The impetus for digitisation is expressed in the Library's current Directions for 2003-2005 as the provision of "rapid and easy access to the wealth of information resources that reside in libraries and other cultural institutions and to break down barriers that work against this." Australia is a large country with 20 million inhabitants spread over many thousands of kilometres.  The National Library is in Canberra, and only a very small proportion of the population will ever visit the Library in person.  Digitisation of collection materials is one of the ways the Library's collections are re-formatted and made more widely accessible to the people of Australia, and to the world. 

A policy was developed in the late 1990s to provide a framework for digitisation activities.  The Digitisation Policy covers aspects as diverse as standards, marketing, selection, preservation and cataloguing.  The Digital Services Project  was begun at the same time, to manage and deliver digital resources.  The Digital Services Project has a number of components: 

The metadata repository and search system Metastar Enterprise (Blue Angel Techologies) was acquired in 1999 and was used from 1999-2000 to run several services.  During 2002, TeraText from Inquirion was selected to replace the Metastar software, and applications have been progressively migrated to this platform during 2002-03. 

A Digital Objects Storage System was acquired in 2001, and is expected to meet the Library's requirements until 2006. Around 115,000 high-resolution digital "masters" are now stored in Tagged Image Format (TIFF) in the Library's digital object storage system. A complementary set of low-resolution JPEG images for web delivery has been derived from these. We now have: 

• Current disk capacity: 4TB 
• Maximum disk capacity: 7TB 
• Future disk capacity: 17.7TB 
• Current Tape Library capacity: 12TB 
• Maximum Tape Library capacity: 27-54TB 

The results of the digitisation program can be explored on the Library's website from http://www.nla.gov.au/digital/program.html.  To date the Library's efforts have focussed on pictures, manuscripts and rare maps and printed music with a total of approximately 75,500 items now digitised. 

Over 65,000 pictures have been digitised and those without copyright or other restrictions are readily available online through the National Library's Pictures Catalogue and the PictureAustralia service.  They include photographs, negatives, transparencies, postcards, cartoons, drawings and original works of art.  A recent highlight is more than 10,850 of Frank Hurley's negatives. Hurley photographed a wide range of subjects over more than 50 years, including Antarctica, Europe and the Middle East during World Wars I and II, Papua New Guinea, as well as life and places in Australia. 
 
 

'Unidentified figure with Holden car parked between  Baobab trees, Hamersley Range, Western Australia' photographer Frank Hurley, taken between 1910 and 1962. National Library Pictures Collection.

The papers of Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, Captain James Cook's Endeavour Journal, and the diary of explorer William Wills are among the manuscript digitisation projects undertaken to date. The Barton Papers comprise more than 5,000 images, and is accompanied by a detailed finding aid.  The Wills diary records the journal of Burke and Wills, the first explorers to cross the Australian continent from south to north. Neither explorer survived the trip, they perished, along with all but one of the expedition party, from starvation. 

Over 3,600 pieces of Australian sheet music from the 1900-30 period have been digitised and made available through the Library's catalogue. This material is core content for the developing MusicAustralia service.  The Waltzing Matilda site also makes use of digitised versions of Australia's most famous song, along with recorded versions from ScreenSound Australia and related manuscript items from the National Library's collection. 

Rare maps from the Library's collections are also included in the digital collection.  The maps delivery system allows users to zoom in and pan across the maps.  All digitised maps are available via the Library catalogue, for example, an 1801 chart of part of the coast of New South Wales. 

'Photographer Greg Power preparing a map for digitisation'       taken by NLA Imaging Services, 2002

One important element of the digitisation program is cooperation with cultural and other agencies.  The digitised pictures form part of the service offered by PictureAustralia, which also includes images from over 20 other organizations.  The MusicAustralia service is being developed in cooperation with ScreenSound Australia and the Australian Music Centre.  One current manuscript digitisation project, the papers of former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, is being carried out in conjunction with the Deakin University.  A great deal of information about the National Library of Australia's digitisation policies and projects is provided in documents on the Library's website (http://www.nla.gov.au/). 
Enquiries are welcome, and can be directed to digitisation@nla.gov.au
 

Useful additional reading
Boston, Tony. Building a digital library at the NLA.  Paper given at the OzeCulture 2002 conference, May 2002.  http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2002/boston1.html

Cathro, Warwick and Boston, Tony. Development of a digital services architecture at the National Library of Australia. Paper given at theEduCause 2003 conference. http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2003/cathro1.html

Digitisation of traditional format library materials. http://www.nla.gov.au/digital/program.html

Digitisation of traditional format library materials: standards and guidelines. 
http://www.nla.gov.au/digital/standards.html

Digital services project. http://www.nla.gov.au/dsp/
 

Contributed by: 
Sandra Henderson 
Manager, Research 
Coordination Support 
National Library of Australia 
(shenders@nla.gov.au)