"Archive and other heritage institutions can often struggle to gain recognition and publicity about where there are and what they do," Dunedin-based archivist Amy Coleman said on Tuesday.
"We hope that this resource will help increase such awareness in the wider community."
When researchers from outside the region, and within it, were trying to find where to go with their questions, the directory was "a great resource to show them" what was available.
The update was undertaken and published by the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand’s Otago/Southland branch.
An Aranz branch committee member and former branch chairwoman, Ms Coleman recently undertook the update after writing to institutions throughout Otago-Southland.
Ms Coleman is also an archivist at the Dunedin regional office of Archives New Zealand.
She praised the 44 Otago-Southland contributing institutions for their co-operation, and said it had been "great to receive such positive responses".
The country’s most recent national directory of archives was published by Archives New Zealand in 2009 and included 18 institutions in Otago-Southland, five of them in Southland.
An Aranz southern regional update in 2015 included 32 entries, 10 in Southland, and the latest publication lifted this to 44 with 13 in Southland.
The registry included "smaller volunteer-run institutions" as well as the bigger ones, because "together we all make up the rich archival landscape" of the region, she said.
