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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 53| October 2001
Help Celebrate PictureAustralia's First Birthday!
Do you have a pictorial collection? Have you put endless effort into getting it online? Well one of your biggest considerations as a collection manger is access. How can you ensure that your collection will be seen and used and valued for its place in documenting the Australian story? The answer is PictureAustralia!
The PictureAustralia service is a collaboration between Australian and international cultural agencies to provide access to online pictorial collections wherever they may be located through the one web sitebringing our cultural heritage together and to your fingertips at www.pictureaustralia.org.
PictureAustralia is now one year old and has much to celebrate on its first birthday. The participating agencies at the launch of the service included the National Library, the National Archives, the Australian War Memorial, the State Libraries of Tasmania, Victoria and NSW and the University of Queensland. This year, the Nolan Gallery, the Australian Heritage Commission, Lake Macquarie City Library, Museum Victoria, and the Campbelltown City Library have joined, taking the total number of images accessible through the service to over half a million.
In addition, the National Library of New Zealand became the first overseas agency to join in the service with a contribution of Australian content from their Timeframes database. SCRAN, the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network is likely to be the next overseas participant contributing Australian content. They are also conducting a z39.50 trial with PictureAustralia to allow simultaneous searching of both databases from the SCRAN entry point.
The cooperation between libraries, archives, universities, galleries and museums to make this service work is laudable and envied by other countries. The National Library of Canada has taken the concept as the basis for the establishment of Images Canada.
User Insite evaluated PictureAustralia in June to assess how successful the service has been in meeting the needs of users and where future efforts should be directed, either to address deficiencies or to provide enhancements after a year of operation. User Insite conducted the evaluation via a multi-staged analysis of the service, which included a detailed review of available statistical data, usability testing with specific target individuals and test scenarios, and an online survey of end user satisfaction. The survey revealed that 97 per cent of respondents found the service satisfactory. The evaluation also revealed some areas for enhancement but showed that strong public support exists for the service.
Increased search functionality, simplification of image ordering (and copyright clearance) processes and more consistency of metadata are the areas targeted for improvement. An action plan for enhancements has been developed and implementation has begun, so look out for new developments as you browse.
The PictureAustralia team in collaboration with the participating agencies has been working on some best practice guidelines for the use of Dublin Core metadata for PictureAustralia records. The Librarys work with the State Library of Tasmania on guidelines for the use of resource discovery metadata has been fed into this process. Various participants have made a range of changes to their data to increase standardisation as a result and new participants should find the process of joining more streamlined.
Interested in joining? Contact PictureAustralia Administration for the
Guide to the PictureAustralia Service (email: ,
tel: (02) 6262 1641). Whether you have a pictorial collection or not, use
the service, send us your comments, and look out for the free
PictureAustralia postcards available around the nation this month in
cafes, galleries, theatres and other community outlets.
Danielle Freeman
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au