Understanding Ourselves and Others: Australian Archivists and Temperament

A continuing theme of the archival literature from the “New World Countries” of the Australia, Canada and the United States is the lack of understanding and appreciation of archivists and archival work. The author posits that this situation can be ameliorated if archivists understand the temperament characteristics that shape their own attitudes and behaviours and thus influence their interactions with significant others in the workplace and wider community. This essay reports and interprets major findings of a survey of temperament types present among members of the Australian Society of Archivists, conducted as part of a 1998 three-country Australia, Canada and the USA] study.A version of this paper was presented at the 1999 Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the first of two essays that report the results of national surveys of temperament types of archivists in three countries: Australia, Canada and the USA. The second essay, “The Influence of Temperament Type in the Perceptions of Archivists in Three New World Countries” will appear in the next issue of Archival Science.