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Indigenous digital collections.

Article Excerpt
As the digital world gains further traction in information services provided by public restitutions to their communities (1), evidence continues to emerge with regard to the realities of convergences between traditional library information services and practices (2) , emerging and changing technologies in the management of knowledge, (3) and the need to bring information closer to the community through new technologies (4) and multipurpose venues. (5) At the same time, in all sectors of information and knowledge management, much is made of 'the policy vacuum against a background of uncertainty' (6), the lag in government resources to deal with changing times (7), and the ensuing need to more closely articulate or position library services within economic priorities and knowledge economies. (8)

The literature on digitisation generally indicates a growing concern across the information profession about a range of issues in a range of contexts and situations along the local-national-global knowledge and information axis. These include the need for consistent standards and protocols in digital repositories across public institutions (9) and discussions between the role of digital libraries and archives (l0) intellectual property (11) and copyrights issues (12), digital rights management (13), knowledge webs (14), knowledge banks (15), digital libraries (16), changing technologies and more.

The National Summit (17) organised in 2006 by the Collection Council of Australia to consider a framework for digital collections in Australia is one indication of growing attention to the need for standards and protocols on digital collections. The Canadian Government has also moved towards a more consistent approach. (18) In the development of their approach, the Canadians considered national policy developments in Europe, the UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and the US, and reported that, although some progress has been made within national institutions, 'none of the national governments surveyed appeared to have developed a comprehensive national digital information strategy'. (19)

However, the Australian Government has made some progress in recent times with the industry sector. The Unlocking the Potential: Digital Content Strategy Industry Action Agenda Report provides 'a good platform for the Australian Government to develop a broader Digital Content Strategy (20), and the New Zealand Government has made significant progress as well with The Digital Strategy: Creating Our Digital Future (21) which identifies the three domains of Content, Confidence and Connection. It should be noted that the Collections Council of Australia includes Indigenous members and included Indigenous issues at its recent digitisation summit, and that New Zealand's digital strategy includes Maori content within its focus.

Alongside this larger global trend is an emerging demand by the world community for Indigenous knowledge and, accompanying this, a range of responses to preserve, safeguard and protect this area as a vital resource of Indigenous communities across the globe. There is also a growing literature on Indigenous knowledge systems and the issues they pose for documentation in databases and other formats. The great increase in documentation has resulted in ever-increasing amounts of Indigenous knowledge material sitting in databases in various repositories and various projects around the globe. Many databases are interconnected in knowledge networks and many are accessible, as a quick search will reveal. However, some of this knowledge is not very accessible as researchers and projects come and go from Indigenous communities.

Alongside all these developments, we have the current work being done in the library sector to provide better services to Indigenous people and better identification of and access to cultural materials within institutional collections, many of which represent or contain Indigenous knowledge. In Australia, as around the globe, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a primary mechanism for providing access to identified Indigenous materials in institutional collections, through the use of electronic indexes, through providing connectivity to resources in other institutions and locations, and through family history services that connect people with archival material. Increasingly, digitisation of materials held in collections is being undertaken as a way of preserving materials, providing electronic and remote access, and as a form of repatriation that enables Indigenous groups to collect and to hold copies within local repositories and keeping places from a range of institutions that hold relevant materials. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is a leader in...