Business archives : using international best practice to evaluate business archives in New Zealand

Abstract

The literature discussing business archives illustrates the difficulty of evaluation and quantification in most Western countries. The large proportion of small family businesses in New Zealand exacerbates this difficulty. If certain types of New Zealand businesses continue to be under-represented in the archival collections of our country, then our understanding of New Zealand society as a whole will be poorer. This report describes research that investigated the prevalence and characteristics of business archives in New Zealand. Factors claimed in the literature to support and differentiate business archives were used to create a survey instrument to test these qualities amongst the New Zealand business archives. An extensive search for a suitable population resulted in a very small number of businesses qualified to participate. The results from the survey were then analysed to determine which factors are applicable amongst these businesses and extended to the wider business population insofar as possible. Particular demographic factors featured strongly, whereas many best practice recommendations were not found to be significant amongst the surveyed population. Conclusions were drawn regarding the implications for business archives in this country.