Delivering the library's sound collections online.

Ayres, Marie-Louise

Throughout 2005, a small, dedicated and multi-disciplinary team from across the National Library of Australia worked to develop the infrastructure required to deliver its thousands of sound items online.

With more than 38 000 recorded hours, the Library's vast sound collections include oral histories with eminent and not-so-eminent Australians (many accompanied by interview transcripts). It also includes a magnificent folklore collection that was developed over many years by some of the great collectors, including John Meredith. These unique records of Australian life have hitherto been relatively difficult to access. Provided there are no other restrictions (such as confidentiality issues), researchers can now use them onsite at the Library, or order personal copies through the Copies Direct service, with sound delivered on CD and transcripts on paper.

Despite some formidable barriers, the Library is committed to making this content more widely available--not just to those who can visit Canberra or are willing to order a personal copy. Achieving this aim required considerable changes to the management of the sound collection, development of an online delivery system capable of simultaneously delivering sound and textual content, and a major project to convert retrospective content.

The first two parts of this project have now been achieved. The Library's entire sound collection is now managed through its Digital Collection Manager, which will include all new digital content or content converted from analogue formats. The audio delivery system has been developed and tested, and allows users to listen to streamed sound files and move backwards and forwards through often lengthy transcripts. These are major achievements and the project to deliver them was described in a paper at the 2006 Victorian Automated Library Association (VALA) conference. (www.vala.org.au/vala2006/2006pdfs/49_Ayres_Final.pdf)

Still to come is the massive job of converting legacy data and content for delivery. Descriptive metadata, analogue sound carriers and transcripts (many of which are in hard copy only) all need to be converted and upgraded for delivery. The requirements for this massive task are well understood, and the Library hopes to make a sound start on the project in the 2006-07 financial year.

Watch--or listen to!--this space.

Dr Marie-Louise Ayres

Acting Curator of Manuscripts