Minutes for 28 May 2015
Minutes of Local Studies Librarians meeting held at Parramatta Heritage Centre, Thursday May 28, 2015 10am-3.45pm
Attendance: Donna Braye (Mosman), Mary Lou Byrne (Mosman), Thomas Macrae (Auburn), Geoff Potter (Gosford), Ellen Forsyth (SLNSW), Marilyn Gallo ( Fairfield), Murray McBryde (Kogarah), Geoff Barker (Parramatta), Kay Shirt (Lithgow), Sophia Smiley (Waverley), Jan Herivel (Blacktown), Shirley Ramrakha (Willoughby), Lisa Perugini (Strathfield), Megan Pitt (Central Northern Rivers Regional Tamworth), Neera Sahni (Parramatta), Mirjana Djukic (Ku-ring-gai), Lorraine Stacker (Penrith), Vanessa Stockford (Penrith), Amie Zar ( Leichhardt), Ben Carter (Leichhardt), Kasia Malicka (Burwood), Anniee Hyde ( Ashfield), Nicole Pitts (Singleton), Tanya Leonardi (Wollongong), Bruce Carter (SLNSW), Karen Richardson (Hornsby), Naomi Bassford (Lane Cove), Gaynor Cotter (Warringah), Ann Crump (Lake Macquarie), Jody Gaskin (Parramatta), Suzanne Micallef (Parramatta), Anne Tsang (Parramatta), Emma Stockburn (Parramatta), Georgina Keep (Randwick), Jane Elias (Holroyd), Michelle Nichols (Hawkesbury), Andrew Host (Guest presenter), Angela Phippen (Ryde), Jo Oliver (Camden), Jeff Stonehouse (Port Macquarie), Helen McDonald (Sutherland), Sophia Smiley (Waverley), Jan Herivel (Blacktown),Kirstin Cox (Canterbury), Catherine Hardie (Canterbury), Jennifer Madden (Bankstown), Stephen Coppins (Holroyd). Apologies: Beverley Fenton (Moree), Sharelle Ravenscroft (Mona Vale), Ellen Hottelmann (Bankstown), Michelle Goldsmith (Wyong), John Johnson (Kogarah). Meeting commenced 10am.
Neera Sahni welcomed attendees to Parramatta Heritage Centre.
1. Rockdale People and Parks. Virginia McLeod, historian and oral history interviewer.
· This was an enjoyable and interesting project. Virginia enjoyed working with another historian on the Oral History project. The end product was a book. Project sought to uncover the City of Rockdale's post WW2 migration history. The primary focus was on recreation and celebration. Migration to Rockdale grew steadily following WW2. e.g. Rockdale's Greek population grew from 19 in total in 1947 to 12% of total population in 1991. · 3 Dimensional study including: History of Rockdale LGA and how parks came into being; Seek to understand who lived in Rockdale in the past and changes over time to migration patterns; and study how different migrant groups use and interact with parks. Example given of Scarborough Park which were originally wetlands, then Chinese market gardens and now formal parks. · Parks in Rockdale range from bushland reserves to formal parks. Many sports fields in Rockdale area, many are linked to particular migrant groups e.g. Bangladeshis SMS each other to form spontaneous Cricket teams. · Festivals. A range of cultural and religious festivals are held in parks. Citizenship ceremonies are held there also. Parks and malls can be hubs for meeting e.g. older men meet in malls to laugh, swap news. There are migrant influences in public artworks, sculpture, mosaics. · 4th dimension was realised…the need to talk to people in order to understand how people experience the landscape of t parks and reserves. It is suggested that the end of the year is not the best time to start a project of this nature. Investigate who you will interview. Are they representative? Do they have their own agenda? Why have they put themselves forward to be interviewed? · Asking questions can lead to interesting information. e.g. Certain parks may remind certain migrant groups of home. Other parks may contain trees and plants for traditional medicine. The same park can be significant to different groups for different reasons. · Some interviewees may ask to see questions beforehand. Important in interviews to identify who says what. Give those interviewed a copy of the transcript. It is important to show people the end product. · Stereotypes may be contradicted e.g. That Bushcare is only for Anglos. Study showed that migrants involved in Bush Regeneration developed an appreciation of the Australian Bush. Social groups use parks…card players, Many Macedonians play Chess. They revealed that they were devastated by the removal of outdoor chess tables from parks. Parks can be neutral meeting grounds for young mothers. · Arncliffe War Memorial. Local soccer club teaches young players the significance and stories behind the Memorial and to respect Australian freedoms. This helps get young men on the "right path". · Crafting interview collections. What topic are you hoping to cover? How will you find subjects? How many interviews will you conduct? What end result do you want? Involve interviewer with design of project, and allow time to find interviewees. · Organisation. Where to conduct interviews? Storage of interviews and back up of files. Obtain consents. Make interviews and information available through publication. Book, Ebook, brochure, exhibition, radio program/documentary, website, app, a walk, promote and publicise. Hold a launch to thank participants. · Oral History NSW. Tell them what OH you hold in your collection. How many interviews. Any grouped/themed projects. Date span. Consider placing a basic Oral History catalogue record on TROVE.
2. Nerida Quartermass Copyright Officer/Project Manager, Creative Commons Australia, Queensland University of Technology Library (via Videolink)
· Creative Commons provides a simple, standardised & legally robust way to grant copyright permissions to cultural works and data. · Creative Commons can reserve copyright while allowing usage rights. · Allows flexibility in determining acceptable usage. e.g. Attribution/share-alike/non-commercial/no derivatives. · Nerida's presentation can be viewed on Slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/quaterma1/c-cau-glamccdigital-collectionsnsw-local-studies-librarians-groupdistmay2015
· Creative Commons is a global standard copyright licensing system. It is layered, with machine-readable metadata and human-readable metadata standards. Code works on web pages easily. 79 countries recognise Creative Commons. 882 million Creative Commons licensed works currently in world. Includes images, videos and sound recordings. · Rijksmuseum https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/explore-the-collection has 150,000 images in the public domain collection released via CC0. Digitisation slow initially, but marketing department of museum encouraged process to help engage public during prolonged museum refurbishment. Digitisation extends the museum's "reach" to publics. Rijksmuseum offers official, high quality digital renderings of major artworks. More on rationale at: http://www.museum-id.com/idea-detail.asp?id=389 · Brooklyn Museum http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/collections/ has a 100,000 plus online image collection. A default of CCBY is used for images and text owned by Museum. · New York Public Library http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ has 20,000 high resolution map downloads using a CC0. Wonderful example of shared data using NYPL Map Warper http://maps.nypl.org/warper/ which aligns old and sometimes inaccurate maps to modern accurate maps. · Powerhouse Museum has an electronic swatchbook of fabric designs http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/electronicswatchbook/ with an innovative colour key search. All items are in the public domain. · CC licences are built on copyright law. They provide clarity regarding the use of images. They create goodwill, and many unexpected and creative resources can result. Creative Commons fact sheets are available online http://creativecommons.org.au/learn/fact-sheets/ · Choose license options on website. Tools to mint your item with appropriate CC license available at http://creativecommons.org/tools
3. Andrew Host, Sound recordist and editor from CD Makers Pty Ltd. Practicalities of digitising audio: there is more to digitising audio than just pressing a button and walking away…
· Andrew outlined the equipment and processes needed for good quality audio transfer from tape to CD. If institutions are attempting transfer themselves they need good quality equipment. Tascam is a brand of professional grade tape deck see examples at http://tascam.com/ · Equipment may not work well if not used regularly. If overused then the equipment may have worn out. Use Isopropyl Alcohol to clean tape playback head. pressure used to clean tape is "like cleaning teeth with a cottonbud". Apply gentle pressure with alcohol moistened cottonbud. Magnetised heads can partially erase tape. Demagnify heads regularly. Audacity is quirky but can be used to edit out background noise. Severe background noise may not be removable entirely…reduction not elimination is possible. WAV files may not be useable or supported in 20 years. · Copy to archival grade Gold CDs PRODISC http://www.cdmakers.com.au/blank-cd-r.htm are used by collecting institutions. Collect hardware to play CDs in the future. Spread audio around, copy to different drives to increase chances of survival. Don't use USBs…these are suitable for short term storage only! Cloud storage may be OK but has a slow upload speed. · Andrew's notes which were given out at the meeting have been included with these minutes (with express permission of Andrew, thank you!) Andrew's Company is CD Makers 02 8094 1212. http://www.cdmakers.com.au/index.htm Notes by Andrew Host of CD Makers (by kind permission)
4. Stephen Coppins, Holroyd Local Studies Librarian talking about Joint Local Studies Projects · The Cumberland Argus newspaper is now available on Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/title/351 thanks to a joint project involving 10 Council systems including Auburn, Blacktown, Campbelltown, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, The Hills, Holroyd, Hornsby, Parramatta and Ryde Councils. · This was a collaborative grant, with stakeholders including the Councils listed and the SLNSW (newspaper negative owners). Estimates of page numbers for the years 1888-1919 were made. At roughly $2 digitising cost per page this came to $188,000, which was plainly too much for any one Council to shoulder. The idea of a joint library project came about because of the wide geographic spread of the newspaper. · The task of finding funding involved who to approach within Councils, and to work out proportionally how much each might be asked to pay. A proposal was sent to the National Library of Australia to gauge possible support, and permissions to use the Cumberland Argus newspaper microfilm negatives were obtained from the State Library of NSW. · Stage 1 circa 1888-1919 23,700 pages = $47,400 excluding GST. Stage 2 grant 1920-1950 29,500 pages = $59,000 excluding GST Stage 3 circa 1951-1962 8,740 pages (apologies, cost not recorded). For the final stage copyright permission was obtained from NewsLocal, successor to the Cumberland Argus. · Library Development Grant guidelines at: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/services/public_libraries/funding/docs/slnsw_grant_guidelines_2013_2014.pdf and past successful applicant archives at: http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/pls/index.cfm/2014/4/29/library-development-grants-201314 · Collaborative library Development Grants can only be submitted by one Council. Letters of commitment to be signed by all CEOS/General Managers of each participating Council. Letters of support from community stakeholders can be helpful. · Stage IV Cumberland Free Press newspaper. Utilising leftover grant funds from 2011-2012 (with OK of grant money providers), Cumberland Mercury 1875-1895, Cumberland Free Press 1895-1897. · Keep regional LS networks operating. teamwork is essential. Use people's knowledge and skills. Work together to compile information, communicate, keep organised and focussed, be flexible and please stay sane! · Stephen Coppins, Local Studies Library Officer is happy to be contacted for further information. Michele Nichols proposed a vote of thanks for Stephen Coppins on behalf of participating Councils for his fantastic work in bringing this collaborative project to fruition. This was endorsed by acclamation.
5. Local Studies audit, Ellen Forsyth State Library of NSW. · Members of working parties sought for sections of next stage of Local Studies Audit. Ellen will be contacting people in July and August to help. Reference and Information services Wiki Local Studies section will be a main contact point for those working together http://referenceandinformationservices.wikifoundry.com/page/Local+Studies. Short informative pieces with links to best practice elsewhere. Site will be easy to use and update. Contact Ellen Forsyth if you'd like to be involved.
6. Parramatta Light Touch-Table WW1 project Neera Sahni, Parramatta Heritage Centre · 1900 WW1 soldiers are listed in a Parramatta book published by the Cumberland Argus. · Blog posts on each soldier uploaded to touch table. Searchable by alphabetical, home areas, hospitals treated at, type of injury/fate. Incl;udes brief history of soldier, includes newspaper articles from Trove. Includes Nurses from district. Families can share further information. Touch-tables approximately $76-80,000, using portable Wi-Fi operation.
7. General Business Brief discussion of marketing ideas, including use of Local Studies images for bags. Redbubble has tote bags that can be decorated with Local Studies motifs.The bags and t-shirts for theReference and information services seminar are available from Redbubble. It is a print on demand service. The different products have different arrival times.
Geoff Potter (Gosford) suggested that anyone using the AIF project and other WW1 websites be very careful to check digitised primary records in National Archives. Numerous errors found during Gosford WW1 projects have slowed progress considerably.
Donna Braye (Mosman) thanked everyone at the Parramatta Heritage Centre for their hospitality.
Next Local Studies Librarians Meeting to be held at Wollongong City Library on October 15, 2015. Meeting closed 3.45pm
Next meeting and agenda local studies
Wider local studies This provides information about the national local studies network.