The Community Knowledge
Network – creating, preserving and enriching
Tasmanian arts and culture
The Community Knowledge Network (CKN) brings together Adult Education, the State Library of Tasmania,
Online Access Centres and the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office so they are easier for the Tasmanian
community to access.
CKN is an essential part of Tasmania’s arts community and culture providing resources for researchers, writers
and readers as well as a multitude of hands-on Adult Education art courses on everything from drawing,
painting and pottery to photography, jewellery making and woodwork. Adult Education also runs the Not Yet
Famous exhibition to showcase the amazing creativity and diversity of works created by our clients.
Libraries and archives can be thought of as quiet places, James Boyce, in his prize-winning book Van Diemen's
Land (2008), described the Tasmaniana Library in the Hobart State Library building (now the History Room) as
"an outstanding example of an increasingly endangered environment - a space for quiet study and reflection".
But it would be a mistake to think that our library and archive services are not being used!
The latest research commissioned by the Australian Council for the Arts found that reading is one of the most
popular forms of engagement with the arts, with 84 per cent of Australians reading. In 2008-09, more than
142,000 Tasmanians used CKN’s library and information services with more than 5 million items being
borrowed, the highest level of lending we have ever recorded. With nearly 1 million items available for loan or
research, including an ever increasing amount of digitised content available through the
www.statelibrary.tas.gov.au website there is sure to be something that is just right for your needs.
The Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office is a cornerstone in preserving and encouraging access to
Tasmania’s history and culture with an extensive range of collections including rare books, photographs, maps,
newspapers, diaries and government records, such as wills, births, deaths and marriages, shipping and convict
registers as well as collections of colonial art, ceramics and furniture. Images of items from the collection are
reproduced in books, films, websites and other media around the globe.
Locally, you'll find reproductions of documents and photographs from the TAHO collections in books, online,
in exhibitions and on interpretation panels with staff keen to assist people in accessing and using the collection.
A recent example was working with the owners of Inverawe Native Gardens at Margate to identify suitable
images for interpretation signs relating to the early French and British botanists who came to Van Diemen's
Land. Bernard Lloyd, a local author and film-maker, makes extensive use of TAHO services and collections for
his many projects including his 2008 short film Homo Tasmanicus.
The TAHO collections also include a wide range of films with one of the most frequently requested items
being the few seconds of footage of the last Tasmanian tiger in captivity. In just the past few months, requests
to use the footage have come from documentary-makers in Japan and the United States and from a musician in
Australia.
To discover more about how CKN is contributing to the arts community and culture in Tasmania, visit our
websites at www.adulteducation.tas.gov.au | www.statelibrary.tas.gov.au | www.tco.asn.au |
www.archives.tas.gov.au.
Community Knowledge Network
Department of Education