Now they know my name: creating a digital presence for Barton

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the dilemmas encountered in developing a body of digital content for online use, and some implications for managing the resulting collections of content existing as both unique originals and universally accessible copies. The starting point for the paper is the experience of the National Library of Australia in digitising the papers of Australia's first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton. While the collection was already available in surrogate form on microfilm, the Library decided to create a new full colour digital copy aimed at capturing and making accessible a range of "experience" information missing from the microfilm. This project raised key questions regarding the kind of material likely to be chosen for digital access, the right to make it available, the objectives being served and how they are reflected in decisions through the project, how far to go in building links with other content, and the relationship between the paper originals and the digital copies both as information objects and as "heritage" objects. The National Library is testing its learning from this project on a program that will make very significant portions of its special Australiana collections available for online use and research over the next decade. In summary, the paper concludes that the capture of important digital content must be guided by clear-headed decisions about purposes. Given the costs of high-end digitisation - not just in financial terms - maintaining long term accessibility and ensuring the ongoing integrity of the original and its digital representations, must be high priorities for conscious, dedicated planning.