Australian Chris Winter’s presentation on the Society of Archivists GLAM Innovation Study

NSW Branch Newsletter Report by Chris Winter & Barbara Hoffman OCTOBER 2015 16 September 2015

THIS ISSUE CONTAINS: David Roberts (Newington College Archivist) welcomed Chris Winter to the Branch • Chris Winter – GLAM Study meeting. David described how as a 15 year • A&D Workshop old in 1971, he was listening to Chris Winter’s ABC Radio music program ‘Room to Move’ • Recordkeeping Roundtable event and was introduced to Prog Rock, in particular • 2016 Parramatta Conference King Crimson. A lifelong passion was born. The NSW Branch was delighted to have a • Visit to UNSW Archives ‘fan’ introduce our speaker for the evening. • DOCAM Conference Chris Winter began his presentation by giving • Open Palace Program us the background of his interest in the world of collections. • Queen Mary Building In 2008 while he was still at the ABC, he was approached by the National Library of public space naming project Australia who were seeking access to the ABC’s archival metadata that they were • Digital Preservation Meetup keen to add to the datasets already searchable through TROVE. The outcome is that the NLA is now able to automatically harvest and index a large number of • Creativity in Wartime – GCS Gallery weekly Radio National programs with current programs being available for search • Public Service / War Service through Trove within 24 hours of broadcast.

• NSW Branch Information Continues on page 2…

NOTICE OF THE NEXT ASA NSW BRANCH MEETING OCTOBER 2015

Date Wednesday 21 October 2015

Time 5.30pm refreshments for 6.00pm start

Donation $5 to cover drinks and nibbles.

Venue Macleay Museum, University of Sydney Located on the top floor of the Macleay Building in Science Road, adjacent to the Quadrangle. The Museum entrance is in Gosper Lane at the western end of the Macleay Building. (Click here for map.) Lift access is available if anyone needs it. Please let us know in advance as you will need to be swiped up.

Event Our host Jan Brazier, Curator, History Collections at the Macleay Museum will take us through the various historically rich cultural and scientific collections held at the Museum, in particular the current exhibition ‘Written in Stone’. (http://sydney.edu.au/museums/collections/macleay.shtml)

NSW Branch Meeting A business meeting will not be held this month. Minutes of previous business meetings: http://www.archivists.org.au/community/branches/new-south-wales Continues from page 1

About the same time he was approached by urban historian Dr Sarah Barns (now a Research Fellow based at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University) who was wanting access to the ABC’s Radio archives in order to create an online, map-based opportunity to associate archival sounds with points of historic interest in Sydney’s CBD. This led to the development of a mobile and web based application called Sydney Sidetracks which delivers archival sound, vision, and images connected to 60 points of interest in Sydney’s CBD supported David Roberts introduces our guest speaker Chris Winter and shares his musical passions. by a narrative written by Sarah. Almost all the Sydney Sidetracks audio and video came from the ABC and the still The GLAM acronym really only works in Innovation/best practice images came mostly from the Museum Australia – most other jurisdictions refer They were also keen to identify of Applied Arts and Sciences and the to galleries as art museums. In North examples of best practice and State Library of NSW both of whom America for example, galleries are innovation, such as: were very eager to assist. places where you buy paintings. (Most More adventures in digital public space galleries in Australia are members of • Open access to collections – better, innovation followed but last year Chris Museums Australia.) although still fairly uneven • Federated discovery – eg Trove was very successfully distracted by an Chris and his team consulted informally invitation to work on a study of the GLAM with leaders from the sector in the first • Location based discovery for sector in Australia, commissioned and quarter of last year, held a two day maps and apps – eg Atlas of Living funded by the CSIRO and conducted futures workshop in May, and then in Australia by Smart Services CRC. June/July took the results for comment • Interpretive information – the use to local and international leaders in the of Wikipedia, and sites such as the GLAM Study sector who were unable to attend the Dictionary of Sydney workshop. In brief, the commission was prompted • Public contributions – eg by an interest in the opportunities and newspapers online in Trove; challenges for the Galleries, Libraries, Major Trends Museum Victoria’s Bowerbird; Atlas of Living Australia; Historypin at the Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector What began the discussions was a Australian Museum, and Historypin created by new broadband and digital consideration of several major trends generally. services. The study was based on directly affecting the sector: a series of consultations with key • Digital libraries – Google Books stakeholders and leading practitioners. • Changing consumer expectations (about Google Books), Internet The acronym GLAM was chosen • New forms of public interaction Archive, Digital Public Library of tactically “in order to focus attention enabled by digital services America, National Library of Norway on the ongoing shift in identity of these • Changes in the level and sources of • Digital Artworks – Google Art institutions as they face greater financial funding Project; the Rijks Museum; State pressure, higher expectations around • Environmental change and resource Library of NSW Digital Excellence their use of technology, diminishing depletion – affecting some collection Program; the UK Public Catalogue government support, and slow but agencies Foundation steady shifts in audience attention as • Ageing population and changing • Digital A-V collections – BBC the demographic profile of the nation demographics Creative Archive (project ended in shifts.” • Globalisation and the rise of Asia. 2006)

Continues over… ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 2 Continues from page 2

• Virtual access to physical exhibitions and collections – the CSIRO and NMA Museum Robot (and AARNet involvement) The Executive Director of the • Reinventing Physical Spaces – great examples discussed in the presentation by Santa Cruz Museum of Art & Erik Boekestijn at the ALIA conference History, Nina Simon (known in the GLAM world as the author • Shared technical and legal platforms – the BBC’s Digital Public Space project. of The Participatory Museum) There was also discussion with academics working at a number of institutions about writes very persuasively research into relevant technologies covering digitisation, discovery and new ways about the wisdom of using of providing interactive experiences. Worth mentioning in particular are Mitchell Wikipedia to draw attention Whitelaw (who spoke at NDF in 2011) and the remarkable Sarah Kenderdine (you to special content held in a can see her speak here). There is more detail on all this in the GLAM Report. collection. Nina’s blog is well worth following – it details In preparation for the workshop, participants were asked to rate nine issues her view that museums need in importance to their institution. to recognise the importance of audience interaction Issues in the sector (one of the reasons why the • Digitising collections Smithsonian has called her a “museum visionary”). You • Engaging new audiences and staying relevant can see Nina speak here. • Limited public access to collections (0.5– 4%) (Note, when she speaks of • Growth and storage of collections ‘museums’ she is including • Rights management of digitised assets art galleries.) • More diverse investment • Handling, connecting, transporting metadata • Transforming copyright to serve new needs • Facing global competition (especially via online content).

These have been listed here in critical order, with the first two well ahead of the rest. It is understandably difficult to choose strategic focus, especially in these times of rapid change.

The President of Museums Australia, Frank Howarth, agreed to open the workshop In acknowledging the timeliness of and write the foreword to the Report. In it he expressed his belief that the digital the study, Frank concluded with his revolution had “the capacity to turn the GLAM sector on its head, to change the own summary: sector in ways we never imagined, and to demolish the boundaries between • First, we need to be talking across galleries, libraries, archives and museums, whether we in the industry want this or the sector – as exemplified by the not.” He felt that the study was “a key step in enabling the sector to embrace digital, NZ’s National Digital Forum rather than being engulfed by it.” • Second, we need to be exploring He asked us to think first about our collections – currently managed by a range of and discussing opportunities and technologies old and new – and remarked that there is little collection management issues in the digital realm and access discussion across the broader GLAM sector. If we are to meet our • Third, we need to acknowledge that stakeholder needs, that has to change he said. the GLAM sector in Australia ranges from the very large to the very small. And what about the stakeholders and their digital expectations of us? Equity of opportunity and access “Our visitors” Frank argues, “through-the-door and virtual, have no need of the to the potential of the digital world increasingly artificial distinction between galleries, libraries, archives and museums, needs to be addressed if we are to indeed such distinctions are a hindrance for many. They are a 19thC artefact and meet the needs of Australians for make increasingly less sense to our stakeholders when what they want extends access to their cultural heritage. across the sector.”

Continues over… ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 3 Continues from page 3

Workshop questions In the workshop itself, there was discussion around all these issues and what was Victorian Collections, driven referred to as the ‘elephants in the room’. by Museum Victoria, helps groups in Victoria catalogue Issues discussed were their collections using the Museum’s infrastructure • The role of GLAMs in community wellbeing? to index them. One of the • New roles? Old roles becoming marginal? bonuses of this work is • Drawing the public in? Funding for strategic initiatives, not just digitisation? that TROVE talks with that • Engaging with current research initiatives? infrastructure making the • Active, cross sector conversation? contents of those often small and scattered collections • Prioritising digitisation initiatives? now discoverable. • Enhancing visitor experience? • New views on discoverability, linked data, connecting institutions?

Some of the elephants in the room • Copyright, moral rights, cultural rights, orphan works – new solutions? • Longer term funding shifts – state to private? • Institutional competition? • Funding/status hierarchies? For example say archives versus art museums? • The gap between leading edge practices and the Australian mainstream? • Staff skills keeping pace with changes in technology and processes The workshop attendees then agreed to explore four strategic initiatives as self- selected teams, and these emerged as the first section of the final recommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS 1 – Four Strategic Initiatives MAKING THE PUBLIC PART OF WHAT WE DO – “While participants in the study acknowledged a profound rhetorical shift in GLAMs to address the needs of an active, informed public, especially through the use of social media, many felt a deep reluctance within the sector to let go of the traditional position of authority among curators, librarians and archivists and a simultaneous reluctance for organisations to become genuinely more porous to outside contributors and collaborators.”

BECOMING CENTRAL TO COMMUNITY WELLBEING – The focus is on both the value of the physical spaces as community centres, but also on the role the collections can play in fostering community memory, sense of self and pride, to the economy, and to community health and resilience as our population both ages and becomes more diverse.

BEYOND DIGITISATION / CREATIVE REUSE – Many participants perceived the need to transition from a ‘push’ to a ‘pull’ model where public are engaged from the beginning and help pull through digitised content based on specific needs, which shapes the form of digitisation and allows for creative reuse. The Rijks Museum in Amsterdam is a spectacular example of encouraging access and re-use by the public – the Rijks Studio. Take a moment to watch Peter Gorgel’s presentation at NDF 2013.

DEVELOPING FUNDING FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES – this is a critical one, begging for a shift from total reliance on state support to corporate and community support, and philanthropy – perhaps seeking one-off contributions to major strategic initiatives that reposition organisations for the digital era. Continues over… ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 4 Continues from page 4

These initiatives of course overlap and interconnect in relation to some of the issues being addressed – the openness of institutions to each other and the public, the silos (G-L-A-M), then changing nature of the sector, connection with community organisations and research; national leadership, funding priorities, non-traditional benefits.

These then led to the second major recommendation.

RECOMMENDATIONS 2 – A National Framework for Collaboration The similarities observed in the digital practices of GLAM organisations make cross- sector collaboration more crucial for innovation, resource and knowledge sharing.

Specifically:

• Digitisation and access • Digital preservation • A national approach to rights – and the work that ADA has done • Organisational change, and the need for new skills = a large part of institutional effort • Shared infrastructure • Trans-disciplinary collaboration and research partnerships.

What flowed almost automatically from all this discussion, and confirmed surprisingly frequently in subsequent interviews was the potential for a more formal approach to cross sector discussion and collaboration.

RECOMMENDATION 3 – A National Forum In brief, they felt that people working in the GLAM sector really needed to spend more time in each other’s company – taking leads from NZ’s National Digital Forum, first event held in 2002 and registered as a society in 2010, the EU’s Europeana which began in early 2009, UK’s Public Catalogue Foundation dating from 2003 and searchable from here, and the mammoth US project the Digital Public Library of America, launched in 2013.

After the study was completed and the report published, a breakfast meeting was held to discuss the matter of a national forum or at least a national, cross-sector approach. The meeting included Frank Howarth who chaired, Michael Parry who had recently left ACMI to work for the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Brooke Carson-Ewart from the NSW State Gallery, Blair French from the MCA, Geoff Hinchcliffe from the State Records Office and Kevin Sumption, CEO of the National Maritime Museum. Basically they all agreed but there needs to be more and wider discussion still.

One of the topics of discussion was New Zealand’s trans-sector National Digital Forum, held annually usually in late November (this year, 13–14 October in Wellington). The NDF is organised by the National Library of NZ and staged in Te Papa, the Museum of NZ. It was founded many years ago as a result of a meeting between three of the national CEOs who agreed that they really ought to be talking more with each other.

While there is of course argument about the detail, the NDF is seen as a possible model for something similar in this country. Various bodies are talking about that right now, foremost amongst which is the National and State Libraries Australasia group who meet several times a year.

Continues over… ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 5 Continues from page 5

DOWNLOADS Contact details for You can download the GLAM Report in full from Museums Australia (who agreed to Chris Winter be the informal custodians of the report) and both the summary and full report from +61 411 749 224 a modest site created by Chris to not only to offer the download links, but a list of GLAM related conferences, peak organisations in the sector, interesting stories and +61 2 9389 7557 reports and links to search opportunities in Australia, NZ, Europe and the UK and [email protected] North America. Skype: chris.winter Chris reported that while they did have some criticisms, in general they were overwhelmed by the number of clever people they met. Twitter: @chriswinter

Chris ended on a cautionary note, from American author, journalist, and Professor www.about.me/winterchris of Journalism at Columbia University, Alexander Stille: https://sites.google.com/site/ “One of the great ironies of the information age is that, while the late twentieth glaminnovationstudy/home century will undoubtedly have recorded more data than any other period in history, it will also almost certainly have lost more information than any previous era.”

This is an edited version of Chris Winter’s presentation. The full version is available here.

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 6 Upcoming events

ASA Workshop Sydney User’s Guide to Arranging & Describing Archives

Developed by Barbara Reed, Principal of Recordkeeping Innovation Pty Ltd., this workshop is geared to the professional archivist and is at medium to advanced level. Geared to rethinking archival processes for the digital world, the workshop:

• Explores the basis and purposes of A&D and finding aids to identify what is enduring and what is a paper based methodology which does not need to continue in a digital world

• Identifies where the process traditionally takes place and what options exist for a digital world, exploring archival descriptive standards & more integrated recordkeeping metadata standards

• Looks to what may be the future: – Semantic web enabled archival systems – Is distributed custody a realistic prospect and how would/could our Presenter systems cope David Roberts is the inaugural • Explores a vision of a connected web of archival resources. professional archivist at Newington College in Sydney. He has been an archivist for thirty-five years Date: Friday 23 October 2015 and was the Director of the State Records Authority of NSW from Time: 9 am – 5 pm 1998 to 2008. He is a Fellow of the Australian Society of Archivists and Venue: Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts was an author for all three editions 280 Pitt Street, Sydney of Keeping Archives.

Price: $250 ASA Professional Members $280 ASA Associate/Institutional Members $440 Non Members

Tea and coffee, a light lunch and take-home workbook are provided.

Register: www.archivists.org.au/events/event/users-guide-to- arranging-describing-archives-workshop-sydney

Registrations Close: 9 October 2015

Queries: David Roberts

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 7 Upcoming events

Recordkeeping Roundtable Lecture by Roundtable co-founder Cassie Findlay

Come and join the Recordkeeping Roundtable for fascinating discussion on issues fundamentally impacting the future of our profession.

Cassie’s lecture, Trust Networks and Tigers – New models for journalism and archives, was first delivered on 26 August as the ARANZ Wellington Branch annual lecture.

Presented again for Sydney-based colleagues, Cassie’s lecture will argue that both the archival/recordkeeping and journalistic professions are going through fundamental change and risk extinction without significant and rapid evolution. Both are losing their grip on the forms of control that once gave them a monopoly; online, anyone can disseminate a story or construct an archive. Both are operating in the midst of the political forces that come into play around information access, and both are struggling to find ways to continue to fulfil their missions as a result. Questions of trust, power, authenticity and connectedness are central to understanding and responding to these changes, for both professions.

In this lecture Cassie will examine the rise of new models for journalism, including the world of leaks publishing, civic hacking and information activism, and consider the potential of emerging technologies such as the crypto-currency bitcoin and its underlying infrastructure, the blockchain. She will explain how for those of us in recordkeeping and archives, understanding and engaging with these movements can help us to challenge some of our assumptions and re-imagine our methods to better meet the needs of a connected world.

Date: Wednesday 14 October 2015

Time: 5:30pm to 7pm

Location: Seminar Room ATP Innovations Ground Floor National Innovation Centre Australian Technology Park

Map and transport information to ATP Innovations

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 8 Upcoming events

FORGING LINKS PEOPLE SYSTEMS ARCHIVES

31st NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF ARCHIVISTS

18–21 OCTOBER 2016 PARKROYAL PARRAMATTA

2016 ASA Conference Call for Papers

Keen to showcase a project, explore a pressing issue for the archival and recordkeeping profession, or highlight innovative practice? The Call for Papers For more information for the ASA 2016 National Conference is now open and we are keen to hear about the Conference your proposals. venue please view The 2016 ASA National Conference, Forging Links: people, systems, archives, our 2016 Conference will be held 18-21 October 2016 in Parramatta, Sydney. The program will explore Information pages. the themes of collaboration, sustainability, accountability and transformation, looking at how technology is changing our work and how we relate to users, records and content.

The 2016 Conference Program Committee is keen to receive proposals for traditional papers, innovative sessions, panel discussions or workshops.

To contribute a proposal, please complete the online proposal form before the 31 December 2015 or you are welcome contact the Conference Committee to discuss your ideas.

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 9 Recent news

NSW Branch Visit to University of NSW Archives

Report & Photo – Guy Tranter 15 July 2015

We were very grateful to University Archivist, Katie Bird for hosting us at UNSW Archives at short notice, following a cancellation. Co- hosting were Branch member and Assistant University Archivist, Laura Harris, and Records Manager, Richard Buckley. The Archives are located on the lower ground floor of the University Library building. Administratively the Archives are part of Records and Archives, with Records located in the nearby Chancellery Building.

The University was established, as the ‘New South Wales University of Technology’, in 1949 and became the University of New South Wales in 1958. (Entirely different to the later ‘University of Technology Sydney’ now known as UTS.) The UNSW Archives Laura Harris, Assistant University Archivist and Katie Bird, was established in 1980. University Archivist Katie has worked at UNSW Archives since 2002 and was appointed University Archivist this year. The Archives premises include approximately 1,000 shelf metres of compactus storage. The collection is mainly official university records, but also includes private papers such as those from UNSW professors. As examples of exhibited records, we saw the original grant of arms for the NSW University of Technology, and early-1960s architects’ drawings of the campus. Artefacts include very fine table and chairs of Queensland maple, formerly used by the University’s Developmental Council and now by archives researchers.

Control of the archives’ holdings in the electronic era was handled by Tabularium from 2004, however earlier this year Tabularium’s database records have been converted to comparable record types in TRIM, based on procedures originally designed by UWS. The decision to migrate was because TRIM is widely used at UNSW and has professional support. Eight TRIM archives record types are used, including document, item, series, and organisation.

Our thanks to Katie and Laura for a very interesting and enjoyable visit.

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 10 Recent news

DOCAM Documents Unbounded Conference

UTS, 20 – 22 July 2015

Report by Guy Tranter

The ASA was a sponsor of the DOCAM • The new role of librarians to be to • How do you define a document? Conference held at the University of teach data literacy. A very complicated question at Technology from 20 to 22 July this • Cultural biases which are embedded this conference, like the archival year. Guy Tranter attended a number of in Google algorithms – try searching profession’s definitions of a ‘record’. sessions and this report is his reflection starting with words for different Not only the physical form of the on those sessions. nationalities. ‘Australian/American/ ‘document’, but its philosophical African/Asian’ – different next words constitution. Not just an object, but Attendees were multi-disciplinary: will be suggested, some nationalities also a mediator and agent? Can archivists, librarians, museum curators more associated with soft porn documents sitting in an archival and theorists, historians, and many (or otherwise) than others! Try collection, for example, be capable of or most coming from overseas. The ‘Cameroon’ for example – you need agency on their own part? Whether presentations were a mix of high- to go through three screens (i.e. they refer to things shocking, flown academia (mentioning Foucault, further than most people ever do) to wonderful, or merely of some semiotics, cognition models, etc) and find content from Cameroon not just import around program rights, they the practical. Rather than summarise about it. Our information hardware may have power to influence future individual talks (I have the program and software are not impartial – events. And a later talk referred to an if anyone’s interested), I thought it many biases are embedded. archaeological site, and the artefacts better to talk about some themes within it, as documents. • Is the concept of ‘author’ of a that emerged. document an invention of the • Vanessa Finney of the Australian • Virtual archaeology – presentation Enlightenment and about to become Museum and consultant Julie of sites with virtual/augmented reality irrelevant again? Who, for example, is Stacker gave a very relevant paper is now possible without having to the author of an Outlook calendar in on digitisation. When archives (or excavate. (Presumably because a workplace? Not only have multiple libraries or museums) digitise their sensing enables the archaeologists to people made the entries, but different records and put them online, we work out walls, etc under the earth.) people have different views of it. must accept that the people who find them in their searches, lose • Data visualisation – navigation of And a calendar even when ‘blank’ the context which we know them some large databases is now done is not free of content: it embodies a in – the record series they are part with the assistance of sound (music) structure of time of a particular nation of, the purpose for which the record as well. and religion. (At this point people commented on the oddity of having was created and therefore how to • As the information transformations / registered online with false birthdates: view and interpret the record. The revolution continue, the way in which false ‘birthday greetings’ then flew all process of information discovery people read is changing. No longer over the web!) privileges content over context. whole books for many people, just a few chapters.

Continues over…

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 11 Continues from page 10

• Digitisation has been going on for at least 15 years on Conclusions a large scale – long enough for us to look back. The • A ‘document’ can be something with a much broader earliest digitisation projects tended to be of pictures and definition than I had thought. photos. These were good for getting attention, and also easier than files / documents to treat as discrete items. • The exponential increases in electronic interaction are By implication, files or documents as part of files, will stretching the ideas of what was and is a document. Our raise more difficulties. archival practices have now caught up with the idea that ‘records’ and ‘documents’ can include not just paper but • Benefits (or ‘pleasures’ as per the title) of digitisation word documents, spreadsheets and PDFs. But this is overall are a great increase in access / distribution / use, now 10 –15 years behind the sort of records and content therefore greater exposure for the institution. that are being generated. How do our practices cope with • The ‘sorrows’ can begin with a disproportionate exposure so much on social media and interlinked and changing and valuing of only some parts of a collection. ‘documents’? • The archivist’s role may go from being a keeper to a • Although libraries and museums deal with different materials guide. to archives, they have similar challenges in establishing a • Some of the meaning of a document is lost when you lose presence in the online environment. Archaeologists have its physicality. (For example, the document’s container the importance of context – of a record or an artefact – in – whether it’s a file cover or a film can.) Or whether a common with archivists. And how difficult it can be, to document has been worn by constant reading – or what establish that in the understanding of people who may scent it may carry from the writer or their surroundings. Or come to information in the course of an online search what traces (such as punched holes) that show it’s been which brings up for them things which may be records part of a larger recordkeeping system. stripped of their context, or parts of records, or bits of data • Perhaps the user really is ultimately not interested in the or publications. context – only in the person, usually their relative, that who record is about.

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 12 Recent news

Report by Morwenna Pearce Open Palace Program

For three weeks in June and July this year, Morwenna Pearce, the Manager of Archives at Barker College, participated in the Open Palace Programme in the UK. The Open Palace Programme is run by a team of experienced professionals from Bath Preservation Trust, Historic Royal Palaces and Stowe House Preservation Trust. It gives participants an ‘access all areas’ pass to key historic sites across England and provides an opportunity to experience a range of curatorial skills including conservation, education and interpretation. Morwenna was one of 24 The 2015 Open Palace Programme participants from Australia, Canada, America, South Africa and England. Here, she participants on the steps of Stowe House. shares some of her experiences with us.

In Bath we worked with staff from the Bath Preservation Trust at three of their heritage sites – Beckford’s Tower, No. 1 Royal Crescent, and the Museum of Bath Architecture. At Beckford’s Tower we looked at building conservation and undertook a conservation assessment of the tower’s exterior. We addressed issues of exhibition development at No. 1 Royal Crescent, with each group taking five objects from the Georgian apartment and transforming them into an exhibition proposal. The Museum of Bath Architecture provided us with an opportunity to look at museum education. We immersed ourselves in some of the educational activities currently on offer, followed by the development of our own education programme Housekeeper’s Room at No. 1 Royal Crescent. The tea set seen here was one of for a specified audience. the items included in our exhibition proposal. We visited Thomas Hardy’s Cottage in Higher Brockhampton which provided us with an interesting case study in interpretation. The cottage was given to the National Trust on the condition that it was maintained as a home, rather than a museum. This means that interpretation cannot rely on anything, such as large text panels, that would detract from the look or feel of the room. Visitors to each room will therefore find a hard cover book containing information relevant to that room.

We spent an afternoon at Wolfeton in Dorchester and had a delicious Dorset cream tea. Wolfeton is a medieval and Elizabethan manor house, but the cost of upkeep on the estate over the years is now beginning to take its toll. It was disheartening Exhibition proposal entitled “Sweet Tooth, to see heritage disintegrating, but sadly, with these old estates, it is a story that is Bitter Taste” that looked at the story of tea repeated again and again throughout the UK. drinking in Georgian society.

The highlight of the trip for me was Stowe House, near Buckingham. Construction of Stowe House commenced in 1680 and was the home to the Temple-Grenville family, who in a period of 250 years rose through society to become the Duke of Buckinghamshire and Chandos, and from whom four British Prime Ministers are descended. As with many great families, the Temple-Grenvilles eventually came to ruin and in 1923 Stowe House became a school. The house is set on 750 acres of landscaped gardens which contain 40 monuments and temples. Today, the house is owned by Stowe School but maintained and cared for by the Stowe House Preservation Trust, whilst the gardens are owned by the National Trust and leased by the school. It was interesting to see this three way partnership in action. The The Museum of Bath Architecture.

Continues over… ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 13 Continues from page 12

Stowe House Preservation Trust is currently undertaking a £200 million restoration project. The external structure is complete and each of the internal rooms are gradually being restored to c1800 as this was when the estate was at its height. We spent time looking at restoration and conservation, and considering important questions about historical accuracy vs current function of the room and needs of the school. In 1800 for example, one of the rooms had red damask silk on the wall, but would this now be appropriate given that this room is currently a student dining hall? In the gardens we considered the monuments and temples and how some Wolfeton manor. of these buildings could be repurposed to draw in visitors and tell the story of the magnificent Stowe landscape. As a school archivist, it was interesting to see how another school tells its history and deals with heritage issues, even if on a much grander scale than one can experience in Australia.

Upon reaching London, it was all about the palaces. At the Tower of London we spent time with a building curator, focusing on issues of access. The case study was a 1390s wall painting in the Bywater Tower (constructed 1281) and the question was how to provide access whilst also preserving the painting. At Kensington Palace, we spent time looking at exhibition design within the context The Temple of Concord and Victory, one of the 40 monuments and temples scattered of a historic, grade one listed building. Constraints such as floor loading and the amongst the Stowe gardens. need to reuse the space for functions had to be considered. We spent time with the conservation staff at Hampton Court Palace looking at both preventative and active conservation. We undertook a conservation assessment on medieval tapestries and learnt how to piece together fabric items that have disintegrated into fragments, with each person getting their own fragment to practice on. We spent time with a collections curator, looking at storage and maintenance of collections. On a guided tour, we discussed the importance of being able to tell a story without intrusive interpretation in a building that has many layers of history. At Windsor Castle, under the guidance of two art curators, we looked at the interpretation of artworks in the state rooms. As Windsor Castle is still a royal residence and At the Historic Royal Palaces, interpretation regularly used for state functions, any interpretation must be easily removed and took the form of mannequins dressed as courtiers. Each courtier had a costume made cannot be invasive. We had to think beyond labels and text panels to mobile from Tyvek and their story was followed technologies featuring augmented reality and audio guides. We travelled to Fulham throughout the state rooms. Palace in Putney, the home of the Bishop of London for 700 years. Fulham Palace is currently owned by the local council but on a 99 year lease to the Fulham House Preservation Trust. Whilst some of the building is used as offices, the main living quarters and the gardens are opened to the public. We were given the task of developing interpretation strategies in a space that is shared and multifunctional, with many layers of history.

Outside of working with staff at these sites, we did get time to just explore. We went to West Bay, where the crime series Broadchurch is filmed, and Lyme Regis. We visited Oxford and other heritage sites in Bath such as the Roman Baths and the Learning how to repair fragment silk textiles Abbey. In London, all our free time was spent soaking up heritage, including visits at Hampton Court Palace. to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the Natural History Museum.

The Open Palace Programme was a truly memorable three weeks. The staff at each of the sites we visited were so encouraging and enthusiastic. They were genuinely interested to hear our ideas and share their experiences and knowledge with us. The programme provided a wonderful opportunity to meet 23 other like-minded students and emerging professionals from across the globe. It was great to work alongside them and learn from them in a collaborative environment. The Grand Hall at Hampton Court where decisions regarding which period of history would be interpreted had to be made. ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 14 Recent news

University of Sydney Queen Mary Building public space naming project

The University of Sydney is converting the Queen Mary Building, the former nurses’ accommodation in the RPA Hospital, to student housing. Public spaces within the new building are to be named after these University of Sydney students who served in WWI:

• Grace Marion Bridge née Cordingley (1876 – 1969)

• Emma Albani Buckley-Turkington, née Buckley (1879 – 1959)

• Elsie Jean Dalyell (1881 – 1948)

• Martha Isabel Garvice, née Ormiston (1882 – 1958)

• Lucy Edith Gullett (1876 – 1949)

• Hortense Henriette Montefiore (1871 – 1943)

• Mabel Murray-Prior (1882 – 1932)

The University of Sydney would like to be able to contact the next-of-kin for any of the women on this list.

If you know anyone who is, or knows, the next-of-kin for any of these women, please contact the University Heritage Architect on (02) 9351 3839 or via email [email protected]

4th Thursday of every month Digital Preservation Meetup

Archivists, librarians, records and information managers, data managers, museum collections managers, or anyone else interested in digital preservation are welcome.

If you would like to receive notifications of future events please contact Gene Melzack and you will be added to the contact list.

Gene Melzack (Digital Curation Officer, University of Sydney) (02) 8627 2019 [email protected]

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 15 Recent news

Abbotsleigh Archives & Grace Cossington Smith Gallery

In April 2016 the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery at Wahroonga is holding an exhibition If you have an item that could exploring Creativity in Wartime. We would appreciate your support in passing on contribute to the exhibition, notice of the exhibition and our search for relevant creative items to be included. please contact:

About the exhibition: Creativity in Wartime commemorates the First World War by Mary Faith reflecting on creative responses to wartime experiences. The exhibition will reflect (02) 9473 7878 on the nature of man to enhance the quality of life and it will reveal how creativity [email protected] and imagination are not lost in even the most difficult situations. The gallery invites the public to contact the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery with their artefacts to be www.gcsgallery.com.au/ considered for the exhibition.

Items submitted and selected for display will reveal how the human spirit overcomes adversity and responds with creativity and inventiveness. Artefacts and memorabilia may include paintings and drawings, sewing, poetry, prose, musical compositions and design

Items selected will speak of WWI in particular, but where artefacts also include reference to other wars, they may be considered for inclusion.

The Creativity in Wartime exhibition will consider both fronts in wartime – the warfront and the home front. It will include a balance of reflections from men and women and interpret what the treasures mean to those who care for them today.

Central to the exhibition is its ability to enable the community to commemorate the centenary of WWI in a visual and deeply personal way. Creativity in Wartime is an important way of demonstrating how WWI events had an impact on both the nation and the local community. It will acknowledge that we share a strong connection to the history of WWI through these artefacts and memorabilia and their interpretation will be viewed to help build a fuller picture of the wartime experience.

23 April to 26 May 2016 The Grace Cossington Smith Gallery is presenting an exhibition focusing CREATIVITY on imaginative responses to the First World War, created during 1914-18 CELEBRATE YOUR STORIES IN WARTIME We are inviting you to contact the gallery if you have an item that could contribute to our exhibition THE GRACE COSSINGTON SMITH GALLERY NEEDS These items could be: paintings, drawings, trench art, music, designs, embroidery, YOU stories and poems in letters and diaries. TO SHARE YOUR CREATIVE TREASURES They may have been produced by a serving or non serving family member or friend. Many of you have objects and artefacts telling powerful stories Please call 02 9473 7878 or email an image of your subject to: through creative responses to the First World War [email protected] Please contact the gallery before 14 February 2016 (The gallery is closed 10 December 2015 to 15 January 2016)

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 16 Recent news

State Records’ current exhibition Public Service / War Service

On 19 May the NSW Minister for Finance, Services and Property (Dominic Perrottet) opened State Records’ current exhibition Public Service / War Service which honours the contribution made by NSW government employees during the First World War. For those who like statistics, of the state’s 63,400 government employees, more than 11,000 volunteered for overseas military service during World War 1. Sadly, over 1,600 or 15 per cent were killed. The majority of those who enlisted – nearly 8,500 – were railway workers. They were joined by more than 2,300 public servants, including nurses from the Coast Hospital in particular, together with 217 police officers.

The beautifully presented exhibition makes optimum use of the space in the entrance foyer and outside the reading room to display a selection of documents and photo- graphs from the NSW State archives. The exhibition is a credit to the research skills and creativity of the Public Access staff at State Records and it is well worth a visit. Edith Blake, trained at the Coast Hospital, World War 1 service was not limited to the role played by men. It is pleasing to note enlisted in Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army that throughout the exhibition there is evidence of the varied roles of women in Nursing Corps. Sister Blake was drowned when the Glenart Castle hospital ship was service and at home. One such example was Maude Rhodes, who was one of the torpedoed by a German U-boat in the first two women to be employed by the NSW Police Department. There were over Bristol Channel on February 26,1918. She is thought to be the only Australian nurse 400 applicants for the two positions advertised in 1915. to die from enemy action in World War 1. The exhibition showcases a selection of stories about the lives of those who Image source: Australian War Memorial (http://bit.ly/1FgHapf) enlisted. Some died in active service; on the battle field in Gallipoli, the Western Front; or in the case of Edith Blake, as a result of enemy action. Others returned home injured and forever changed. Some of those featured include: To accompany the exhibition • William Crockett and his son Willie from Sydney Harbour Trust, who died within a State Records has published an fortnight of each other on the Western Front online index to NSW Government Employees Who Were Granted • Major General William Holmes, Secretary and Chief Clerk of the Metropolitan Military Leave, 1914–1918, compiled Board of Water Supply and Sewerage from records and resources within the • Harold Bindoff, an Aboriginal locomotive fireman who enlisted with his two brothers State archives. The index of 10,000 • Romola Koester who became the first female railway booking clerk at a time names is a work in progress and when thousands of railway men had enlisted for overseas service will be added to as more names are • Edith Blake was trained at the Coast Hospital at Little Bay and enlisted with found and confirmed. It is available the British Army. Edith was the only Australian nurse to die in World War I as a within the exhibition and on State direct result of enemy action, when the hospital ship she was working on was Records’ website. torpedoed in Bristol Channel. Public Service / War Service The exhibition also highlights how government departments such as the will be open to the public until Government Printing Office, Sydney Harbour Trust, NSW Munitions Committee, Saturday 2 April 2016. Department of Education and NSW Aviation School adapted to war-related roles and responsibilities and the changes they undertook to cover for the vacancies in Christine Yeats the public sector. NSW Branch Treasurer

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 17 NSW Branch Information

CONTACT DETAILS FOR THE 2015-2016 NSW BRANCH COMMITTEE Did you know that donations to the ASA Convenor Fiona Burn (NAA) are tax deductible? [email protected] Donations to the ASA go Secretary to support Richard Lehane (State Records NSW) [email protected] • Awards • Scholarships Treasurer • Courses Christine Yeats (Consultant Archivist) [email protected] • Publications

Committee Members Enquiries on how to donate: Pauline Garland (Sydney Archdiocesan Archives) Mark Brogan (ASA Treasurer) [email protected] [email protected]

Laura Harris (UNSW Archives) [email protected] Donate to the ASA Barbara Hoffman (MLC School Archives) and support your Newsletter Editor community! [email protected]

PREVIOUS MINUTES & NEWSLETTERS OF ASA NSW BRANCH

ASA NSW Branch webpage URL http://www.archivists.org.au/community/branches/new-south-wales

Here you will find:

• NSW Branch Annual Reports

• NSW Branch AGM Minutes

• NSW Branch Newsletters

• NSW Branch Office Bearers Annual Reports

• NSW Branch Rules

• NSW Branch Minutes

To find the NSW Branch newsletters and minutes manually 1. Go to the ASA website homepage: www.archivists.org.au

2. Select ‘Community’ in the top menu.

3. Select ‘Branches’ in the left hand side menu.

4. Then select ‘New South Wales’

ASA NSW Branch Newsletter – October 2015 18