[LINK] Trove

[Roger Clarke]

The NLA has done brilliantly wit its Trove service.  Of particular 
note is the scanning-and-OCR of old newspapers, combined with 
crowdsourcing.

Browsing its most recent Annual Report (no, it's not my bed-time 
reading - I was looking for something specific), I see that it's also 
making some inroads into materials that are still under copyright:

"The Library also recently commenced a fundraising campaign in 
collaboration with The Canberra Times, in order to digitise 
in-copyright issues published between 1955 and 1996. It is hoped that 
the first stage of this major project, 1955 to 1975, will be 
completed in time for the Centenary of Canberra celebrations in 2013. 
Digitisation of The Australian Women's Weekly, undertaken in 
association with Australian Consolidated Press and the State Library 
of New South Wales, was completed in November 2010. The first 50 
years of The Weekly, representing 232,000 pages of articles, 
photographs and advertisements, which offer a unique insight into the 
social history of Australia in the twentieth century, are now freely 
available to the public. In addition to these collaborative projects, 
the Library has continued its regular digitisation program, adding 
12,907 items online this year, including photographs by Peter 
Dombrovskis, E.W. Searle and Wes Stacey and selected maps and music".

Nicely pitched, I reckon.  People who aren't totally convinced of the 
cultural value of the Women's Weekly may feel differently about 
Dombrovskis' priceless collection of Tasmanian upland photos.

-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University