Minutes of the Local Studies Special Interest Group held on Thursday 12 March 2015 – Dandenong Library
Item
1. Attendance &
Apologies
Minutes
Liz Pidgeon
Narelle Seymour
Vicki Court
Jackie Goddard
Elaine Craig
Karen Seckold
Ros Ryan
Judith Oke
Jane Baker
Natasha Kamenev
Anne McLennan
Lina Favrin
Anne Baudienette
Heather McKay
Christine Wholey
Heather Arnold
Alison Key
Susan Thomson
Linda Longley
Yarra Plenty Regional Library
Glen Eira Library & Info Service
Whitehorse Manningham
Darebin Libraries
Whitehorse Manningham
Wyndham Libraries
Wimmera
Geelong Regional Library
City of Greater Dandenong Libraries
Bayside Library service
Melton Library
Yarra Libraries
Hume Library
Melbourne Library Service
Kingston Information & Library Service
Casey Cardinia Library Corporation
Dandenong Library
Dandenong Library
Melbourne Library Service
Apologies
Kathy Smalley
Anne Burrows
Diane Woda
Cathy Milward-Bason
Christine Worthington
Kay Rowan
Janine Smith
2. Confirmation of
Minutes.
3. Tour and Guest
Speaker
4. Reports
Eastern Regional Libraries
State Library of Victoria
Brimbank
Kingston Libraries
Prahran Mechanics Institute
Port Phillip
Moreland City Libraries
Last Meeting was November 13, 2014 Emerald Hill Heritage Centre
Tour of Dandenong Library
2 Levels
Open 9 – 5 Monday to Friday
Separate returns room – will be getting a book sorter. All phone calls taken here. Staff use walky talkies.
Booths with computer – large screen on wall – popular with groups, especially youth.
Floating collection – except magazines and LOTE
160,000 items across two libraries
Must have a card to borrow
Downstairs – active space includes youth and childrens areas.
Upstairs include quiet spaces
Alison Key – A Personal visit to the Great War Battlefields of the Western Front – France and Belgium May – June
2012
Alison spoke briefly about her Grandfather who was awarded the Distinguished Medal. He was a runner and thus often a
target for snipers. He also volunteered as a stretcher bearer.
Villers-Bretonneux – over 10,000 names – includes an Australian memorial to all those killed on the western front.
Other cemeteries which she visited commemorating many battles includef Fromelles, Polygon Wood (Belgium), Ypres,
Pacsendale, Hill 60 (tunnellers), Messines, Tyne Cot and Menin Gate to the missing.
Bayside Library – Natasha Kamenev
Hosting a travelling exhibition on Germen migration
In house poppy project with gallery staff and history groups for small displays in branches
Undertaking a newspaper digitisation project for Trove – a Wikipedia page is under development. Will launch in April.
Brighton Red Cross – upcoming 150th celebration
Working on a history panel on changes in local government
Casey Cardinia – Heather Arnold
Heather is the “anonymous” person behind the hugely successful “Lost Melbourne” and “Lost Victoria” Facebook pages.
She also maintains the Library local history blog at
http://caseycardinialinkstoourpast.blogspot.com.au/ and a blog for the Kooweeup Historical Society at
http://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com.au/
We have a new Facebook Page - Casey Cardinia Heritage. The purpose of the page is to promote historical events and
to show off some of our historical photographs of the region.
We have a new Blog - Casey Cardinia: Commemorating the Great War 1914-1918 - http://caseycardinia19141918.blogspot.com.au/
The blog is a forum for commemorating and recording the impact of World War One on the people in the region now
covered by the City of Casey and Shire of Cardinia (which is essentially the old Shire of Berwick and Shire of
Cranbourne). It’s an eclectic look at the War and includes information about local soldiers, the development of local
groups such as the Red Cross and Patriotic Groups. It will also look at the aftermath of the War and how communities
commemorated their losses and service by the creation of Avenues of Honour and other memorials.
I am working with a chap from the local RSL on a project to record the names of all the people who served in the Great
War who have a local connection. After the War, the Shire of Berwick and Shire of Cranbourne produced a joint Roll of
Honour and this has 566 names so that was a good start and we are now up to
1200 names. The local paper will publish the list in 2018.
We are fortunate that the Narre Warren & District Family History Group have already done a lot of research into War
Memorials and other monuments in the region http://www.caseycardiniaremembers.org.au/
We are holding a Heritage Festival on May 17 at the Narre Warren Mechanics’ Institute from 11.00am to 3.00pm. Many of
the Heritage Groups in the Casey Cardinia Region will have a display; there will be activities for children, photographic
displays, local histories for sale etc. Free entry. Berwick CWA will be doing Devonshire teas!
Dandenong Library - Jane Baker
Local and Family History page on The Vault website
Waiting for a dedicated PC on the library floor (Level 3)
A scanner attached to the PC
There are a set of drawers for microfiche pending
Digital asset collection, e.g. movies, sound files, scanned images, catalogued and being made available on The Vault
Websites and online catalogues for the Springvale and Dandy local history societies are currently being developed
'Poppies for Peace' Poppy Making workshops happening in March
Darebin Libraries -Jackie Goddard
Plans to upgrade local and family history resources and computers
Public Lives of Women in Inner Melbourne (panel discussion Professional Historians Association of Victoria) – 19 March
Unsung Heroes musical group – 19 April
ANZAC week – display of local soldiers and their stories
Australian Army Nurses in WW1 – 23 June
Geelong Regional Library Corporation - Judith Oke
GRLC will be ‘Honouring Anzac’ with a number of special events and activities across our library service in April-May.
Of particular interest are two Author Encounters: author Ruth Lee will be discussing her biography: Woman War doctor:
the life of Mary de Garis. Mary settled in Geelong after WWI as Geelong’s first female obstetrician.
And Harvey Broadbent, will be talking about his book ‘Defending Gallipoli: the Turkish defence’.
Our Information Resource Librarians will be presenting programs exploring our online resources : An Anzac in the family?
: tracing military history using library resources; and Read all about it! Discovering life during WWI using newspaper
resources.
Bookings can be made via our website: www.grlc.vic.gov.au
The exciting development of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre continues. Progress reports are found on our
website.
Attending AFFHO Congress
Glen Eira Library & Info Service- Narelle Seymour
Local History Collections have been closed for a number of months and will be accessible again next week.
Planning a WW1 timeline including Caulfield . This will be accessible at the website.
http://library.gleneira.vic.gov.au/Information/History/ANZAC_Centenary
Library is undertaking RFID
Hume Libraries - Anne Baudienette
Introducing Makerspaces
Sunbury Library undertook a poppies project
Kingston Libraries – Christine Whaley
We have almost completed filming our Historical walking trials tours of Mordialloc and Mentone which will be on the Local
History webpage and accessible by mobile devices. We have moved some stock in our Family History room and added
extra display. We are awaiting new slat walls for notices and extra display.
This year we have additional staff doing Family History classes. Jan is running a basic introduction to Family History
Research, Monique is doing a class on Ancestry and Christine is doing a class on researching your Military Ancestors. To
coincide with this I will add a new webpage on Researching your Military ancestors to the Library webpage. We will also
continue to run the 2 hour introduction course to Genealogy which covers all the gateway sites.
On our webpage there is a Family History News page which I attempt to update with what’s new on databases, classes
etc.
Other Webpages include Getting started with a list of handy websites. Sands and Mcdougall Melbourne Directories this
page lists the editions which the library holds which is a large collection. Victorian Birth, Death and Marriages at Kingston
Libraries this includes an overview of our holdings.
Talks.
Lady Teviot will be here 16-30 October. Kingston has booked her for a 45 min family history talk
Tuesday 20 October PARISH REGISTERS for History Week (18-25 Oct) at Parkdale Library
Monday 26 October KILL OR CURE (?) for the Victorian Seniors Festival at Chelsea Library.
Melbourne Library Service – Linda Longley
New Position at Library at the Dock
Upcoming at Southbank – series of walk with the National Trust. Drop in sessions with staff for local history training. In
May we will undertake a big promotion of our e-resources especially the genealogy programs. There will be an Anzac
exhibition.
North Melbourne Heather McKay
Enquiries about cemetery tours
Identifying unnamed lanes and suggesting renaming them for WW1 KIA.
Researching Kathleen Smee for new library in Carlton
Melton City Council Library Service – Anne McLennan
Digitisation Project – Melton Historical Society are supplying the bulk of the materials to be scanned for this project. The
Melton Family History Group are doing the scanning of the items. Library staff are uploading the files to Portfolio.
http://swft.mlis.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/mlis/?rm=ML+GENEALOGY0%7C%7C%7C1%7C%7C%7C3%7C%7C
%7Ctrue
The Melton Family History Group were successful in obtaining a grant for their ANZAC Project. They are researching the
names listed on the cenotaph located in High Street Melton. Unsure at this stage when they plan to launch the project as
they still need to employ a web designer. The biographies will be linked/attached to the Library’s web page.
We are hoping to get underway an Oral History Project this year before we “lose” any valuable oral history.
Interviews for the position of Library Technician – Local History & Digital Content were held recently. Hopefully an
appointment will be announced soon and you will all get to meet them at the next meeting.
Prahran Mechanics Institute – Christine Worthington (not present)
The PMI Victorian History Library has now moved to the first floor of its newly renovated building at 39 St Edmonds Road,
Prahran (now open to the public, with an official opening event to be announced). The move is the result of our having
been forced to sell our previous heritage building to Swinburne University 5 years ago (long story!).
Nonetheless, we are now able to offer a much better facility including more seating and public work stations, more space
for the collection (including a large compactus on the ground floor for our stacks), some onsite parking, disabled access,
two multifunction rooms and a dedicated volunteer work room.
We also have the specialist collections of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria, the Australian Railway Historical Society
(Vic.) and the Cinema & Theatre Historical Society. All these groups have been given facilities for the administration,
maintenance and public availability of the collections.
In recent years we have had a major change in collection policy – we no longer keep a general collection, and these book
budget resources have been used to expand our history holdings. We now collect local histories relating to interstate
cities, towns and regions.
We are now on the LADD system so we are more easily able to provide materials for ILL throughout Australia. We’re also
now on the DX system so ILLs to Victorian libraries are especially easy to arrange.
We still have much work to do. We have finishing touches to the building scheduled (such as internal and building façade
signage). We have work still to do on our new website (www.pmi.net.au) and catalogue (now using First LMS), but we’re
slowly getting these how we want them. We hope that by offering our multifunction rooms to historical groups for
meetings, events and displays we can further increase our links with them.
Our activity program (in hiatus over the past few years in preparation for moving) includes three free lectures in Mar
(presented with the Prahran Historical Society), May and Oct (presented with the Cinema & Theatre Hist Soc), a family
history seminar in Aug and our annual short history prize (judged by a panel from the Professional Historians
Association). We hope to resume our Victorian history publishing when we are more settled in. The
We’d be happy to be a venue for a future meeting of the Local Studies Interest Group, and encourage all who find
themselves in the neighbourhood to pop in and take a look around. We’re open Mon-Fri 9.30-4.30 and Sat 9.30-1.00pm.
State Library of Victoria – Anne Burrows (not present)
1. Twelfth annual Family History Feast
To be held on Monday 10 August 2015 and once again to be hosted by the State Library of Victoria. Theme for 2015 is
World War 1. Program is almost confirmed. Online bookings to open late June.
2. 14th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry, Canberra, 26 – 30 March 2015
Anne will be attending. She is also actively involved with planning of the full day Librarians Seminar to be held on
Thursday 26 March, the day before the Congress proper.
Whitehorse Manningham Library – Elaine Craig
Poppies received for the 500 poppies reached over 1200, a slow start, but a great end result
Produced issue 2 of the revamped electronic Genie News (if you didn’t receive a copy, subscribe at
http://www.wml.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.aspx?Page_Id=839
Several events planned
Neil Smith, of Mostly Unsung, www.mostlyunsung.com.au on Great War soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel Neil C. Smith AM
from Mostly Unsung, understands military jargon, abbreviations and the various organisational and recording
systems employed by the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Join Neil as he demystifies military family history, focusing on WW1.
Manningham Heritage festival is held around the time of the National Trust event. As I shall be on leave, I am
preparing a PowerPoint presentation of WW1 boards which are housed in buildings not usually readily open to
the general public.
Have also been on a sub committee of Manningham Council, researching the East Doncaster Primary School
Avenue of Honour, planted in Blackburn Road. Have been using hard copy issues of The Reporter (Box Hill) at
the Box Hill Historical Society. Haven’t been able to find a list of names of the men honoured, but have found
lots of other relevant information, as well as information for other projects.
Have located a photograph of an honour board for Box Hill Golf Club, (Club has no knowledge of it!) and these
names can now be added to the Digger Database. https://wml.spydus.com/cgibin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/DIGG/BSEARCH
I shall be an apology for the June meeting, as I shall be on leave.
---Vicki Court
Working with Whitehorse Council Heritage Officer locating information for an exhibition - Australia Calls - which will be a
feature of Whitehorse Heritage Week
Whitehorse Heritage Week will be held from 10 to 17 September with the theme relating to how World War I affected the
area that is now the City of Whitehorse
Organising speakers at Nunawading Library and Vermont South Library for Whitehorse Heritage Week
Warrandyte Library is planning a display on Aborigines in World War I for Manningham Heritage Festival
Preparing a display at Nunawading Library to commemorate Anzac Day
Creating new web pages for Anzac Stories section of the Whitehorse Historical Society website
Additional records have been added to the Diggers in Whitehorse and Manningham database
Records about World War I memorials in Whitehorse and Manningham will shortly be added to the Whitehorse
Manningham Local History Database
Whitehorse Manningham Libraries have applied for the hosting of the Writing the War exhibition prepared by the SLV
In April I will be doing the World War I: a history in 100 stories online course prepared by Monash University and run by
FutureLearn - https://www.futurelearn.com/
I will be an apology for the remaining meetings for this year as I will either be overseas or interstate
Wimmera Library (Ros Ryan)
Centenary of WWI – National Trust Heritage Conflict & Compassion event – talk by John Francis author of “Struth” a
history of the Wimmera servicemen of the 9th Battalion – 6th May @ Horsham Library
Involved in 5000 poppies project
Recognising General Morshead who taught AT Fine View School in the Wimmera before joining the army, the
famous photo of him also shows Jim Bryant from Glenorchy, also in the Wimmera
“Lost in the bush” now to be an annual celebration a Winter Weekend in the Wimmera to be on the weekend that falls
between 12th-20th August each year, featuring bush walks, trail ride, picnics, museum, Ebenezer Aboriginal Mission
Station, Harrow Discovery Centre, camping, film showing…
Horsham likely to be the Western Victorian venue for Heritage Victoria’s caring for memorials and honour boards.
Undertaking Collection Days across the region to gather photos for scanning to “Wimmera in Photographs” next one
Wednesday 18th March, coupled with an “I.T. in history : computers & the Internet bringing history to life” talk. Sop far
have scoured lots of farming shots, but also some previously unknown ones – Warracknabeal power alcohol distillery, Big
Lizzie’s trek to Glendinning.
Kaniva Tales an oral history project with Year 9 students from Kaniva College
Wyndham Library – Karen Seckold
Wyndham ANZAC Project
On Thursday 5 March we had our ANZAC Project launch Part 1 at the Plaza Library. Working with the Werribee RSL
Honour board we have completed biographies for 60 KIA soldiers and have started on the 300 returned, all from
Werribee and surrounding areas. The RSL loaned us some memorabilia to put in the new display case and the day went
very well. With various media awareness and promotion of our project we have started to receive photographs of the
soldiers and people are taking an interest in adding to the biographies we have written. The contributor’s page is now up
and running so the public can submit to the website and expand the stories already on there.
New Gene Room
We have moved to new premises at the Plaza Shopping centre and have a lovely new gene room. Numbers have gone
up as we are much more visible now. We have 9 volunteers working on various projects and assisting customers in the
Family and Local History Room 7 days a week.
5000 Poppies
Our 5000 Poppies workshops began in November last year and were well received. We made over 1000 poppies in only
a very short period of time. I will be delivering them later this week. The community really got behind this even though we
started late. We ran Poppy making sessions in all four branches and registered each branch as a drop off point.
Truganina Cemetery Project
We are also working on a Cemetery Project. The Truganina Cemetery was a private cemetery but is now owned by The
Greater Metropolitan Cemetery Trust. The earliest burial was in 1866. We are photographing the graves that remain
visible and transcribing the headstones and they will be added to the Australian Cemetery Index. We will link it to our
Wyndham History Website. Wyndham Our Story here http://www.wyndhamhistory.net.au/
Unfortunately a lot of the graves had wooden crosses and the records were kept in a house next to the cemetery which
was all destroyed in a bush fire. There are no records for the graves that are unmarked. A local community member is
going through the papers to try and find deaths and funeral notices.
Family Search Affiliate Library
We have started to receive and view films from Family Search as an affiliate library. We are all still learning how to order,
receive and return the films through the Family Search Website but it’s going very well. Our customers are very happy
that they can view the films here 7 days a week with our volunteers or myself. There is a stipulation that staff are present
for the viewing of the films. The Local LDS church still holds films also but they can only be viewed one hour a week
when their library is open on Tuesday nights from 7.30 to 8.30.
Yarra Library (Fitzroy Library) – Lina Favrin
City of Yarra have asked for information regarding the names of more than 20 local parks. They’ve asked for input from
local history societies and the library.
Fitzroy Library owns a life-size bronze bust of McPherson MacRobertson (of MacRobertson’s chocolate fame). We will be
lending him to the RHSV for an exhibition, later in the year.
The Fitzroy History Society recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the publishing of the book Fitzroy: Melbourne’s first
suburb. Contributors and authors were invited to the event.
Lina will attend the Renew, Rethink, Revitalise mini –conference at SLV on Wed 18th March
Yarra Plenty Regional Library – Liz Pidgeon
Submitted application to the State Library of Victoria to host the travelling exhibition “Writing the War” in August next year.
This is a partnership with the Shire of Nillumbik and we hope to host the exhibition in the Eltham Library Community
Gallery
Received funding for “discover your Anzac Story” at YPRL $23,990. This will cover a book project writing workshops and
expert speakers
Working on the committee with the major upgrade to Website. Public launch will be in April
Collected 3795 Poppies (to date) for 5000 Poppies Project.
Commenced a 30 day trial for My Heritage through EBSCO
Yarra Plenty Heritage Forum March 19 at Arthurs Creek
Trialling some Trove training in July
Helping a Community Archive to organise their records (Nillumbik Living and Learning)
Volunteer has been indexing Heidelberg Leader death notices have now all been added to Ryerson Index for the issues
we hold from 1966, death notices petered out around 1999 – 2000.
Diamond Valley Leader ongoing, Whittlesea Leader about to start.
Photo collection Project for Rosanna
Undertook Wikinorthia with Darebin Libraries recently
Oral history project at Watsonia Library. Looking at adding files to Overdrive
WW1 Memorabilia display at Eltham Library in April.
Partnering with City of Whittlesea and Epping RSL to present Journey of Remembrance Performance
GENERAL
Jordana Lowry has finished up at Goldfields Librry Corporation Bendigo. She has moved to Launceston. She has asked
me to pass on her thanks to the local studies group “for their wonderful company and wise advice over the years. I wish
everyone well for the future and all the best for their Anzac projects”.
Lady Mary Teviot is undertaking a lecture tour in October 2015.
Dates available: Friday 16th October to Friday October 30.
Please email Margaret Greenwood with your dates and times margaretgreenwood@me.com
For list and descriptions of her 21 talks see: http://www.ladyteviot.co.uk/
EBSCO have now partnered with My Heritage, a well established genealogy database. It will be available to unlimited
simultaneous use as well as offering remote access. Visit https://www.ebscohost.com/academic/myheritage-libraryedition
Local History Week 18 – 25 October
Congrats to Whitehorse Manningham on their new look Genealogy newsletter – looks fab
Encourage members to contribute to the Yahoo Grp and Facebook page
Statewide Project – Memory
Digital Skills training opportunity in May. Please look for this information via your CEO
Congrats to Whitehorse Manningham on their new look Genealogy newsletter – looks fab
Encourage members to contribute to the Yahoo Grp and Facebook page
6. Upcoming Events
7.Meetings
RHSV Seminar Day – March 21
Community Heritage Grants (NLA) current close
AFFHO Canberra Congress March 2015
TNA Roger Kershaw presentation SLV April 2
National Trust Heritage Festival Saturday 11 April - Tuesday 26 May 2015
National Family History Month August
RHSV Local History Week 18 – 25 October
Lady Mary Teviot Genealogy Lecture Tour 16 0 30 October
2015
Tuesday 16 June - Victorian Archives Centre 99 Shiel St, North Melbourne 1.30 pm – 4.00 pm
Wednesday 16 September - Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre, Carlton 1.30 pm - 4.00 pm
Wed November 18 (all day) - Ballarat Library 10.00 am – 4.00 pm