‘Improving access to Indigenous collections at the State Library of South Australia’
Suzy Russell and Denise Chapman
Collection Specialists
State Library of South Australia
Paper presented to the ATSILIRN Conference ‘Listen up! Speak up!
CharlesDarwinUniversity
Darwin, April 8-9, 2008
Introduction
Hello, I’m Suzy Russell and I’m talking today with my colleague Denise Chapman.
Denise and I work at the State Library of South Australia as Indigenous Collection Specialists. We commenced these positions in 2003, and for each of us this is our first role working with Indigenous collections.
Coming to conferences such as this one are an integral part of our learning process.
As a relatively small-scale operation we look to other projects and institutions to provide us with inspiration, and we thank you all for having done so thus far.
Some of the activities we carry out as Collection Specialists include:
Answering research queries that require an in-depth knowledge of the Library’s Indigenous collections
Delivering in-house staff training and advice
Creating and having input into policies and procedures
Supplying content for State Library exhibitions, websites and factsheets – and, to Aboriginal communities and Knowledge Centres when approached. (We are currently doing this in a ‘reactive’ way, but we hope to be more proactive in this area in the near future, as we will discuss further in the paper.)
In all of these duties our goal is to make Indigenous collections and resources more available- with the aim of striking a balance between increasing accessibility and respecting Indigenous culture and protocols.
Today we are going to talk about a new role that we have embraced in recent times - one that plays an important, sometimes forgotten role in managing access to Indigenous collections - that of cataloguing, collection description and processing.
Later I will be discussing my recent projects to add and improve bibliographic records on the State Library catalogue and Libraries Australia. But first Denise will talk about her adventures processing the Library’s largest ethnographic archival collection, the Mountford-Sheard collection, and the planning of its digitisation.
The Mountford-Sheard collection
This collection, which spans over 120 shelf metres, includes items of great cultural significance to many Aboriginal communities, most notably those in Central Australia, Arnhem Land, the TiwiIslands and the northern FlindersRanges of South Australia.
In recognition of this significance, the collection has recently been inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.
The Mountford-Sheard collection holds a wealth of material gathered by self-taught South Australian ethnographer CP Mountford during a career spanning the 1930s to the 1960s. Included are field notebooks and journals, photographic images, motion pictures, sound recordings, artworks, correspondence and published works.
By recording and photographing people, places and stories in meticulous detail, Mountford created a rich resource of cultural, spiritual and historical information that is important to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians and is still highly sought after.
During the late 1940s, Mountford’s friend Harold Sheard began assembling Mountford’s private archive of expedition records, published works, and pictorial material. The collection was donated to the Library by Mountford and Sheard in 1957 (hence the name Mountford-Sheard), and was supplemented by a further collection of materials from Mountford in 1970.
Mountford’s pre-eminent interest was in the artistic, ceremonial and religious aspects of Aboriginal culture. Advice and consultation to date has demonstrated that the level of secret/sacred content within the collection is substantial.
Denise is now going to speak about the Library’s approach to making this important collection more accessible, whilst safeguarding the many parts that are culturally restricted, and her major role in this endeavour.
Creating finding aids and processing the Mountford-Sheard collection
In the 50 or so years since the library first acquired the Mountford-Sheard collection,
curatorial staff developed what finding aids they could using the technology and resources available to them.Often the curators were very long term, andbuilt up an individual knowledge of the holdings that was not recorded sufficiently or transferred over to others when they left.
The original collection included a set of very idiosyncratic index cards, a sample of which is indicated in the figure below, plus scant indexes to the huge collection of photographs.
The curator previous to Suzy and I had started work rearranging the collection into a format-based sequence, and began creating an intranet site to record the details.The items were arranged in groups of journals, photograph albums, recordings etc., however they didn’t necessarily relate to one expedition, activity or group ofpeople.
As there was no handover from the previous curator when we started, we had to build our knowledge from scratch.One of the first things werealised about working with the Mountford collection was that research requests were often for images, and without comprehensive finding aids, fulfillingthese requests was very time-consuming and daunting. (As an example,the three cards on the left of the above figure actually represent many thousands of significant black and white photographs and coloured slides.)
We recognised the need to create a useful, searchable finding-aid for these photographs and over 2-3 years, indexed about 12,000 images to a database, with the help of carefully selectedvolunteers and field-work students.This project was mutually beneficial as the students were able to gain hands-on experience with a rare and significant collection, and practise principles inthe handling of Indigenous content.The resultant database reduces hours of work and frustration down to a few minutes, and increases accessibility to a broader range of material due to the coverage that can be achieved with different searching capabilities.
We then decided to rearrange, and begin processing the rest of the Mountford papers, to and give a logical flow to the material and reflect correct Archival practice.As mentioned above, the collection measures over 120 shelf metres, in various formats, and approximately 85 possible subject-based series have been identified. The series are mostly topical, whereby the material is grouped by, for example, all the items collected during, or relevant to, a specific expedition.As this is often what people ask to see, it made sense to have all of this material together.Other logical groupings include scientific papers, correspondence, and preparation for publications.I might add here that our motto for the Mountford collection is ‘the man threw nothing away, and he copied it twice!’ which is probably just as well given the significance of the collection.
We describe the collection onto the commonly available Library Database, using archival standards and fields. We do this to ensure the records are universally available, and are maintained and upgraded into the future.It’s better to do this and have ICT support, than to create your own lists and risk the data becoming corrupt or the software becoming obsolete, as has happened in the past.
The processing work is guided by the ‘Aboriginal Special Holdings Project’ report which specialist contractors, Ron Lister and the late Ushma Scales, prepared when they assessed our ethnographic collections.Ron and Ushma worked for about 12 months identifying and separating restricted, sensitive and open material, as well as facilitating and informing our digitisation plans, and providing in-house cultural awareness training to library staff.
I would like to mention here that the guidance and friendship offered by Ron and Ushma was very generous, and I found this to be one of the most rewarding times in my working life.
I have indeed had quite a few adventures while processing this material.I have made discoveries, dispelled a few myths, had some of my preconceived ideas challenged, and found out incredible facts - such as Mountford having to develop his film in a cup and wash it in a creek during the 1952 Yirrkala expedition!
I’ve also found some funny and startling things which aren’t fit for polite company but certainly add context to the overall body of work!These so-called ‘adventures’ or serendipitous finds are actually useful to our methods of processing as they help to separate fact from fiction, and help me put the puzzle together properly.So, in addition to basic bibliographic data, we record notes on these ‘discoveries’ if relevant, plus information about access and copying restrictions, community contacts, related publications, a history for each main expedition, and appropriate subject-headings.
The philosophy behind this level of detail is to give the material context and to take the fear out of managing the collection, by providing as much supporting information as possible to library staff and users.I guess this could be termed ‘Knowledge Management’, but to me it’s common sense and prepares for the future when other people might be managing access to the collection.
The processing is also part of the workflow of providing file namesfor ourdigitisation project, which I will come to shortly.
To date, I have processed 25 series (or about one-third) of the collection.
The processing of course has its challenges.It’s a very large collection, which will probably take years to process, so I sometimes get ‘large record group processing fatigue’.We manage this by mixing things up a bit, and tackling something smaller that can be completed quickly, in amongst the bigger and more difficult material.I do see light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s a bit like planting a pine tree seedling – you might not be there to see the grown-up tree but you’re doing something good in the meantime!
Other challenges would be familiar to all of you: time constraints, conflicting priorities and organisational change.
Besides simply having the material described, there are many other positive outcomes of this project.
Through rearranging and processing the material our knowledge of the collection has increased significantly, to the point where I find myself quoting facts and figures that I didn’t even know I knew.This translates into better assistance for researchers and communities, as we can direct people to more relevant material, much more quickly.
We are more confident in knowing what is restricted or sensitive, and in administering that when responding to requests.Many people think, for example, that the restrictions don’t apply to them, and we try and use these situations as an opportunity to educate, using advice, resource description, and the Protocols to show consistency in our approach.
Another advantage is that we can better demonstrate to communities exactly how we manage access requests.For example when Ushma brought the Uluru men to the Library to view material relevant to their country, we all sat and talked about managing restricted material and how we make sure only the right people see it. i.e. them.It turned out to be quite a social event, and resulted in a project of digital repatriation of over 1300 Mountford slidesand photographs, now used by the Uluru men in the management of their rock art.
Kunmanara ‘Reggie’ Uluru, one of the Traditional Owners of Uluru, views materials during a visit to the State Library of South Australia, 2006.
Photograph courtesy Ron Lister
Also, we can now provide educated advice to other Library departments on matters of policy development, secure housing and digitisation priorities.
For me, I have learnt new skills in archival practice and processing, which, although more about principles than rules, has a flexibility of description which I enjoy and find logical, and I hope others find useful.
Digitising the Mountford Collection
Our project to digitise the collection began in March 2007, with a view to protecting originals, providing easier access and ultimately, digital repatriation to communities.
As mentioned earlier, our digitisation work is assisted and informed by the ‘Aboriginal Special Holdings Project’.Through the project’s contact with active community groups, information was gathered to inform the digitisation process, and the resultant community interest in our projects provided a structure for prioritising.
In setting priorities we reviewed past access requests and community interest.
Important factors for consideration were:
Exposure due to high demand
Native Title requirements
Uniqueness and rarity (e.g.description of the last traditional ceremony held in a community)
Community demand and digital repatriation possibilities
Historical importance of the expedition (e.g. 1948 Arnhem Land expedition)
Demand by aligned institutions
Digitisation activity and electronic file management
So here we come to the actual process of digitisation, and contracting in appropriate personnel.
Our contractor, Garry Benson, came to us through the Ara Irititja archive project, and is cleared by communities to do this work.Fortunately for us, Garry works fast, the results are excellent, and we enjoy working with him.Of course Garry can’t scan material pertinent to women;however he has helped identify and provided training to women who can.
Contractor Garry Benson at work digitising the Mountford-Sheard collection, Feb 2007
We used the Protocols, advice from Ara Irititja and community consultation when considering how to store the digital files appropriately. Our ICT manager supports the housing of the files in a restricted area on the server, which can only be password-accessed by certain people and their delegates.
What are the outcomes and our future intentions?
During the past year, all Mountford expedition journals with Aboriginal and other significant historical content have been digitised. This amounts to over 50 journals, and at the time of writing, about 15,000 scans.Work is now underway to digitise the artworks, and next are the coloured slides.
As well as contributing to the preservation and management of these materials, and remote access for researchers, our activities have generated interest from communities who have indicated a desire to obtain digital copies for their own archives.
Realistically, digital repatriation is the best way for us to provide access to and consult with communities, in view of our resources, personnel and our vast distance from most of the communities represented in the collection.We intend to advise stakeholder communities once the digitised material is ready, and we hope this will lead back to further description and more definitive advice on restricted and open material once they have reviewed the content, and decided on its management within their own community culture.
We are fortunate that our organisation legally owns the copyright in Mountford’s materials, and we try to honour Indigenous intellectual property and moral rights by appropriate administration, taking community advice and wishes into account, and working towards digital repatriation.
I will now hand you back to Suzy who will discuss some of the work she has been involved in to increase access to published items in the State Library pertaining to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Mountford’s personal library
Whilst Denise has been immersing herself in the description of the unpublished items - the manuscripts, journals and audiovisual output of Mountford - I had the opportunity to gain new skills by working on a project to catalogue his significant personal library of published material.
This personal library, which previously formed a part of his archival record group, is a collection of books and articles that Mountford assembled over his career, almost 1,100 in total. Whilst a portion of these items already existed in the State Library’s collection, almost two-thirds of them did not, leaving a large body of important writing on art, anthropology and Indigenous cultures invisible and inaccessible to our customers.
I worked on the project for 15 months (one day a week)and during that time I added about 1,100 records to the catalogue, including 410 original records which I had created in Libraries Australia.
The items have been physically integrated into the Library’s Special collection, and are now able to be retrieved for use in the supervised Reading Room via the regular retrieval channels.
We added the series title C.P. Mountford personal library to each item, easily enabling the list of the titles to be displayed in its entirety. This is important for maintaining the provenance of the collection.
Taking on such a project brought benefits for myself as well as the Library and its customers. Never having catalogued before, I learned new skills and was provided with the opportunity to gain more knowledge on my specialisation and Library holdings.
And during the project something surprising happened to me – I started to care about cataloguing, and to think more about the importance of good bibliographic description…
Cataloguing and description
“Given a choice between a number of different tasks, most information professionals would probably put cataloguing at the bottom of their lists of priorities.It’s a routine job. It can be boring. The rewards are neither immediate nor obvious.”
From ‘Cataloguing without tears : managing knowledge in the information society’ Jane M. Read,Oxford : Chandos Pub., 2003
This describes how many of us may feel about the task of cataloguing, yet in this age of information overload the way we describe information becomes more critical than ever. Especially in a large library with a diverse user-group such as the State Library of South Australia.
In the Henrietta Fourmile article ‘Who owns the past’ the author states that customers rely on two factors when seeking information – the skill and good-will of the Librarian searching for them, and the quality of the information that exists. But I would add a third factor to that - the skill, knowledge and efforts of the person describing the item in the first place.