Trove - Pandora Archive

A couple of years ago I was contacted by The National Library of Australia asking for permission to archive this blog in The Pandora Web Archive. I put the email aside to deal with later and promptly forgot about it.

When I was approached again earlier this year I acted immediately and gave the library permission to archive my blog.

The Pandora site explains:
"PANDORA, Australia's Web Archive, is a growing collection of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and now built in collaboration with nine other Australian libraries and cultural collecting organisations.

The name, PANDORA, is an acronym that encapsulates our mission: Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia."

Here is my blog's entry on Pandora:

I notice that several of my genimates including Shauna Hicks and Kerry Farmer have also had their blogs or websites archived on Pandora. You can see a full list of Genealogy and Family History sites in Pandora here: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/subject/80

I am thrilled to have been chosen for the Pandora Archive.

Q&As

I received a lovely email from one of the attendees at my Friday night talk at Hornsby Library in which Christine asked me two questions. I will reply to Christine's questions via this blog as my responses may be of interest to more than one person.

Hello Jill,
 
Thankyou for your very interesting talk last night. I had looked on Trove before briefly but I learnt a lot last night from you. I can see that there will be many pleasurable hours ahead on Trove.

I have two questions if you don't mind answering. They are:-
1. Is there a UK equivalent to Trove?
2. You mentioned in passing family history software & as I do not have any I was wondering if you could recommend some & tell me where I can get it.

Thankyou
Christine


1. Is there a UK equivalent to Trove?

Unfortunately there is not a free service like Trove available in the UK. There are, however, British Newspapers available online.
The British Newspaper Archive, http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/, is "a partnership between the British Library and brightsolid online publishing to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British Library's vast collection over the next 10 years."  While searching is free on the site one has to pay to view images of newspapers. It is a cheaper option than a 'plane ride to London!

If you have membership of The State Library of NSW you can search some newspaper databases online from home. This page gives details on how to apply for a library card: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/using/access/register_card.html.  Once you have a card you can search the e-newspaper resources which include The Irish Times, The Scotsman, The Times Digital Archive and 19th Century British Newspapers for FREE.

The National Library of Australia, http://www.nla.gov.au, has a similar service for registered members.

2. You mentioned in passing family history software & as I do not have any I was wondering if you could recommend some & tell me where I can get it.

There are a number of excellent software programs available on the market although there are more for PCs than for the Mac platform. Genealogists that I respect swear by the various programs they use. So, if you asked six experts you might get six different answers.

The programs each have features that appeal to the particular needs of individual users but they will mostly do a good job. Some programs like Legacy Family Tree, http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/, have scaled down free versions that you can download from the internet and use for as long as you like. If you like these products you can then purchase the full version via download or from a retail source.  Some let you download a trial copy and try it out for 30 days before you have to purchase or dump it. 

If you do not wish to download and install a program from the internet (which can be the cheaper option) you can purchase boxed versions of leading programs from various retail outlets. Places like Harvey Norman have a limited range of software while specialist Gould Genealogy, http://www.gould.com.au, supplies most of the popular packages. Gould has a retail outlet near Adelaide and a thriving mail order business. Software packages are available from about $AU45 (Roots Magic).

Canadian Louis Kessler hosts Genealogy Software Reviews,  http://www.gensoftreviews.com/, that provides user submitted reviews of genealogy software packages. Australian Kerry Farmer wrote a booklet called "Which genealogy program?" updated in 2012 that provides guidance for software purchasers.

All that being said I would say that you will find that any of the following will suit your purposes: Family Historian, Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree, Rootsmagic or The Master Genealogist. For Mac users Reunion seems to be the leading contender.

I only have recent personal experience with The Master Genealogist that I have been using for ages and TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding)  an excellent program that I love however, for TNG, one needs a bit of experience with technology and basic html. I am about to purchase Family Historian v5 (Mother's day gift to myself) as I have heard wonderful things about it. If it stacks up I may  switch to it. The Master Genealogist is a sophisticated program that can be used straight from the box or it can be customised by the user. I have barely scratched the surface with those customisations.

You will find that the major software packages have face to face user group meetings and online forums and webinars where you can get help from enthusiasts. Several of these groups meet at SAG in Sydney. Additionally I know an old girl in Sydney who is available, for a moderate fee, to help beginners set up and get going with their genealogy software.

Lingering in the Library

New service desk in Main Reading Room

Accompanying my husband on a business trip to Canberra this week presented me with an opportunity to visit the National Library of Australia to do a little bit of genealogy research. I spent a wonderful two and a half days  using the resources of the library. During that time I looked at around 30 books, read a few of them and took lots of digital photos of pages to read and digest at my leisure. I only managed to look at one microfilm.

I had a fantastic time at the library and hope that I can return to Canberra soon to avail myself of its facilities. For genealogists in Australia there are many discoveries to be made within its walls

The objective of the National Library is stated as "Our objective is to ensure Australians have access to a national collection of library material to enhance learning, knowledge creation, enjoyment and understanding of Australian life and society." (http://www.nla.gov.au/corporate-documents/directions)

The Paper Plate

Here is my little PMI evaluation of my visit:

Plus
* It's free
* A beautiful well-maintained building in a prime location by Lake Burley Griffin
* A huge collection of resources relating to Australia
* Free wifi for user devices
* Finding the less expensive Paper Plate food outlet on my third visit

Main Reading Room at NLA

* Comfortable seating and work areas in well-lit Main Reading Room
* A pleasant environment in which to work
* Many computers for users to access
* Access to subscription databases from library computer terminals
* Being able to preorder up to 15 books from my hotel room prior to my visits
* Swift retrieval of material from stack
* Not related to my visit but must mention Trove - a resource that fulfils the library's objective


Minus
* The unlit carpark by the lake made me feel very nervous and unsafe when leaving the building at 7:00 pm (I could not get a spot in the main carpark at 10:00 am, Tuesday). Another savvy carpark user had a torch, I had to bumble may way back to the car through puddles and over an unsealed potholed path.
* The meagre collection of printed works on open access
* $8.50 for a (find the tiny bit of)  ham sandwich in the cafe (and they didn't even put it on a plate)
* The cafe closing way too early on Sunday.
* Long lag between returning books and having them returned in library system meant I could not order as many books as I would have liked. Books were still shoeing up in my name several hours after I had returned them to the trolley.
* That one has to collect resources from different areas of the building

National Library at Night

Interesting
* The issue of bags in the library. I chose a handbag that met the size requirements for entry so that I could take my camera, wallet, tiny scanner and netbook into the library. The attendant on Sunday let me take my bag in. On Monday the attendant wouldn't let me take my bag in because it was "too fat". On Tuesday another attendant wouldn't let me take my bag in because, although it was less than the dimensions shown on the perspex display model, the handle of my bag was in a different position! I saw a number of people in the library with large black computer bags. Why was my handbag that held a small netbook and scanner (ie it was a computer bag) refused entry when these big black monsters got in?

Macs at NLA

* The new bank of computers ar the NLA are Macs. Did the NLA get a good price?

* The decor in the newly decorated Main Reading Room is eighties style, purple and orange and will date quickly. Why wasn't a more classic style chosen?

Back to the eighties furniture at NLA

* I wondered about the use of library resources especially the computers. On Sunday on one side of me I had someone spending a lot of tme on
hotmail while on the other side the chap spent his time watching videos on Youtube. Does this use fit in with the objective of the Library? Do the people of Canberra use it as a de facto public library? Are the ordinary citizens of other areas in Australia disadvantaged because they can't rock up to the National Library to check their emails and watch videos.

* I noted the large number of high school and university students using the library as a study hall ( the same thing happens at The State Library in NSW). Does this use fit in with the objective of the Library?

* The morgue-like atmosphere in the library where one can hear a pin drop. Learning in the Twenty-first century is seen as a collaborative activity yet it appears as though there are few areas in the library that are suitable for collaborative work.

* I can't comment on the staff because I only had to seek assistance once to get my library card renewed. I am fairly self-sufficient in libraries.

* I wonder about the cost of security if patrons were let loose in the stacks versus the cost of staff  retrieving and returning material to stacks. When I am in an open access library I often find that by going to a certain Dewey number and browsing the books there I find some gems that I don't find via a catalogue search. I would imagine that in my 2 1/2 days that, if I had access to the stack, I would have been able to consult 300 rather then 30 books. On my recent visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City where books are on open access I was able to consult a huge number of books in just a few hours.

Our National Library

I love our nation's library.  Although I get to visit Canberra a few times a year I usually spend my time catching up with friends. During my visit this week I set aside time to do some family history research at the National Library of Australia. I was thrilled at some of the changes I witnessed.

An unnatural silence punctuated by laptops starting up, mobile phones beeping and bags rustling pervades the Main Reading Room. A little piped light classical music is needed as an antidote to the deathly silence. It would be hard to engage in collaborative work in this morgue like atmosphere. Perhaps it is time for the silence rule to be relaxed.

The library has a copy of "The Wanton Witches of the Wanstead" a book about the females who were transported to Australia on the ship, Wanstead. The catalyst for my visit was, as my ancestor Elizabeth Phipps was one of the witches, to read this book.  The night before my visit I accessed the library's catalogue and found this and a number of other works I was keen to consult. I logged in with my NLA library card  and requested the maximum 15 books. I arrived at the library at 9:00 am, opening time next morning, and made for the reading room.  14 of my 15 books were waiting for me.  What service!

When I selected a desk I was pleased to find it fitted with a dual power supply so that I could plug my laptop in without having to worry about conserving battery power. As I had limited time to read all the books I had packed my digital camera. Although  "The Wanton Witches of the Wanstead" was a disappointment the other resources I used  brought me a harvest of new births deaths and marriages and a few new cousins. Additionally I was able to find background information on some of the country areas where the ancestors lived and worked. I took digital images of several relevant paragraphs in some of the works and will peruse these at my leisure at home.

Warmth pervaded the library from the friendly smile of the lady on the baggage desk to the young librarian who searched valiantly but couldn't locate the 15th book I had requested.  The lightfilled reading room and comfortably heated room add to the warmth of the library.

I enjoyed my visit so much that I delayed my return home. This morning I requested another 15 books from our hotel and then dragged Mr Geniaus along with me for another library visit. Mr Geniaus was impressed as the library had free wireless internet access so he was able to catch up on his work while I continued with the ancestor hunting.

Genealogists, a visit to the National Library should be at the top of your bucket list.

Adding Treasure to the Trove

I have read numerous blog posts and tweets extolling the virtues of the NLA's Historic Australian Newspapers, 1803 to 1954 on Trove.


Just last night @HicksShauna tweeted 'Having such a good time on Historic Australian newspapers forgot the time & now after midnight http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home'

I am a regular user of this site, the information found there adds some flavour to the rather dry facts in my family tree. I have found birth and death notices, sickly sweet in memoriums, saucy divorce proceedings and articles that give places and times to ancestors.

As Geniaus, a registered user of Trove, I can contribute to this wonderful resource. The newspapers are scanned by OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software that does not produce particularly accurate records. As the original newpapers do not have particularly sharp print the OCR transcriptions sometimes read as gobbledygook. Many words are therefore not indexed correctly and this results in fewer hits for searchers.

Users of Trove can correct lines of the OCR text. I recently edited this entry:
"WOODI1I VI) (nu Florence Gowans)-Februar) 15,
it War M.innnil Hospitil, Wnvcile), to Mr and Mrs
1-1, I Woiellieid, oí Burwood-j bon (Itomld Wil-
li jmj_"

to:
WOODHEAD (nee Florence Gowans)-February 15,
At War Memorial Hospital, Waverley, to Mr and Mrs
Eric L. Woodhead, of Burwood-a son (Ronald Wil-
liam).

Now that this text has been corrected future searchers looking for Woodhead, War Memorial Hospital or Ronald William will be able to retrieve this article.

My contribution of 242 lines of corrected text is a drop in the ocean compared with the top five contributers:

1	jhempenstall	364,776
2	John.F.Hall	338,123
3	fwalker13	303,797
4	annmanley	273,427
5	maurielyn	246,304

who between them have corrected around 1,500,000 lines of text.I am ranked at 1657 on the league table of users who have corrected lines.

I exhort those who use Trove to consider adding to the treasure there by correcting lines of text in articles you read.

Survey Respondents Needed

From The National Library of Australia

Have Your Say

We are conducting a survey of community attitudes towards the Library's collection and creation of digital content. The survey will take you around 10 minutes to complete and your responses will greatly assist the Library's future plans and activities. Surveys must be submitted by Tuesday 10 November 2009.

START SURVEY

Twigs of Yore: Getting more from my newspaper archive searches

Good advice from Australian Tapgenie on her Twigs of Yore blog.

Twigs of Yore: Getting more from my newspaper archive searches

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Please help our National Library

The National Library of Australia is seeking copies of old newspapers that are missing from its collection to be digitised.

Hoarders, who would like to assist, can check the list from the collect link below.

collect

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SBDS Prototype 0.1

Try out the new search facility for resources at The National Library. It certainly looks attractive and appears easy to use. Patrons are encouraged to try it out and submit feedback from the site.

SBDS Prototype 0.1

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Community Heritage Grants from NLA - 2009

Genealogical Societies may fit the criteria to apply for one of these grants from The National Library of Australia.

"Community organisations such as historical societies, museums, public libraries, archives, Indigenous and migrant community groups which collect and provide public access to their cultural heritage collections are eligible to apply"

Applications close on June 5th 2009.Further information is available from the Library's Community Heritage Grants page.

Contribute to Picture Australia

Do you have photos of your ancestors and family at work or play? Do you have photographs of events or locations that you would like to share with others? By contributing your photos to Picture Australia, the National Library of Australia's collection, you can help to establish a collective memory of Australian people, places and events.

The collection is searchable through Picture Australia. By sharing and appropriately describing your images you can make your interests more visible to other genealogists. I notice that Sydney genealogist, Carole Riley, has posted a set of old photos of people that appear to be her ancestors.

New Website from our National Library

National Library's December eNews will be of interest to genealogists.:

Search for Maps

The National Library has released a new website 'Maps of Australia' which enables a geospatial search of catalogue records for over 100 000 maps of Australia held in Australia's libraries, from the earliest mapping to the present.

Search Maps of Australia

The newsletter details many items of interest to family historian. Click here for details on newsletter subscription

Australian Newspapers Beta

The National Library of Australia has embraced the 21st Century. I was thrilled to see early issues of the Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser as part of Australian Newspapers Beta an online archive of early Australian newspapers.

A search of the archive produced a number of references to my Tierney ancestors from Dungog, NSW. The information contained in these articles that I was able to read online adds some colour to the genealogical data I have on these ancestors.

Libraries Australia

Chasing an elusive an out-of print book? Looking for a book to assist with yout research?

Libraries Australia lets you discover what's in Australian libraries. You can find it, borrow it, copy it or buy it. Using this search tool that lists over 42 million items held in most Australian academic, research, national, state, public and special libraries, one can identify work relevant to one's research. Many of these items will be available on intlibrary catalogueserlbrary loan from your local library.