Welcome Volunteers

Welcome Volunteers The Volunteers Program for the Holt Digital Archive

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Volunteer Program

Image of Uncle Sam courtesy of ThinkStock

Volunteers The main aim of our volunteer program is to further the preservation and accessibility of our collection to researchers

The Holt Digital Archive has Australias largest collection of digital unpublished manuscripts, maps, letters, music, photos and maps. They are all open source to provide access for researchers and academics.

Map of Australia from mid 1800s courtesy of (ANZLIC, 2015)

The Holt Digital Archive must maintain and preserve its digital artifacts. with the growing rate of technology upgrades, older file formats my become defunct, leading to important cultural artifacts maybe lost forever.

Image courtesy of Can Stock Photo, 2015

Imagine if we lost

Ned Kelly by Sid Nolan courtesy of The Age Blog, 2008

Or

Youre the Voice by John Farham, personal collection

Or

Dismissal of Gough Whitlam courtesy of YouTube

Yes, all the examples exist in multiple physical and digital formats, but all of them no matter what format is important to the cultural memory of Australia. Each of these artifacts, whether seminally important or small deserve preservation so they can be accessed by future generations.

Digital Preservation

We have to be able to normalise our digital records. Meaning we format files so they can be read on any operating system or device no matter what technologies change. Think of it as re-boxing physical objects to help with their preservation.

How You Can HelpBy volunteering for the Holt Digital Archive you will helping a specific community of researchers preserving important digital records by;

Adding important data for collection items for easier accessTranscribing from original documents for searchable dataScanning original documents into our digital archiveNormalising documents into Xena

Xena: our hero

XML Electronic Normalising for Archives System or Xena works in a three step processDetermines the file format of a digital recordConverts file into preservation formatStores the file with metadata as Xena file

Xena by Lucy Lawless courtesy of WVTM13, 2105

Xena ContinuedXena is an easy to use system, which is compatible with systems such as Microsoft Word and Excel. There will be on the job training, to guide you through the different processes

Benefits of VolunteeringYou are giving up your time to help us, but there are also gaining an important experienceThe opportunity to work with digital artifacts that maybe of personal interestGaining experience with working with artifacts and archive technology Meeting like minded people interested in the same things

A Few Things to RememberRemember you are giving up your time to help us. Take your time, it is not a race, there are no quotas to fillMake sure to re-read and double check everything you do, incorrect labeling or data and you could misplace and lose the digital artifactDont be shy, always ask for help if you need it, there is no such thing as a silly question here

Remember to Enjoy Your Work!!!

You're the VoiceJohn FarnhamJohn FarnhamOne Voice - Greatest Hits2003-10-20T07:00:00Zlindsaywilkins81@hotmail.com2008-10-21 11:41:00One Voice - Greatest Hits