Foundation Day Exhibition
The University Archives has created a Foundation Day exhibition, which is available for viewing in the Exhibition Space on Level 2 of the University Library.

The inaugural UNSW Foundation Day was held on Tuesday 4 July 1961, with the first Tuesday after the anniversary of the university’s foundation being selected as the date for the festivities (the foundation date of the university was 1 July 1949). At that time, UNSW had no real identity in the public mind and some students still had lectures off campus. Students established the concept of Foundation Day because they wanted to impress on the general public that there were two universities in Sydney!

Students instigated a number of pranks, as well as a procession and a scavenger hunt, and the day concluded with a Foundation Day Ball in the evening. A special Tharunka edition entitled The Sydney Moaning Tharunka was also sold to raise money for charity. The day was considered to be a great success in achieving publicity for the university.

Foundation Day has changed, but it has continued to be celebrated each year (though since 1973 it has been held on the second Thursday of session 2).

The exhibition covers some of the most memorable pranks - from the 1964 Taronga Zoo alligator kidnapping to the 1991 fake "missile" on Congwong Beach - as well as the parades, scavenger hunts, flour fights and special edition Tharunkas that have all been a part of the Foundation Day experience.

The exhibition will be on display in the Library until August 31. For further information, please contact the Archives.

TRIM Server Upgrade
UNSW IT Services are currently upgrading the TRIM server, a process which will result in improved speed and reliability for all users accessing the TRIM database.

There will be a period of planned downtime whilst the final elements of the upgrade are completed. This will be on Wednesday 13 June from 11am until COB.

The Records and Archives Office requests that all TRIM users, both Captura and Webdrawer, complete any recordkeeping work before Noon as there will be an extremely limited service for the rest of the day. There will be no further access to TRIM Captura and Webdrawer on June 13th, whilst final testing is completed.

No further interruptions to service are anticipated at this point. Should you have any queries, please contact the Records and Archives Office for assistance. Thank you for your patience.

School Records Disposal Guide
The Records and Archives Office have completed a Guide to assist School and Faculty staff in the Records Disposal process.

The Guide can be downloaded here and contains useful information on what you need to do to assess the records held in your office, including how to determine which records need to be retained and which can be destroyed.

UNSW Women in Science
The University Archives has commenced a new oral history project, entitled UNSW Women in Science.

The aim of the project is to capture the memories of a number of current and former leading UNSW female scientists, as our research has found that the careers of female scientists are not as comprehensively documented as their male counterparts.

The oral history interviews will be conducted by Sue Georgevits. For further information, please contact the Archives.