Digitising Australia ’s National Treasures
Kerry Ball, Digitisation Team, digitising historical maps
Damian McDonald, Imaging Services, preparing a camera for action
Loui Seselja, Imaging Services, taking a photo of one of
the treasures
Preparing for the travelling National Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries exhibition entailed more than getting items ready for display. It also prompted the National Library of Australia to digitise items from its collection that were included in the Exhibition.
This was certainly not a trivial task. Re-digitising the Endeavour journal alone was a mind-boggling exercise. It took three days and involved a high level of security. Also, the precise directions from the Library’s Preservation Services staff had to be followed closely, so the safety and security of the journal was ensured at all times. The hard work was well worth it, because the Endeavour journal is now available in its entirety on the Library’s website (http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms1).
Other ‘treasures’ included a number of extremely valuable and unique items such as William Bligh’s Notebook and list of mutineers (107 pages), Matthew Flinders’ chart of Terra Australis, Captain John Hunter’s sketchbook (100 watercolours), George Raper’s first fleet art (56 drawings), the entire eight volumes of Gould's Birds of Australia (1600 pages), Joseph Lycett’s album of drawings of the natives and scenery of Van Diemens Land (20 watercolours). The list goes on …
The other challenges of the digitisation process included producing accurate images of realia (or 3-D objects) from the Library’s collection, such as the 1731 Cushee hand-coloured globe mounted on mahogany stand, Mrs Macquarie's earrings, the only known complete original convict uniform in Australia, an 1845 patchwork quilt made by Aboriginal children in Western Australia, a portion of the flag flown by the miners at the Eureka Stockade, and a cast of Henry Lawson's hand from 1919.
The digitisation process was undertaken by specialist staff from the Library’s Digital Collections Management Branch. More than 40 items from the Library's collection were fully digitised, resulting in more than 3000 images. It was a true team effort involving a number of staff with specialist digital capture and photography skills. These staff worked extremely hard alongside the Library’s collection curators to ensure tight deadlines were met, and that the final outcomes were of the highest possible quality.
By digitising these ‘treasures’ the Library has ensured that all Australians, regardless of location, can directly access this material over the Internet. In addition, providing digital surrogates of these rare and fragile collection items will ensure that the originals are preserved for use by future generations.
While the National Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries exhibition will continue travelling around Australia for the next two years, anyone can experience the thrill of discovering the Library’s national treasures by viewing the digital images presented in the online Treasures exhibition at (nationaltreasures.nla.gov.au). These images are also accessible through the Library’s catalogue (http://catalogue.nla.gov.au) and other services such as Libraries Australia (http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au), PictureAustralia (www.pictureaustralia.org) and MusicAustralia (www.musicaustralia.org).
Barbara Rozmus
Manager, Digital Collections Management Branch