Digitisation of Gippsland Picture Collection launch

Photographs in the collection at the Centre for Gippsland Studies have been digitised and made easily accessible to students, researchers and members of the public via the internet for the first time. The images have been loaded into Monash University’s ARROW Repository.

The Gippsland Picture Collection photographs, capturing the history and heritage of Gippsland from the early 1900s, are a hallmark of the Centre for Gippsland Studies. They have been well used to date by scholars and historians in print format and their new availability online through Picture Australia has been welcomed as a crucial step for increased use and improved accessibility. More than 1000 of the collection’s photos have already been added to the repository, with a further 800 to be added shortly.

The addition of the Gippsland Picture Collection photographs marks an important landmark for the ARROW (Australian Research Repositories Online to the World) project at Monash University. The ARROW project is involved in identifying and testing software and solutions to support best practice institutional digital repositories comprising eprints, digital theses and electronic publishing. The project, in which Monash is the leading institution, is being funded by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training.

Cathrine Harboe-Ree, Monash University Librarian and leader of the ARROW project at Monash explains: “We are delighted to be launching the digital form of this photo collection, not only because the new dimension adds significantly to the accessibility of the photos themselves, but also because it is a good practical example of the value the repository can add by storing and making scholarly material available to a wide audience.”

The digitised collection was officially launched at Monash University’s Gippsland campus on 12 April by ABC reporter, presenter and author Tim Lee, who as a member of a Gippsland farming family which settled in the region in the 1860s has a special interest and links with the Gippsland community. In his speech at the launch Mr Lee spoke from personal experience of the importance of the digitisation of aging photographic material in preserving history and community culture, and the benefits of such images being made more accessible than was ever previously possible.

The photo collection can be viewed at arrow.monash.edu.au and will soon be available through PictureAustralia .

13 April 2006

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Group on a big stump, 1910-1919