Digitising Resources

When I went on my Sydney Study Visit, the State Library of NSW was in the process of digitizing some of the resources that they housed down in their "stack". Fragile resources are normally just brought out by appointment for people to read with white gloves. To make these resources more accessible, digitizing them is the obvious solution. But it does take manpower to scan, refine and then catalogue these resources.

State Library of NSW has several floors of archived materials. Books, maps, eupheria, special collections and even furniture that has been donated to the Library over the years.

Looking through the State Library of NSW and the State Library of Victoria web sites, there is a lot of money that is being thrown at digitising significant collections that are currently under lock and key.

Moving forward, our old libraries have to re-invent themselves to remain current and relevant in a society that has information at it's finger tips. Digitising parts of their collections and providing resources to visit schools from these collections is one way of doing it.

Further Reading

• Knox Historical Society digitises school photo collections
  http://prov.vic.gov.au/blog-only/knox-historical-society-digitises-indexes-school-photo-collections

• British Library Digitized Manuscripts page
  http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/

• State Library of Victoria: Digitised collections
  http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/digitised-collections/

• State Library of NSW: Digitised WW1 collection
  http://ww1.sl.nsw.gov.au/

• State Library of NSW: Digital Excellence Project
  http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/about/projects/digital_excellence/index.html