Great reference, thanks Kate! Saw the book on display yesterday at the Melbourne Uni Bookroom and it was well priced for an illustrated hardback, so bought it. It’s a gorgeous production and I look forward to reading it over Christmas.

Cheers, and thanks all for the discussion, which has been most fruitful!

Just one further note (and thanks for the reply to my comment!) — have you read Barbara Hodgson’s new book ‘Trading in Memories’? She’s a publisher and author and a mad keen collector of ephemera. She seems to cherish her finds as artefacts and as aesthetic objects, though she is careful to always recall the provenance of each find. The book is lovely and full of wonderful images of markets, old photos etc. Worth a look, though it might make you flinch at the wanton gathering of fragments…

Adrian Cunningham, ‘The mysterious outside reader’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 24 no. 1, May 1996.
(Quote page 132: ‘There is a notable absence of any systematic and co-ordinated process for the identification, appraisal and transfer of personal records into the care of archivists.’)

And this, nearly a decade later:
Michael Piggott, ‘Building collective memory archives’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 33 no. 1, May 2005.
(Quote page 75: ‘Until gaps are identified and remedial action taken we will not approach a collection achieving representative of the whole of Australian society.’)

Both footnote other commentators.

Not that I have researched this issue; these are just some things that come to mind.