Marian Hoy celebrating her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, March 2011. Photograph courtesy of Michael Hoy.
On 29 October 2012, the Australian archival and recordkeeping community lost one of its most respected leaders with the death of Marian Hoy from ovarian cancer. Tributes flowed in; acknowledging Marian’s many contributions to both archives and education. Facebook friends spoke of the importance of her support in helping them enter, and encouraging them to stay in, the profession. Others recalled her warmth and friendliness. The International Council on Archives (ICA) email traffic brought expressions of sadness and condolences from all around the world: from Africa, Europe, Asia, North and South America and the Pacific. Among the messages, there was a common theme of fondness for Marian as a person, as well as a high regard for her professional accomplishments. Marian had a loving family at the core of her life, a large circle of friends and an even wider circle of acquaintances and colleagues whose lives she enriched.
Marian was born in Nyngan, western New South Wales (NSW), where her father, John Liney, was posted as a bank officer. She was one of four children and, like other children from bank families, attended many schools as they moved around the country. She finished her school education on the south coast of NSW and then went on to the Australian National University in Canberra, where she studied history. Marian graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1981, her thesis topic being on evidence of classical period manuscript holdings in Anglo-Saxon England. Marian considered following her mother’s footsteps by becoming a librarian, but instead decided upon a career in archives. Her first step was to win a Rotary Scholarship to study at the University of Wales in Bangor, where she was awarded the Graduate Diploma in Archive Administration. She was recruited by Australian Archives in Canberra on her return to Australia in 1983, joining the same year that the new Archives Act came into force as law.
Over the next 25 years, Marian worked in many positions at Australian Archives, during which time the organisation was renamed the National Archives of Australia (NAA) in 1998. In her many years of service, Marian conducted surveys of current and archival holdings in agencies and provided recordkeeping advice to records managers working in the federal government. She also developed and implemented policies and procedures for use in NAA and for government-wide application. Marian acquired a depth of experience with the Commonwealth Records Series (CRS) System, becoming an expert on what, to outsiders, can appear a complex mix of theory, principles, rules and practice. She participated in projects to automate the NAA’s control systems, when these began in the late 1980s. She developed user specifications and procedures, testing and providing training in modules for the RecordSearch database – the NAA’s online collection management system. In the 1990s, Marian managed projects relating to thesauri: with Keyword AAA, she contributed to the mapping of administrative functions and activities and negotiated a whole-of-commonwealth government licence for its use. She also managed the development of the Australian Government Interactive Functions Thesaurus (AGIFT) and the CRS Thesaurus. This work was one of her most significant contributions to the NAA. Another major contribution was to organise and systematise NAA’s training programs – an example of her deep interest in education and training. Marian led and managed staff in many of her roles, being employed at Executive Level 1 from 1988 and often acting at Executive Level 2 (Director). The ‘people part’ of her work was always very important to Marian, and she was a supportive colleague for those with whom she worked closely and those she encountered in agencies and in her wider professional life.
Gradually, while still deeply engaged in her work as an archivist, Marian’s main focus shifted to education – both her own ongoing learning and the discipline of education. She strongly believed in lifelong education and sought an opportunity that met her needs and allowed her to draw on her extensive experience of workplace training. She undertook part-time study at the University of Canberra and received a Masters in Educational Leadership in 2003.
Marian’s proudest academic achievement was receiving her PhD from the University of Canberra in 2011. Her thesis investigated mentoring, induction programs and other experiences of early professional learning for graduates entering positions in libraries, archives and museums in Canberra. Her literature review and other background research were meticulous and wideranging. Hers was an interpretive study, tracing the experiences of 16 new employees in collecting institutions over a two-year period. Marian was very pleased that all 16 stayed with the project for the whole time, participating in three rounds of interviews. This may well have had something to do with Marian’s skills and her personality, rather than good luck; modesty was one of Marian’s characteristics. Marian’s thesis, ‘Through their Eyes: Experiences of Early Professional Learners in Collecting Institutions’ (2010) is a major contribution to the knowledge base of the archives and related professions in Australia and is available online for all to view.Footnote 1 Her final peer-reviewed article, ‘Relationships, Trust and Learning: Experiences of Emerging Professionals Working in Collecting Institutions’, which appeared in 2011, summarises some of the key themes and conclusions in her thesis.Footnote 2
When Marian moved into the education profession, she not only studied, but also practised, in this field. She received the Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment (from Esset Australia in 2009), qualifying her to deliver competency-based training in recordkeeping under the BSB07 Training Package. Marian participated in industry consultations prior to the release of BSB07 and had given presentations and published articles on competency standards, so now she was able to combine academic insights and practical experience as an accredited trainer in the vocational education sector. She also tutored students at the University of Canberra and coordinated education and recordkeeping subjects. She was pleased to have had the opportunity to teach university students. Her other contributions to international education included lecturing to University of Hong Kong students in 2008 and 2011.
While Marian pursued her doctoral research, she also became active in the international archival arena. She joined the ICA Section on Archival Education and Training (SAE) Steering Committee in 2004. Among its major projects, SAE managed the dissemination of the ICA ‘Training the Trainer’ resource pack, and Marian was involved in promoting it and arranging translations from English into French, Portuguese, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesia, German, Chinese and Arabic. In 2008 at the ICA Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Marian assumed the role of secretary of SAE. Her work included planning and organising SAE meetings, providing reports and coordinating research projects. In November 2009, she participated in the CITRA seminar, ‘Global and Local Perspectives in Archival Education’, which was held in Malta. As well as being an exemplary secretary, she made many new friends among the international archival education community. Marian’s activity here had an impact on the life of the profession in Australia, for Marian was a consummate networker and was instrumental in organising visits by several leading overseas academics and practitioners to Australasia. Marian’s other contributions to ICA included editing an issue of its journal, Comma, and developing guidelines for peer review of articles for that journal. Marian worked tirelessly to organise SAE meetings and other activities – both professional and social – for the ICA Congress in Brisbane during August 2012. She was deeply disappointed that her declining health prevented her from attending. Her international friends and colleagues likewise regretted that Marian was not present at this important archival event.
Marian was a long-time professional member of the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA). It was through her participation in the local branch as a member of the 1985 Canberra conference committee that Marian got to know her husband, Michael, who also worked at Australian Archives. Marian’s other contributions to the ASA included speaking at the 1998 Fremantle conference (on thesauri) and the 2001 Hobart joint ASA–Records Management Association of Australia (RMAA) conference (on describing electronic series). Marian was deeply committed to the goal of a flexible unified statement that set out the unique knowledge of the recordkeeping profession and could serve to inform practitioners, students, educators and employers about that knowledge. She took the lead in developing the Statement of Knowledge for Recordkeeping Professionals, which appeared in 2006. Marian was later involved in the review of the statement from 2009 until early 2012, including organising workshops (co-presented with Sigrid McCausland) at the 2009 conferences of the RMAA and ASA. Over the years, Marian published several articles in Archives and Manuscripts, the earliest reporting on projects at Australian Archives and more recently presenting her academic work on competencies and early professional learning.
Marian was employed part-time as Professional Development and Education Officer for the RMAA from late 2009 until shortly before her death.Footnote 3 Here, she led and participated in the organisation’s many education-related activities. For example, she was thorough and conscientious in undertaking course accreditation activities, and she regularly kept in touch with educators in the higher education and vocational education sectors. She contributed to Information Awareness Month activities and put together the first education stand at the RMAA convention in 2009. She was a valued and supportive colleague in the virtual workplace, as she had been in the physical workplace. Marian was a Chartered Member of RIM Professionals Australasia and was entitled to the post-nominal MRIM.
As a person, Marian was patient, persistent, well-organised, generous, hardworking and dependable. She was a behind-the-scenes person, rather than a seeker of the limelight. She was a good listener and maker of friends. She had a beautiful speaking voice. She loved life and liked to mark important occasions. Friends who attended her and Michael’s 25th wedding anniversary celebrations at their home in Branxton near Newcastle were treated to a wonderful time of conversation, food and wine. Marian loved gardening and was especially fond of Australian plants. She dealt with her final illness bravely and openly. She stayed in touch as much as she could with her wide range of contacts and remained very interested in what everyone was doing.
There were many sides to Marian, some of which were known to all and many known only to some. It came as a surprise to hear at her funeral that she had once been ‘a bit of a hippy’ and that she had found time to be a quilt-maker. Examples of Marian’s work were on the walls at the funeral service, and her coffin was adorned with Australian wildflowers and topped by a single waratah – the floral symbol of the state in which she was born and died.
Marian is survived by her husband, Michael, her children, Tristan and Rachel, her parents, John and Jennifer Liney, and her siblings, Robin, Penny and Greg and their families. She is remembered by her many friends and colleagues. She was someone who made a difference, and she would wish us to continue our work for the profession in a spirit of friendship and dedication.
Notes
1. Marian Hoy, ‘Through their Eyes: Experiences of Early Professional Learners in Collecting Institutions’, PhD thesis, University of Canberra, 2010, available at < http://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/items/74fbd2d7-5415-90dd-c0ff-d91f844c95b4/1/ >, accessed 8 May 2013.
2. For a description of Marian’s published work, see Karen Anderson and Sigrid McCausland, ‘The Publications of Marian Hoy’, Flash, Newsletter of the International Council on Archives, issue 25, December 2012, pp. 24–5.
3. While she held this role, the RMAA became the Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIM Professionals Australasia).