Search room services

General information
Finding aids and indexes
Copying of records

General Information

All records are housed in storage areas at two locations, one in the city (at 91 Murray Street) and the other at Berriedale. In general the more recent records and those awaiting processing are at the Berriedale Repository, and items stored there that are required by researchers will be brought to the search room (see image below - the 'History Room') at 91 Murray Street. Twenty-four hours notice is usually required for items to be delivered from Berriedale.

The 'History Room',
91 Murray Street, Hobart.

Staff are on duty each day to assist people with their research. guides, lists and indexes to the various records are available in the search room.

Much of the high use and fragile material has been copied, usually onto microfilm, as a preservation measure and this is the format in which it is usually made available. Microfilm printers are available to provide copies from this format.

Formal rules for use of the search room have been issued.

Finding Aids

Descriptive information - Tasmanian Archives Online

Computers in the search room provide access to Tasmanian Archives Online, the main system for providing contextual and descriptive information on the government and non-government holdings of the Archives Office. This contains the same information as the paper versions which are also available in the search room, but in a broadly searchable database. This is the system that is also on our website.

The paper version of the system is also available in the search room. A brief description of the general principles of records arrangement used in the Archives Office provides an overview of the system.

Guides

Detailed guides to some categories of records are available in the search room, or can be downloaded (or purchased) as well as brief guides to the most useful records for initial research on some topics.
A guide describing some useful sources for genealogical research is also available.

Three major guides have been published to the records of:

The Colonial Secretary's Office
The Governor's Office
The Convict Department

Each of these has a detailed introduction outlining the role, functions and administration of the agency and provides detailed descriptions of the arrangement and content of each series of records created by the agency.

These three can be downloaded (or purchased by contacting us, as can the guide described below)

A fourth guide has also been published which covers all records relating to free immigration, regardless of the agency which created them. As well as descriptions of all the relevant series of records this guide also gives an outline of the various government immigration schemes and an administrative history of the major agencies involved with these schemes.

Indexes

A number of indexes have been developed by the Archives Office and some of these are available on our website which is also accessible by computers in the search room. Some card indexes have also been created by Archives Office staff; however, it must be stressed that these contain references to only a small amount of the information contained in the records held in the Archives Office. Access to information in Government records is generally via the indexes created by the various agencies whose records are held in the Archives Office. A brief description of each card index is given in Brief Guide No. 28.

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