The Fourth Dimension:Archives, the internet and theFind & Connect web resource

Mike Jonesm.jones@unimelb.edu.auSenior Research ArchivisteScholarship Research Centre

The eScholarship Research Centre (ESRC) was formed in 2007 as a part of the University of Melbourne Library. The ESRC collaborates on many significant public knowledge projects with researchers from within the University as well as with a broad range of external groups. The Centre aims to:

• collaborate with researchers in the use of digital technologies to extend their research capabilities;

• work with the University of Melbourne and others to enhance their digital archive and knowledge preservation infrastructure; • participate with the community in the creation and dissemination of information to address societal needs; and

• research with a focus on archival science and cultural informatics.

But it has helped me ... this is not just some pages, and words, and paper. This is discovery ... This is my discovery manual. It is not my file. This is my discovery manual. It has given me a new lease on life ...

Vlad Selakovic, Forgotten Australian, April 2010.

Encountering the stranger

“Individuals who approach the archives to find documentation of injustice committed against themselves are very often strangers to the archives. They have never been to an archive before; they do not know how to use our finding aids; they may not even understand the record’s bureaucratic rhetoric. They represent a new kind of user.”

Gudmund Valderhaug, ‘Memory, justice and the public record,’ Archival Science, Vol. 11, No. 1-2, 2011, p. 20. Accessed Online: 26 July 2012. DOI 10.1007/s10502-010-9110-5

Knowledge Diamond

Research EvidenceResearch Evidence

Consumer ExperienceConsumer Experience

Practitioner Wisdom

Practitioner Wisdom

Policy Perspectives

Policy Perspectives

www.findandconnect.gov.au

Usability

10 Principles

1. Standards based2. Evidential3. Persistent and meaningful through time4. Resilient5. Available through multiple access and reference points6. Geared towards person-to-person knowledge sharing7. Structured to enable computer-to-computer data sharing8. Public knowledge focused9. Based on the science of networks10.Coherent and purposeful in its interface design

Standards based

Description standards• Archival materials – ISAD(G)• Context entities – ISAAR(CPF)• Publications and digital objects – IFLA• Relationships – WC3 (Semantic web) and others

Import and Export standards/schema• EAC-CPF (supporting OAI-PMH)• others possible

Web page standards• Dublin Core• AGLS• WCAG 2.0

Mike Jones

m.jones@unimelb.edu.au