A powerpoint prepared by curator Kym Matthews about the History Room's collection and plans to digitise it for public access. An excellent case study into the work of a small regional museum. Supported by Break O' Day Council.

1. St Helens History Room
Case Study - Digital Access To Collections
Curator - Kym Matthews

2. St Helens History Room & Visitor Centre

3. The St Helens History Room houses a social
history museum where there are over 1000
artifacts on display.
The St Helens History Room is part of the
Break O’Day Council and a curator is paid
for 14 hours per week. There is an associated
volunteer team currently numbering 15.
These are presented thematically to represent
the various stages of settlement in St Helens.

7. The St Helens History Room recognises and
follows the Museums Australia code of
museum ethics and the National Standards
for Australian Museums and Galleries.
The St Helens History Room has a support
organisation called the Friends of the St Helens
History Room, with 60 financial members
currently.They are an independent incorporated
body, giving financial support by way of
membership and fundraising.

16. The St Helens History Room receives many
research requests for general and family history
from the general public. These are usually
random walk-ins. We also have requests from
authors and academics, both local and wider
across Tasmania and/or mainland Australia.
Our image archive is accessed for these
purposes and digital presentations (Smart TV)
and displays within the museum.

18. There is an extensive photographic archive with
approximately 20,000 images. There is also a
Genealogical archive on settler families and a
general archive containing historical notes on
people, places and events relating to St Helens
in particular and generally that of Tasmania.
We have a professional agreement with the
Tasmanian State Library as we currently hold
the Burns Collection, of which they are the
owners. We maintain this collection on site and
regularly update their records regarding the
collection.

19. The Burns Collection includes a series of
photographic images taken of the St Helens
district and it’s changing landscape and other
places around Tasmania generally. The earliest
photo dates from 1860 - a view of Stanley.
Other old images include Weldborough’s first
house (1875), the schooner ‘St Helens’ in
Georges bay (1878) and a group outside the
Poimena Hotel taken in 1890. The collection is
made up of negatives ranging in size from
35mm to 80x140mm,prints both colour and
black and white from postcard size to A4,
33mm colour slides and 80x80 lantern slides.

20. Lantern Slides

21. Lantern
Slides

22. Lantern Slides

23. There are some glass negatives, mainly in the
quarter plate size. The prints are kept in
archival folders according to subject matter and
the negatives, in the main, in archival albums.
The glass negatives are stored in specially
made boxes that keep each individual image
separate from the others. Glass lantern slides
are kept in wooden boxes with seperators.
The lantern slides have been scanned and
entered into Mosaic. There are around 583,
mainly in good condition,with a small
percentage damaged ie. cracked or chipped.

26. The negative collection is made up of several
individual collections. There are the Burns
collection (mainly black and white but also a
significant number of colour ones), the Dr Rae
collection, the Burn’s Family collection and a
series of miscellaneous albums.
The Burn’s collection contains approximately
20,000 35mm negatives, catalogued in
Filemaker Pro on PC (previously catalogued on
a Mac computer and later transferred to a PC
and filed in Microsoft Access - which had
limitations on data holding, which FileMaker Pro
has overcome).

27. The Rae collection is about 25-30% that of the Burns.
There is no catalogue of the Rae collection as most
images are unidentified (hopefully a shooting log or
index will surface eventually). The miscellaneous
collection is about 1500 in number and is in the process
of being digitised and where the subject matter is
known, will be catalogued in Mosaic.
Initially we focused on one collection, namely the
Burns, then moved on to the other collections,
including glass lantern slides of the
Ransom Family collection.

28. The St Helens History Room has a team of 2
volunteers who work on a weekly basis with the
photographic archive. One is a retired
professional photographer who worked for the
CSIRO in Victoria, the other is a retired
advertising professional who has also been a
photographer/designer with 25 years
in the industry.

29. Part of the digitised Aboriginal stone tools collection

30. What continues to be the biggest challenge is
ensuring the recording of data is accurate.
Having a plethora of volunteers working on the
cataloguing system can be problematic as
there are varying degrees of skills associated
with the inputting of data into the system.
Easy access of data has been a challenge in
the past, particularly transferring from one
platform (Apple) to another but this was
overcome with the suggestion of using
FileMaker Pro by our volunteer working within
the photographic archive.

33. SOFTWARE
Mosaic - The main software cataloguing system for
all collections.
FileMaker Pro - This was used to catalogue
the Burns photographic archive.
There were problems with the previous system (limitations on
data holding) and these were overcome by using
FileMaker Pro.
HARDWARE
PC storage facilities (Windows based)
with off-site backup.
2 Canon flatbed scanners.
1 Nikon negative/slide scanner.

34. DIGITAL ACCESS
As yet we have no facility for this. When research
requests are received, we do supply digital copies
via email. We are yet to upgrade our Mosaic
software so that significant items can be accessed
online.
OPPORTUNITIES
Expanded research and contacts from interest
generated by collections, the latest being a visit by
LaTrobe university academics for a paper they were
working on regarding the distribution
of Aboriginal artifacts across Tasmania.

35. Opening hours are 9am - 5pm 7 days a week,
except for Christmas Day and Good Friday.
St Helens History Room