Minutes for 17 March 2017 Woollahra
Minutes of the Local Studies Librarians’ meeting Held at Woollahra Library, 17 March 2017
Attending Joan Ruthven,Woollahra; Jane Britten, Woollahra; Christian Darby, Woollahra; Ellen Forsyth, SLNSW; Geoffrey Potter, Central Coast; Donna Braye, Mosman; Mary Lou Byrne, Mosman; John MacRitchie, Manly; Michael Adams,Ku-ring-gai; Jody Dodds, Waverley; Angela Phippen, Ryde; Judy Nicholson, Maitland; Sharelle Ravenscroft, Northern Beaches Council; Michelle Richmond, Northern Beaches Council – Library; Pauline Kidd, Camden; Ravneet Gill, Blacktown City; Jan Herivel, Blacktown City; Jane Ellias, Cumberland; Anna Grega, Liverpool;Shirley Ramrakha, Willoughby; Georgina Keep, Randwick; Imogen Dixon-Smith , Randwick; Jennifer Madden, Canterbury- Bankstown; Helen McDonald, Sutherland; Neera Sahni, Parramatta; Lisa Perugini, Strathfield; Neil Chippendale, Hornsby; Karen Richardson, Hornsby; Shannon Haritos, Stanton; Fiona Simpson, Stanton; Gail Dunn, Wollondilly; John Johnson, Georges River Council
Apologies Christiane Birkett, Gunnedah; Marilyn Gallo, Fairfield; MichelleGoldsmith,Central Coast; Ellen Hottelmann, Bankstown Canterbury; Kimberly O’Sullivan, Cessnock
Meeting commenced 10am.
1. Geoff Barker, Curator SLNSW . New online photograph and digitization projects.
The SLNSW intends to create a free online tool to allow the public to contribute photographs to an online database. Software is open-source and ensures photographs of a consistent size, format description, precise geo-coding etc. Licence will be Creative Commons, allowing repurposing of images for school projects, inclusion in Local Studies Collections etc. The volunteer project seeks to tag SLNSW photograph collections suburb by suburb across Greater Sydney (600 areas identified). If interested, libraries can request that photographs can be compiled on their own areas so that they can be worked on. Part of the project includes the development of a controlled vocabulary. Collaborative projects are possible with libraries. 40,000 land subdivision maps have been digitised. Precise geolocation with latitude and longitude will be added. Street searches will be possible. Software used is from Klocan, a Swiss company. Help is needed with SLNSW geo-referencing, this is a crowd-sourced volunteer project.
2. Jenna Bain, Digital projects Leader SLNSW . Amplify Oral History digital projects
In 2016 SLNSW released Amplify a platform providing access to their digitised oral history collections, alongside machine-generated transcripts that the public can help correct. SLNSW has 11,000 hours of recorded Oral Histories. The SLNSW Amplify is an especially adapted/tailored version of the New York Libraries Oral History platform. Amplify allows members of the public to listen to oral histories, read computer-generated transcripts and to correct text online. Major projects underway include the Rainbow Archives, which is 85% complete. The crowd-sourcing has been quite successful. There is a “consensus” algorithm that “locks in” corrected text once 3 people have transcribed the same sentence in an identical fashion. Text correction is easy… examples of how it works are given on the entry page to Amplify. 40,000 lines of transcripts have been corrected since October 2016. The Open Source code platform NY transcript editor can be developed upon. SLNSW is interested in what local libraries may have in their Oral History Collections. Possible collaborative models involving SLNSW organizing machine text transcriptions on behalf of local libraries may be possible. Jenna is interested to contact libraries with digitised Oral History collections for possible pilot projects. It may be cheaper to collaborate with SLNSW on similar oral history projects than going it alone. Amplify is available for researchers to use now. The same software platform may also have uses with regard to recording library author events etc. Jenna had some questions for libraries interested in Amplify to consider: · What would libraries want from Amplify? · What features might be useful both from library and user perspectives? Jenna encouraged libraries to explore Amplify to see its possibilities.
3. Stephanie Gibson and Puawai Cairns, Curators, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Collecting protest materials.
The Museum of New Zealand has been collecting protest ephemera, posters, banners, artworks and objects for many years. Items accepted for collection are first examined with a rigour and analysis that identifies their significance. The Museum has never experienced any major opposition or issues with collecting protest items. Broadly speaking there is historical protest material which pre-dates the American civil rights movements of the 1960s. Post-1960s materials collected reflect a more confrontational era.
A current focus is on preparing material for a joint book project which will contain a selective/representative coverage of NZ protest movement. Dissemination/access to items is facilitated through Te Papa’s online platform, blogs etc. Types of materials collected include T-Shirts, Maori Party ephemera, posters, stickers, flags, photographs, placards. Conservation of these items can be challenging, as few items were intended to survive over time. Increasing amounts of born-digital protest material is becoming available.
Protest material collected is nationally significant. Maori protests happen on a very localised or regional level. Wide net is cast to collect such protests. Maori protest collecting so far focusses on the Maori community experience, rather than external groups eg. Anti-Maori groups. Te Papa is at the forefront of protest collecting. Unusual protests include Maori gang-culture eg Black Power T-shirt reflecting the fringes of Maori culture. Protest collecting often shows the flip-side of the dominant Police/legal perspectives prevalent in media. An appeal following a women’s march yielded good results, but relationships and expectations with regard to such appeals do need attention and take time.
Finding the right people within a movement to contact can take time. It is important to ensure the integrity of protest items… does the item collected accurately reflect the message that the protestors want to convey? “Antennae” are always up, looking for trends, sustained issues in society. Connections to older and overseas protests appear. Watch how protests change/morph over time (and sometimes very rapidly). The process of protest is important. The donors, their families or community representatives are an important part of collection management. Te Papa tries to resolve copyright issues at time of initial collection. Anonymity may be requested by some donors e.g. A public servant who wished to remain anonymous when donating a protest banner.
Comparatively few protests are violent in NZ. Items donated from more violent protests include helmets from Springbok anti-apartheid riots. Field collecting is often the result of following-up contacts shortly after events. Take names and details of potential contacts following events. Collecting decisions can affect communities and individuals. The history of an object can be embedded in it. e.g. Anti-Apartheid banner broken in protest/ repaired/used for 5 years, survived and offered to Museum. Powerful ideas can be embedded in objects collected e.g. Items containing sentiments counter to LGBTI community can bring painful memories back, not always connected to the original protest.
You can watch their presentation here
4. Jayne Royal, Special Collections Librarian Toowoomba Library QLD
Local history library started in Toowoomba main library but relocated in 2009. Toowoomba experienced drought from 1999 to 2010. Floods came in 2011 but collection conservation issues not connected to flooding.
The Local history collection was in a rented building with numerous roof leaks. In 2015 a professional indoor air quality study was commissioned. Mould was found in a small number of collection items. May 2, 2015 was the last day that the collection was open to the public, and there was only 3 weeks to pack everything up.
The collection has been frozen temporarily to arrest further spread of mould problems. When buying materials for disaster kits purchase the best quality you can afford. Check that your torches work, equipment OK, contact list up-to-date. Create a collection salvage list of your top 30 items to protect as a priority and identify these with bright yellow or similar identifying stickers. Flag the existence of salvage priority items on the end of compactus. Good housekeeping is essential. Have a few spare trolleys on hand in case of emergency. To combat continuing roof leaks tarps were placed over every compactus. Fans and dehumidifiers were brought in for each room. 33 pallets of material were frozen, 16 boxes to a pallet. The Robinson Collection/Archival Collection/Photograph Collection were divided among pallets. Items which could not be frozen included Glass plate negatives, badges, ceramics, maps. This non-freezable material totalled 96 boxes.
122 books were lost out of 5000 total items. Several hundred were saved through fan drying. When carrying out conservation, collections were separated by the types of materials that items were made of. The Assistance of the Museum conservation Officer was critical…they ran workshops for staff.
A red sticker identified potentially mouldy material. Material was double-bagged with best quality garbage bags prior to freezing. Good quality packing tape was used to gain an airtight seal. Remediation work continues at the Highfield site. Fill each box to avoid gaps. Use bubble wrap or air-pillows to fill voids between packed items. Be conscious of the weight of items for handling…OHS is all-important. Shrink-wrap entire pallets to keep contents together.
For Work health and safety wear full PPE2 coveralls and masks, nitrile gloves. Many staff helped move the collection. Use a spreadsheet to keep track and map locations of material. Repackaging is still in process. 9 pallets remain to finish cleaning. All non-frozen material has been treated.
You can watch Jayne's video here
5. John McRitchie, Local Studies Librarian, Manly. 1913 Electoral Roll transcription project
Project involved volunteer transcription of Manly district entries in the 1913 Census. 150 pages of Electoral rolls were transcribed with 7,740 names, addresses and occupations. The Excel spreadsheet allows manipulation of information not possible in original formats. You can extract information on who followed a particular occupation, how many people worked for the tramways etc. Students at the local Catholic seminary were identified. Much more detail becomes available through an approach such as this.
6. Geoffrey Potter, Local Studies Librarian, Central Coast. Repurposing Outdoor signage for Local Studies displays.
Plastic sign-holders are used extensively by Real Estate agents for displaying “Open House” signs. Historic photographs can be selected and reproduced on Corflute (possibly on both sides!) Captions/logos can be added to inserts on either front or back. Image size is approximately 50cm long by 40cm high. Overall stand height is 82cm. Sign-holders can be used for many other library purposes including Children’s events. Outdoor displays – Corflute will stand most weathers and rough treatment. Easy to set up and take down – use anywhere there is grass or sand. Tube stands can be purchased or made in-house. High visibility/high impact local history displays.
Pros include simple, fast & easy set up suitable for pop-up displays at community events, special anniversaries etc. They provide a high impact display. It is something new & different, and a great way to reach non-library audiences. Cons include the main costs in initial purchase of frames. Transporting frames in special bags can be a little awkward. Be wary of spikes! Selecting photos to fit frame shape can be challenging (Allow for cropping). Always set-up with public safety in mind to avoid trip hazards etc. Signholders are approx. $40 each + delivery. Costs involved include Corflute photographs with captions on rear x 24 approximately $320 in total. The photographs on corflute were prepared from high-resolution scans by local Central Coast company because of variables found with image shapes/cropping. Liaison is highly recommended. Special carry bags (for up to 8 signholders) are approximately $46 each + delivery. Recommended!
Potential uses include library publicity and community events, “Pop-up” spontaneous history displays and displays in high traffic locations, Heritage walks (good for before and after shots). Very popular with all age groups at Terrigal 5 Lands Walk 2016. Return visit planned in June 2017. Allows traditional viewing of images by older people while facilitating sharing of images by “techy” types on Facebook etc. Some selfies have been taken with images for social media sharing. These displays gets the library noticed in unusual and good ways and has led to donations of historical photographs. If you have questions please contact Geoffrey Potter, Local Studies Librarian, Central Coast Library Service geoffrey.potter@centralcoast.nsw.gov.au
7. General Business
a. Ellen Forsyth (SLNSW) advised that problems have persisted with the Alia Local Studies e-list to the point that a new list has been established on the SLNSW e-list platform New subscription is easy to organise through this link. The Alia e-list for Local Studies is no longer operational. All members of that list have been transferred to the new platform. New members always welcome, spread the word.
b. Ellen Forsyth (SLNSW) advised that the new Local Studies guidelines are almost completed. Digital practice guidelines are being updated by SLNSW staff including digital collecting guidelines. These will be hosted on the SLNSW website. A seminar is proposed for Local Studies Librarians to meet and hear the people that worked on the guidelines. Case studies are needed around digital collecting, digital preservation, digital dissemination, digital Oral History. Ellen asked whether anyone is collecting born-digital material? John Johnson advised that Kogarah library are collecting local blogs.
c. Pandora website. Question was asked regarding the current status of Pandora with regards to Council amalgamations. Is Pandora archiving pre-amalgamation Council websites? Access to Pandora content appears to have largely shifted to TROVE . NOTE: I contacted NLA regarding this question and hereis theanswer received from Russell Latham, Manager of web archiving:"Responsibility for archiving specific state based material falls to the relevant State Library. They appear to have archived some pre-amalgamation council websites but have not done so comprehensively. I have contacted them and they have indicated they would archive this material going forward.I would note that we would have copies of all the councils website within our annual domain harvests run by the National Library of Australia. These only occur once per year and may not capture end of life details of each council website as they are turned off. They are also not publicly available. However hopefully this should happen soon." Further to this, Andy Carr at SLNSW provided the following information and links:"For web archiving of this nature, the Library uses Archive-It rather than Pandora. It enables usto collect a large number of websites at once. The State Library has captured all the pre-amalgamation council website here: https://www.archive-it.org/collections/6623 We have also used Archive-It to collect government agency information: https://www.archive-it.org/collections/4661
d. Heritage Festival activities reported by Libraries. Leichhardt reported free walking tours which were very popular. There was a self-guided tour, a tour run by library staff and another given by Historical Society members. An Instagram photograph competition was run and images will be captured for the library collection. It was noted that some libraries charge for heritage walks. Some defray the costs of ferry hire etc. Parramatta reported that they had a display based around 200 years of Chinese immigration in the Parramatta district. Ku-ring-gai reported a Seniors Oral History project which involved videoing participants for preservation and access via Youtube. Hawkesbury held cemetery tours, and a display of glass plate negatives from the 1860s. Willoughby has a display called Community Voices of Willoughby which highlight the issues and personalities involved in local environmental and community activism in her area. Northern Beaches has a display based around the history of lifesaving clubs.
e. There is a possibility that a Local Studies Librarians group day tour could be held later this year. The National Maritime Museum Library, Royal Australian Historical Society, and Richmond Villa were suggested as possible destinations. The organising group will post details when known.
f. Questions regarding access to Valuation books etc. Access to records older than 30 years is allowable (and fairly common) under the GA39 retention guidelines Janet Knight’s name was given as a good contact at State Records for the digitization of valuation books.
g. Question regarding digitization of clipping files. Recollect software is being looked at by Hornsby for digital access. Copyright may prove to be a barrier to digitisation of clipping and vertical files. A possible way forward is to scan for preservation and access but files only viewable in library. This parallels use of existing clipping files for many libraries. Some libraries allow download of pdf files within the library premises.
h. Question regarding Oral History digitisation. Fairfield has digitised a large OH collection. Indyreads is a good platform for OH dissemination. Reminder that SLNSW digital practice guidelines may help. Baseline standards have not changed. If Libraries do not have signed permission to reproduce Oral Histories online a nice take-down statement and take-down policy should suffice.
i. A TROVE Roadshow will be held at the NSW State Library on May 9. The Trove team have organised a Roadshow advising how your organisation’s content can be made available in Trove at various locations, including State Library of NSW on Tuesday 9 May. They will be looking at how to improve the discovery of your collection, and options for digitisation. It is free but you must book http://help.nla.gov.au/trove/roadshow
j. Thank you to Woollahra Library for hosting the meeting and your hospitality
k. The next Local Studies meeting is expected to be at Nowra around October. Details to be confirmed.
Meeting closed at 4pm. A tour of Double Bay Library followed.
Each year a Metropolitan meeting and a Regional meeting are usually held. If any Library in the Sydney Metropolitan area would like to host the meeting in early 2018, or if you have ideas for topics that you would like to see presented, then please email geoffrey.potter@centralcoast.nsw.gov.au
Next meeting and agenda local studies
Wider local studies This provides information about the national local studies network.