Quoting from http://aiatsis.gov.au/news-and-events/news/aiatsis-trove
AIATSIS on Trove
Monday, 25 January 2016 - 1:45pm
A lantern slide from the United Aborigines Mission collection - Colebrook Home being prepared for scanning.
We're broadening our horizons, sharing the most extensive collection of content focused solely on Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the world, with the world via the NLA's Trove.
We've been working hard on a project with the National Library of Australia (NLA) to load our unique catalogue and index records relating to parts of our collection, other than our printed materials, onto their Trove database.
Approximately 60,000 records relating to items in our collections have now been added. These records are important for family history research, native title claims and the establishment of keeping places in remote communities.
Read more on the NLA's Trove blog. https://www.nla.gov.au/blogs/trove/2016/01/19/aiatsis-on-trove
AIATSIS ON TROVE
DISCOVERING ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER RECORDS ON TROVE
22 JANUARY 2016
This post comes from our guest bloggers Jenny Wood and Bryce Gray from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this post may contain images and names of deceased people.
At AIATSIS we are broadening our horizons when it comes to sharing our information with the world.
We are a small government agency who conduct and promote research, collect and publish materials about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultures, histories, languages and stories.
Located within the walls of our humble building on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, is the world’s most extensive collection of content focused solely on Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It reflects the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia and was recently referred to as a ‘place of pilgrimage’ by an independent assessor.
But not everyone can make the trip to the Canberra to visit us.
AIATSIS on Trove
One of our aims is to ensure our collection is accessible and valued. As many of our clients live in some of the most remote parts of Australia, delivering information using the latest technology is essential. Trove is an important tool for us to achieve this goal.
While records of the majority of our printed collections already exist on Trove, we have been working hard recently on a project with the National Library to load our unique catalogue and index records relating to other parts of our collection.
Photographic collection
We hold the world's most comprehensive photographic record of Australia's Indigenous people, some 650,000 photos in all. Over 400 pictorial collection records, rich in metadata, have now been added to Trove.
The records feature the AIATSIS Pathways Thesaurus headings for culturally appropriate subjects, place names and language groups. A summary in each record gives descriptions of images including names of persons photographed. This helps clients find unique images taken or collected by missionaries and researchers across Australia.
A lantern slide from the United Aborigines Mission collection - Colebrook Home being prepared for scanning. Picture courtesy of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Audio collection
Most of our audio collection is unique and unpublished and houses approximately 40,000 hours of recordings. The recordings document Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, songs and oral histories, and in many cases are the only places these ceremonies and stories are recorded. With many Indigenous languages at risk of disappearing, they may soon become the final record of this important cultural knowledge.
Over 2,500 audio collection records are now on Trove.
Biographical index
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Biographical Index (ABI) is a person and place name index of published works in our print collection. It is focused predominately on ‘ordinary people’ and was designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family history researchers.
The second stage of the project to migrate the information from the ABI is complete, with approximately 55,000 records, relating to over 33,000 individuals, now available on Trove.
Importance for community
Family history research is one of the main reasons communities and individuals use our collection. We play a vital role in helping to reunite Indigenous people who have been separated from their families and communities. Other important uses include Native Title claims, publications, documentaries and the establishment of keeping places in remote communities.
We are very excited about providing a new discovery avenue to our collection to people all across Australia, and especially to those in remote communities. The addition of these records is an important part of the trend to broaden the range of Trove users, especially in relation to Indigenous Australians.
What was once deep within a database is now visible to the world.
About the authors:
Jenny Wood has 25 years of experience in working in AIATSIS, an organisation dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories. System administration of SirsiDynix’s Integrated Library Management System and training staff in using the various modules of the system are Jenny’s main areas of expertise. Her passion for training has extended to building interactive tutorials for clients on how to best use the catalogue as well as cataloguers and indexers working with materials with Australian Indigenous content.
Bryce Gray is currently the media and web content manager for AIATSIS, helping share the diverse stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures held within the Institute’s archives and research.
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