PRESENTATION A20

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT … THE NAMBOUR CHRONICLE DIGITISATION PROJECT

Colin Potter & Caroline Foxon
Sunshine Coast Regional Library Service, Nambour, QLD

The "Nambour Chronicle & North Coast Advertiser" recorded and photographed local news on Queensland's Sunshine Coast for over 80 years. It is the only primary record which gave a glimpse of past life in an area which has changed dramatically. Unfortunately, the only complete record of the newspaper was in microfilm and only available in-house.
To meet emerging access needs and safeguard this valuable resource for future generations, Maroochy Libraries in conjunction with Caloundra City Libraries, the State Library of Queensland and firm Micrographics Applications embarked on a project to digitise from microfilm this newspaper and then make it searchable and available in-house and via the WWW.
A number of methodologies and format standards were devised during the course of the project; these include work-methods for the conversion of microfilm, access and preservation digital format standards, creation of an on-line search engine, web page design, look and feel and customer access processes.

The project has now been successfully completed, with entire print run of the newspaper from 1903 to 1955 scanned from microfilm and digitised in a variety of formats. The on-line version of the newspaper was launched in January 2008.

At this time the Nambour Chronicle is the only Australian historical newspaper available and searchable in full-text via the WWW.

The project provides a model for other Libraries and agencies who are considering similar projects to emulate and also contributes to the professional knowledge surrounding access and preservation standards and user interface design.