Association of University Teachers of New Zealand, Auckland Branch records.

Collection includes meeting minutes, subject files, correspondence, membership records and some personal files containing material relating to Association members.

The papers have been retained more or less as they were received. The first deposit, now forming Series 1, was presented to the Library in 1986 (possibly by Bert Roth) and was accessioned at that time as MSS & Archives A-298. It contained copies of minutes of meetings of the Branch from 1962 to 1979. The remainder of the papers were received in 1992. They fell, on examination, into five distinct series, covering consecutive time periods during which they were collected and maintained by different people.

Series 2, Association of University Teachers (AUT) files 1968-1976, is a collection made and filed by Professor Nicholas Tarling, Department of History, University of Auckland, who was National President, AUT, from 1970-1975. Professor Tarling's files have been retained as found. They are arranged essentially by year, but within each year he placed papers in roughly labelled folders according to particular subjects. The folders contained copies of minutes, letters, reports, newspaper clippings, etc. without differentiation.

Series 3. AUT Files [1979-1988]. Papers from (roughly) 1979 to 1988 were accompanied by a printed inventory, which is to be found as item 3.1. This series was the most coherently presented. All folders had been labelled and corresponded with the inventory almost exactly. Series 3 was therefore placed in permanent folders first.

Series 4-5. AUT Files 1988, 1988-1991. The papers of most recent origin were largely unsorted, although a set of ‘issues’ files dated 1988, and labelled in one hand, was found and retained separately as Series 4. In sorting

Series 5. in this series an attempt was made to follow the arrangement of the printed inventory to Series 3, with the idea of imposing a uniform order on the later papers. Minutes of meetings, membership records, correspondence and certain ‘issues’ or subject files (1989-90) as found, have been placed in sequence. However the bulk of material for these years has been arranged simply in ascending chronological order. It includes reports, memoranda, submissions, etc. This latter arrangement is based on ‘current file’ folders so labelled for 1989, which were found among the unsorted material.

The only papers removed from the order outlined above concern individual members of the Association. Since restrictions on access to such items are more stringent than for the collection as a whole, a separate Series 6 has been created for them.

It should be noted that there is an apparent gap in the sequence for the period 1977-1978. No further papers, and no explanation for the gap, were available at the time of sorting.

Records relating to technicians have been arranged as a separate collection: New Zealand University Technicians' Union. Auckland Branch. Records, 1971-1991, MSS & Archives 95/2.