Child Migration and Stolen Generations in Popular Historical Consciousness
In the mid-1990s, harrowing stories emerged of child migrants and Stolen Generations who had been taken from their families. Side-by-side, these narratives produced unprecedented responses in public discourse, yet scholars have struggled to make sense of the cacophony of debate, the millions of marching feet and the mountain of writing inspired by these histories. Tim Calabria’s project will assess the extensive papers left by Sir Ronald Wilson, president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission during this period, and seek to contribute to the understanding of this profound moment of social change in Australia, as people concurrently engaged in the Reconciliation movement and grappled with the bleak outcomes of child migration for many institutionalised children.
19 December 2013 - 12:00
Dr Ayres presented this paper at the 2013 Australian Society of Archivists conference, in response to a request to speak about the impact of technology on archival programs at the National Library of Australia. This paper begins with a social media interaction between a member of the public and a 19th century piece of sheet music, digitised by the National Library and available via multiple digital channels, and traces the complex web of human, policy, investment and technology decisions and actions which made this interaction possible. The paper argues that archival organisations must embrace the cultural, policy and investment changes required to make their collections discoverable through multiple digital channels, moving on from a past in which archivists and librarians could expect users to come to either individual physical reading rooms or organisational websites to meet their research needs.
1 January 2009 - 12:00
In September 2008 the National Library of Australia embarked on a project to develop a powerful new discovery service to expose the wealth of information in Australian collections. The new service, branded “Trove”, was released in December 2009 after six months as a beta service. Trove is not only replacing eight legacy services, but is improving the discovery experience for the Australian public and researchers by including more content and by allowing users to engage with the content. This paper will describe the policy and technical challenges which were faced by the Library during this project, and will outline the Library’s plans for the further development of Trove.
25 November 2008 - 12:00
This paper was presented by Pam Gatenby at the IFLA International Newspaper Conference 2008 which was held at the National Library of Singapore.
Background to newspaper publishing in Australia
The history of newspapers in Australia reflects the history and development of the country, from its colonial origins to its current day membership of the global community. Australia’s history is short compared to most countries so it is not unreasonable for Australian libraries to aim to preserve a comprehensive record of newspaper publishing from the time of white settlement of the country to the current day. Early Australian newspapers are among the few remaining resources that provide contemporary accounts of how the colonies were governed and of key historic events that shaped the nation such as the first encounters with Indigenous Australians, land settlement and the discovery of gold. They reflect the concerns and circumstances of our ancestors and are heavi
Page from The China press February 14, 1932
Our newspaper collections include digitised historic and modern newspapers accessible online, as well as newspapers in microform and paper formats. We collect:
Australian newspapers capital city dailies, major regional city newspapers, a range of other country town newspapers, newspapers published by ethnic groups and political organisations, and newspapers representing special interests. Our Library cooperates with the state and territory libraries through the Australian Newspaper Plan to collect, preserve and provide access to Australian newspapers, with each library taking responsibility for newspapers published in their jurisdiction.
Digitised Australian newspapers including the first newspaper published in Australia, the