GLAMx - Hunter Living Histories

Opening Hours 2023

9am-3.30pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Closed Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays.

The GLAMx Living Histories Digitisation Lab is administered by Special Collections at the Auchmuty Library, Callahan Campus. The facility came about through extensive collaboration between the University Library, the Faculty of Educations and Arts, the Innovation Team in IT Services and the Wollotuka Institute, as well as engagement with the wider community via the Hunter Living Histories Initiative.

Students and researchers working on Special Collections projects in the GLAMx lab can book specialised equipment to scan 2D and 3D material, digitise audio and audio-visual material or use the microfilm reader. Bookings must be made two days in advance. Please provide as much information as possible regarding the equipment or service you would like to access so we can best assist you.

Located on level 3 of the Auchmuty Library (L329), the GLAMx Lab supports students in University of Newcastle’s Work Integrated Learning (WIL) programs across a range of schools and disciplines, as well as student volunteers. It offers the opportunity for participants to learn invaluable digitization and other cultural sector skills designed to improve their employability. A diversity of experiences are available including:

Transforming a range of physical formats into digital objects
Drawing on GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) professions across conservation, archival science, librarianship, digitization, metadata and data management, curatorial and digital heritage sectors
3D scanning and Virtual Reality technologies
Using innovative technological solutions to expand the discoverability and accessibility of archival sources including through a state-of-the art community engagement platform for digitised cultural collections, Living Histories digital repository

The GLAMX Lab also has a separate Audio-visual Digitization Lab housing the NBN Television archive and an Artefact Conservation Atelier for conservation and 3D digitisation of Aboriginal artefacts and other artefacts for virtual reality (VR) simulation and we encourage Aboriginal students to participate.

GLAMx : WIL Projects 2023 – ARE AVAILABLE HERE

The GLAMx Lab offers the opportunity for participants to learn invaluable digitization and other cultural sector skills that will improve their employability. A diversity of experiences are available including how to transform physical format into a digital object, access to a gamut of GLAM (i.e. Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) professions across conservation, archival science, librarianship, digitization, metadata and data management, curatorial, 3D scanning, Virtual Reality technologies and digital heritage sectors. The use of innovative technological solutions are used to expand the accessibility of archival sources.

If you are interested in undertaking a work integrated learning (WIL) placement, or interested in volunteering please contact:

Dr Ann Hardy
GLAMx Living Histories Co-ordinator

email: ann.hardy@newcastle.edu.au
ph: +61 2 4985 4594

Created by Cheang Wai Tou (Hugo), Meghan Richardson, edited by William Chen Greentree (WIL Communication students) 2019

Also see UON Library GLAMx Lab and ‘Moving Culture Forward’ featuring WIL student Angelique Carr.

Peter Langton (WIL student of the year 2017) features in UON video promoting the new BA in 2018.

Victoria Grey (Employed via the Vera Deacon Regional History Fund on projects in the GLAMx Lab) featured in UON video promoting Master of Social Change and Development, 2019.

The University of Newcastle’s Hunter Living Histories Initiative in collaboration with Cultural Collections (Auchmuty Library), the UON’s Innovation Team and the Faculty of Education and Arts have established Work Integrated Learning (WIL) facilities in the form of a GLAMx Living Histories Digitisation Laboratory to enable placements, volunteers, cadets and interns from a range of disciplines across the University (and beyond) to attain real world experience and training in our Hunter Region’s region’s cultural heritage across 50,000 years.

The GLAMx lab incorporates an Artefact Conservation and 3D digitisation atelier, and Film Digitisation Lab. This facility will enable our University to provide Work Integrated Learning (WIL) and Aboriginal Education and Training Opportunities for its students and enable them to work in collaborative teams with professionals across the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) sector.

For example, IT, design and visual communications students have helped with our logo design, newsletters, media releases, and transforming our extensive blog post content into a series of ebooks. e.g., see our Macquarie Pier Commemorative Booklet

The Lab also houses some of the NBN Television footage of the region. There is a team of volunteers, some are former NBN Television employees and are mentors to some of our UON students and volunteers.

We have also established The GLAMx Living Histories Site Documentation Team to record and document the “archives in the field” including Aboriginal sites, in Newcastle and the Wollombi district in consultation and involvement with Aboriginal elders, students, staff, working with students, under the guidance of professionals, in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, visual arts, conservation, photography, natural history illustration, surveying, 3D site digitisation. See the presentations from the Past Matters Workshop. The GLAMx Living Histories Site Documentation Team meets regularly to undertake future projects.

We also need people with video and audio expertise to assist with creating podcasts, documenting archaeological site visits, meetings, presentations, and preparing oral histories, as well as be involved in the analog to digital transfer of NBN Television’s half a century of Hunter Regional audio visual heritage.

GLAMx Living Histories Site Documentation Team with students from Natural History Illustration Field Studies & Culture Class NHIL3004

Our 3D Time Machine Virtual Hunter Project needs students with architectural, natural history illustration, 3D gaming, design, rendering, visualisation, animation skills etc.

Since 2016, the gamification of the Charles 3D terrain model has begun with Tim Davidson and the team from Virtual Perspective see: https://youtu.be/5WNPsQk0ciw?t=14m15s

We need history students to assist with transcriptions of historical texts and analysis of archival primary sources, as well as assist other interns in cross disciplinary collaborations.

We need creative and dramatic arts students to bring these stories to the wider community in a variety of events.

A listing of the projects of the Hunter (Living) Histories Initiative are:

3D Virtual Hunter Project – see the work of Charles Martin
Aboriginal Sites Documentation Team – Past Matters Workshops – Callaghan & Ourimbah
ADFAS – School of Arts/Mechanics Institutes Project – see latest news here
Advocacy – Newcastle Post Office, King Edward Park
Architectural Histories, Student Support & Design Innovation Archive (DIA)
Birdwood Flag Restoration Project see the launch page here
Coal River Working Party
Drama & Creative Arts Performance – see Where the Coal Meets the Sea (2008)
ePress Books
GLAM Peak Australia – accessible digital cultural heritage on a national level latest meeting summary here
Global Newcastle Project
Histories of Hunter Women Project
Hunter Heritage Network
Mapping Google Maps & Google Earth
National Trust Hunter Region
Oral & AV Histories Project see our UONCC Soundcloud
Radical Newcastle – see website
Wine Industry Hunter Valley History