During the 1990s the Genealogical Research Kit which contained microfilm copies of popular key archival documents was expanded, renamed the Archives Resources Kit (ARK), and deposited at forty Community Access Points (CAPs), mainly public libraries, throughout New South Wales. This had the effect of reducing demand in the Reading Rooms at the Sydney and Western Sydney Records Centres. In addition to the Archives Resources Kit, work was going on behind the scenes to make more State archives available to external users electronically. In 2000 Archives Investigator was developed jointly by the State Records Authority of NSW and the Council of the City of Sydney. (The name refers to HMS Investigator, in which Matthew Flinders completed the first circumnavigation of Australia, 1801–1803, and mapped much of the coast for the first time.) This made a large number of archival series available online via the Internet. Work on Photo Investigator, a related database commenced in the early 2000s and by 2006 a considerable number of photographs from the archives were available to users online.Archives in brief 99, State Records New South Wales. Accessed 10 July 2008.
