Derrilin Marshall (Nowra), Ellen Forsyth (SLNSW), Donna Braye (Mosman), Geoff Potter (Central Coast), Kimberly O’Sullivan (Cessnock), Angela Phippen (Ryde), Gail Dunn (Wollondilly), Jeff Stonehouse (Port Macquarie-Hastings), Rebecca Cook (Kiama), Helen McDonald (Sutherland), Michael Adams (Ku-ring-gai), Ingrid Grace (Waverley), Samantha Sinnayah (Bayside), Jenny MacRitchie (Bayside), John MacRitchie (Northern Beaches), Julie Fitzsimons (Hurstville), Jenny McConchie (Wollongong), Jo Oliver (Wollongong), Michelle Richmond (Northern Beaches), Sue Dredge (Fairfield), Samantha Stevenson (Campbelltown), Jane Britten (Woollahra) Meeting commenced 9:45 am.

A look at the role of the Museum The Jervis Bay Maritime Museum (formerly the Lady Denman maritime museum) is located at Huskisson on the NSW South Coast. It contains 5,000 objects. An unusual focus for the Museum is its “Cabinets of Curiosities” Collection. Cabinets of Curiosities had their beginnings in the Renaissance. All kinds of natural history and ethnographic resources came to be collected by Princes, rich families and gentlemen. Popular in the Age of Reason, such collections reflected the interests of the collector and encouraged scientific enquiry. The Collection of Hans Sloane in the British Museum is an excellent example of this style of collecting. Another major Collection at Jervis Bay Maritime Museum is the Halloran Collection of scientific maritime instruments which show the importance of scientific instruments in the history of sea exploration. Early navigational instruments were things of great accuracy (and beauty). Jervis Bay was named in 1791, after Sir John Jervis who was later involved in the naval Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797.

Indigenous communities have lived in the Jervis Bay area for at least 20,000 years. The coastline was originally much further East. Middens exist on the site of the Museum which was once a meeting place of tribes. Interesting Museum items include French Prisoner-of-War crafts including ship models made from salvaged chicken bones. Many small maritime items are held including scrimshaw art works, harpoons etc. Whaling was Jervis Bay’s earliest industry. Whale stocks depleted rapidly. An early lighthouse in the area was built entirely in the wrong position. There were many shipwrecks before the Lighthouse was relocated to Point Perpendicular. Timber-getting was another 19th century industry. A vibrant shipping and local shipbuilding industry operated in the area.

The Museum used to be called the Lady Denman Museum after the locally-built Sydney Ferry which was returned to Huskisson and forms the centrepiece of the Museum. The Lady Denman was one of a revolutionary class of double-ended steam ferries designed by Walter Reeks. Lady Denman, after whom the Ferry is named, was a woman ahead of her time… an early feminist, suffragette and women’s health advocate. Fishing was a big local industry until the 1970s. Fishing boats and Copra boats for island trading were built at Huskisson.

Within the Museum itself IPhone Apps are used to help visitors to interact with collections. University of Wollongong information Technology students were enlisted to design the Iphone App for the Museum. It is based on the Pokemon GO App. Use of the App facilitates interactive constructive learning. The back-end of the App is very well designed. The Museum operates with 4 paid staff members and 129 volunteers. The Museum aims to be as self-reliant as possible. There are 5 vessels on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels in the Museum Collection.

Oral histories are a unique resource in Library Collections. They give a voice to often unheard voices. They can often tell “her-stories” not “his-stories”. They are used to elicit stories and anecdotes, not lists of facts. Meaning can be contained in the aurality of the interview through the speakers’ tone, laughter and even silences.

The Illawarra Stories Oral History Project aims to bring together a collection of Oral History Interviews in a consistent format and with stated copyright. Interviews are preserved as WAV files. Public Access interviews are stored as MP3 files accessible through the Library catalogue and a dedicated project website (link above). Interviews come from various sources

• Austinmer project (Pro-bono by a local business)
• Dapto and Warrawong (Wollongong Library Service)
• Wollongong project (Wollongong Library Service)
• Shacks of the Royal National Park (local researcher donation)

Procedures and protocols for consistency include the following of a standard checklist, completion of a consent form and participation form, standard interview format and questions, sound file archive, audio file conversions using Audacity or Hindenburg radio editing software. Thank you letters with a webpage link are sent instead of full copy of interview. A checklist for interviewers has been prepared, along with a detailed checklist for staff to follow when processing and cataloguing interviews. These checklists are given in Jo Oliver’s presentation which can be viewed in full on Google slides.

presentation here

New copyright laws for release in December 2017 will allow Libraries greater latitude in using their collections. Future-proofing is critical… always backup recordings in several formats. Oral History participants are sourced through suggestions from local history or family history societies. In-Library and external advertising is used to attract interviewees. When seeking participants look for recent voices. Ethical considerations are important. Your interviewees are people, not subjects. Be aware of impacts/emotions that your interview could bring to the surface. When seeking to interview indigenous/aboriginal people

• Seek advice from local elders
• Check national guidelines

• Future plans for Illawarra Stories include:
• the transcription of interviews (use of a pause-pedal is helpful)
• Use of voice recognition software such as Dragon
• A pop-up archive
• Recording interviews on particular suburbs and themes
• Digitising pre-existing interviews
• Seeking appropriate Cultural/Arts grants
• Look at doing Podcasts, which are currently very popular
• Look at more crafted products being produced for/by Library, e.g. podcasts with sound effects, music etc.

Bricks and Bones: the evolution & management of the diverse collection of EKWM. Eden was a centre of early whaling history. A strange and well-known story connected to Eden Whaling was the story of “Old Tom”. Orca whales would alert whalers to the presence of whales in the area. A pod of Orcas (not true whales, but a species of dolphin) would chase the whales, wearing them down so that whalers could catch the larger whales. The Orcas would get first leftovers from the killing of the whales. This was a symbiotic relationship between the whalers and the Orcas. “Old Tom” was perhaps the most famous of the Orcas, and his skeleton remains on display in the EKWM. The EKWM is a museum of whaling, local and natural history. It contains gallery and display spaces, a theatrette for 50 people. The collections are diverse, ranging from whaling boats and harpoons to fishery memorabilia, timber industry memorabilia, photographs, shipwreck items etc. a small museum database helps with management of the 25,000 item collection. Functions of the Museum include management of collections, preservation and research. Regarding the preservation of items, a philosophy of damage prevention rather than repair is adopted. Items in storage are carefully wrapped or boxed, a challenge as some of the items are large/heavy or oddly shaped.

EKWM encourages scientific and historical study to do with whales and whaling, and especially Orcas. The Research Library is open 2 days per week. Currently museum priorities revolve around improving item recordkeeping with an aim to improve access. Linking data between related items is important. Other projects include local newspaper indexing and Oral history transcription. EKWM benefits greatly from having a strong and dedicated volunteer workforce.

The early days of Nowra District Pubs Alan spends many days in the Nowra Library and Historical Society Collections doing painstaking research using traditional methods. For the most part, his research has relied on microfilm and microfiche research in the days before Trove. Alan has published local history books on local Nowra blacksmiths, Pubs, and the Waratah Recruitment March of 1915. Contemporary newspapers are a fantastic source of detailed information on hotels, including interiors, alterations etc. Another source of Hotel information is the Noel Butlin archives at ANU in Canberra

Henry Halloran (1869-1953) was a major Sydney and NSW Land developer and surveyor. Many sub-division plans and posters have survived in the SLNSW. Many of these have been digitised. The SLNSW has maps, pamphlets and brochures, manuscript material, mortgage cards and uncatalogued survey roughs. Mortgage cards have been catalogued. Survey roughs are very detailed record sets. They have a wide coverage across NSW. Some may have condition issues due to poor storage in the past. The maps team at SLNSW has initiated a project to catalogue and index the Halloran resources. Volunteers have been trained and information placed on Excel spreadsheets. While aiming at consistency, record content can vary greatly. If Libraries would like a spreadsheet copy of entries held for their own localities, contact David Berg at SLNSW email david.berg@slnsw.gov The spreadsheets will shortly be available for viewing.

Kimberley is the first Local Studies Librarian employed by Cessnock Library. To build the Collections and to engage the Community were challenges to be addressed. Local Studies was promoted through the local Cessnock Advertiser, which is a great promotional platform. A monthly local history column called Unlocking the past written by Kimberley, and with photographs from the Library Collection, has been very popular and has led to further donations, recollections being added to library collections. When dealing with newspapers, always make sure that the Library Service and Local Studies Collections are clearly acknowledged. To ensure good level of community engagement provide good stories and great photographs. Articles are approximately 370 words. Regional ABC Radio 1233 Newcastle has also been a good promotional platform. So far 3 morning radio interviews have been given to good response. Community Radio 2HR has also hosted several interviews. Facebook, Twitter are worth considering. Get as many “bites” out of 1 story by using different platforms to present it. Cessnock has run a “behind the scenes” tour of Local Studies which has been very popular. 63 patrons were booked over 4 tours. It has been decided that these tours will be run twice a year. Following the promotional activities donations streamed in to the Collection.

A $3,000 Seniors Week project grant was received by Ku-ring-gai Library for a video oral history project . Technology to undertake the project was held by the Library prior to undertaking the project. Following appeals for potential interviewees to come forward, 17 interviews were done during Senior’s Week. The Local Studies Librarian and 4 trained staff were involved. There was a great response and a great range of stories were recorded. Video and audio were recorded separately. This approach is more flexible and resulted in better quality end-products. A promotional film of 30 minutes length was made for the launch.

In the future a themed project is being considered. At present the project is accessible through the Library, with ways to make the content more broadly accessible beyond libraries being considered.

Alfred Dufty (1858-1924) was a noted photographer. With his son Roydon, he came to specialise in maritime subjects. Alfred ran a business in Sydney, selling photographs, postcards, souvenirs and paintings of ships to passengers, crews and collectors. Over the years a very large collection of glass plate negatives was amassed, featuring many hundreds of ships known around the Australian Coast. The collection shows Sydney Harbour when it was a working port. Vessels shown in photographs range from the largest clipper to the smallest harbour craft. It documents the change from sail to steam power. Unusually (and fortunately) for Australian maritime history, the Dufty Collection contains black-and-white copies taken from paintings commissioned or purchased by Dufty. The works of many famous and not-so-famous maritime artists are represented in the collection. In the days before copyright was an important concept, the names of the original painters were often obscured. The original paintings, in many cases may not have survived but the paintings provide a good means by which to examine the work of the painters and their subjects. The collection, after many trials which included a close-call with a Blue Mountains bushfire, found its way to the NSW Central Coast. The Alfred Dufty Collection is now part of Central Coast Libraries Collection.

Georges River Council is a new Council. School Centenaries have become a focus for community engagement within the Library. Research on schools is conducted by Local Studies staff for the children’s team who present workshops for children. Staff role-play as teachers from the past.

Voices of Anzac walk is a heritage walk between local war memorials. Two staff walk with participants. One staff member narrates while another shows relevant photographs. With regard to Family History programmes, talks have been conducted on DNA for genealogists to great response. Talks are also provided for RSL groups, Probus, etc. Georges River provides a Memorybox service, trivia and talks to Senior Citizens groups. Photograph competitions are held with Local Studies themes for students.

The Sydney Morning Herald photograph archive was sent to the US for digitisation. The digitising company was bankrupted and the collection stayed in the States. Duncan Miller Gallery purchased the former Fairfax Collection and is now exploring ways to repatriate at least some of the Collection to Australia. The former Fairfax archive consists of approximately 2 million images, roughly apportioned as 1 million portraits/people photographs and 1 million other images (events/street scenes etc.) The Collection spans from the 1920s to 1990s. Originals were owned by John Fairfax Ltd. Not all photographs were taken by Fairfax employees. It is not always stated on photographs who took them. Some well-known photographers work is included in the collections. Wollongong Library purchased 325 local area images at $3.50 US per image. When your Library orders photographs they will come to you sight-unseen. Some duplicates may be received. Most photographs in Wollongong’s purchase were from the 1960s onwards. All were taken by professional photographers.

Regarding copyright, ownership of image copyright is unclear. Wollongong has consulted the Australian Copyright Council. Things may become clearer with the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and other measures) Act of October 2017(Note: see the ACC Find an answer data sheets for current information) Under the Act Libraries can make electronic preservation copies available to the public without infringing copyright. Purchased items have been added to Illawarra Images with the notation Duncan Miller Gallery Fairfax image Collection purchase.

presentation here

Shoalhaven Library offers introductory Family History and Local Studies Services. Nowra has a long-established historical society operating in the town, and Nowra Family History Society collects information on many prominent local families. The Library has a collection of 1000 digitised images, local newspapers on microfilm are popular sources. The library offers referral and undertakes indexing projects. Like many libraries ARK kit microfilms and fiche are becoming increasingly redundant, being largely superseded by online genealogy resources. Shoalhaven Library works with existing societies. Local History and Family History talks are provided. A new Local History website, Heritage Shoalhaven is in development.

The Committee thanks Derrilin Marshall and Nowra Library staff for their hospitality. Those gathered conveyed their appreciation of the work of the committee. The Local Studies Librarians’ Committee members are Donna Braye (Mosman), Ellen Forsyth (SL NSW) and Geoffrey Potter (Central Coast).

The Meeting closed at 3.30pm

The next Local Studies Librarians' Meeting will be held at Rockdale Library on 27 March 2018.

Next meeting and agenda local studies

Minutes local studies

Wider local studies This provides information about the national local studies network.