Rounds

Poetry

Digital Archives and Cultural Memory: Discovering Lost Histories in Digitised Australian Children’s Literature 1851–1945

The full-text digitisation of literary works can have some unexpected benefits for researchers in and outside of the field of literary studies. While the broader availability and easier distribution of the text is a clear and intended result of digitisation, the preservation of extra-textual material—such as bookplates, inscriptions, advertisements, and marginal notes—is an unintended result that can help to expand our knowledge of literary networks, reading practices, and cultural history. This kind of material was preserved by the Children’s Literature Digital Resources Project (CLDR), whichdigitised nearly 600 works of early Australian children’s literature—including poetry, short stories, novels, and picture books—that were first published during the period 1851-1945. The CLDR resources are available online through AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (austlit.edu.au)1. This article will look closely at some of the material found in the CLDR texts, including evidence of the books’ provenance (found in bookplates, book labels, inscriptions, and a handwritten letter), a newspaper clipping, and advertisements. Describing these discoveries can never be as informative as actually showing them, and for this reason, this essay has a companion online resource trail, ‘Digital Traces of Past Lives: Bookplates, Inscriptions, and Ephemera Discovered in Digitised Books,’ that guides readers through the digitised texts2. The discoveries are often surprising, moving, and unexpectedly informative. They remind us of the books’ material lives, their previous owners, and their status as physical and cultural artefacts. They can also tell us a little about historical literary and artistic networks in Australia, and the position of children’s book authors and illustrators within those networks. However, in order to make best use of these kinds of serendipitous discoveries, the infrastructure housing digital archives must be able to facilitate the search for this kind of material, as this article will go on to discuss

Poems: 'Weights' and 'Measures'

Two poems to accompany the Rural Cultural Studies issue of Cultural Studies Review

Digital archives and cultural memory : discovering lost histories in digitised Australian children's literature 1851-1945

A recent Australian literature digitisation project uncovered some surprising discoveries in the children’s books that it digitised. The Children’s Literature Digital Resources (CLDR) Project digitised children’s books that were first published between 1851 to 1945 and made them available online through AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource. The digitisation process also preserved, within the pages of those books, a range of bookplates, book labels, inscriptions, and loose ephemera. This material allows us to trace the provenance of some of the digitised works, some of which came from the personal libraries of now-famous authors, and others from less celebrated sources. These extra-textual traces can contribute to cultural memory of the past by providing evidence of how books were collected and exchanged, and what kinds of books were presented as prizes in schools and Sunday schools. They also provide insight into Australian literary and artistic networks, particularly of the first few decades of the 20th century. This article describes the kinds of material uncovered in the digitisation process and suggests that the material provides insights into literary and cultural histories that might otherwise be forgotten. It also argues that the indexing of this material is vital if it is not to be lost to future researchers

School libraries, teacher-librarians and their contribution to student literacy development in Gold Coast schools: Research report

This is the first research focusing on Gold Coast school libraries and teacher- librarians. It presents a detailed picture of library provision and staffing at a representative group of 27 government and non-government schools at the Gold Coast. It shows links between employment of a teacher-librarian and higher NAPLAN reading and writing scores. And it presents the principals’ generally positive views about teacher-librarians’ contribution to reading and literacy at their schools. The findings respond in part to the recent government inquiry’s call (House of Representatives, 2011) for research about the current staffing of school libraries in Australia, and the influence of school libraries and teacher-librarians on students’ literacy and learning outcomes. While the study has focused on a relatively small group of school libraries, it has produced a range of significant outcomes: • An extensive review of international and Australian research showing impacts of school libraries and teacher-librarians on students’ literacy and learning outcomes • Findings consistent with international research showing: - An inverse relationship between lower student to EFT library staff ratio and higher school NAPLAN scores for reading and writing - Schools that employ a teacher-librarian tend to achieve school NAPLAN scores for respective year levels that are higher than the national mean It is anticipated that the study’s findings will be of interest to education authorities, school leadership teams, teacher-librarians, teachers and researchers. The findings provide evidence to: • inform policy development and strategic planning for school libraries that respond to the literacy development needs of 21st century learners • inform school-based management of school libraries • inform curriculum development and teacher-librarian practice • support further collaborative research on a State or national level • enhance conceptual understandings about relationship(s) between school libraries, teacher-librarians and literacy/information literacy development • support advocacy about school libraries, teacher-librarians and their contribution to literacy development and student learning in Australian schools SLAQ President Toni Leigh comments: “It is heartening to see findings which validate the critical role teacher-librarians play in student literacy development and the positive correlation of higher NAPLAN scores and schools with a qualified teacher-librarian. Also encouraging is the high percentage of school principals who recognise the necessity of a well resourced school library and the positive influence of these libraries on student literacy”. This research arises from a research partnership between School Library Association of Queensland (SLAQ) and Children and Youth Research Centre, QUT. Lead researcher: Dr Hilary Hughes, Children and Youth Research Centre, QUT Research assistants: Dr Hossein Bozorgian, Dr Cherie Allan, Dr Michelle Dicinoski, QUT SLAQ Research Reference Group: Toni Leigh, Marj Osborne, Sally Fraser, Chris Kahl and Helen Reynolds Reference: House of Representatives. (2011). School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=ee/schoollibraries/report.ht