Historical Studies Alumni: Where are they now?

Justine Heazelwood BA Hons (1992) MA (2000)Director and Victoria's Fifth Keeper of Public Records at the Public Record Office of Victoria, (Prov)

Justine's interest in history sparked while she was travelling in Europe during her year off. 'I became fascinated by the physical manifestations of European societies -in their art, their streetscapes and in their documents.' She was drawn to the 'otherness' of cultures and was struck by the layering of cultures she observed in the landscape of Israel .

At university she was torn between the arts and the sciences. Justine, like many students, needed to support herself through university and as science had too many contact hours she ended up in the Arts. Justine completed a major in history and a minor in zoology and then went onto complete her MA in Italian Renaissance history.

It was the art history, material culture and architecture of Italy from Roman times onwards that most caught her imagination and interest.

Describing herself as "the world's worst waitress", Justine supported herself through her studies working for various government departments in casual administrative and clerical positions. This part time work experience combined with Justine's own curiosity lead her to learn desktop publishing and to become an early master at creating web sites.

While finishing off her Masters and working part time for PROV, Justine took up the position of Project Manager on an IT project working with a team from CSIRO. The aim of the project was to work out how to preserve documents created in digital form, (the next generation of archives), for the long term. Justine's previous work with government departments and her own interest in computer technology enabled her to manage this half million-dollar project. She was managing "a lot of techies" and although she had a basic understanding of IT, she had a huge desire to know more and was not afraid to keep asking questions to get the answers. It was a cutting edge project and Justine modestly describes herself as becoming 'an expert by accident'.

This project lead to the creation of - the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy or VERS. Justine helped to develop the VERS standard for long term preservation of digital records, which is now widely used in Australia and internationally. She then went on to manage the VERS Centre of Excellence - a unit within PROV, which assisted the implementation of VERS across the Victorian Public Sector. In 2003 she became Director of PROV and Victoria 's fifth Keeper of Public Records.

Justine is future orientated but with a strong historical background. She is an excellent administrator and still able have an understanding of what is possible. Her current focus is on understanding how people use the archives and how they might use them differently in the future. She is working on strategies on how to get information about what is in the archive out to a broader public. As this requires an understanding of the web and the online environment, and as she obviously thrives on active learning, Justine is currently undertaking a Masters in Internet and Web Technology at RMIT.

When asked how she finds the time and energy to study and run the PROV Justine smiled and said, 'you have to be interested in what you study. Only study what you love, it has to be a kind of hobby. If you don't enjoy it don't do it.'

For more detailed information on Digital Record keeping @ PROV:

• PROV website: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/digitalarchive
• the PROV reading rooms: 99 Sheil Street, North Melbourne
• phone: 9348 5600