National Library of Australia


John Curtin: Australia's wartime prime minister

Project participants: John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library
Contact officer/s: Kandy-Jane Henderson, Archivist (email jcpml@boris.curtin.edu.au, phone 08 9266 4205 or fax 08 9266 4185)
Project description: A multimedia CD-ROM which brings together a range of media including photographs, audio recordings, documents and film footage into a format allowing users interactive access. Aim to provide improved public access to the collection, explore the resources required to undertake major digitisation.
URL of site:
URL for project information:
Content: Material digitised included: photographs, sound recordings, video, handwritten material, typed text and other formats.
Digitisation policy and priorities: The JCPML digitisation policy was devised as part of it's strategic and information planning process. No online policy.The JCPML "Electronic Archive Management Framework, November 1997" outlines the responsibilities of the JCPML for preservation and longterm access to digital objects. Digitisation of John Curtin related material is ongoing. 90% of the JCPML collection is available as a digital reference if not as full content.
Timetable: Completed: June 1996 - February 1998
Budget and funding: Funded internally and with sponsorship from TouchstoneDDI - less than $A20,000.
Staff resources: Digitisation done Inhouse and by Touchstone DDI (digitisation of material into an appropriately interactive CD).
Technical standards: Digital PC and Apple computers; storage on CD ROM.
Cataloguing and indexing: Content is arranged as 'chapters' which related to John Curtain's life.
Comments: Making the CD multi platform, ie to run on both Macintosh and PC environments, was problematic and required purchase of additional software. Important to keep aware of environmental scanning in relation to multimedia CDs.

Project managers wishing to update the details of their Australian digitisation projects, should email the changes to alg@nla.gov.au.

Last modified: August 09 2004.