Drouin photos on Flickr
The National Library has joined Flickr, and has posted the now well-known set of WWII Drouin photos. I had heard of them, but had never had a chance to see them before.
RHSV on facebook
The Royal Historical Society of Victoria are now on facebook! You can find them HERE.
Stockman's Hall of Fame online.
The Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach has put a substantial portion of its collection online with eHive.
Worth a wander around. eHive is one of a number of online collection management tools.
A search for Gippsland returns four entries.
Gippsland Cataloguing Network
Excellent meeting today at Trafalgar of the Gippsland Cataloguing Network - about twenty people from all over the place, more to talk about than we had time for, and the pleasure of having Barbara from Maxus with us for the day.
News - we decided to form our own mc2 group for discussion - maybe we will be happier talking when we know everyone on there, find friends close to us to pop in to look at things we are trying to work out, and to discuss grant applications, training etc. You can find the new group HERE. It is really important to know your neighbours, and you learn so much from looking at how others manage their collections.
We hope the next meeting will be in South Gippsland, in March 2012 - stay tuned for details. In the meantime, the Latrobe Geeks (people who like talking about computers), hope to have a pleasant Saturday afternoon on 12 November at Morwell, following up on things from the PROV workshop, and whatever else appeals. Trove, Flickr, Facebook and blogs have already had a mention. Stay tuned - all welcome, even if you are not from Latrobe.
Thanks so much to the Traf people (who must have the smallest historical society premises in Gippsland), for being wonderful hosts (they did spill out into adjoining rooms!)
Visiting Donald
I am in total error for not photographing inside, and the one above is from a previous visit. And I am not totally sure of the title of the organisation, so I hope they will excuse me if I refer to them as Donald Historical Society.
The Society administers four sites - most of us are pretty pushed with one. There is the Police Camp, above, which is on the main highway, the Court House (which contains objects), which I have not yet been inside, an Agricultural Museum (under cover in a shed at the showgrounds, viewable through mesh from a main road), and the Archives Centre in a shopfront near the Court House. (Just up the road is a Lions Train Museum that looks pretty impressive too.)
Heaps of work obviously happening everywhere.
In the short time I was in the Archives, my Auntie Dot had a ball with all the references to her family in the Donald paper, which is being extremely well-indexed. We found a couple of photographs of her father and brother in the photograph collection, and we bought a book from the extensive range available.
It was very impressive - never before have I come across an "Accessions Room" - I would dearly have liked to talk more about that.
The Society is cataloguing artefacts to paper, based on the first edition of the Victorian Cataloguing Manual, but is not using InMagic. Their newspaper index is on a Windows program (my brain has refused to retain the name, but it seems to serve them quite well), and photographs are found most efficiently using a card system.
We have left a deferred query with the Society, and Auntie Dot is looking forward to reading all the family information that is in the newspapers. I'm looking forward to getting back there one day with some time to spare, to check out everything else. You learn so much when you look at how others are managing their collections. And managing very well this lot are - we were told that the team is often there in the Archives many days a week. That's good, as I reckon I will need a week next time to just see exactly what they are up to.
New Newspapers Online
More Gippsland newspapers have come online at Trove. The Maffra Spectator is now online from 1882 to 1920. You can access it HERE. Just put the word/s for which you are searching in the box at top right, and click on the "Limit to issues of this title" immediately below that box.
It joins the Gippsland Times, and Traralgon newspapers, which went up a few months ago.
There are now a number of other Gippsland newspapers online - you can see the full list for Victoria HERE. They include papers from Morwell and Warragul.
I have finally registered to correct the electronic text online, and have to admit it is rather addictive.
Reminder - Gippsland Cataloguing Network meeting
Just a reminder for the next meeting of the Gippsland Cataloguing Network. It is being hosted by the Trafalgar Historical Society on Saturday 17 September, 9.30am for a 10am start.
Venue is the Trafalgar Community Centre, on the southern side of the highway, at the cenotaph (soldier on a plinth). It is also directly opposite the railway station. It is a very short walk to the shops next door to purchase lunch if you wish. There is good parking at the rear.
We are delighted to announce that we will have Barbara Kowalski from Maxus with us for the day.
The day is broken into three components, which probably seem in the wrong order, but it is the way things pan out. People are welcome to attend for the whole day, or the parts they feel will be of most interest, or what they can fit around other commitments.
10am Welcome from Traf, explanation of their collection, and what stage they are up to. Rounds of the room as to who is there, and where they are at with cataloguing.
10.30am Business discussion.
1. sharing information and databases - are we interested in going forward. What are the ways we can do it. Do we need to form a working group?
2. Statement to take back (where to?) about the importance of formalising position of archivist/cataloguer/registrar/collection manager.
3. Do we want to have a way to talk to each other? MC2?
4. Where do we meet next?
5. Any other business?
11.15am Morning Tea
11.30am Barbara Kowaklski on Runtime, the read-only database for sharing databases around. Plus Barbara is open to questions on any aspects both in this session and throughout the day,
12.30pm Lunch (BYO or a short walk to purchase)
1.15pm Workshop for the afternoon on very basic cataloguing, from paper forms, through photographing, numbering, to computer entry.
We have been requested to please do a flat iron (ie an object), a photograph and give some guidance for books and documents etc. If you would like to bring an interesting small object to catalogue, or a photograph, book etc, feel free.
3.15pm Wind-up session
3.30pm Finish. Although many of us are happy to keep talking.
Please rsvp to me at kapana[at]netspace.net.au so as to help Trafalgar make sure there are enough chairs and coffee cups out.
Congratulations Wemyss
Wemyss has been the quintessential cataloguer's president since her election to the position, that she still holds, in 1990. Always a warm and encouraging leader, she set about having the Stratford collection catalogued in the mid 1990s, not by doing the work herself, but by ensuring there were others there to do it, and always making sure they had the tools to do it and the encouragement to continue with it. She still attends for the day on Tuesday when Collection managers are working (and still cataloguing).
There was much mirth yesterday at the presentation. In her acceptance speech, she spoke about how she was told she should always have a gift for the speaker, and as she could not make sponge cakes, she set about making marmalade. Every speaker got a jar of her marmalade. So she accordingly presented Dr Andrew Lemon, president of the RHSV (above, with Wemyss), with a jar of her marmalade.
Your writer has acquired a number of pots from her over the years. But it says a lot that on other ceremonial occasions this cataloguer has received a jar of coffee, carefully gift-wrapped, to ensure that she had all that was necessary to help and encouragement to keep her cataloguing.
Congratulations Wemyss. It is so well deserved that it was a wonderful day to see.
