Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Anzacs online

Robyn Van Dyke from the Australian War Memorial spoke about their new major digitisation project for 2015 – Anzacs online - http://anzacsonline.net.au/.  In its early stages at present Anzacs online will display photographs, diaries and letters, relating to the many Australians who served in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I.
Items in the Australian War Memorial are being digitised as part of a preservation project with lower resolution copies being made available online improving public access to the material. The digitisation occurs in house using outside contractors and 100% checking is made for each item digitised – a slow but accurate process.
Making material available online has been an ongoing function of the Australian War Memorial for many years resulting in a number of management systems for the material. It is envisaged that all digitised material in the Australian War Memorial collections will be consolidated and accessible via one content management system allowing users to undertake one search for all collections.
It is also hoped to incorporate a user transcription service similar to that undertaken by users of Trove for some of the written material.
Records being digitised include Commonwealth records, private records, ephemera and rare books as well as photographs.
In the future, images will be included in catalogue records allowing users to enlarge and / or zoom in to view or read material. Users will also be encouraged to tag items adding names etc to records.
Members of the public are encouraged to submit digital images of people who served during World War I.
On the Anzacs online site two dairies can be located in the Diary section of the website as well as a selection of images. Readers are able to log into the site, post comments with information and photographs relating to service people.
The Australian War Memorial website - http://www.awm.gov.au/ - contains many other information resources about World War I which eventually will also be accessible via Anzacs online.

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