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Oral History

Oral History - Janet Vil...
- Interview audio - ...
- Interview transcri...

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Series

City of Sydney oral history collection, 1982 - ongoing

Collection

Our City

Organisation

Sydney City Council

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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

This item is licenced for use under a Creative Commons Non Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International) copyright license. It allows users to copy and share the item in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes, provided the item is not changed in any way, it is attributed to the City of Sydney and the author/creator (where known), and a copyright notice is included. Full licence terms are available from Creative Commons. No warranties or other rights are provided by the licence.

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Oral History - Janet Villata and Michael Smith, 2025

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Unique IDOH-000177SeriesCity of Sydney oral history collection, 1982 - ongoingInterviewerSue AndersenThemeOur CityDate of interview28 October 2025Date qualifierexactFormatAudio - DigitalSummary of interviewCity of Sydney staff members Janet Villata and Michael Smith, 2025.

Janet Villata, the City Archivist with Michael Smith, the Manager of Records and Information (and former City Archivist). In the interview they reflect on what led them to pursue careers as Archivists and discuss their career trajectories before joining the City.

Both Janet and Michael discuss their roles within the City, major projects they have worked on and key achievements. They agree that one of their proudest accomplishments was developing
and implementing a new system for managing the City’s Archives. When Janet and Michael first joined the City, there were more than 10 different systems in use to manage the collection, and functionality for users was far from ideal.

They talk about their passion for being archivists and the importance of their roles. Janet and Michael also reflect about the legacy of former City archivists and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the archives on 5 July 2026, including how the milestone will be celebrated.
LanguageEnglish (eng)Digitised recordNoBorn digital itemYes

Oral Histories, Items