National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 63 | June 2003


Signing Over Deakin: Collaborative Project for Deakin Papers Website

Deakin University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sally Walker, and NLA Director-General Jan Fullerton, sign the agreement to collaborate on the digitisation of Alfred Deakin’s papers
Deakin University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sally Walker, and NLA Director-General Jan Fullerton, sign the agreement to collaborate on the digitisation of Alfred Deakin’s papers

The heads of Deakin University and the National Library of Australia recently signed a formal legal agreement to collaborate on the digitisation of the Deakin papers held in the Library. Deakin University is commemorating Alfred Deakin (from whom the University takes its name) by establishing the Alfred Deakin Prime Ministerial Library. At its heart will be a digital collection of the papers of Australia’s second Prime Minister—held as MS 1540 in the National Library’s Manuscript Collection.

Born at Collingwood in 1856, Deakin was the most intellectual of Australia’s early politicians. He held the office of Prime Minister for three periods between 1903 and 1910. The voluminous collection of his personal papers within the National Library includes: diaries and notebooks crammed with personal reflections on a variety of subjects; his papers as a Victorian politician, a Federation delegate, a minister in the Barton Government, and as Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition; a vast series of correspondence; newspaper clippings of his journalism; family papers and photographs—and much more. 

Under the terms of the agreement between the two institutions, the National Library will digitise the papers with the assistance of the University, which is contributing special funding to support the project. The digitisation of Deakin’s diaries for the period 1884 to 1916, and a selection of photographs from his family papers, is currently underway. Other priority series to be digitised in the immediate future are those covering his period as Prime Minister, the period of the first Barton Government, his journalism, the Federation Convention, and his periods of office as Leader of the Opposition.

Deakin University will also contribute an interpretive website on Deakin to support the papers. Digitised papers from both the priority series, and the interpretive website, are expected to be available to the public in September.
—Margy Burn, Assistant Director-General, Australian Collections
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