State library goes back to the future

BY ALEX MCDONALD
The State Library of NSW has been quietly documenting how we live our lives for the past century. Its collection of more than a million images features illustrations of the convict settlement from 1788 and vintage photos of the budding industrial age. More recent snaps show McMansions in Sydney’s west and feral fashions at Glebe Markets.
Mitchell Librarian Richard Neville has a soft spot for Australia’s oldest photograph, a simple portrait of a man named Dr William Bland from 1845.
‘I suppose I’ve always liked that one because it is such a plain and stark image,’ he says. ‘It had to be because William Bland had to sit still for two minutes for the exposure. As an icon of photography it’s just an amazing thing.’
Since photography and databases went digital, libraries around the world have realised they can give the public greater access to their collections.
In an Australian first, the State Library of NSW has now partnered with the image-sharing website, Flickr. An initial 100 images of historical firsts’ can now be viewed on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw).
‘Most of our transactions now happen online,’ Richard Neville says. ‘Things like Flickr are pretty sophisticated sites which have a huge amount of traffic through them. We thought we needed to get our images to where people naturally congregate. And Flickr was good place to start.
‘A place like Flickr ‘ you type in the keywords and away you go. From our perspective it means more people learn about our images and that does give the images a greater life.’
Among the first batch of images uploaded onto Flickr is a shot of a German ‘Amphicar’, taken at the beginning of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in 1971.
‘It was a bit of an oddball machine,’ says the library’s photographic curator, Alan Davies.
‘It had a Triumph Herald engine over the rear axle and had twin propellers. The front wheels were used as rudders in the water’ absolutely stupid device. Frankly you’d have to mad to be on the harbour in that.’
Alan Davies says the Library’s photographic database is still the best port of call for those looking for an image from a particular era. So far, they have digitised about a third of the collection but Davies admits it will still be some time before the entire collection is available online.
‘We’re madly digitising,’ he says. ‘We’re talking five to 10 years. A million’s a big number and it’s a huge job. But it’s something that’s worth doing.’