Minutes for 21 March 2013

Minutes of the Local Studies Librarians meeting Held at Lithgow Library Learning Centre, March 21, 2013.

Attendance: Donna Braye, Mosman; Geoff Potter, Gosford; Sarah Thompson, Pittwater; Ellen Forsyth, SLNSW; Helen Thompson, Dubbo; John Merriman, Blue Mountains; Helen Thompson, Macquarie Regional; Angela Phippen, Ryde; Marisa O'Connor, Wollongong; Jenny MacRitchie, Botany Bay; John MacRitchie, Manly; Jennifer Madden, Bankstown; Lorraine Stacker, Penrith; Craig Callaghan & Michelle Maunder, Mid-Western; Michelle Nicholls, Hawkesbury; Helen McDonald, Sutherland; Kay Shirt, Lithgow; Ann Crump & Geoff Stonehouse, Lake Macquarie; Sandy Sheridan, Mudgee Historical Society Museum; Heather Nicholls (Manildra); Leonie Gendle, Blacktown; Bruce Carter, SLNSW; Amie Zar, Leichhardt; Marilyn Taylor, Leichhardt; Joan Rowland, Kuring-gai; Bernard De Broglio, Mosman, Helen Taylor, Lithgow & District Historical Society; Jan Richards, Central West.

Apologies: Jane and Stephen Coppins, Holroyd City; Julie Fitzsimons, Hurstville; Joan Ruthven, Woollahra; Libby Watters, Woollahra; Jane Britten, Woollahra; Kirsten Broderick, Rockdale; Lynn Bonomini, Goulburn-Mulwaree; Georgina Keep, Randwick; Marilyn Gallo, Fairfield; Jo Oliver, Camden; Tina Graham, Warringah.

Meeting commenced 10.00 am with Welcome and introductions

1. Heather Nicholls from Manildra discussed her local history publication “Echoes of Anzac “ Heather talked about her journey in researching the names on the Manildra war memorial/s. Research for her uncovered family connections. She acknowledged the participation of her grandfather in First World War and her Father in the Second World War. One of her daughters was interested in the research and would accompany her toCanberra. She researched all the names she had at the AWM http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/ NAA http://naa12.naa.gov.au/ and Mitchell Library http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/using/search/ She discovered facts about local community involvement in diverse ways such as fundraising events, horses being sent from the district to Gallipoli and sheep skins being made into warm jackets for the troops. Diaries and letters from local soldiers were located, and these are evocative and well-written. Heather found that some locals died in unusual localities. She found one local had died inSierra Leone – something none of us had ever realized about our troops. When she published he book she made a few decision about what she would leave out - the fact that some had VD and that others turned to alcohol after the war – unable to cope and died from alcoholism. She suggested that great sensitivity was a necessary part of deciding what information to disclose and what to leave out. This was mainly because families may not know of certain aspects of their relative’s war service, and even this far removed in time the information can still cause hurt. Heather asked us not to judge soldiers and their experiences by modern standards. When she finally visited the WWI battlefields she was able to understand more clearly the actual process of the fighting. As a geographer the layout of the land clearly determined the nature of the fighting. Heather’s book was researched and self-published within 12 months. The book was published in 2006.

2. Sandy Sheridan from Mudgee Museum & Historical Society discussed her research project on the Mudgee WWI memorial. Sandy aimed to bring the local soldiers to life and to humanise them. She felt that these boys were in danger of being forgotten. There are 90 names on the War Memorial, but research led to up to 200 soldiers from the Mudgee district and with Mudgee connections being found. Sandy sought the support of local newspapers to publicise the project and encourage community involvement. Shoe boxes of memorabilia came out of family collections in response to the project. After much research, some soldiers named on the memorial still cannot be found in records. National Archives, AWM and Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/ all extremely useful in researching this project.

3. Helen Taylor from Lithgow & District Family History Society Inc. discussed the “War Hero Project”. This project aimed to record the stories of local men & women in WWI. Information collected in large clip folders with a cover sheet for each individual’s records. Simple means of collection and organisation which can be easily added to. Individual records may contain key pages from NAA AIF records, photographs, memorabilia, postcards etc. A book “Long March to Lithgow” is proposed, utilising research from the project. Anyone who served is a hero, whether local or not. Project covers Lithgow, Blue Mountains and Central West. The project was launched on Remembrance Day 2011 with large memorabilia displays. See: http://www.lithgowmercury.com.au/story/1166911/war-heroes-compiled-for-the-future/ and http://www.lisp.com.au/~ldfhs/ A high level of community engagement and support was experienced. A DVD of the day was produced. Another project is a Country artist Darren Coggan’s War Stories CD. A $5,000 grant was applied for with the aim of promoting the meaning of ANZAC to new generations. It was felt that it was up to the Family History Society to promote ANZAC through displays, events, education for the youth of the Lithgow district. A cemetery walk with a short talk about local soldiers was held. A card with poppies was placed on the graves of WWI soldiers. Afternoon tea included ANZAC biscuits. As found with the previous speakers’ projects, there was a great disparity between the names on the actual memorial as opposed to the number of soldiers with local connections eventually found.

4. Ellen Forsyth, SLNSW discussed Local Studies uses of Pinterest. Pinterest http://pinterest.com/ has definite uses in the dissemination of Local Studies materials including maps, photographs and ephemera. Institutions successfully using Pinterest include the Smithsonian Institute http://pinterest.com/smithsonian/ ; Rijksmuseum who used the medium to maintain a public presence while major refurbishment projects occurred https://pinterest.com/rijksmuseum/ ; Carnamah Historical Society http://pinterest.com/carnamah/ ; Historic Houses Trust http://pinterest.com/hhtnsw/ ; Minnesota Historical Society http://pinterest.com/mnhistory/. Local Government and Emergency Services Pinterest sites can also provide inspiration see: City of Tyler, Texas http://pinterest.com/cityoftylertx/ and Kansas City Police Department http://pinterest.com/kcpolice/ . Interesting community uses of your posted material can result. Releasing information with the right information and metadata can allow others to tell their own stories. Look for posted material on your own community on Pinterest. This could be a potential source of local images for harvesting, with the permission of the copyright owners.

5. Bernard De Broglio, Internet Coordinator, Mosman Library discussed the “Doing our bit: Mosman 1914-1918 project”. This project is a linked open data project where web technologies are used to tell stories: See http://mosman1914-1918.net/ and the blog at: http://mosman1914-1918.net/project/blog/?view=archive and http://mosman1914-1918.net/project/events/?view=archive . Tim Sherratt’s WWI web tool development is discussed at: http://discontents.com.au/every-story-has-a-beginning/ This site includes Tim Sherratt’s keynote address “Entering the web of data” and a visual presentation explaining key concepts. Tim similarly developed the “Invisible Australians” project http://discontents.com.au/tag/invisibleaustralians/ Tim’s recently developed “Australian First World War records finder” harvests records from the AWM, NAA, CWGC etc. and is available at: http://wraggelabs.com/ww1-records/ Another notable Canadian project is “Out of the Trenches” at: http://www.canadiana.ca/en/pcdhn-lod . The Mosman “Doing our bit” project has been designed to encourage high levels of community involvement. A “scanning day” for WWI photos and memorabilia met with such a great response that the scanning continued for most of a week. From the page free software http://beta.fromthepage.com/ is used by volunteers in transcription projects. Placenames in transcribed diaries use closest modern names so that Google maps can link to them. Google Docs is used to record Honour Roll board entries. Stories can be attached to a wide range of WWI resources. Harness community and press interest. As part of the ongoing promotion of the Mosman project, knowledgeable guest speakers present different aspects of war history…diggers, nurses, aviation. Ross Coulthart’s talk on the “Lost diggers of Vignacourt” photographs was very popular. Email has been a great way to keep people in touch with projects. Campaign monitor http://www.campaignmonitor.com/ has been used to create email newsletters.

6. Jan Richards discusses the Centenary of WWI in Orange NSW: A city remembers. The Library in Orange has previous experience in coordinating major projects including 150 years of Orange in 1996, and 150 years of local government in Orange in 2010. For the WWI projects a working party was formed in February 2011. The purpose of this was to advise Council on appropriate activities regarding WWI. The committee includes Councillors; Orange & District Historical Society; Orange RSL Sub-Branch; 2 x Council staff members (1 Librarian & 1 Museum Coordinator) and Community members. The project scope looks at the histories of service personnel, local soldiers, nurses, recruitment marches and notable soldiers including Neville Howse and John Hamilton. Research into local memorials, the Home Front and effect on women and the broader community. It is advisable to have collecting processes and limits in place before publicising them. Post WWI facets of life in the Orange District to be looked at include the return of servicemen & its effect on the community; Soldier settlements at Spring Hill and Spring Terrace; and the making of Charles Chauvel’s Forty Thousand Horsemen in 1940. Promotion of projects is through a web page and database at: www.centenaryww1orange.com.au/ . A WWI commemorative calendar was sent to every house in Orange, with a 22,000 copy print run and budget of approximately $36,000. Committee projects include the establishment of a Memorial Drive, a tree memorial and tree plantings. Creative projects include a film festival, concert & WWI-period dance. A street parade to commemorate the Armistice Centenary is planned for November 2018. Jan Richards, Manager Central West Libraries can be contacted at: jrichards@orange.nsw.gov.au .

7. General business. Ellen Forsyth spoke about progress with the State Library digitisation project. There is a newspaper digitisation priority list available to view at: http://www.nla.gov.au/content/new-titles-coming . Be patient with newspaper digitisation…there are many titles to be done and a queue for projects exists. NLA manages the actual Trove digitisation programme. Many real estate subdivision plans from SLNSW are being digitised. A dedicated website is in development. Information on SLNSW digitisation developments can be found at: http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/pls/index.cfm/2013/3/28/scoop-state-library-delivers-the-newsnewspaper-digitisation-going-viral . Ellen spoke about History Week in September, and specifically the Twitter reading group theme. During September this will be “History reads”. Ellen would like a volunteer to write a piece which encourages people to read local histories for Read Watch Play: http://readwatchplay.wordpress.com/ A blog post is needed on Local Studies. LS can fit in with other month “themes”. The blog post can be written as a local story, but encourages people to read their local history. Any volunteers? The LS Wiki can be seen at: http://referenceandinformationservices.wikifoundry.com/page/Local+Studies . This is where meeting agendas, minutes and other LS-related information can be found. The Ref-ex NSW modules on Local Studies and Family History can be found at: http://wiki.libraries.nsw.gov.au/index.php/Module_8 and http://wiki.libraries.nsw.gov.au/index.php/Module_9 respectively.

The next meeting is planned for early October, and may include presentations on the picture postcard and Local Studies; Archiving digital materials and the creation of digitization plans and priority lists. Meeting venue to be confirmed. The SLNSW is shortly to undertake a new survey of Local Studies Collections in Public Libraries. The last survey was done in 2004.

In 2012 SLNSW commissioned Mitchell Whitelaw to develop public library image datavisualisation browsers see: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/services/public_libraries/committees/network_research/datavisualisation_local_studies.html . To use these your own Library will need approximately PAY A CODER, BUT PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT MITCHELL WHITELAW! Github code can be modified to meet local needs.

Thanks to Lithgow Library Learning Centre and Kay Shirt for the terrific venue and hospitality. Thanks to all our presenters also.

Meeting closed 3:40pm.