In September 2008 the Otago Settlers Museum broke ground on an exciting redevelopment project. This four-stage project—planned to be completed by the end of 2012—will touch every section of the Museum, creating new spaces and reinventing old ones. Stage One, the new 3,000m2 environmentally-controlled collections storage facility, is nearing completion. Stage Two, the refurbishment of the New Zealand Railways Building, will begin in early 2010. This stage includes work on the Museum’s Archives and Research area.

Exciting changes are planned for the Archive. We are building a state-of-the-art cool/dry store for our photograph collections to ensure their continued preservation. New staff workspaces, including a special room for collection photography and scanning, will ensure archival collections continue to be properly catalogued. The general storage area will grow and allow plenty of space for future donations.

The Museum is planning a separate free-of-charge, self-service research area. This area will hold many of our general genealogical sources such as passenger lists and cemetery records. Our searchable collection database will also be available so visitors can virtually explore our collections in storage.

In order for the Museum to realise these ambitious plans we will need to alter our regular Archives services. The Archives and Research Reading Room will close at 1PM on Thursday, 24 December 2009, allowing staff to pack and relocate the Archives collection to temporary storage. At this time we will take the opportunity to catalogue and digitise the collection and enter this information on our collection database.

During this period we will be offering new Archives services in another area of the Museum. We will have some of our more popular genealogical sources, including our collection of passenger lists, available on a computer for Museum visitors to access at no charge. Our photo portrait collection will also be available for viewing as digital images and visitors will have the opportunity to purchase digital copies of any of these portraits.

The Otago Settlers Museum regrets any inconvenience caused by this temporary change in our regular services. However, when Archives and Research reopens in 2012, we will be able to offer researchers improved facilities and greater access to our unique archival collections.