Refresh of Significance 2.0, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, August 2024
We’re seeking your feedback to inform an update of the publication Significance 2.0: a guide to assessing the significance of collections.’
Why we want your input
Your input will help ensure that the revised guide meets the needs of professional and non-professional collectors and cultural heritage managers across Australia.
How you can voice your opinion
You can have your say by providing a written submission by 6 October 2024. Submissions can be uploaded below or emailed to [email protected].
What will be the outcome of this consultation?
Your feedback will help guide the drafting of a revised guide and ensure that it helps collecting organisations, professionals and the broader public to determine the significance of cultural and heritage objects.
The Issue
The Australian Government is proposing to refresh Significance 2.0 a guide to assessing the significance of collections to ensure that Australia continues to have a guide to assessing significance that meets the needs of contemporary collectors. It is envisioned that the revised guide will align with current and emerging best-practice standards in collections and cultural heritage management and the principles of our National Cultural Policy, Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place. Updating Significance 2.0 is an action under Revive.
Significance 2.0 was produced in 2009 by the Collections Council of Australia and continues to be widely used in Australia. It guides policies and processes in the Gallery, Library, Archive and Museum sectors, and allied fields. It is a teaching tool in university courses related to collections and cultural heritage management, and forms the basis of some grant programs and decisions on the management of our national cultural heritage. Significance 2.0 also has applications beyond Australia. It was the basis for the United Kingdom’s 2018 Reviewing Significance 3.0 guide and there are Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese and Swedish versions in use.
We invite stakeholders, particularly current users of Significance 2.0, to have their say on what aspects of Significance 2.0 should be changed or maintained in the revised edition. This may include feedback on:
- the significance assessment framework
- appropriate ways to document significance in contemporary collecting contexts
- the types of collection items featured in case studies
- the balance of creators, themes, subject matter, and media representation across the guide
- any significance-related issues requiring particular guidance
- terminology
- suggestions for useful tools or templates, and
- the design and format of the guide.
We would also welcome suggestions for specific case studies that you think users of a revised guide could benefit from.
Relevant documentation
Participate
We invite you to tell us your views on this topic.
Please include:
- contact name
- organisation name, if applicable
- contact details, including telephone number, postal and email addresses
- confirmation whether or not your submission can be made public—published—or kept confidential.
All submissions to be made public need to meet the Digital Service Standard for accessibility. Any submission that does not meet this standard may be modified before being made public.
If your submission is to be made public, please ensure you do not include any personal information that you don’t want to be published.
If your submission is confidential, please ensure each page of the submission is marked as confidential.
Please click on the ‘Have your say now’ button below to upload your submission.
Privacy Collection Notice
Refresh of Significance 2.0
Your submission, including any personal information supplied, is being collected by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (“the Department”) in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.
Use and disclosure
The Department will use your submission and personal information to inform an update of the publication Significance 2.0: a guide to assessing the significance of collections. It may be used by the Department to make further contact with you about issues you have raised in your submission to inform the review of Significance 2.0.
The Department may publish your submission as explained below. The Department will not disclose information to third parties, except in the circumstances outlined below or unless authorised or required by law.
Publication and Confidentiality
Submissions, in part or full, including the name of the author, may be published on the Department’s website unless the submission is confidential. When publishing, the Department will redact any personal contact details of the author.
Confidential submissions will not be published and will only be disclosed in the following circumstances:
- in response to a request by a Commonwealth Minister;
- where required by a House or a Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia;
- where necessary in the public interest; or
- where authorised or required by law.
Submissions will only be treated as confidential if they are expressly stated to be confidential. Automatically generated confidentiality statements or disclaimers appended to an email do not suffice for this purpose. If you wish to make a confidential submission, you must indicate this by ensuring your submission is clearly marked confidential.
Even if a submission is not marked confidential, the Department may choose not to publish it, or any part of it.
Security and Access
The Department will securely store your personal information. The Department’s privacy policy contains information regarding complaint handling processes and how to access and/or seek correction of personal information held by the Department. Further information is available at Privacy | Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
See also: Share your views on an updated guide for assessing the significance of cultural objects
