Archives NZ ‘crisis’ claim

‘‘This is a major problem.’’ Vincent O’Malley Historian

Archives New Zealand is in crisis, historians say, after the national archive’s widely used multimillion-dollar online search tool was taken offline indefinitely due to consistent system failures.

The government recordkeeping authority has not set a date when its collections search tool will return. Last week, Archives NZ removed public access to the tool – which had been live only since February – due to a potential privacy and security breach, after restricted files became visible.

That means people cannot search for records online and must visit an Archives NZ office to view files in a reading room. But reading rooms are only open part-time in four cities – Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch.

The search tool being down would ‘‘severely impede’’ progress on Treaty of Waitangi claims and other work, said Vincent O’Malley, a historian specialising in Treaty research. ‘‘This is a major problem . . . [it’s] a crisis,’’ O’Malley said.

Archives was not meeting its core responsibility to provide access to the country’s national archival records, said Professional Historians’ Association president Michael Kelly. ‘‘It’s unquestionably a crisis,’’ he said.

Archives selected international software company Axiell as the provider of the search tool out of four proposals, said chief archivist Anahera Morehu.

The agreement signed with Axiell was for five years, to October 2024. As at mid-2020, the department projected it would pay Axiell $4.6 million for hosting, developing, implementing and maintaining the search tool. More than $2m has been paid to date.

‘‘It remains our priority to enhance the collections search functionality to help ensure it best meets the needs of users and staff for accessing, and we are currently working with Axiell to achieve this,’’ Morehu said.