Queensland Heritage Council | What’s the digital future of heritage?

The facade of the RS Exton and Co premises at 333 Ann Street.

Brisbane’s Shrine of Remembrance, dedicated on Armistice Day in 1930.

The Story Bridge, spanning Brisbane River, was built between 1935 and 1940

The Masonic temple at Barcaldine was constructed in 1901

My heritage place

In the late 1990s, land subdivision at Yeronga changed the surroundings of heritage-listed Rhyndarra, a two-storey mansion that had variously served as a grand house, an orphanage and the officers’ mess of First Military Hospital. The original stables were retained on one block, across from the house.

What’s the digital future of heritage?

The event presented the invited audience with a stimulating afternoon of ideas and debate about the uses of digitisation in heritage and the demonstration of a computerised search and presentation model which could be the future of heritage records.

The expert panel comprised: Professor Paul Turnbull, Professor of eHistory, University of Queensland; Don Watson, architect, Queensland Department of Public Works and well-known architectural historian and author; Louise Denoon, Executive Manager of Heritage Collections, State Library of Queensland; Dr Ross Wilkinson, Executive Director, Australian National Data Services.

The expert panel responded enthusiastically to a no-holds barred keynote address entitled Making Heritage Public Knowledge by Margaret Birtley, the CEO of the Collections Council of Australia.

Ms Birtley summarised the experience and wisdom gained by the Collections Council during its work.

“It is the responsibility of collecting and heritage organisations to identify, collect, preserve, provide and promote access to the full record of social, economic and creative activity, in both physical and digital forms,” she said, referring to the pressing need to ensure ongoing access to Australia’s cultural heritage in digital form.

Ms Birtley talked about the vast gap between the potential for Australia’s collecting organisations to publish their collections online, and the ability to do so.

“Many collecting organisations and heritage properties still do not have a web presence or even a dedicated email address,” she said.

Managing continuous access to information and managing the digitising of collections was a new challenge that can’t be dealt with using old methodologies.

“Digital objects are significantly more difficult to preserve and manage over the long term than many traditional information storage formats,” Ms Birtley said.

Collaboration is a key factor in the future success of the managing all data, not just that held by heritage collections. Several panel members enthusiastically supported this view in their responses to Margaret Birtley’s keynote address.

Professor Jane Hunter demonstrated the outcomes so far of a joint research and development project between UQ’s IT School and the Queensland Heritage Council (QHC). The software searches a wide range of nominated databases then puts all the results together in what is currently termed ‘a compound object’: a display of records, images, audio and video that is ranged interactively along a timeline. Each item can be examined in full without the need to download it to your computer – a boon for regional bodies and individuals with download limits and poor internet access speed.

The QHC will advance the concept of a national e-heritage portal at the February meeting of the Heritage Chairs and Officials of Australia and New Zealand.