Brendan Boyle, the chief executive of Internal Affairs, visited Dunedin yesterday to speak to the department's 13 city and Invercargill staff, two national library staff and eight archive staff about the potential impacts of merging the organisations.
He also visited the city's archives, his first visit to archives outside Wellington.
"It's a chance to look at the local set-up ... meet with local staff and answer questions."
The amalgamation of the three organisations, proposed by the Government earlier this year, had met with opposition from library and archive interest groups.
Legislation for it was expected to be introduced to Parliament this month, he said.
Mr Boyle, who lived in Dunedin for 14 years until 1996, said some "stakeholder groups are less than happy", but it was his department's job to make it work and staff were keeping those groups informed of the proposal's progress.
Groups would also be able to make submissions on the proposal during the select committee process, he said.
"It's fairly early days, but the aim is to complete the process by Christmas."
While staff were anxious to know the implications of the merger, Mr Boyle did not expect staff outside Wellington to experience any changes, except that of being part of a bigger organisation.
Staff numbers were likely to be affected where there was duplication of services, for example, in "back office" functions such as human resources and information technology.
Archives New Zealand was part of Internal Affairs until 2000, as was the Alexander Turnbull Library until the 1920s or 1930s, he said.
