Digitalisation of history

Modern media has transformed how history is researched, archived and presented.

The age of digitalisation has transformed the capacity of historians to research and present history. Trove and the National Archives of Australia are the two outstanding examples of digitalisation with a host of State Archives, museums and others striving to catch up and make their material searchable and readable from the comfort of your home computer. Unfortunately, the efforts of some to monetise their archives, thankfully not too prevalent in Australian, has raised some barriers to the greater flow of historical information. Nevertheless, this has meant anyone can access this material, yet the need for historical research and analysis has no by any means narrowed as a result.

Perhaps the first major effort by an historian of Chinese Australian history to present their research digitally was Janis Wilton and her ground breaking Golden Threads project. This was closely followed by Sophie Couchman and her strenuous efforts to build up the Chinese Historical Images in Australia database. Both wonderful efforts still accessible in some form but both victims to rapidly changing technology and the unreliability of institutions when it comes to the long-term maintenance of digital resources.

As of the end of the first quarter of the 21st century there are some 18 web-based collections (not including State or National Archives) that contain numerous records related to Chinese Australian history. Some are specialists such as Chinese Historical Images in Australia, Our Chinese Past and the China-Australia Heritage Corridor, while others are broad ranging over Australian history and by necessity contain much related to Chinese Australian history such as Victoria Collections and Opening the Multilingual Archive of Australia. Also included are the State heritage archives and the Australian Heritage Database. Of the State and National Libraries, while all contain much related to Chinese Australian history only the NLA has a portal dedicated to their Chinese Australian material.

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And now there is AI