Releasing our Past and Sharing the Story

This time last year Mosman Faces had just been launched. Once again Mosman’s stories were out there but this time on screen, online and interactive for all the world to share.

Since then I presented Mosman Faces at last year’s SWITCH conference ably helped by the experts at the ALIA workshop and despite being second last on a full three day agenda managed a full house.

However Mosman Library’s search for a good story knows no bounds. Who wouldn’t be curious about an area of Sydney that can boast excavated Aboriginal sites from 3,750 years ago and brushes with First Fleet fame? And that’s just the really early stuff.

We’ve fast forwarded a little with our already existing online history projects. Mosman Memories, a place for past and present residents of Mosman to share memories of their street, Mosman Voices, which provides access to our oral history collection and of course Mosman Faces which is being edited as we speak to add some lively additions.

Still our curiosity does not stop there, the more stories the more insatiable our appetite and it is the sharing that brings the spirit of the story to life.

In light of this, Mosman Library once again applied for a Library Council of NSW Development Grant late last year and in May 2012 our latest online history project, the Mosman Great War project was successful!

Doing our bit, Mosman 1914-1918, the brainchild of Bernard, Mosman Council’s Internet Coordinator extraordinaire, will use linked open data to tell the stories of local service people. Who were they? What did they look like? Where did they go?

The aim of the project is to Connect  by linking and sharing information across archives, registers, libraries and museums, to Collect information by working with Mosman and the wider community to build and enhance the linked collections with stories, photographs and ephemera and to Compile a ‘living history’ of men and women with a connection to Mosman who served during World War I.

We are privileged to have Dr Tim Sherratt a.k.a. @wragge, inspirational historian and pioneer in the digital humanities, leading the project team. He was part of the wonderful Mapping Our Anzacs site.

To start the ball rolling we are having a Build-a-thon at Mosman Library on Saturday 11 August. Programmers, local historians, enthusiasts and willing volunteers are invited to come together to design and build the site, gather data and chart the way forward.

We’re looking forward to learning about linked open data, and how it can be applied in practice. You might like to come too. A key part of the project is sharing the work done behind the scenes. We want others to be able to use the tools and processes developed in this project for their own resources.

                                   

While essentially an online project, we also have workshops planned with genealogist and author Kerry Farmer and historian Dr Kirsty Harris and we hope those involved in the project will talk about their findings and experience later in the year too.

In November we’ll hold an Open Day and Scan-a-thon – a project get-together and ‘family history roadshow’ in one. It’s a great opportunity for people to come into the library and have their photos and ephemera professionally scanned and added to the site.

As I said earlier sharing brings the story to life and with the First World War centenary just two years away, more and more archives are digitising their Great War collections to preserve and to share. Whatever content we collect will be available to everyone. The content is from Mosman but the mechanics of mosman1914-1918.net  can be taken back to your own community. (The website, by the way, will be active from July/August. Sign up to our email newsletter for updates.)

We believe our project is something bold something new something different and everyone should know about it so what better place to start than the ALIA blogspot!

Berrol Lazar Mendelsohn of 67 Raglan Street, Mosman, who was killed in action at Fromelles in 1916. He was one of the lost Diggers who were positively identified using DNA in 2010 and re-interred at the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery.

Mary Lou Byrne’s work is mainly in Mosman Library’s ever vibrant Local Studies chasing stories from people pictures and place but also does her time in Reference and Circulation too.

m.byrne@mosman.nsw.gov.au

Rediscovering the Treasure

Since its public launch in 2009, Trove has proved to be a dynamic Australian resource, not just for providing a national catalogue but also as a source for discovery. As library professionals, we use Trove to locate not only books and articles but also videos, newspaper articles and images as well. But there are even more ways to use Trove as a tool as a professional resource.Here are three suggestions

 

Cite this

 So you’re decided to finally submit a piece to Incite. You’ve written your 500-700 word article, asked a few colleagues read it, had a couple of good edits and you are just about ready to go. Problem is you have cited a local council report and you are not 100% on how format the citation you’ll need to include. Trove to the rescue! Trove includes the records to many local and national reports and also has a handy little ‘cite this’ feature’. Just locate the work you want to cite and click the ‘cite this’ button, a pop up window will provide the formatting in APA, MLA and Harvard styles. 

Where, oh where? 

 From time to time books need to be purchased sight unseen. This can be due to the item being suggested for purchase or possibly the vendor has sent through a list of specials. Most of the time it is easy to tell where items can fit into a collection (children’s adults, reference, etc) but occasionally a title can be deceiving. Why not ask your librarian colleagues? Search for the questionable title in Trove to see where others have placed it in their collections. While each library needs to fit its collection to the client’s needs, a little input from other professionals never hurt. 

 

Inspiration 

 We all contribute (or should be contributing) to the professional conversation by participating in blogs, newsletters and journals. Most of the time the inspiration comes from a recent activity or pet project but once in a while we need something more. Trove can be a space to play, to help find that direction or spin on a subject. Browse the diaries or maps to see what has happened in the past. Find an old newspaper article about your subject like this article about Children's Book Week from 1945 (note the photo of Princess Elizabeth). Looking around for 'future libraries' in the videos has revealed this gem of a video created by Mosman Library. 

But these are just a starting point. There are so many possibilities. How have you used Trove in your professional life?  

-Amy Barker