. Storage areas maintained the required relative humidity for 95 per cent of the time and temperature for 99 per cent of the time. These results are within the prescribed performance indicators directly assisting ScreenSound Australia to meet long-term preservation requirements.

To deal with the predicted long-term growth of its collection, ScreenSound Australia is undertaking a range of preservation activities including continuing work on analysing storage options. The aim of this analysis is to optimise the capacity of existing storage facilities in the short term (up to five years) and to provide ongoing risk management activities specifically for preservation film, video and documentation material.

One hundred per cent of materials acquired meet identified collection priority needs and formal preferences

All items acquired by ScreenSound Australia met the identified collection priority needs and criteria outlined in the Collection Development Policy and Guidelines. The total acquisition figure for 2002-03 was 15 011 titles. The number of audiovisual titles acquired during the year fell from 11 760 in 2001-02 to 7444 this year, due to a general reduction in resources applied to this area.

Major collection development activities undertaken during the year include the completion of the Radio with Pictures oral history program of interviews with television pioneers, and a substantial acquisition of electronic music by Australian composers and performers. ScreenSound Australia also acquired over 600 film prints through the Australian Film Commission (AFC), following rationalisation of their holdings. This acquisition considerably improves ScreenSound Australia's feature film collection.

In addition, the various contracts related to deposit of material were redeveloped, and the Collection Development policy and guidelines were revised to more clearly incorporate new technology productions.

Staff completed the last collection guide in the Oral History series. The collection guide lists oral histories recorded in moving image format for film, television, radio and music. This series of guides, available online, provides a comprehensive coverage of the Archive's oral history collection and contributes to providing access to the Distributed National Collection of oral histories. The Collection includes the holdings of all major libraries, archives and museums and industry, private and volunteer-run collections in Australia.

Safety of collection, as measured by risk analysis, is maintained

The risk posed to collection items is determined through analysis of a number of risk factors such as decomposition rates of the physical item and storage conditions, and other factors such as the availability of purpose-made preservation copies.

Quantitative risk assessment of the collection indicated that the total number of preservation items increased by ten per cent or 28 000 items. The total number of collection items assessed at low risk increased by over 32 000 items from 2001-02. A reduction in items assessed at high risk of over 3800 items resulted in a net decrease in the overall percentage of risk to preservation materials of 2.3 per cent.

Graph 2 demonstrates the percentage of reduction in risk to preservation items over the past five years.

Graph 2: Percentage of preservation items at risk

50 000 items registered or accessioned in 2002-03

As illustrated in Graph 3, staff entered a total of 54 000 items into ScreenSound Australia's collection management system database during 2002-03. Of these, 34 600 items were new additions to the collection. This represents a decrease of 36 per cent compared to last year's figure, which was exceptionally high due to the large number of backlog items registered during the Collection Security Registration project. Nevertheless, it exceeds the target of 50 000 due to the streamlined accessioning of large acquisitions and the activities of the newly created Still Image Services section, and is an increase over the number of items accessioned in 2000-01.

Graph 3: Total collection items accessioned

9000 titles acquired into the collection

ScreenSound Australia acquired a total of 15 011 titles for the collection during 2002-03. This represents a decrease of 19 per cent over 2001-02 but exceeds the target figure of 9000 titles due to a number of large high priority collection acquisitions. The decrease in titles acquired during 2002-03 was caused by a decrease in resources in the collection development area, due to capitalisation budget requirements.

Acquisitions for ScreenSound Australia's collection comprise both contemporary and retrospective material. This year, titles acquired include:

• 271 AFC or Film Finance Corporation Australia funded film and television titles;
• 928 film prints;
• 252 other film components;
• 500 radio titles;
• 900 television titles;
• 4131 sound recordings;
• 67 new media (web pages);
• 59 home movie titles;
• 129 oral histories;
• 73 advertisements;
• 134 other titles; and
• 7567 documentation items.

Significant acquisitions for this reporting period include:

• documentation, awards and personal library and memorabilia from the estate of the late John Heyer;
• coverage of the Canberra bushfires in January 2003; and
• feature films, such as Crackerjack (d. Paul Moloney, 2002), Looking for Alibrandi (d. Kate Woods, 1999), The Tracker (d. Rolf de Heer, 2002), The Last Days of Chez Nous (d. Gillian Armstrong, 1992), Garage Days (d. Alex Proyas, 2002) and Reckless Kelly (d. Yahoo Serious, 1993).

Identified priority items disposed from the collection

ScreenSound Australia utilises a de-selection process as a means of refining its collection. Materials may be removed from the collection for example because duplicate copies are held, better copies have been acquired, copies are worn, outmoded or physically deteriorated or, in hindsight, the content may not merit retention, or are readily available from other sources. During 2002-03, ScreenSound removed 3637 items from the collection according to de-selection protocols. These items were de-selected as part of the final stages of the Collection Security Registration project and the continuing program of de-selection.

290 000 feet of preservation film and 1600 video and sound preservation carriers treated

Due to financial restrictions during the year, ScreenSound focused increasingly on preservation work. This resulted in a decrease in the work undertaken for collection development, access and product development purposes.

A total of 213 634 feet of preservation film was treated during the year - an increase of 36 per cent from the previous year but short of the target of 290 000 feet. This was largely due to the loss of three highly trained technical operators occupying key positions within the area and the long training cycle for new staff. There was an increase of 6.6 per cent in the number of audio and video carriers preserved.

Digital copying of still image collection materials was expanded with the establishment of a dedicated technical production unit in August 2002.

Material preserved, that was assessed as high risk with high heritage value content, included:

• 176 000 feet of black and white and colour film;
• 332 two-inch videotapes;
• 205 U-matic videos;
• 150 magnetic film soundtracks; and
• 2175 items of documentation material.

To support the increase in digital preservation work, ScreenSound Australia completed work on its digital mass storage system. A StorageTek robotic tape library was added to the existing disk array in November 2002. This facility is now the primary storage for digital audio, video and still images.

Table 10: Summary of key preservation activities for 2002-03

Other major activities undertaken during the year included providing specialist professional advisory and copying services to various national and international organisations including: the National Archives of Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Queensland State Archives, and the Library of Congress, United States. A major project to copy 2350 hours of high heritage value audio content was commenced for the National Archives of Australia.

ScreenSound Australia continued the reconstruction of the Australian classic silent film The Sentimental Bloke (1919) with the assistance of Kodak Australasia and Atlab Australia, incorporating new material found at George Eastman House in the United States. New preservation components have been made prior to reprinting.

Output 4.2 The National audiovisual collection is widely accessed by the public

A wide range of programs, including live presentations, exhibitions, film screenings, and products, provide public access to the National Collection.

Exhibitions for ScreenSound Australia for the 2002-03 financial year included: Sights + Sounds of a Nation, exploring 100 years of Australian film, television, radio and recorded sound heritage; Off the Wall, an exhibition of Australian poster art for rock music events; and Spinning Around: 50 years of Festival Records.

Big Screen: a celebration of Australian Cinema was a major touring exhibition, in partnership with the Australian Film Commission, for the year. It visited 15 venues across Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory in May. Big Screen 2003 was launched in Echuca by Senator Rod Kemp, Federal Minister for the Arts and Sport.

In addition to the major enhancements to MAVIS to support the digital agenda, work was completed on the digital mass storage system with the addition of a robotic tape library. These improvements have significantly increased the amount of digital collection material, with the digital collection increasing in size by more than 82 per cent over 2002-03. As a result more digital content has been made available via the online catalogue (on the ScreenSound Australia website).

95 per cent of clients serviced according to the Service Charter

As was the case in 2001-02, 98 per cent of clients were serviced according to the ScreenSound Australia Service Charter service standards in 2002-03. These service standards are listed in the report of performance against the Service Charter.

95 per cent of visitors to on-site exhibitions and participants in public outreach activities are satisfied.

Surveys of clients who visited ScreenSound Australia's exhibitions or attended live presentations, screenings and outreach activities indicated that overall 97 per cent of clients rated them as good to excellent. This is consistent with the figure of 98 per cent in 2001-02.

ScreenSound Australia's website was available 99 per cent of the time during the reporting period. Policy documents and other administration documents for visitor information and orientation are available on the website, which also includes a facility for users to provide feedback.

3000 access requests serviced

One hundred per cent of access requests received were serviced. ScreenSound Australia's client centres in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney serviced 2437 access requests during the year. This represents an increase of 3.4 per cent against an updated 2001-02 figure of 2358 access requests.

The provision of archival material to industry bodies, including media distribution channels, helps to increase the profile of the collection and the work of ScreenSound Australia. ScreenSound Australia provided a number of Australian television and radio program broadcasters with archival material from its collection such as: The Monday Dump with Roy and HG (Seven Network), This Is Your Life (Nine Network), The AFI Awards (Network Ten), 100 Years - The Australian Story (ABC), and Drive With Mike Carlton (Radio 2UE).

9500 access inquiries answered

Staff responded to a total of 10 236 inquiries during the year, comprised of:

• 5408 by Canberra office staff;
• 1969 by Sydney office staff; and
• 2859 by Melbourne office staff.

This is an increase of 4.6 per cent from 2001-02. Research access to the collection was enhanced by improvements to the online collection database. Forty-five per cent of access requests in 2002-03 were made electronically - an increase of 11 per cent from the previous financial year.

65 per cent (12.35 million people) of the Australian public view or listen to at least one item from the collection during the year, via media distribution channels

It is estimated that at least 65 to 70 per cent of Australia's population viewed or listened to some part of the National Collection during the year via media distribution channels. This equates to a minimum of 12.9 to 13.9 million individual people. The next annual Audience Reach Survey is to be undertaken in mid-August 2003.

Programs broadcast comprising archival material included: Stateline (ABC), Sunday (Nine Network), The Kokoda Trail (SBS), Harry's Practice (Seven Network), and Australia All Over (ABC Local Radio).

110 000 on-site visitors to exhibition, public, education and cultural outreach programs

Visitors to ScreenSound Australia exhibitions, presentations, screenings or events in Canberra increased by three per cent from the previous financial year, representing 100 840 people. This is an eight per cent shortfall against the target of 110 000 visitors and is due primarily to the downturn in visitors as a result of both the Canberra bushfires in January 2003 and the general downturn in the number of inbound tourists to Australia.

Since 1998-99, there has been a steady increase in visitors to ScreenSound Australia's Canberra premises, as demonstrated in Graph 4.

Graph 4: Annual on-site visitors

Exhibitions for ScreenSound Australia for the 2002-03 financial year included Off the Wall - an exhibition of poster art for rock music events, showcasing some of Australia's influential poster artists - and Spinning Around: 50 years of Festival Records. The latter exhibition, a collaborative project between the Powerhouse Museum, ScreenSound Australia and Festival Mushroom records, showcases the story of Festival records, Australia's oldest independent record company. Both exhibitions assisted in attracting a younger demographic to the Archive.

A number of musical events attracting good audience numbers were held in conjunction with the Spinning Around exhibition, such as Lager than Life - The Story of Pub Rock, which attracted 130 people.

A number of public screening events were presented in collaboration with other organisations including: Tropfest, a short film festival broadcast live to venues around the country - with the National Capital Authority at Commonwealth Place - attended by 5000 people (a 150 per cent increase over previous year); and the National Multicultural Film Festival - ten feature films provided by Embassies. Events and activities in Canberra continued to attract good audience numbers for screenings in the ScreenSound Australia theatre, and good numbers to musical events.

Educational programs were delivered to booked groups totalling over 43 000 children and adults, a five per cent increase over the previous year. More than 5000 independent visitors also attended the Introducing ScreenSound Australia presentations held on weekends. The Travelling Film and Sound Show entertained 7700 people at Floriade in 2002, a 33 per cent increase over the previous year.

60 000 visitors to external programs

A total of 53 394 people attended programs external to Canberra - a decrease of 28 per cent over the previous year and a shortfall of 11 per cent against this year's target of 60 000 visitors. This shortfall is due in part to the reduction of the number of venues visited by the Big Screen regional film festival and a re-allocation of staff resources into preservation activities.

The major touring exhibition for the 2002-03 financial year was the Big Screen film festival, which visited 15 venues across Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Generating awareness of Australian screen culture, these three-day festivals of classic and new release Australian feature films were seen by a total audience of 17 872 people. Big Screen 2003 is a joint project between the Australian Film Commission and ScreenSound Australia, and is supported by the Australian Government through the Department's Cultural Development Program.

220 000 people view/listen to ScreenSound Australia products

An estimated 304 600 people viewed or listened to products based on the collection, comprising 192 000 people who viewed or listened to ScreenSound Australia products sold in 2002-03 and 112 600 people who viewed or listened to ScreenSound Australia products sold in the previous five years. This is a decrease of 11 per cent from the previous year. This decrease is due to a relocation of resources to satisfy budget requirements, which in turn resulted in a reduced number of products being produced during the year.

ScreenSound Australia's product development program produced nine additional audio, video, DVD and print products drawn from film and sound material in the collection during 2002-03. The product range now totals 143 titles. This program provides low-cost access to the collection, with the production development process providing supplementary preservation, collection development and access outcomes.

EVALUATIONS

Stakeholder and customer surveys

Surveys assessing user and stakeholder satisfaction, and performance against Service Charter standards are conducted on a periodic basis. The following evaluations are currently undertaken:

• visitor feedback forms for people visiting exhibitions;
• feedback forms from teachers attending Public Education Program presentations with school groups; and
• feedback cards to accompany products. These are being modified in order to increase the usefulness of feedback received.

ScreenSound Australia received 71 pieces of solicited written feedback regarding collection access services. This feedback was in the form of a client survey postcard and includes postcards disseminated by staff in the Sydney and Melbourne Offices. A total of 100 per cent of respondents indicated they were happy with the service they received from ScreenSound Australia, and 100 per cent of clients said requests were met within their timeframe.

In addition to formal feedback, 56 pieces of unsolicited written feedback were received in the form of emails, cards, letters and faxes. All but five pieces of feedback were positive. The negative feedback related to issues such as ScreenSound Australia's lack of digitised moving image on its website, the condition of an Access print, the Schedule of Fees, access to documentation stored at Mitchell and clearing copyright. Collection Access staff dealt promptly with these complaints, offering appropriate explanations.