Archives Outside

For people who love, use and manage archives

Archives Outside - For people who love, use and manage archives

Category Archives: General

3 Years for Archives Outside – Happy Birthday! And hello lurkers

Time flew and we nearly missed our birthday. We’ve both been busy with many things, including the “Aesthetics Committee”, a website overhaul and working on an archival storage project so this special day crept up on us quite unexpectedly.

There are nearly 350 posts and over 1300 comments on the blog. We’d like to say Thank You to everyone who visits, reads, guest posts, comments…and lurks. Yes, you! You know who we’re talking about.
quiet third birthday - 26b/365/2010

Birthday day is also the official Archives Outside Annual Lurkers Day

Wikipedia has updated their definition from last year:

In Internet culture, a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing, social networking site, listening to people in VOIP calls … or other interactive system, but rarely or never participates actively. Research indicates that “lurkers make up over 90% of online groups”

So hello to you, you 90 percenter! Come and join the 10% who, as you have seen, are really very lovely and friendly. Try a comment in the box below and see what happens :-D

If you’d prefer to stay a lurker, don’t worry, you still can. One day you may feel that de-lurkification is possible.

Now, who’s helping to blow out the candles?

Digital archaeology and the temporary nature of technology

This post is brought to you via State Records newest Board Member Stephen Choularton Ph.D., FIoD who recommended this podcast on the Radio National site! It’s a fascinating introductory look at the world of digital archaeology, touching on several issues that are central to the mission of Archives.

Profitable digital content: It's all about the value

 

As our fast paced digital world continues what does that mean for the way we think about preserving things like old webpages and obsolete media formats? Are there possible lessons from our digital past for our digital future? We explore the fragility of our electronic data and also the temporary nature of the technology we use to access it. We also join the excavation of a 1970s computer chip called the 6502!

Listen to the Podcast.

 

ETA: Podcast link updated 23/02/12

What you have been looking at in 2011?

I was looking through some of our blog stats the other week and thought I’d share some of them; a Top 10 of Archives Outside, if you like. These stats show what has been the most viewed, the most searched for items and a little bit about you.

Not surprisingly posts/pages/searches relating to Underbelly: Razor featured quite high. What is surprising is the sustained interest in our pages/posts relating to Tilly Devine and co.

What have you been looking at?

  1. Did you watch #Underbelly #Razor last night? Check out some real life mugshots of the razor gangs
  2. Archives Outside homepage
  3. Collections in NSW – view posts in this Category
  4. What are your tips for dating photos?
  5. Take a walk through the streets of Sydney during #underbelly #razor
  6. Conservation Tip 5: removing mould from records and archives
  7. Moments in Time – tag
  8. Can you date this photo [unidentified coastal residential landscape]?
  9. Regional Archives Centres – view page
  10. Archives Made Easy – view posts in this Category.

Top Moments in Time [can you date this photo?]

  1. By leaps and bounds the most popular Moment in Time was the view of an unidentified residential landscape. It didn’t take you long to determine it was Newcastle looking towards Flagstaff Hill and Newcastle Beach (could have been the virtual chocolates) but it still had the most views and comments all year.View of an unidentified coastal residential landscape - a Signal Station can been seen in the far distance (Digital ID: 4481_a026_000986)
  2. The roadworks on a Sydney street asked three questions: what street is it, what time period is it, and for what purpose is the work being done. It was impressively narrowed down to the exact date: King Street, 4 April 1900 during the plague cleanup.
  3. Lands Department Building, Sydney
  4. Bronte Beach, Sydney
  5. Wedding Procession, Comboyne District
  6. Hyde Park, Sydney
  7. Bondi Beach, Sydney
  8. Circular Quay, Sydney
  9. Hamilton Railway Station
  10. Wagga Wagga Council Chambers.

How did you get here?

Sifting past the Underbelly: Razor searches and the term “Archives Outside” the most keywords that got you to the blog were:

  1. Wayne Doubleday regional repository
  2. Captain Moonlight
  3. Social Media Strategy
  4. How to remove blood from paper
  5. Map of NSW/NSW Maps online
  6. WANS
  7. University of Wollongong
  8. UNERA
  9. Crowdsourcing archives
  10. Ralph Snowball.

And lastly…are you local?

Visitors came from far and wide with the majority from Australia:

  1. Australia – 73.80%
  2. United States – 9.15%
  3. United Kingdom – 3.14%
  4. Other countries:  Singapore; Canada; New Zealand; France; Netherlands; Germany; Philippines.

Here’s to a bigger and better year next year! What have your highlights been here on the blog? We’d love to know.

New grant program “Your Community Heritage”

Thanks to our Senior Conservator, Elizabeth Hadlow, for bringing this to our attention.

Your Community Heritage is a new approach to supporting and protecting Australia’s heritage that will enable local communities around Australia to celebrate their local heritage.

The program recognises that our heritage is not just about ‘big’ heritage such as places on the World and National Heritage Lists, it is also about the heritage of individual communities, be they in regional Australia or small towns or in dispersed multicultural communities. Your Community Heritage is about broadening our understanding and support of heritage and the organisations, individuals, volunteers and communities, who protect and manage so many of our unique heritage places and stories.

Your Community Heritage will promote the importance of heritage to the community and its role in bringing people together, creating community identity and a sense of pride.

Applications close 20 December 2011.

Details of the program are available through the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Thanks for coming to Open Day #srnswopenday

How wonderful it was to meet Archives Outside readers in person at our Open Day last Friday! I got a few autographs on my copy of the Moments in Time book which I’m very chuffed about.

It was a huge day, final visitor figures haven’t yet been calculated but the estimate is that 300+ people trooped through our gates to see what we do, usually behind closed doors.

A big thankyou to all our guest speakers who really made the day special. Fiona and I enjoyed presenting our session on dating old photos and kudos to Bill Oates and Mick Reed who demonstrated the dating photos using shadows technique.

The day’s program was massive with tours heading off every half hour; a full day of various talks and seminars; conservation working bees; digitisation workshops, and; conservation clinics where our conservators advised people on how best to keep their family records. There was also  a couple of family history stalls, a prize draw, some accordion playing and a sausage sizzle.

Open day 2011 - Tours ran every half an hour. Photo by Alan Ventress

Tours ran every half an hour. Archivist Janette Pelosi was one of the tour guides. Photo by Alan Ventress

Open Day 2011 - Tour groups stopped by conservation to see the work being done in preserving the State's heritage. Photo by Fiona Sullivan

Tour groups stopped by conservation to see the work being done in preserving the State's heritage. Photo by Fiona Sullivan

Open day 2011 - Talks were filled to capacity. Photo by Alan Ventress

Talks were filled to capacity. This is the session by Richard Lehane. Photo by Alan Ventress

Open Day 2011 - One of the Conservation Clinic sessions. Photo by Paul Elliott

One of the Conservation Clinics. People were able to bring in some of their own family records and received face-to-face advice from our conservators on the best way to preserve them. Photo by Paul Elliott

Open Day 2011 - There was the opportunity to join a conservation working bee and have hands-on experience working with archives. Photo by Fiona Sullivan

There was the opportunity to join a conservation working bee and have hands-on experience working with archives. Photo by Fiona Sullivan

Open Day 2011 - In Living Memory touring exhibition. Photo by Alan Ventress

In Living Memory touring exhibition. Photo by Alan Ventress

Open Day 2011 - Digitisation workshop. Photo by Alan Ventress

The digitisation workshops run by our photographer Tara Majoor were very popular. Photo by Alan Ventress

Open day 2011 - The Board Room housed treasures from the collection. Photo by Alan Ventress

The Board Room housed treasures from the collection. Here is archivist Gail Davis, in period costume. Photo by Alan Ventress

Open Day 2011 - The Lions Club put on a terrific sausage sizzle. Photo by Fiona Sullivan

The Lions Club put on a terrific sausage sizzle. Photo by Fiona Sullivan

Open day 2011 - Fabian with accordion. Photo by Fiona Sullivan

Some entertainment over lunch from archivist and accordion player Fabian LoSchiavo. . Photo by Fiona Sullivan

Open day 2011 - A couple of family history organisations set up stalls. Photo by Alan Ventress

A couple of family history organisations set up stalls. Photo by Alan Ventress

Open Day 2011 - A good day had by all. Photo by Alan Ventress

A good day had by all. Photo by Alan Ventress