Project team members: - Jill Fenwick, Nik Iljin, Wendy BabiolakisThe East Melbourne Historical Society has received a grant of $2,290 from Museums Australia (Victoria) to digitise its collection. Digitising involves creating high quality electronic images of items in the collection and loading them onto the web site. The collection may then be searched or browsed via an on-line catalogue and digitised items can be viewed in detail. The grant provides funds to buy imaging equipment, software and services to begin the process.

Barbara Wels, Manager of the Building Better Museums Program at Museums Australia (Victoria) visited the Society at the East Melbourne Library and agreed that digitising the collection would be very valuable for the community, helping to preserve the collection and making it more accessible. "These grants are offered to organisations that are committed to involving the community and meeting high standards of conservation and presentation," she said.

The collection was begun only ten years ago shortly after the founding of the Society. However it now comprises hundreds of images, clippings, books and articles some dating back to the foundation of Melbourne. Most items are in good condition and the collection is well catalogued. However, neither the collection nor the catalogue has been easy to view by the general public. The first part of the project was to put the catalogue on-line. This has already generated a number of enquiries which demonstrates the growing popularity of the site.

A number of organisations have agreed to provide relevant material, including the State Library of Victoria, the City Library (through the East Melbourne Library), the City of Melbourne, Holy Trinity Church and the Uniting Church Archives. Society members and web site visitors have also offered some fascinating material.

The project is now well advanced. Equipment and software have been purchased, volunteers have been trained and items are being scanned and uploaded onto the web site. Depending upon the nature of the item, images can be viewed as slide shows or can be viewed in minute detail with the on-line zooming software. Newspaper clippings and other textual items can be searched for words or phrases.

To see what has been done already browse through the catalogue at http://emhs.org.au/catalogue. Look at the last few pages to see the most recent results. Some examples:

Panoramic View of Melbourne - 1888c
115 Hotham Street, Henri Lamande with motor cycle and kangaroo
William Elliott Gillies