Learning from the past to build a better community: The John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library Electronic Research Archive
By David Wylie, Archives Technician, John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library
10th National Library Technicians Conference Projections, Reflections Fremantle September 1999.
INTRODUCTION
John Curtin was the first prime minister to represent a Western Australian seat and he came to office in the midst of Australia's worst crisis - World War II.
His qualities as a man and a leader were recognised and admired by both his political allies and his opponents. His popularity with the general public was exemplified by the slogan used in the 1943 election: "If you want John Curtin for prime minister you must vote Labor".
Tim Fischer remarked on his recent retirement that the best time to go is while you are still being asked to stay. John Curtin did not have that option. He died in office just a few weeks before the end of the war.
Curtin University of Technology is named for John Curtin and has honoured his memory by establishing Australia's first prime ministerial library. The John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library (JCPML) opened to the public in February 1998 and this paper aims to show how far the JCPML has come, what lies ahead, the problems encountered and the challenges we face.
THE FACILITY
Although called a library, the JCPML is an archive and museum. The facilities were purpose built as part of the John Curtin Centre that also includes the John Curtin Gallery, the Vice-Chancellery and the John Curtin International Institute.
Being purpose built allowed for the establishment of a world class facility with climate controlled storage for the preservation of original material, and spacious processing, work and office areas. The public reading room has facilities for on-line searching and for accessing audio-visual and microform material, plus carrels for long term use.
The foyer consists of a researchers' lounge and an exhibition area. The JCPML also has a permanent exhibition space in the John Curtin Gallery.
THE COLLECTION
The JCPML collection policy allows for the acquisition of materials relating to John Curtin the man and parliamentarian, his life and times, the office of the prime minister, the seat of Fremantle and the Australian American alliance.
The collection has come from donations and/or purchases, from John Curtin's family, friends, colleagues and admirers, and from other public institutions. It consists of paper documents (original and copies), photographs, sound recordings, motion pictures, microforms and books. The collection also includes artifacts (realia) made from a wide range of media as diverse as textiles, wood, metals and ceramics.
The collection at present fills approximately 300 shelf metres and is added to on an almost daily basis. Each item is accessioned, arranged and described using the series registration system via Archive Manager, a locally produced proprietary software package, and stored in an archival quality container.
STAFF
The JCPML has 2.5 full-time equivalent staff made up of the Archivist, an Archives Technician, a Public Programs Co-ordinator and an Administrative Assistant. Contract researchers, archivists and librarians are used for projects where needed.
CLIENTELE
The JCPML caters to a wide cross section of the population, ranging from Ph.D. students to journalists, from secondary school children to biographers and from parliamentarians to community groups. Our visitors have come not only from the Perth metropolitan area or Western Australia, but from all over Australia and, indeed, the world.
OUTREACH
A number of public programs are run by the JCPML. These include public lectures, newsletters, website, exhibitions and publications both in book and CD formats.
An education program is in place for years 9 through 12 and it is planned to expand this to senior primary age groups in the future. This program was developed in consultation with the History Teachers Association of WA and reflects the new curriculum framework.
The JCPML hosts the judging of the WA section of the National History Challenge and sponsors one of its sections.
Tours of the JCPML exhibitions are conducted for community groups and have proved popular with seniors who have memories of John Curtin and his times.
The hosting of travelling exhibitions from home and abroad is planned, with "Beginnings: Images of Occupied Japan", an exhibition from the Douglas MacArthur Memorial Library, opening later this year.
ACCESS
Archives have a duty to preserve original material for posterity and also a duty to allow access to the information held in that material. It is generally accepted that in order to use archival material one must visit the institution that holds that material.
Perth is known as the most remote capital city in the world, and it was this enormous barrier to access that prompted the JCPML to become a "virtual" archive. In this way, the JCPML aims to make its collection and relevant material from other sources available through its home page, online projects and Electronic Research Archive.
ELECTRONIC RESEARCH ARCHIVE
The JCPML launched the Electronic Research Archive (ERA) on February 9, 1999 as an electronic gateway to John Curtin related material held by the JCPML and in other collections in Australia and around the world.
Digitising the physical JCPML collection gives world-wide access to the contents of the JCPML archives via the Internet, and digitising related material held in other institutions allows us to pull together dispersed John Curtin records whilst maintaining the context in which those records were created.
The Excalibur Technologies software used allows for a number of options when digitising documents, including producing an image, image and text, or text only, and gives the flexibility of providing access to JCPML finding aids. A range of intellectual control, administrative and technical data is attached to each document. This metadata is searchable as well as the text content of the documents.
The search engine allows for "fuzzy" searching and will find misspelled text and alternative spellings in either the search terms or the document text. It also allows for concept searching using an in-built thesaurus and Boolean searching for exact terms.
The archival structure or "fileroom" is also browseable and searchable by creator, series, accession and item title.
Copyright issues have been investigated and resolved for all information available via ERA.
THE FUTURE
As technology advances, migration to new or updated software can present problems with conflicting format requirements. The JCPML stores its digitized documents in "generic" formats, i.e. plain text and tiff image files. These are stored on a server separate from the retrieval software and are therefore quarantined from migration problems. The JCPML has already successfully migrated from Excalibur EFS to Excalibur RetrievalWare and launched ERA to the world via the Internet on July 26, 1999.
The JCPML has a large collection of film and sound material. It is envisioned that these resources will also be available using web-based streaming technology in the not too distant future.
Collection development is an ongoing project. Institutional holdings at home and abroad are continuing to be identified and searched for John Curtin related material that can be added to the JCPML collection by digitization, copying or linking through the JCPML website.
Partnerships have been and will be developed with industry and institutions to ensure that the JCPML remains a world leader in the archives field.
CONCLUSION
There were a number of reasons behind the development of the Electronic Research Archive:
- To build upon the expertise developed during pilot projects. This in-house expertise continues to be an integral factor in the progress of the JCPML.
- To create a research collection that is easy to access and not dependent on physically visiting the reading room.
- To bring together materials that are located not only in the JCPML collection, but in other institutions and private hands in Australia and around the world.
- To provide integrity in the context of digitized archival records through control mechanisms related to intellectual control, administrative and technical metadata.
The JCPML Director, Vicki Williamson has stated that "Our guiding principles for all our programs and activities, not just the development of ERA, are the values which we believe Curtin himself represented. With ERA we have tried to: - Advance our vision for improving access to archival materials;
- Show leadership in professional practice; and
- Share our experience and lessons learnt with the professional community."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
JCPML Website http://john.curtin.edu.au
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. (1997) Collection Development Policy. Curtin University of Technology, Perth.
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. (1997) Electronic Research Archive Management Framework. Unpublished Paper, Curtin University of Technology, Perth.
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. (1997) Program Statement. Curtin University of Technology, Perth.
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. (1997) Strategic Directions for Information Systems and Information Technology. Unpublished Paper, Curtin University of Technology.
John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. (1997) Strategic Plan and Information Plan, 1997-2001. Curtin University of Technology, Perth.
Williamson, V.K. and Henderson, K-J. (1998) 'The electronic research archive at the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library', Presented at the Australian Society of Archivists Conference "Place, Interface & Cyberspace : Archives at the Edge", Fremantle, August.
