Australia’s collectors call for more money to go digital
As politicians and historians discuss history in Canberra today, the people that collect the things that make up that history are having their own meeting. It’s the National Summit for Digital Collections and they’re talking about the challenges of making our collected history, documents, art, books and artefacts, available to everyone online. Alan Dodge is the Chaiman of Australian Art Museum Directors – he says art galleries around Australia have been forced to rely on bequests and short term grants to get even basic websites up and running. Tim Hart from Museums Victoria says museums are in the same boat and that the summit will be lobbying for both state and federal money to make the digitalising of Australia’s collected culture possible.