1. Online resources for Indigenous
studies
Ngarnga Yumarrala
3 August 2012

2. Session outline
• Introduction to the SLV collections
• ergo website
• Resources on the SLV catalogue
• Research guides
• Finding articles in newspapers and journals
• Activity: analysing images and documents
• Using texts
• Sharing resources with Diigo
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3. Early days
• Established by Redmond Barry and known as the Melbourne Public Library
when it opened in 1856
• The shelves contained 846 volumes in February 1856 (about 5 million total
items today)
• Hoped to be 'the people’s university’ – “a place where the world’s knowledge
and information would be freely available to all citizens of the growing colony
of Victoria, regardless of their social status or financial resources”
• Not all members of the Victorian community were equally represented
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4. Resources for students
For the study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Culture there
are a number of resources at the SLV suitable for both teachers and students.
We would recommend directing students to information on the ergo website
ergo.slv.vic.gov.au
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5. ergo website
Relevant areas in the ‘Explore history’ section:
- Colonial Melbourne
- Convicts: Buckley and the Aborigines
- Pioneers: Batman’s treaty (‘also on ergo’ leads to Land & Exploration)
- Land & Exploration
- Land management: Tarnishing the Crown
- Land management: Indigenous land use
- Exploration: Burke, Wills & Aboriginal guides
- Rebels & Outlaws
- Law enforcement: Massacre of the Kurnai
- Law enforcement: Aboriginal trackers
- Law enforcement: The Native Police
- Golden Victoria
- Life on the fields: Aborigines and the gold rush
- Fight for rights
- Indigenous rights: (all in this section)
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6. Resources on the SLV catalogue
Images in ergo all have links to
the catalogue record for each
item,
eg. Tommy McRae’s book of
sketches
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7. Resources on the SLV catalogue
The record will contain all
bibliographic details,
background/description of the
item, and the subjects that it has
been catalogued in.
Subjects are hyperlinked
to searches for other items
in that subject set,
eg. Aboriginal Australians –
Victoria
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8. Resources on the SLV catalogue
Once you have searched for a
subject, we recommend that you
restrict your search to online
resources so you can use them
remotely.
You can do this from at the top
of the search results, or under
the ‘Show only’ heading in the
left column
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9. Resources on the SLV catalogue
You can view the items by
clicking on the ‘View online’
link.
Some are available to download
in high-res tiff format
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10. Resources on the SLV catalogue
Doing a catalogue search
http://search.slv.vic.gov.au
Different tabs are
to search for
different item types
The search bar is like a search engine on the web. Just
type in what you’re looking for and click ‘Search’
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11. Research guides
SLV research guides
http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/
Browse by subject  Aboriginal people
•Aboriginal people and family history
•Aboriginal people and the law
•Adoption and Forgotten Australians
•Early Australian census records
•Finding the meaning of an Aboriginal word
•Koorie Victoria and State Library of Victoria collections
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12. Resources for teachers
The Library also subscribes to information databases
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/explore/research-tools/access-eresources-home
Includes multi-subject databases
(EBSCO, Informit Complete,
General OneFile, JSTOR etc)
Also has subject specific resources
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people
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13. Finding articles in newspapers and journals
From the Research tools page you can search the Victoria Government Gazette
http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/
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14. Resources for teachers and students
You can also look at contemporary newspapers remotely, but you will need to
be logged in with your surname and Library card barcode – to register go to
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/services/join-library
Newspaper databases can be found at:
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/explore/research-tools/access-eresources-home/newspapers
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15. Finding articles in newspapers and journals
To view historic newspapers, go to the National Library of Australia website to
use Trove:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper
You can search by
publication or keyword.
Text is electronically
translated, so can be a
little inaccurate, but
articles can be printed
and/or saved from the
site
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16. Activity: analysis of images and documents
For this activity we will use templates from the ‘For teachers’ section of the
ergo website
http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/search/for-teachers
Using the templates for single
Image study and document study,
work in pairs or groups of three
to analyse the sources provided
(from the ergo website, SLV
manuscripts collection or Trove).
Record your findings on the template
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17. Using texts
Using texts can be a great way to explore cross-curriculum priorities and is a
good way to integrate studies with English.
• Great reading list for Indigenous studies compiled by Susan
La Marca (Genazzano FCJ College)
http://susanlamarca.edublogs.org/australian-curriculum/
•Resources on Inside A Dog to assist with text studies and
responses eg.
- Literature Circles
- Multimedia resources
- Video responses
- Visual responses
http://www.insideadog.com.au/teachers
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18. Sharing resources with Diigo
We have created a Diigo account to share resources that we have shown you
today:
http://www.diigo.com/list/slvlearn/aboriginal_torres_strait_islander_resources
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19. Contact details
Bethany Leong,
Education Programs Coordinator
Email: bleong@slv.vic.gov.au
Phone: (03) 8664 7268
Cameron Hocking,
Learning Programs Officer
Email: chocking@slv.vic.gov.au
Phone: (03) 8664 7558
There is also an edited version of this presentation at
http://www.slideshare.net/slveducation
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