NSW public library wiki

Minutes NSW Local Studies Librarians meeting

Central Tablelands Collection Facility, Bathurst and online 5 November 2024

Present:

Online: Fran - Goulburn, Sue - Hornsby Library, Helen - Sutherland Libraries, dbastian, Courtney Simpson, Victoria, Danielle - Penrith City Libraries, Celia Bayside Libraries, Susan Press - Wollondilly, Shirley Ramrakha - Willoughby, Lane Cove, Megan Crook, Dom Caron - Georges River Libraries, Emilia, paulinek, Belinda Lancey - Coffs Harbour, Geoff Potter - Central Coast, xieh, Jane Britten Woollahra Library, Gialy Ly - Fairfield, Karen Richardson - Hornsby, Gillian Allen - Ryde, Laura - Bayside Libraries (laura), Georgina - Randwick City Library, Aleem Aleemullah, Katarzyna.Malicka, Huong Lockwood, Ms Amie Zar, Jenny - Strathfield, Suri H., Tara_Liverpool Library, hlenane, adam mitchell - moree library, Ravneet Gill, Shaye (Albury LM), (Shaye Malsem), katherine day, Anne - Macquarie Regional Library, Vanessa, Angela - Ryde, Catherine Ryan, Jessica - Ku-ring-gai, Sue Ryan, MSullivan, jason slattery, Brigid Whitbread Queanbeyan-Palerang, Nat, Leonie_ Liverpool Library, Michelle Richmond, Erica Kearnes, aallen, Silvia Da Rocha - Maitland City Libraries, Ronda Gaffey, Tully Boundy-Collis - Singleton Public Library, Holly Millward - Inner West Council, Maria Northcote, jeff stonehouse, traceym, Leonie_ Liverpool Library, Ian Hoskins, Jo Smith, Sharelle.Ravenscroft

Onsite: Adam Cios, John Merriman, Mary-Clare Thatcher, MARIA PATERSON, Michael Adams, Helen Thompson, Ellen Forsyth, Catherine Bryant, Simone Taylor, Victoria Bateman, Tamsin McIntosh, Rachel Cullen, Patou Clerc, Joanna Mead, ALISON WISHART, Lil Vanderhel, Dianne Barnes, Joanna Mead

9. 15am Welcome to Bathurst and Acknowledgement of Country

9.30 – 10.10 am Dianne Barnes, Bathurst Family History Group, Penetrating the Past: searching for the Bathurst Female Factory with ground penetrating radar.

Female factory started 1833 and closed 1844. Over 600 women went through the factory.
Factory closed with transportation ceased, women moved to the gaol.
Female convicts needed for building Bathurst
Factory built to a template from govt plans
Old maps could not establish definitively where the factory had been due to changes to streets above ground
Used ground penetrating radar to try and map what was underground.
Cost $5,500 – funds raised from a Council grant and donations
Community and media interested in the process – set up a media tent and did some interviews
Found evidence of what was likely the back wall of the Female Factory, when the radar report findings were overlaid with an 1840s map.
Decided not to excavate and risk damaging the site – it would also be vey expensive upwards of $20,000
Site has been registered as of State significance so it cannot be disturbed.

10.15 – 10.55 am Jan Page, President, Friends of Bathurst War Memorial Carillon, Bathurst War Memorial Carillon – a memorial with a voice

Only one of two war memorial carillons in Australia, and the only one sited near a church with a bell tower. Carillons differ from normal church bells as they are 'tuned bells' that can be played.
Bathurst knew they wanted a memorial to the men who had died in WW1, but couldn’t decide what it would be.
1920, committee formed to try and decide what their memorial would be.
Decided to raise funds for war widows and their children instead of building a memorial
Meanwhile, had a flagpole in the centre of King’s Parade which was the focus of Anzac and Armistice Day ceremonies.
1921 – war memorial design competition won by Mr Kool but he couldn’t be located - so his design could not be used.
Consulted Gilbert Noble, designer of two other statues in King’s parade – his design of an angel on an obelisk was rejected
George Hoskins, local man (on the committee?) – saw a war memorial carillon in Loughborough, UK, and suggested this for Bathurst.
A carillon has a minimum of 23 bells
Major fundraising campaign from 1924-27 to pay for the bells
Taylor’s foundry in Loughborough convinced them to have 35 bells and to buy them from their foundry.
Bells inscribed with words of remembrance and names of all the local towns that had contributed to the fundraising
1928 started building tower for the bells but ran out of funds in 1929, after digging 47 feet underground to build the foundations of the carillon tower.
Buy a brick fundraising campaign. One brick cost 2 pence. Took until 1938 to pay off debt.
11 Nov 1933, carillon officially opened. About 15,000 people attended the ceremony on Armistice Day.
‘The singing tower’ – a memorial with a voice calling people to remember whenever the bells are rung
The Bells were activated using a small keyboard. This not the standard way to use a carillon, which normally uses a clavier. It is believed a keyboard was used to allow local people to play the carillon.
By 1980 Bell-ringing mechanism using the keyboard was no longer fit for purposes, so the internal bell clappers were removed, and replaced with external hammers operated electronically– now not a carillon!
Couldn’t raise any more money until 1980s as people had fundraising fatigue.
It took 20 years of fundraising to restore the Carillon and install a Clavier
Damaged bells were replaced and more bells installed in 2018 – now 47 – also from Taylor’s
The Eternal flame that was installed in 1965 had to be removed from centre of tower as it created soot that would damage the clavier that was installed in Nov 2020.
Three women went to Canberra and undertook three years of training to learn to be carillonists – They play recitals on Saturdays
The Friends of the Carillon Society supports fundraising initiatives for the Carillon and holds regular tours of the tower.
The removed Bells are now held in the Central Tablelands Collections Store.

General business

Australian Society of Archivists conference will be in Sydney in 2025.
Potential speakers from RAHS conference held in October 2024:
Speaker from Reserve bank of Australia Archives
Speaker from Geographical names Board
Speaker from history Teacher’s Association - discuss the new senior school history curriculum to be implemented from 2027
Dr Alecia Simmonds on researching women from lower socio-economic backgrounds through archives
Training in conducting oral histories
State Library of NSW has just completed digitisation and cataloguing of 5000 parish maps
Wider Local Studies Meeting will be held in June 2025. Dates TBC. It will run over 3 days with two main sessions recorded and the last discussion sessions not recorded.

11 – 11.30 am Morning tea

11.30 – 12 pm Local Studies in Flash: 10 slides in 5 minutes

1. John Merriman, Blue Mountains, A new Local Studies Section at Springwood Library

New library is very popular and local history has a presence through a digital screen in the entrance.
Library is integrated with Council Customer Service area
There is a new research room, with large work area and compactus for local studies – the first purpose-built LS area. A big improvement on the former site.
The LS book collection is now publicly available in the research room
Collection of glass slides from a local photographer who started in 1880s – Hodgkinson - Stonemasons working on the art gallery of NSW. Some photos online but some still being uploaded

2. Tara Eagleton, Liverpool New Library Build: Enhancing Local Studies Services and Community Engagement

The new Yellamundi Library opened November 2023
Local studies collection on display on ground floor
New heritage room on the ground floor with tech facilities for online seminars.
Climate controlled room for storing archives nearby
Current focus for the new research room is to encourage public use for local and family research. Several public programmes implemented for this include:
Heritage room is staffed on Tuesdays and Thursday for two hours for drop-in research assistance.
Australian Society of Genealogists ran a ‘how to research your family history’ seminar over two Saturdays
Room also has the potential to be used for Oral History interviews.
Keen to set up a digital preservation station and run oral history training sessions in the room
What are other LHL doing with their research rooms?

3. Simone Taylor, From the Vault: learning the hard way to curate an exhibition series.

Making the Local studies collection more accessible through an exhibition series: “From the Vault”
Exhibitions are displayed in a high traffic corridor near the museum space, this is somewhat restrictive as things need to be 2D. Some previous topics including 19th dance cards, local parks, Dubbo's first bank manager etc.,
12 month led time for exhibition projects
Exhibition development includes sourcing materials from Local Studies Collection, Design, Layout, content, installation, and deinstallation
New planning software under development to track steps in the project
Big learning curve, particularly around installation
Next step is to look at audience reactions, curation of larger exhibitions, incorporation of diversity inclusions, and sustainability.

4. Mary-Clare Thatcher, Bathurst, Bathurst Library: Growing Local History

Working on cataloguing and enhancing catalogue records – at least half the collection not catalogued
Started some digital local history vertical files – copyright challenges in making them accessible
Need a strategic digitisation plan
Using a display cabinet and screen in public areas for promotion of Local Studies. Found to be a very versatile way to showcase Local History collections.
Items from community groups are in the display cabinet
‘way back Wednesday’ posts on FB – 2000 – very popular 10K reach
‘discover more’ posts about Wiradjuri history and culture once a month on FB
Started some ‘how to’ guides for researching family history and local history. Helps to increase awareness of Local History collections and reduce impact of FOH staff
Inviting local history community groups to give presentations at the library
Two community history projects: Bathurst Recollections and Pillars of Bathurst

5. Ian Hoskins, North Sydney Council Historian, Hidden history of the Chinese in North Sydney (did not present but provided website details Chinese market gardeners and storekeepers in North Sydney 1870-1940

12. – 12.20 pm Local Studies Audit 2025, Ellen Forsyth SLNSW

Looking for 2-3 volunteers to look through the draft questions in detail. There are about 50 questions. The survey will go out in March 2025 with 6 weeks for people to complete. Email Ellen if you’d like to volunteer for this.
There will be an online meeting about this in early December, review the survey before this
There are questions about what you collect in local studies and diversity audit
‘digital content’ is digital-born material (not digitised material)
Q – what about digital files on carriers that will soon be redundant – such as CDs and DVDs
Data gathered could lead to further training or workshops
Survey will be released in March 2025 - Allowing approximately 6 weeks to complete.

12.20 – 1 pm Rachel Cullen, NAA State Manager, Public Engagement (acting) National Network Coordination, NSW Office, A local historians guide to the National Archives of Australia.

Rachel.cullen@naa.gov.au
Federal government repository, includes military service records, Immigration, Parliament and Cabinet records, records from various government departments.
NAA is designed to preserve, collect, provide access to about 40 million records
CRS = Commonwealth Records Series
NAA has repositories in very state and territory. The NSW repository is one of the largest, based in Sydney it has approx 188km of shelf space.
Only 10% of the collection in the NSW repository is described to Item Level. Aiming to have the majority described to Item Level by 2030.
Records are organised by Agency (Department) then Series (sometimes by format or content) then item (file/map/photograph/film reel)
Keyword search – choose ‘always search notes’ in the online form
WWII service records are now all available online
Australian Women’s Land Army records (index cards)
The series or agency information provides clues to the context and provenance of the item. 'Agency' can change over time as Government departments change.
When a user/researcher specifically requests a record from a series, it may first need to go through an access examination process. After this, records in that series are described at item level.
Archives Act provides parameters for privacy considerations and what must be redacted
Rachel would like some feedback on how NAA can be of use to other local studies libraries and historical societies. NAA are happy to host talks and tours at Chester Hill. Archives preservation staff are also available to provide training.
A control symbol is a unique identifier created by the agency or NAA, similar to a barcode (which is unique). This can a be unique number created by the NAA or a number used by the department that created the record to identify it.
Citation is always the [series number], [control symbol]
Can not make available copies of ABC and SBS film and audio records as those agencies sell copies commercially
NAA Youtube Channel – see digitisation of 1974 joint sitting of parliament (Whitlam era)
NAA is happy to provide outreach training/talks to the community/Local History Groups/Local Studies/Library staff. Please contact Rachel if you would like more information about this.

1 – 2 pm Lunch (catered)

2 – 2.40 pm Tim Pike, Collection Coordinator, The Central Tablelands Collections Facility, overview, and tour

The journey to a Central Tablelands Collections facility commenced 21 years ago. Back then Bathurst had Chifley Home and Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
Bathurst had significant back of house issues: pests, temperature control, security, cataloguing, things getting lost in the system
How do you store a whole lot of stuff in different formats and materials from different sites? – let’s centralise and build one shed for everything
During this period Bathurst acquired several new collections including:
Bathurst Fossil and Mineral Museum opened (5000 items)
Bathurst rail museum opened
School of Arts Collection from Bathurst Library
Civic collection within council (sister cities, sporting memorabilia)
Put a business case together (used external consultants) who suggested building a regional repository, not just for Bathurst but for collections across the region.
On the basis of the business case, secured $2.3M from state govt through Create NSW
Bathurst Council provided a further $2.3M from Regional Development fund as the shed also provides a repository for Council records
The Central Tablelands Collections Facility opened in September 2022.
It is the first regional multi use repository to be built.
The Museum manager, collections manager, council engineer, Director of Cultural Community services formed project group. They Consulted with local users and also cultural storge facilities in Sydney and Canberra. This helped to build relationships with them.
The building is 2400m2 of climate-controlled storage space. Divided into low climate storage (temperature only) and full climate control storage (Temperature and humidity). Building is well insulated to make climate easier to maintain.
The Facility includes office spaces for museums staff, digitisation room, and multipurpose meeting, Training and workshop spaces.
Utilises an integrated pest management system - with Pest isolation room, freezer and nitrogen for treating pests.
Currently the facility houses 17,000 items ranging from racing cars to dinosaur bones to stamps to paintings.
Space can also be used to treat items affected by a disaster – need the space over a long period of time
Future proofing included in planning with room for expansion of building and onto neighbouring land and mezzanine level in climate-controlled area.
It is anticipated it will take 20 years to research capacity of repository.
Currently unused storage space is Leased out commercially to other institutions (like the Australian Museum) and private individuals – this creates revenue for Council. Leases can be cancelled if more storage space is required for council collections.
Got grants from private/commerical businesses such as through Gambling NSW (for forklifts and equipment) to support the project alongside government grants.
White Rabbit Gallery provided second hand art racks
Got $50K for ‘Storyplace’ digitisation project – provided equipment
Layout/organisation of the space is by format - using system developed in previous collection storage Building/RM/Storage device/ etc
Everything in the storage facility is on the KE-Emu database
A model for other regional areas in NSW
Generate solar power through an array of panels on the roof and stored in batteries – generates 60% of power needs for the storage facility. Helps reduce cost of running facility.
All services are on one side of the building – AC, plumbing, electrics
Used as many local builders and trades specialists as possible
The Central Tablelands Collections facility can be a model for other regional areas in NSW.

2.45 – 3.15 pm General Business

1. Collection development plan templates and other forms - to be discussed at the March 2025 meeting

2. RAHS conference - moved to earlier in the day

3. other

3.15 – 4 pm Wirribee Aunty Leanna Carr, Wiradyuri Elder and Traditional Owner; Elder-in-Residence and Scholarly Teaching Fellow, School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Dhuluny: the war that never ended.

A welcome to country is about keeping you safe. It as an acknowledgement 'you are invited into my house'. Traditionally used to provide rules on where you could go and how you could behave when visiting different Aboriginal lands/groups.
Dhuluny 200-year commemoration of the anniversary of the declaration of Martial law against Aboriginal people in the bathurst area on 14 August 1824.
Dhuluny means - talk straight and stand in your truth / direct or gospel truth.
Gudyarra – the first Wiradyuri War of Resistance – the Bathurst Wars 1822-1824, by Dr Stephen Gapps
14 August 2024 was the 200th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Bathurst area by Governor Brisbane as a result of the war with the Wiradyuri who were attacking stock, convicts and settlers because they were on their land
44 Wiradyuri people were rounded up and killed, their heads chopped off and sent back to England
The commeration events included:
Smoking ceremony throughout the whole town. Used a single chime/note on the carillon to replicate clap sticks
Bathurst Courthouse sits on a sacred songline/walking track
Aboriginal art markets held on 17 August 2024.
Corroboree at Walu – invited First Nations people from neighbouring areas – see https://www.dhuluny.com.au/events
Corroborees and scared areas are often located on high points of land - where people can be closer to the ancestors.
Two days of lectures from First Nations academics like Bruce Pascoe and Marcia Langton. Other speakers included Stephen Gapps and David Marr at CSU Campus. Full program at: https://www.csu.edu.au/yindyamarra-nguluway/dhuluny/home
Upcoming event 14 December 2024 – First Nations markets in Bathurst. (Commemorating the date of the ceasefire 11 Dec 2024)
Aunty Lee- Ann encouraged everyone to attend the upcoming markets at Bathurst.
Yaala – the present

Meeting Finished.

Next Meeting to be held in Sydney. Date/Location: TBC