Reserve Bank of Australia Launches "Unreserved"

The Reserve Bank of Australia is the nation’s central bank and conducts monetary policy, works to maintain a strong financial system and issues the nation’s banknotes. It also provides banking services to the government and manages Australia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves.

Through their various banking activities and responsibilities, the Reserve Bank of Australia has amassed a significant archival collection that captures almost 2 centuries of primary source material, with each item providing insight into Australia’s economic, financial and social history.

DatacomIT, Recollects authorised reseller for the Australian region, has been working with the RBA to both digitise archived collections and to build a digital archival collections tool on the Recollect platform, titled ‘Unreserved’. Unreserved simplifies how researchers and other interested parties are able to access information held in the archives while decreasing the need for the Bank’s archives to be physically handled for observation, ensuring the ongoing conservation of fragile historically significant material and improving public access in a safe and effective manner.

DatacomIT has digitised the Bank’s archived material at a very high specification to meet the FADGI 4-star standard.

Unreserved allows you to directly access digitised copies of selected archival records, independently research and download digital versions of key archival records and learn more about the nature and scope of the Bank’s entire archival collection. Alongside being able to individually search and browse the digital archive, The Reserve Bank of Australia’s archivists have prepared 2 types of guides for the collection, Series Guides and Research Guides, both of which aid the users to more efficiently examine a specific topic such as World War 1, The Great Depression or Convict Banking.

Although Unreserved is designed for users to be able to freely and independently access required information, there is also the option to lodge requests for information with the archivists, contact them directly to better understand the records and request to examine physical records.

The RBA states in their Bulletin article From the Archives: The London Letters –

“Most importantly, Unreserved provides a vehicle for sharing unique primary source information about the nation’s economic, financial and social history, as seen by the central bank, and will ensure the preservation of this important archival collection.”

For the full Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin article, please click here.

To access Unreserved and browse the Bank’s archives for yourself, please click here.