General description

This request was one of a number of Official Information Act requests received on the topic of changes in reading room hours at Archives NZ. We have decided to publish the response to this request as it had the largest scope of the requests we received.

The request was for:

• copies of all minutes of meeting in which the proposed cuts in hours were discussed, both internally within Archives, and with Departmental officials and with the Minister's office

• copies of communications about the changes to relevant stakeholders

• copies of letter and communications to the Chief Archivist on this subject

• copies of internal emails between staff, and between Departmental officials and the Minister's office

• all relevant reports, memos, letters, notes and advice, including information provided to the Archives Council.

The date range for this request is between 1 January 2018 and 29 January 2020.

Release material has been arranged in bundles within the PDF at the bottom of this page. The bundles are as follows:

1. Meeting minutes

2. Communications and correspondence

3. Emails from staff 2018

4. Emails from staff 2019-2020

5. Archives Council material

6. All other relevant material

Some information is withheld under the Official Information Act 1982:

• section 9(2)(a) - to protect the privacy of natural persons. All names and contact information for non-Departmental staff are withheld. Mobile phone numbers for Departmental staff are also withheld under this provision.

• section 9(2)(ba)(ii) - to protect information that is subject to an obligation of confidence, where the making available of that information would likely prejudice the supply of similar information and it is in the public interest that such information should continue to be supplied. We have withheld the username and password for the staging area of our website under this sections.

• section 9(2)(ba)(ii) - to protect information which is subject to an obligation of confidence, where the making available of that information would be likely otherwise to damage the public interest. A small amount of information within some staff emails is withheld under this section.

• section 9(2)(g)(i) - to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinions. We have withheld some email content from the Deputy Chief Executive of Information and Knowledge Services to the Chief Archivist under this provision.

• section 9(2)(g)(ii) - to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through protection of officers and employees from improper pressure or harassment. Frontline staff members who work in the reading rooms have had their names withheld under this section to protect them from harassment. Wellington-based research archivists have been renamed as Archivist 1-9 in an attempt to make some of the email chains easier to follow.

• section 9(2)(f)(iv) - to protect the confidentiality of advice tendered by officials. In this instance we have withheld Budget information that this still under active consideration.