Cultural policy
and Australia’s
cultural heritage:
Issues and
challenges in the
GLAM landscape
Wendy Davis
and
Katherine Howard
Faculty of Science and
Engineering
Queensland University of
Technology
RAILS8, June 2012
Today’s presentation
 Background
 Commonwealth
Cultural Policies: from
Creative Nation (1994) to current situation
 Responses
of our national collecting
institutions to the Cultural Policy Discussion
Paper (2011)
GLAM
 Guiding


Digital technology
Collaboration and convergence
 Issues



‘principles’
and Challenges
What’s in a name?
Multi-faceted discipline
Cultural policy focus
Cultural Policy in Australia
 Creative




Nation (1994)
Resonance with GLAM
Emphasis on user access
Recognition of new relationship between
technology and culture
Institutional collaboration – “Distributed
National Collection”
2012 and beyond….
 Cultural



Policy Discussion Paper (2011)
National Broadband Network
10 year plan
Few specifics about “collecting institutions”
Visions for a GLAM future
 National
Gallery of Australia
 National Library of Australia
 National Archives of Australia
 National Museum of Australia
National Gallery of Australia
 No
public response
 Mission
– to maximise a sense of place
and national cultural heritage and
identity
National Library of Australia
 Active
digitisation program (newspaper
project, Trove)
 Encourages user participation
 Already engaged in collaborative activity
 Need to continue digitisation projects to
preserve cultural heritage for the future
National Archives of Australia
 Serves
both Government and public
 “helping Australians better understand
their heritage and democracy” (NAA,
2012)
 Need to preserve cultural records for
future generations
 Increased access through digitisation
National Museum of Australia
 “culture”
more than “the arts”
 Defines itself as a “collecting AND
educational” institution
 Emphasis also on use of digital technology
to increase access for users
Looking for a GLAM future
 From
collaboration to convergence
 The
Digital Cultural Sphere Submission
Paper (2011)



Distributed National Collection
Move past “in-house” collaboration
A national coordinating body – a “paninstitutional” cultural heritage policy
Can Australia become a
GLAM nation?
Wendy Davis @wendyldavis
wendy.davis@connect.qut.edu.au
Katherine Howard - @K1Howard
k9.howard@student.qut.edu.au