When digitisation meets the galleries
Unobtrusively and steadily for the last three months, from its corner of the office, a sole flatbed scanner has continually issued a high pitched whirring as page after page has been placed face down on a glass plate and the “Scan Now” button selected. Nearby computers have hummed whilst catalogue records have been diligently prepared for the purpose of releasing digitised pages online. The sharing of stories and quotes contained within the pages of these diaries and letters can be heard around the office.
Today marks the opening of the First World War galleries at the Australian War Memorial after their closure for re-development as part of the centenary for this conflict. For the curators involved in the Anzac Connections project, the Memorial’s major centenary digitisation project, this day marks another milestone in the history of digitisation in the Research Centre. It is the first time that entire collections physically appearing in an exhibition at the Memorial have been released online at the time of opening.
Napier Waller's diary
It has long been the Memorial’s vision to enable visitors to the Gallery to be able to see a particular letter or diary and then read the remainder of the collection, from which it was drawn, in the comfort of their own homes. Understandably only one page of a diary and often extracts from a single multi-page letter can physically be displayed in the galleries. The collections that have been released online today form part of the First World War gallery display and have also been digitised and displayed on the Memorial’s website. Now people across the country as well as visitors to the gallery have the chance to read on for themselves.
To view the collections of letters and diaries displayed in the new First World War gallery, please refer to the list below:
We also thought this might be a nice time to let you know that the number of collections scanned and available online as part of Anzac Connections has now reached 200. The complete list of online collections is available here. For more stories about the Anzac Connections project please see: http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/category/anzac-connections/