Illawarra Mercury collection at Wollongong City Libraries

COLLECTION

WOLLONGONG CITY LIBRARIES

THE PROJECTThe Illawarra Mercury photograph and negative collection were gifted to Wollongong City Libraries in March 2014.

“Wollongong City Council – Library and Fairfax Media have agreed to transfer the entire hard copy and negative collection of Illawarra Mercury images to the Local Studies collection of Wollongong City Library and make the collection publicly available and specifically available to Fairfax journalists” (from Deed of Gift of Property)

PHOTOCOLLECTION Aim to extract local images to add to our image collection, Illawarra Images.

PHOTOCOLLECTION102 drawers of Illawarra Mercury photographs have been donated. Majority are from the 1980s and ‘90s.

NEGATIVECOLLECTION

All negatives from the Illawarra Mercury archives from 1962-1995 were donated.

Our aim is to identify and digitise local images that will enhance and add value to our Illawarra Index and Images collection.

NEGATIVECOLLECTION

3.5 runs of the compactus are taken up by negative storage

NEGATIVECOLLECTION

All negatives are accompanied by Mercury day books and indexes

THE PILOTNEGATIVE COLLECTION PILOT PROJECTThe pilot project for the Negative Collection was developed for the purpose of setting guidelines for the future (hopefully funded) projects using the collection.The pilot started by selecting images that ‘added-value’ to the libraries’ catalogued collection using the Illawarra Index.

THE PROCESSUsing Illawarra Index

• Select a particular month between 1962-1999 and select all article records

• Of these select those that mention a photograph (Illustration) in the record

• Determine which articles would be suitable to add to Illawarra Images

THE PROCESSUsing the Negative Collection

• Retrieve all corresponding negative boxes or folders that related to the selected month

• Sort through negatives and identify suitable images for Illawarra Images and those that

match the previously selected Illawarra Index records

THE PROCESSDigitising the Negative Collection

SCAN• 800 dpi• TIFF file• 250mm

STORE

• TIFF file to Loc. Hist. Archive• JPEG to K Drive: 65-85KB, 90-150dpi, 1000px• Create Thumbnail in same folder using Easy Thumbnails• Filezilla: Upload JPEG and thumbnails to website server

THE PROCESSCataloguing the Negative Collection

Catalogue using Custom template

Series Collection Illawarra Mercury Collection

Use summaries from indexed article where possible

Use subject heading from indexed articles where possible

Link to related Illawarra Index article entries & vice versa

LINKINGCOLLECTIONS

856 Field used to link images and articles

What Customers See on the OPAC…

TIME

The selecting and scanning of images are the most time-intensive parts of the process and require large blocks of uninterrupted time to complete effectively

MONEY

A large project to undertake that needs to be given dedicated staff time to complete in the most efficient

manner.Without specific funding for the project it the library will have to prioritise between local history project such as

these and other services or jobs that staff are responsible for

MY EXPERIENCE

$$

• More equipment

• Dedicated staff• Software

TIME

• Consecutive hours

• Time-intensive

PROCESS

• Chronologically• Software can

help efficiency• Value-adds to

collection

ILLAWARRA MERCURY DIGITISED IMAGES

(To be catalogued…)

DIGITISED PEOPLE

DIGITISED EVENTS

DIGITISED PROTESTS

DIGITISED SCHOOLS

DIGITISED INDUSTRY

DIGITISED SURROUNDINGS

DIGITISED NEWS STORIES

DIGITISED DEVELOPMENT

DIGITISED ARTS

ANY QUESTIONS

?