31 October 2012 minutes
Minutes of the Local Studies Librarians Meeting Held at Balmain Library, Darling Street, Wednesday 31st October, 2012.
Attendees: Bruce Carter, State Library; John McRitchie, Manly; Jane Elias; Holroyd; Angela Phippen, Ryde; Sarah Thompson, Mona Vale; Sharon Jones, Kiama; Rose Cullen; Warringah; Debra Duan, Strathfield; Geoff Potter, Gosford; David Sansome, Canada Bay; John Johnson, Kogarah; Helen McDonald, Sutherland; Marisa O’Connor, Wollongong; Georgina Keep, Randwick; Michelle Nichols, Hawkesbury; Kay Shirt, Lithgow; Marion Saw, Leichhardt; Donna Braye, Mosman; Rachelle de Casanove, Marrickville; Rebecca Dale, Canterbury; Catherine Hardie, Canterbury; Jennifer Madden, Bankstown; Christine Collman, Newcastle; Sue Ryan, Newcastle; Megan Pitt, Tamworth CNRL; Kay Delahunt, Tamworth CNRL; Kelly Mitchell, Stanton North Sydney; Amie Zar, Leichhardt; Ann Crump, Lake Macquarie; Libby Watters, Woollahra; Jane Britt, Woollahra; Joan Rowland, Kuring-gai; Kimberley O’Sullivan-Steward, Waverley. Apologies: Ellen Forsyth, State Library; Lynn Bonomini, Goulburn Mulwaree; Kirsten Broderick, Rockdale; John Merriman, Blue Mountains; Julie Fitzsimons, Hurstville; Matthew Henderson, Castle Hill Library; Vicki Munro, Woollahra Council. Meeting commenced at 10.05am.
1. Historypin. Speaker: Paula Bray, Powerhouse Museum. Museums, libraries and archives are all dealing with great changes in the ways that people access, process and interact with information. There is a need for these institutions to remain relevant and engaging with customers. Storytelling with the content held by institutions is critical for engaging these people. Audiences are smart and want to help to interpret/mould/use content. No longer passive receptors of what institutions put out. Websites (note plural) = web presence using multiple platforms. Aggregated collections…those which transcend the boundaries of “institutions holding them” are the way of the future. The average user does not care where the content is from, they simply wish to access it. Share stories by commenting on collections. Then & Now photography can engage “citizen curators”. Use innovation in all forms…public will find new and innovative ways to use technologies. Powerhouse has used Flickr Commons for the last 4 years. Geomapping functions are very useful.
One developer (member of public) did a before and after mashup. Photographs can be placed within modern contexts see: http://siarchives.si.edu/blog/smithsonian-historymap-mashup-historypin Historypin apps are being developed for iphone see: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/historypin/id455228207?mt=8 Learn through trying new ideas. Not all ideas will work but it is OK. You will learn that way. Sepia Town http://sepiatown.com/ seeks to merge photography, geography, and technology, to provide interactive maps that contextualise historic photographs. This company geomapped Powerhouse content and shared the results back to the Powerhouse Museum. Then and Now: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/imageservices/tag/then-and-now/ is a Powerhouse Museum platform for sharing stories about content. Comments from the public are welcomed. High statistics for “hits” are not necessarily indicative of deep user engagement. Historypin was launched in New York by a non-profit, social empowerment nonprofit organisation whose aim is to “do good things”: http://wearewhatwedo.org/ Maps on historypin are searchable by location, date etc. The aim of Historypin is to build “a digital history of the world”. Historypin uses modern street views to put the old images in a modern context, helping users interpret historical landscapes. Tours are a Historypin feature useful for telling stories with content, for example Hyde Park, Sydney: http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/9467004/ Drive or encourage audiences to share stories. New features in phone technologies support new ways of sharing and catch audience attention and grow support bases. “Historypin repeats “http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/9467004/ uses the valuable feature of layering of photographs to enable old photographs to be superimposed over new images and vice versa. On the Powerhouse website a slide control is used to reveal the image beneath. “Historypin repeats” is a smartphone app. Historypin is a great platform that lets you work on engagement through telling stories. Powerhouse museum has a section on its webpage about how to use Historypin: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/openhouse/2012/03/historypin-launches-channels-welcome-to-the-powerhouse-channel/ Memory Australia is a new project for sharing the collective memory and cultural heritage of Australia. This will be a year-long 2013 promotion, and content partners are sought. Exhibitions will travel around Australia based on great shared stories. [end] Questions from audience: · Can photographs without latitude and longitude details be used? Yes, but tell people if the location is not certain. · Regarding Memory Australia in 2013, will it be for all kinds of archival resources? Yes, it will include audio, photographs, maps, ephemera, artworks…anything with good stories, and it will feature the layering of materials already discussed. · Has the uploading feature on Historypin improved since its inception? Yes, try bulk loading of images. Rebecca Abrahams at We are what we do may be a good contact to assist with issues in this regard. · What tips would you suggest for Libraries considering using Historypin? Historypin is a good platform. Have conversations with your own organisation early in the peace to ensure support and sustainability. · How can you evaluate success with Historypin? Engage if you can. Powerhouse needs to create a variety of photo tours to entice audience to engage. The institution cannot just put content out there, it bears some responsibility now for promoting engagement.
2. Collaborative projects between Local Studies Collections and State Library Speaker: Maggie Patton, Manager, Original materials, State Library of NSW. The Mitchell Library holds and manages access to original materials. The State Library (SL) is commencing a review of its catalogues, web structures etc., and this review will continue over the next 4-10 years. This review presents many opportunities for enhanced access to digital collections but also for SL to work with Local Studies Collections in Public Libraries. The SL is working to identify its major pictorial heritage collections. Collections cover Indigenous subjects, Sydney and suburbs, rural towns etc. Where SL resources are repurposed by Public Libraries that is OK, but please ensure that those resources are linked back to the institution of origin. Forthcoming major digitisation projects from SL include more regional newspapers and the NSW Government Gazette on Trove. SL is digitising in colour all of its subdivision plans to make available online. If Public Libraries have information (dates, locations in modern terms etc.) that help inform and enhance metadata for this project, please contact SL through Maggie at: mpatton@sl.nsw.gov.au Likewise, if there is something held by SL that you feel should be digitised, please let Maggie know. As an aside, the Parish Map digitisation project from LPI NSW has moved to: http://images.maps.nsw.gov.au/pixel.htm Large map digitisation projects will create access to Halloran real estate land surveys. Oral histories held by SL are being digitised.
Priorities include interviews with Sydney Harbour Bridge builders; Holocaust survivors; Multiculturalism in Sydney in the 1970s. Paradesic http://www.paradisec.org.au/home.html at Sydney University is doing the digitisation for SL. World War I material has been prioritised for digitisation by the SL in time for the centenary beginning in 2014 and going through to 2019. WWI Posters, photographs, ephemera, diaries etc. are being digitised. A list of upcoming titles slated for digitisation for Trove is available at: http://www.nla.gov.au/content/new-titles-coming A useful list of available Trove titles can be seen at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/titles WWI era newspapers are also a priority for digitisation. If public libraries are planning WWI displays or talks, SL is interested to bring objects or items out. SL would like to know about great APIs that public libraries develop for cultural heritage purpose. [Here is a blog describing a few great cultural heritage API ideas from around the world: http://tinyurl.com/bf4rr2n ] The SL’s current priorities for collecting include: Outer Sydney; Regional NSW. A new audit of Local Studies Collections in NSW Public Libraries is in the planning stages. This will update the 2004 PLN audit. The audit will seek to identify hidden collections, similar to the PACSCL (Philadelphia) Hidden Collections project http://clir.pacscl.org/ . Springshare Libguide http://springshare.com/libguides/ is a great way to create research guides to collections. SL Research Guides http://guides.sl.nsw.gov.au/ are based on Springshare templates. [End]
3. Measures of Local Studies performance: group discussion facilitated by Leanne Perry, PLS Consultant. How do Local Studies Collections justify what we do? · Local Studies Collections provide a rare area of growth within library services. They can be regarded as unique information services provided fundamentally by libraries. They can be a great selling point for libraries. Any future surveys of Local Studies Collections need to examine the question of adequate staffing, not only from a Local Studies customer service focus, but also in critical support services such as experienced original cataloguers and metadata creation staff for digital collections. Perceived/recommended levels of staffing need to be examined in these contexts. · No one set of data elements available to suit all purposes · Key data collected until now focuses on circulation and visitation. At SL there has been a fall in these figures for the first time, however membership is growing. ·
Digitised/Electronic platforms are being used more these days…traditional statistics may not ‘fit’ as well as in the past. · Perhaps measure “Does your program make a difference? What would happen if you did not run X program? · What are the goals of local history activities and what methods can you use to measure their success? · Local Studies is a unique selling point for libraries. · Possibly shift measures to outcomes for communities, not necessarily internal inputs. · Indicators are somewhat determined by Council needs. There is a need for greater involvement from LS in determining services and measures. ·
Link measures to ultimate goals of LS collections e.g. preserving local record in perpetuity (ultimate goal); building collections that will survive; building-in mechanisms to ensure survival of local record; building content; facilitating access; documenting life in the local area etc. · How connected are locals to local places and their history? · Quantative measures still important e.g. how many items added; major collections or items catalogued; donations received; Topics researched in response to public enquiries; Council enquiries etc. Frame all of these types of measures in terms of your Council Strategic Plan. · Count virtual visitors to electronic platforms as well as physical visitors. “Door counter” can be your LS gateway statistics. · A report “The value of public libraries should be available on the web in several weeks. · Standard KPI benchmarking is difficult for LS collections. Quantify page hits, activity on social media, quality of content added. What would happen if LS didn’t exist. Google Analytics can help add to knowledge of users and help enhance dwell time through establishing what users want. · New SL audit of LS Collections may help inform future collection of statistics. · Measurement of collaborative projects is important. Questions of how we assist and how we are assisted are worthy of consideration. · Overall goals feed into long-term goals which in turn feed into short-term goals.
4. General business History Week · Waverley used Council communications unit to help promote exhibition. · Response from History Week calendar good generally, however the lack of a printed calendar confuses some members of the public. ·
History Week themes are generally much easier to create programmes for than the National Trust Heritage Festival: http://www.nationaltrust.org.au/Heritage-Festival The latter Festival seems to be broadening themes as well as lengthening duration. The NSW Festival goes from April 18 to May 31, 2013 and the theme is “Community milestones”. Heritage Festival theme may lend itself more to walks, house tours. Kogarah finds it a challenge to get people to attend library-based events so it organises bus and walking tours. Local Studies NSW on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/local_studies_nsw/ · This site was started so that Local studies Librarians could share favourite photos relating to their work, and in the National Year of Reading the idea was to have Libraries upload images relating to each monthly theme. This was partially successful, but the site has been overlooked lately. The committee will look at ways to encourage usage of the site.
Local Studies on RISG (Reference and Information Service Group) http://referenceandinformationservices.wikifoundry.com/page/Local+Studies · It has been a while since this page has been mentioned. It is where we put agendas and minutes for the Local Studies Meetings. Information of assistance to Local Studies Librarians can be found here as well. Mosman Library has already put up various copyright, donation and oral history interview permission forms which can be used by others. These can be copied (and customised to suit your needs) and can save a bit of time rather than having to reinvent the wheel. · The committee will investigate ways to promote use of these pages. If you’d like to add useful tips or hints, have Pro-forma documents placed there documents that help you to organise your collection, or have expertise in a particular area of Local Studies that you’d like to share, then contact Ellen Forsyth (State Library); Donna Braye (Mosman) or Geoff Potter (Gosford) if you wish to become an author.
Public thank you for Stephen Coppins · Michelle Nichols moved a public vote of thanks to Stephen Coppins of Holroyd Library for the considerable work which he undertook to obtain Library Development funding for the digitization of the Cumberland Argus newspaper. The grant application was successful and now everyone can access this fantastic resource through Trove newspapers. This newspaper covered a very wide area… Western Sydney, The Hills District, Hornsby etc. · Stephen’s efforts were acknowledged unanimously with applause from those present. Trove and other web tool developments ·
Trove training module could be available online in a few months. · A new portal to the Australian Women’s Weekly on Trove offers enhanced access to content: http://trove.nla.gov.au/aww ·
Tim Sherratt has developed Querypic: http://dhistory.org/querypic/ an enhanced tool for searching Trove and Papers Past (NZ), providing the means to map topics as reported in newspapers over time. Try looking at this sample search for references to Tasmanian tigers http://dhistory.org/querypic/4u/ · Pinterest http://pinterest.com/source/adelaidephotos.com.au/ could be worth exploring for Local Studies applications. Here is a good example from King County, Washington: http://pinterest.com/kingcounty/ with an article about why they used Pinterest: http://www.issaquahpress.com/2012/08/29/discover-images-from-local-history-on-pinterest/ Angela Phippen’s US tour and the relationship between Museums and Local Studies. ·
Angela (Ryde) recently visited the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York. Angela said that the tenement had been boarded up in the 1930s, and was like a time capsule of the families who had lived there. Tours tell simple and effective stories about different families. This is a marvellous museum: http://www.tenement.org/tours.php ·
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford, UK http://www.ashmolean.org/ tells stories about human interaction with materials such as wood, leather, stone, and the use of tools. · Museums Australia conferences can be well worth attending, as they often cover subject areas relevant to Local Studies collections and exhibitions. http://www.museumsaustralia.org.au/site/ ·
Remember to use the ALIA local studies elist to keep in touch. If you are not a member of the list and would like to subscribe, go to: http://lists.alia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/aliaLocalStudiesNSW/ · Suggestions for future meetings. WWI (What is still out there? /donations/adopt a soldier projects/exhibitions/wed design/community participation); Storify/Pinterest/Memory Australia; Collecting the ‘now’ for the future; Christine Yeats ex State Records NSW development talks possible 1 day workshop? ·
Welcome to new committee member Sarah Thompson from Pittwater Library ·
The committee thanks Amie Zar and Balmain Library for their hospitality in hosting this meeting. Thank you to all of our presenters. It is gratifying for the committee to have so many librarians in attendance with so many great ideas. ·
The 2013 committee is Donna Braye (Mosman); Geoff Potter (Gosford); Sarah Thompson (Pittwater, Mon-Wed). Meeting ended 3.30 p.m.
The next meeting is to be held at Lithgow Library 21 March 2013.