Staff, unions and archivists are to save the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) . Management plans to slash staff at the national broadcaster.
Fifty eight permanent staff and 17 contractors could lose their jobs.
鈥淲hile the Australian community is celebrating the ABC鈥檚 90th anniversary, the ABC鈥檚 management is pushing ahead on a drastic and damaging proposal to gut the ABC Archives,鈥 the Community and Public Service Union鈥檚 (CPSU)聽 campaign said.
The campaign is concerned that more than a third of the Archives鈥 鈥渟pecialist workforce鈥 will be cut. It said 鈥渢he ABC Archives and the nation鈥檚 history itself are at stake鈥 and that such cuts 鈥渏eopardise the integrity of our current and future historical records鈥.
鈥淭he ABC has been entrusted by the Australian people to collect, preserve and make accessible audio-visual records of our stories, our voices and our songs since the ABC鈥檚 inception in 1932. But it鈥檚 not just about our history from the past, it is about our stories now and ensuring that these stories are not lost as a result of these changes,鈥 the campaign said.
The campaign said there had been no consultation with the staff over the cuts.
Library and archive professionals sent an to ABC chair Ita Buttrose and managing director David Anderson expressing 鈥渟ignificant concern鈥 about the staff cuts and 鈥渢he lack of a clear and public plan for the future of the ABC archives, library and information services鈥.
鈥淎ustralians trust the ABC to provide well researched, evidence-based journalism and high-quality programming,鈥 the letter said. 鈥淚t is reasonable to expect that the ABC archival collection will be managed according to professional standards for creating, managing and preserving records, standards common to other public institutions responsible for a collection of national significance.
鈥淭he growth of digital collections, including born-digital and digitised materials, brings with it challenges such as limits on digital storage, unstable file formats聽and the risk of permanent loss when content has not been properly stored or described and so cannot later be found. Journalists, while having many skills, do not have skills in digital collection management and preservation. Professional archivists and librarians do.鈥
It noted, wryly, that the ABC is only able to celebrate its 90th year showcasing 鈥渋ts proud history鈥 because of 鈥渢he work of the ABC鈥檚 professional archivists and librarians over the decades鈥.
[Find out more about the campaign .]