The National Library of Australia is a treasure trove of information, resources, and expertise for researchers, family historians and hobbyists of all interests. However, with a collection as vast as ours it can sometimes be a daunting prospect to find exactly what it is you’re looking for.
The National Library’s learning programs are designed to help you make sense of the collection and to give you some insight into how to get the most out of your research. Our education team has looked back over some of our past webinars to highlight their favourites. If you want to explore a comprehensive list of the Library’s past learning programs you can view them all for free on our YouTube channel.
Keep an eye on our what's on page and our social media channels for upcoming learning programs!
Indian Emigration Passes to Fiji, 1879-1916
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Family history research is often full of frustrating dead-ends or missing information, especially when records relating to an ancestor moving from one country to another is concerned. The National Library of Australia has a rich array of records and resources to help you in your search.
In collaboration with the National Archives of Fiji, the National Library of Australia makes available over 60,000 individual records issues to Indian who were to come to Fiji as indentured labourers in the period of 1879-1916. The original passes, held in 344 volumes, are kept by the National Archives of Fiji. They have been digitised and made freely available online through the National Library of Australia. In 2011 these records, combined records of Indian Indentured Labourers of Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago were placed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. In this webinar, Reference Librarians Jack and Judith explore this vast collection and ways you can access it. The Library acknowledges the National Archives of Fiji as custodians of the original collection material.
Tracing the History of your House
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Curious about the history of your house or the people who lived there? You can use books, journals, and photographs to identify architectural features to date a house. You can even trace past occupants and the development of the surrounding area over time, using maps, directories, and electoral rolls. By exploring the Library's collection and working through examples, this webinar will show you how to trace the history of your house.
Introduction to Trove Searching
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Trove is a vast and rich resource, bringing together the collected digitised holdings of the National Library of Australia as well as hundreds of partner institutions and organisations across the country. But with a resource of this scale how do you find what you’re after? This webinar will provide an introduction to searching Trove for new users, highlight changes and additions to Trove for returning and long time users, and share some useful tools and tips for navigating Trove and it's holdings including the millions of newspaper articles available online.
Introduction to Oral History
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The National Library's Oral History and Folklore Collection records the voices that describe Australia's cultural, intellectual, and social life. Dating back to the 1950s, the collection contains around 55,000 hours of recordings, with more than 1,000 hours of interviews and music added each year. With so much to discover, it might be hard to know where to start! This webinar will be an introduction to the collection, explaining why it exists, how it can be accessed and what users might find there. The webinar touches on significant collections including the Bringing Them Home Oral History project, the Australian response to AIDS Oral History project and the John Meredith folklore collection. This webinar also includes a step by step tutorial on how to access this rich collection and the various ways you can listen to digitised recordings.
Taking Flight: The E.A. Crome Collection
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What’s nearly two metres long, with orange stripes and was hurled out of the Graf Zeppelin? If you don’t know now, you will after this video! Join aviation fan, Stuart, as he dives into the E.A. Crome collection. A fascinating formed collection documenting the early years of aviation with a focus on Australia’s aeronautical pioneers. This collection has been extensively digitised and can be accessed for free and Stuart is going to show you how to find it. Highlights of the collection include photographs of the first pilot to get their wings in Australia, handwritten notes scrawled by daring pilots and crew in dire circumstances miles above the ocean, and physical artefacts that tell the story of early aviation exploits.
Digital is History: Preserving our Digital Collections
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Floppy disk. Magnetic tape. CD-ROM. They’re probably not words you’ve heard recently, but chances are you might have one or two in a drawer or the back of a cupboard. Do you remember what’s on them? Can you even access them anymore? Highlighting the work of the Digital Preservation team at the Library. Preservation is not just reserved for physical material and in an increasingly digital society we should be looking at how to keep our digital assets. The video will also include a “What should you be doing with your digital assets” and how-to. Join Gareth from the National Library’s Digital Preservation team as he looks at how we preserve our digital assets held on obsolete carriers and share some helpful tips on preserving your own digital materials.
Copyright: Use and re-use of Library Material
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Ever wondered how can you use our collection appropriately, legally, and safely in the process of creating new knowledge? Join Jessica Coates, Senior Advisor Rights Management for a straightforward look at rights for publishers, researchers, teachers, and anyone else who wants to put the Library’s collection to work.
