From Marian to Michelle

When Michelle Simmons became Australian of the Year on Australia Day eve, I was reminded of an early ground-breaking Web project instigated by the University Librarian at the time of Michelle's appointment to the University of New South Wales.

Marian Bate, UNSW University Librarian from 1995 until 2001, led the Australasian Digital Theses (ADT) project. She earned global recognition for its development and implementation. Marian was a wonderful mentor to many young library staff and passionate about the work of libraries to empower research. She also strongly believed in the value of collaboration and exemplified this by serving on the National Library's Advisory Committee to national union catalogue services for several years. 

Photograph supplied by family
for use in the Libraries Australia newsletter

These "Australian" qualities were echoed in Michelle's  acceptance speech. Marian would have been absolutely thrilled to see her colleague receive this accolade. 

Marian's successor, Andrew Wells, asked me to commemorate Marian's life in March 2011 with a special issue of the Libraries Australia newsletter. Here is some of that text:

ADT was launched in 2000, the brainchild of Marian Bate. Always a staunch advocate for the raising the international profile of Australian academic research, in 1999 Marian identified the enhanced visibility of theses as an important strategy for improving scholarly communication, and to that end, sought funding from the Australian Research Council to develop a new service for capturing a global audience for Australian research.

Marian’s strategy also emphasised the need for digital versions to be provided. Seven universities including her own grasped the opportunity to work with Marian. Using the open source Electronic Theses & Dissertations software developed at Virginia Tech in the US, many university libraries in Australia launched thesis repositories and using simple technologies, access to the content was brought together under the strong ADT brand. In later years, separate thesis services have been merged with institutional repositories.

In 2005, Marian was recognised for her initiative in establishing the ADT program with an Electronic Theses & Dissertations Leadership award. As stated by Andrew Wells, who succeeded Marian as University Librarian in 2001, “This project brought together Marian’s abiding interests in maximising access to information resources, exploiting the potential of new information technologies, innovation in scholarly communication, and the power of collaboration.” 

Michelle receives a mention in the newsletter too. 

The ARROW Project after two years,
Slide 26
www.cni.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/CNI_Two_Groenewegen2.pdf 

ADT was the precursor to another initiative known as the ARROW Project. 

She may not have known it, but for me Michelle was a global use case scenario in the collaborative ARROW Project. The use case involved trying to co-locate the research outputs of academics who moved across institutions. The outputs could take the form of theses, conference papers, book chapters, and monographs and two decades later, more unconventional forms. How could the Project acknowledge the complete intellectual record of an individual researcher?

The optimum pathway may still not be implemented but a combination of research visibility in Trove and its recognition of ORCIDs, have gone a long way to resolving that use case. Michelle's citizenship also helps, for which she deserves our thanks. 

slightly bigger than a tweet

The Trove team recently posed a tweet: what is Trove? 
Like the librarians' curse of knowledge*, where it may be difficult to compress a complex service into a brief explanation for the uninitiated, concepts are sometimes defined in the negative. 

For example, Trove was never an acronym although there have been several published attempts to make it so. 

But to answer the team's question, each letter of Trove can be used to convey its scope, power and indispensability. Its reach almost demands uppercase. TROVE is:

-> a   Time capsule
-> a   Roam around a continent
-> an Organic summation of a nation's status
-> a   View of identity from multiple soapboxes
-> an Embodiment of inheritance

As a time capsule, Trove is unparalleled. Provided government funding allows it to be expanded, it will continue to uncover Australia's history.

In a simple roaming search, anyone can delve into small town life or trace the growth of a metropolis.

The threats to our natural environment, whether silently accumulating for millenia or newly incubated, have been documented in Trove since 1803 and can be found by following the clues invested in a range of forms: article, book, image and website.

Trove's rich content illustrates the inspirational soapboxes for political, religious, legal or scientific research, and views of identity in notices from "the Cradle, the Altar and the Grave". 

By encapsulating a nation's intellectual capital, Trove is a powerful embodiment of Australia's inheritance, accessible to everyone.


*http://orweblog.oclc.org/libraries-and-the-curse-of-knowledge/

How to be beguiled by a library

Sometimes a story lies hidden, just waiting for discovery. How fortunate we are to be able to solve a mystery in real time, when we start chasing such a story of a life lived publicly, albeit more than a century ago. A Terranora pioneer, Frederic John Davey, moved from Cornwall via Auckland to the Tweed River in the 1870s in an attempt to improve his health.

He was well-known on the Tweed as an architect, a photographer, a farmer, a Justice of the Peace, woodcarver hobbyist and a family man. Trove shares many digitised newspaper articles detailing his life, providing a rich context for research. It should have been no surprise then that one of his obituaries mentioned a previously unknown skill - writer, of both short stories and poetry.

Davey's architectural, photographic, and woodcarving activities were documented by the Tweed Heads Historical Society. Finding his writing proved more difficult, because his obituary* suggested that he wrote for English journals. The intriguing title of the series "Tales from the Wimbriatta" should have made the stories conspicuous in a full-text search, but Trove only revealed a duplicated obituary** (replicated from two other newspapers, now missing***). 

There was no mention of this place name elsewhere in Trove, which leaves an enticing mystery still to be solved. However, the journal title,Good Words, is mentioned. Was it necessary then to search with these two very common words? Trove arranges access to a large number of online journals in its Journals, articles, and datasets zone, and this journal is listed in both microform and digitised form. However, there is no way to search across the journal articles all at once. But an alternate pathway is at hand - a service established before Trove, also online, which can be activated with a little device available to all Australians - an individual National Library card.

Each Australian can arrange to have three - their local library card, their state or territory library card (SL), and their National Library (NL) card. They are needed to access fully digitised resources, known as eresources to encompass different databases hosted by separate publishers. Australian libraries arrange subscriptions to a subset of these databases for their communities, so while there may be some overlap in content, often there isn't. Through its access arrangements, the National Library links to many English journal offerings.

Davey home drawn by F J Davey, 1882

Once you have your NL or SL card, you can sign in and search using the word British to retrieve the British periodicals collection I and II. (Note that the first search will also list the nineteenth century digitised British newspapers collections.) Accept the licence conditions, and then follow the trail to a semi-autobiographical life as described in a home country journal, complete with posed photographs, by searching on the author's name: F J Davey. The photographs themselves are beguiling too - do they show Terranora Lakes where Davey was known to have built his home?

The actions which led to the availability of this journal online in real time reflect a true partnership of minds oriented towards community service, where the owner of the copy, the digitiser, and the reader sit on different continents. It's gratifying to know that decisions made many years ago by forward-thinking librarians in Australia and elsewhere allow us to assuage our curiosity now. 

* This obituary appeared in The Richmond River Herald & Northern Districts Advertiser.
** This obituary appeared in The Northern Star.
*** The Tweed Herald; The Tweed Times. Having complementary copies of such informative obituaries is a small miracle in its own right. F J Davey was such a high achiever that the obituaries appear in newspapers outside the area of his home town and surrounds. Trove illustrated its value yet again. 

Whatever happened to Highfields?

Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah, Cudgen, and many other country towns had one - a Progress Association. But it wasn’t until last year’s discovery of a “recipe book” that the existence of the Highfields District Progress Association was rediscovered.

Highfields District Progress Association

Minute book

A simple school exercise book originally used to record the Association’s meeting minutes was turned into a scrapbook for recipes cut from newspapers and magazines, but thankfully, not all of them were glued in completely and enough of a record remains to confirm the Association’s activity.

Excerpts from the Minutes book are included in this article. They extend frm the years November 1937 to July 1940, although it is not known whether this was when the Association wound up. However, the national web service Trove provides some of the earliest information about this Association, as shown in the newspaper articles included here. [i] 

The Highfield Progress Association was initially established in 1918.[ii] There were immediate issues to contend with which, in fact, had inspired the group to form. The first problem, the road to the Bilambil-Cobaki ferry, was described in the Tweed Daily on 8 January 1918.[iii] This article also explains the intended operation of the group: residents were to meet at a private home, a membership fee of two shillings per year is to be imposed, and issues affecting all residents were to be discussed, but always with the big picture in mind: “The opening up of closer settlement is certain on these coastal slopes. There is a big piece of country – scrub and lantana jungle – within easy reach of Tweed Heads that would make good homes with an assured income, and the Highfield Progress Association is out in the interest of all to assist in the development of their own and kindred areas.”

Before the Second World War, a new advertisement appeared in the Daily News on Tuesday 12 October 1937. 

The name Highfields was well established before the second Progress Association was convened. It was the recipient of spasmodic postal services in the 1920s [iv]. It appeared in NSW Electoral Rolls from 1930 onwards. It was provided as the address for representatives on the Banana Marketing Board [v]; Highfield women formed a sewing and knitting circle during the Second World War [vi], and even the local Council used the name well beyond the 1940s [vii]...

---

The full article is included in Issue 114 of The Log Book, the journal of the Tweed Heads Historical Society, and is available for purchase. The Society provided unstinting support in the publishing of this article.

---

[i] Trove is at http://trove.nla.gov.au. It contains digitised historical newspapers including The Tweed Daily, trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/title/1007

[ii] 1918 'ROUND THE RIVERS.', Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876      - 1954), 12 January, p. 2,

       http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92927171

[iii] HIGHFIELD. (1918, January 8). Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949), p.2, 

       http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article190158543

[iv] LOWER TWEED POSTAL SERVICES. (1920, April 17). Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 -     

      1949), p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191379847

[v] BANANA MARKETING Board. (1935, July 18). Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949),  p.5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194223485

[vi] DONATIONS BY TWEED HEADS RED CROSS BRANCH. (1940, September 18). Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949), p.5. 

        http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article192924008

[vii] TWEED SHIRE COUNCIL'S WORKS PROGRAMME. (1948, April 15). Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah,  NSW : 1914 - 1949), p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article195502491

Farewell to a gracious lady

Still-life with self-portrait

Viennese artist Judy Cassab died last week, on Tuesday 3 November. She was an extraordinarily generous person, a trait which shone through her art and her life in Australia. 

trove.nla.gov.au

Trove collates a lot of detail from a range of cultural heritage services about Ms Cassab's contribution to the country which adopted her, it is easy to find her story there. Not only snapshots of her work, but her thoughts are also captured for posterity in an interview from the National Library's collection, and as part of a joint initiative with the National Gallery. 

It is inspiring to hear the soft clear voice explaining the ineluctable force which motivated her painting. 

In 1999, the National Library decided to develop a new web service, which became known as PictureAustralia. An aggregation of the digitised images from art and photographic collections around Australia, PictureAustralia exemplified the value of collaboration nationally. Using simple web technologies, the creation of virtual galleries from physically separated collections became possible.

Internal discussions then ensued to decide how best to promote and raise awareness of the service. The National Library already held some of the works of Judy Cassab including portraits. It was important to illustrate the breadth of Australia's old and new collections, and Ms Cassab's contribution was an easy choice to feature. In addition, her generosity was already well known. 

So an approach to use her self-portrait as a postcard was made. The response was instant - "please go ahead and may I have several copies to send to friends?" The Library was only too happy to oblige, and this postcard was one of the reasons for the success which PictureAustralia became.

A gallery of lost art

Original PictureAustralia home page, 2000

One of the unexpected benefits of delivering PictureAustralia was a heightened awareness of art, particularly paintings.

Although all were presented as digital miniatures, the ability to traverse a slice of time, an artistic stream, or an iconic heritage statement was seductive.

As a result, exhibitions and galleries beckoned me; before that I would never have dared to breach their portals.  PictureAustralia was hosted by the National Library for 12 years before it was absorbed into Trove. Links to Australian art and artists are easily traced.

In more recent times, I have started to create my own gallery of orphan works. I find them in secondhand shops, and choose the small ones, most of which are no more than $4. Interestingly, they are usually landscapes. It's rare to find a portrait -  perhaps it's harder to give away an image of a family member.

These paintings are usually orphaned by the family of the artist, as a quick BDM search usually reveals that the artist has died. A description of place is sometimes also attached.  It is their sense of place which attracts me to the subject matter - a low timber bridge over a country creek recreating a reminder of childhood, a clearing of pines reflecting both snow and fire in the Brindabellas, or a snapshot of "Albert" trees. 

Part of "Banana trash", R Smith

A simple view made from dried 'banana trash' is captivating in its experimentation.

Almost none of this art is 'expertly' painted, which is why it is not in gallery, museum or library collections. Many of these agencies trying to save our cultural heritage are under financial strain. 

All curators know that suitable environmental storage conditions are an essential commitment made to ratepayers. As a result collection policies appear to have become more stringent to the point of appearing ruthless. Offers of artefacts are declined, collections are downsized, agencies which are shut down and have no exit strategy for their collections tend to lose items to the nearest tip. The risk of losing the context of our 20th century life is higher, especially if the digitisation safety net has not been cast over it.

However, personal items which illustrate the desire to paint, to experiment with a natural fibre or to recreate a memory of place sometimes find their way to my outdoor gallery. The investment made 10, 20, 30 years ago is difficult to ignore. Protected from the sun, they are safe with me. At least for one more generation.

No rush

I have written before about a father, John Henry de Chave, who went missing from Grafton circa 1874, although there is still hope for finding him because all avenues are not yet exhausted. de Chave, if that was his actual name, never met his father-in-law William Joseph Halligan, who also went missing albeit 15 years earlier. It only took 154 years to find out what happened, or 126 years, depending on how the extant "evidence" is approached. This is Halligan's story. 

Last month I wrote about the splitting of collections across political borders. It is not a new phenomenon. In 1948, the State Library of Queensland purchased a 0.03 linear metre-sized document called Tooloom Gold Escort Petition, written in 1859-1860.  At least, I think it was. 

I found it listed in Trove, which also contains a lot of newspaper articles that mention Tooloom and the discovery of gold there, some 200 kms north of Grafton in NSW. Or as SLQ's finding aid says: "Tooloom is located 90 miles from Ipswich".

The discovered gold was sent to both Brisbane and Sydney for sale, amidst concern for its security threatened by bushrangers, thieves and general ne'er-do-wells. So there was legitimacy for either state library in Queensland or New South Wales to hold this item. Why mention Grafton? It was the home for a lot of the miners who walked or rode along the Clarence River to the successful mining areas such as Paddy's Flat and Pretty Gully, near to the Tooloom diggings.

Clarence River, Paddy's Flat, 2014

William Joseph Halligan was one such miner. A convict from Ireland, he left his wife, son and three daughters in 1859 to take advantage of the gold rush. They never saw him again, and in June 1863, placed identical advertisements several times in both the Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser (Grafton, NSW : 1859 - 1889) and the Goulburn Herald (NSW: 1860-1864). It may have been an evidentiary requirement for monetary reasons.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102851480

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article61892727

Last year, pursuing a land grant which Halligan had been granted in 1856 in Queanbeyan prior to his move north, a document was uncovered which almost but not quite filled the gap left by an unregistered and intestate death. Halligan's son, John Hallagan (1844 - 1935), claimed the Queanbeyan land in 1888. To do so, he and his mother Mary Hines (~1825 -1904) had to fill out an affadavit.

State records NSW NRS 17513/39/40 [PA 7162], 1 May 1888

 

A professional researcher is cognisant of the need to triangulate evidence. In sympathy with the time expended by the family originally, it seemed reasonable to travel again from northern NSW to Brisbane to look at the Tooloom Gold Escort Petition. The finding aid for item OM70-31 gives the box number '10159 o/s' so it can be ordered in advance. All quite helpful, until arrival at the John Oxley Library.

Box 10159 was fetched from the stacks, but a quick assay confirmed that it was not the the right box. 

The internal catalogue showed that the box number had changed. Thinking again of that family, my family, I waited for the next likely box, 8673, to arrive. 

At the same time the librarians checked the internal catalogue and confirmed that the document had been missing since 27 July 1997. Another journey of despair. No explanation was given for not providing this status in the public catalogue, so perhaps there is a possibility it will be found in the collection of the State Library of Queensland one day. Hopefully without waiting another 126 years. 

[Following the link to Trove in paragraph 3 above, it is now possible to read the digitised copy of the document.]

I can see Port clearly now

For a week in November, I had the privilege of untrammelled access to the Photograph Collection of the Port Macquarie Historical Society. It is extensive - more than 20,000 photographs, albums, artworks and postcards ranging from the 19th to the 21st century - and distinctive, supported by a donation of contemporary images by the Port Macquarie News. 

https://ehive.com/account/3977/object/497126/Postcards_Comboyne_Waterfalls

President of the Society and Museum Director, Debbie Sommers, invited me to examine the collection with a curatorial perspective and advise on a future pathway for this unparalleled documentary record.

"I can see clearly now the rain is gone"

Historical Society volunteers work very hard to collect, preserve and share their photographic collections. Collection management was often established on a shoestring. As Port Macquarie Historical Society recognised, the key is to make small changes by checking larger agencies' best practices and standards, then applying them as resources allow.

"I can see all obstacles in my way"

Metadata could be classed as an obstacle, but standard solutions have been developed by librarians and archivists for decades.The Port Macquarie photographs (printed), art, and images (digital) have some metadata which is mostly accessible only when visiting the Museum. 

https://ehive.com/account/3977/object/387299/William_Macdonnells_Photo_Album

http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/210461006

My first foray into exposing image metadata collaboratively, in the service known as PictureAustralia, was a rigorous training ground for understanding what is needed for people to discover quintessential images of Australiana. The Port Macquarie collection is no exception, the currently modest amount of valuable metadata can be extended to improve its reach.

There is no shortcut to augmenting metadata. Socks and brassieres could be recorded as sox and bras, but both sets of spellings often need to be recorded if an image is to have the widest possible chance of discovery. Similarly, abbreviations are an anathema for future discovery.

Once made though, the investment repays over and over, as metadata is able to be shared with online offerings including the Society's own website, social media outlets such as Twitter, and inter/national discovery services such as Flickr and Trove. 

Distinctive, tailored metadata also differentiates curated images from the mass of minimalist descriptions online. And yes, you will want to find yourself in the school photo 30 years down the track.

"Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind"

Metadata choice may restrict the system chosen to support it but the reverse is also true. For example, a bespoke solution for museum artefacts can be expensive, but is it more so than stuffing bras and sox into your sock drawer together and forever having to maintain them that way? This is a dilemma often faced by a conjoined museum/historical society management team: which platform to choose for exposing metadata online as well as for  managing a collection.

The chosen system must take advantage of the metadata for restoration, care, discovery, purchase and publication. Such systems exist now, but did not when photographic collections were first mooted.

"Look all around there's nothing but blue skies"

Christina Fahy PMHS #2057

Under the stewardship of the Port Macquarie Historical Society Collections/Archives/Records Sub-Committee - Tony Dawson, Lorraine Lyne, Clive Smith, and Debbie Sommers - there is the necessary commitment to improving access to and use of this unique collection.

We will all be beneficiaries. 
 




"It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day"

Acknowledgement: with thanks to Johnny Nash and his song "I Can See Clearly Now"

"Not everything that can be counted counts,

and not everything that counts can be counted." [Einstein]

Statistics are bread-and-butter to politicians, and public servants spend a lot of time accumulating them. Many pages in Annual Reports of governments and businesses are devoted to the numbers illustrating that they are still worthy of investment. While they are not that straight-forward to find, they are always dutifully made available as part of accountability and transparency requirements, and frequently updated tallies are always a pleasure to report to keen constituencies. 

nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia

The Libraries Australia service hosted by the National Library has reported its growth, in a very similar format, for more than 30 years.

However, with the advent of Trove, a new approach was developed to put statistics directly into the hands of people contributing to the service.

 

http://trove.nla.gov.au

Statistics are often the last functional component of a new service to be developed, so this outcome was a breakthrough for public accountability. They are generated regularly, they are easy to locate and use, and they keep tabs on the exchange between Trove and an individual or an agency, especially useful for those maximising Trove for their own productivity.

However, this ease also seemed to mean that the statistics could be ignored by those who might derive some value from them. Parliament still prefers a one-size-fits-all model: number of visits to the website, 

www.nla.gov.au/sites/default/files/nla-annrep-2013-2014.pdf, p.43

not how a service might make a difference to the lives of Australians.

It was bemusing therefore to read the recent article by Jeff Kennett describing the importance of art: "People will always argue over any money spent on the arts, and insist it would have been better spent on education, health or some other service that already receives billions of dollars in annual recurrent expenditure. But I have always argued that you cannot have a cosmopolitan city without it having a strong cultural heart. That heart includes all forms of art, music, dance, theatre, architecture, sculpture and, importantly, colleges and places of learning." About the new art for Sydney, he went on to say "Sydney will be a better place for these three installations, and if they can encourage just one citizen to pursue an artistic career the sculptures will have done their job." Weekend Australian, August 2-3, 2014, p.8.

$million of dollars = three outstanding works of art = one citizen?

Is that a good return on investment? Do those statistics illustrate a difference has been made? Fortunately it isn't 'an economic measure'. While this expenditure on art is not begrudged at all, what about library services, created in Australia, which reach out to millions every day? Services which provide culture, heritage and learning to metropolitan, rural, regional, remote Australians equally, currently having their government funding reduced so that they need to seek dollars in other ways.

http://trove.nla.gov.au

This year, the government funded an Innovation Study of Australian Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. It made only one mention of the increase in productivity encouraged by the heritage sector. [p.22] A lost opportunity?

Here's a self-measured statistic about Trove: "What five years ago was a month-long project at the State Library (if you could get a microfilm reader before everyone else) is now literally a five-minute exercise from home and an extra hour enables you to find and link information on a scale that could never previously have been imagined." Trove Evaluation Survey. [p.4]

Does it also measure:

• proactive use of the NBN
• reduced stress on transport infrastructure
• saving of funds expended on depreciating government equipment
• redirection of librarianship skills and resources to more meaningful work?

Trove has not yet reached its boundaries for growth. Make sure to keep using it, so its value continues to be counted as part of the rich heritage and productivity of the nation,

even if that value is only measured in the ever growing visits to the National Library's website. 

******** 


This entry marks the day 34 years ago when I became a full-time public servant, but I am no longer counting.

Trove's treasures - scholarly gold

One of the career achievements which gave me great satisfaction was Australian Research Online, ARO, named for the project which spawned it [Australian Research Repositories Online to the World]. Using a modest technical platform, ARO garnered the interest of almost all 40 of Australia's universities in depositing their academic research metadata in one finding place.

arrow.edu.au

While ARO was established with funding from the higher education sector - appropriate given that the service was predominantly created to promulgate unique tertiary research globally - as a product of collaboration it has generated unanticipated benefits for others too.

ARO was the logical successor to the Australasian Digital Theses (ADT) Program, a joint initative established in 1999 by the late Marian Bate, then University Librarian at the University of NSW, to corral original research from around the country for easier discovery. Resolving the issues surrounding curating and disclosing digital theses before taking the usual step of traditional-style publication pushed forward the ground-breaking open access agenda.

Government funding exigencies can override success. Both ADT and ARO were merged into Trove in 2011. Since then, new open access academic journals have been surfaced through Trove and the quantity of contributions will increase dramatically in 2015. The volume of usage traffic ensures that Trove maximises the exposure of original Australian research.

But what does this mean for the public, who funded the research in the first place? High quality resources which they do not have to replicate and an instant understanding of the value higher education offers? The Mackay Family History Society links to an excellent example of a resource which is scholarly gold:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/50294342

The Society also provides better metadata than the University itself, appreciating the broader appeal of the research.

As Lorcan Dempsey explains, university libraries have become "inside-out libraries", where their constituencies are now both local and external. Trove facilitates this by pooling all of their print publications with the research collected from university researchers and post-graduates into a single point of discovery. In return, through the digitally accessible newspapers of record, it provides historical contexts back to scholars for further lines of social and scientific enquiry.

http://nsla.org.au/news/search-wins-eureka-prize

An extraordinary return on information infrastructure investment.

The agency that will never forget you

If you were born, married or died in Australia, the formal details of these life events will usually be recorded by a state or territory registry. Other formal life events such as change of name or gender will also be recorded. Your identity details are kept in perpetuity, but there is a long delay before people can find out about you.

For example in New South Wales, birth details are not revealed until 100 years after the event; marriages are 50 years later, and deaths are not discoverable for 30 years.  The full details are made available via a purchased certificate after a freely available index search. The searching permutations for each index ensures that the final step in the process, purchase of a certificate, is irresistible, and it is not begrudged because this agency is spending the funds on infrastructure to ensure that the details are available in perpetuity.

The life events are not linked by the registry - a different search is required for each event. That is, if a person you know died 10 years ago, it is still not feasible to track back to the official record of their birth for a long time unless you are a close relative. The privacy limits remain in place. It is to be hoped that they have family who will remember them as the decades slip by.

In Victoria, while the same access timeframes apply, it is necessary to pay a fee up front before even locating a pointer in an index to the event. The Victorian government must not like collecting potential revenue, because having to provide credit card details to access minimalist index information is not a productive research expense. And the lack of certainty immediately discourages the spontaneous outlay for a full certificate. I have hesitated many times and decided against such purchases, both for accessing the indexes and requesting a full certificate. The taxpayer has already paid and continues to pay for the existence and maintenance of the service, so why not encourage its use in full?

Queensland's historical BDM certificates, although less expensive than in other states, apply a 75-year constraint to the release of marriage details. There is also an unexplained gap in the life of Queenslanders between 1825 and 1829:
 
 



  

However the delivery in near to real time of certificate images, via email, does encourage some extra purchasing which must assist with revenue-raising. The promise of solving a mystery with just a few clicks is irresistable. 
 
Tasmania is even more restrictive, with marriage certificates requiring a 100-year access limit, but less so with death certificates which deploy a 25 year limit. It doesn't seem logical, given the celebrated distribution of convict lives and the significance of this for the success of resulting projects such as Founders & Survivors. The availability of digitised birth registers for the 19th century goes some way towards making up for the disappointment.  

South Australia and Western Australia are far more expansive with their indexes, realising  that a liberal approach can result in increased revenue-raising for them. The Northern Territory Registry doesn't offer any, but the ACT does provide an historical deaths index.
Of course each state and territory must ensure compliance with its own privacy legislation, but perhaps it's time to review and align the timeframes of openness?

The National Library's hosted service, Trove, overcomes the misalignment and serious timing shortfall with the spectacularly easy-to-search newspapers that were systematically digitised collaboratively by memory institutions - libraries. The digital rendition is, of course, merely a replica of print and microfilm versions which were already in the public domain, but the ability to mine them expeditiously across generations was never feasible until Trove provided the right platform.

It is not guaranteed that a specific individual can be found in print, if conspired against by circumstances of poverty or shame or intrigue, but the democratic opportunity to express pride or woe has always been uniformly available.

The Cradle, The Altar, The Grave

This novel way to label the usual births, deaths and marriages columns in newspapers is a rare occurrence, although one local wag suggested using the word 'Halter' instead of 'Altar'. 

Deployed by Victorian newspaper The Prahran Telegraph between March 1891 and early 1895, this was disclosed by Trove during a recent exploration. 

By 9 March 1895, the column had reverted to its usual headings of Births, Marriages and Deaths.
The digitisation of this newspaper was funded by the Malvern Historical Society, the Prahran Historical and Arts Society, and the City of Stonnington, emphasising the same mission of openness as libraries.

I would much rather give my money to Australian Births, Deaths and Marriage government registries than a commercial enterprise thinking they know who I am. Certificates are the final confirmation of existence. I just hope I live long enough to use the indexes as they open 50 or 75 or 100 years on, so that I can read the certificates and link together lives of family who were once part of my living memory. But these agencies will never forget you.