Abstract

e-Research requires technological platforms that enhance researchers’ ability to generate, collect, share, analyse, store and retrieve information.

The significance and requirements of the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) research communities has recently gained traction with the science-oriented National Research Priorities as demonstrated in the NCRIS Roadmap Review Discussion Paper in April 2008.

The HASS contribution to the Discussion Paper usefully underscores the integrated nature of eResearch within the HASS sector, and also suggests that a similar argument can be made within the STEM sector (science, technology, engineering and medicine), as well as for collaborations across these two fundamental research sectors. An effective national e-research infrastructure must address the need for integration across disciplinary, organisational and jurisdictional boundaries.

It is essential for researchers to have access to trusted and comprehensive repositories of information. HASS suggest a number of measures that can help shape better management of research data using contemporary ICTs including the NCRIS Platforms for Collaboration capability and a range of other strategies..

In addition to calling for the ‘digitisation of Australian cultural heritage material in a way that is accessible to researchers’, HASS also advocates for ‘improved accessibility and interoperability of research resources…’. Two of the key issues in managing and improving access to these resources are stewardship and sustainability.

Many of these resources are collected and maintained by the group of organisations known collectively as the collections sector including archives, galleries, libraries and museums, numbering more than 3000 nationwide.

The Collections Council of Australia was established in 2004 by all the governments of Australia to ensure the nation-wide sustainability of scientific and cultural collections. A significant area of our work to date has been toward the development of an Australian Framework for Digital Heritage Collections.

The Framework seeks to develop and support solutions for maximising access and interoperability across all four collecting domains – archives, galleries, libraries and museums – and across all jurisdictions – local / regional / state / national.

Collaborations between many different entities are required to achieve the e-Research and collections sustainability outcomes we desire. These collaborations will be managed through working groups which define standards in data management and curation (of born-digital’ and ‘made-digital’ objects), skills and infrastructure, toward the articulation of viable networks for all researchers using digital heritage collections.

This presentation will report on progress made following the publication of the Australian Framework for Digital Heritage Collections document in July 2007, especially in relation to our 2008 advocacy to the Commonwealth government through submissions to the 2020 Summit, the Review of the National Innovation System and the NCRIS Roadmap Review.

About the speaker

Margaret Birtley is the inaugural CEO of the Collections Council of Australia, a body that is mandated to speak with one voice for collections in Australia. The Collections Council has completed major projects relating to conservation and preservation practice and also to digital collections. At different times, Margaret has worked with all four of the major domains (archives, galleries, libraries and museums) in the collections sector. As an academic (first as a medievalist, then in Museum Studies) she worked with collections of manuscripts and rare books, art works, and diverse historical and technological items. She is now on the University of South Australia’s advisory committee for its Arts and Cultural Management program, and is an Honorary Fellow of Deakin University. As a researcher she surveyed archives, galleries, libraries and museums for the Cultural Ministers Council’s “Study into the Key Needs of Collecting Institutions in the Heritage Sector.” She also organised a major conference for libraries, archives, museums and historical collections, with the theme: “New Responsibilities: Documenting Multicultural Australia.” Margaret’s career includes roles with government advisory bodies, professional associations, and museum boards. She was the first Manager of Visitor Programs at Scienceworks, part of Museum Victoria in Melbourne, and has an abiding interest in heritage interpretation and public programs.