Australian Women's Archives Project

An ARC Linkage (LIEF) Project 2003-2004

Australian Women's Archives Project
An ARC Linkage (LIEF) Project 2003-2004

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The origins of the Register

In the year 2000, the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) launched the Australian Women's Archives Project (AWAP), a national strategy to support the preservation of records relating to women and to make these readily accessible to academic, government and community-based researchers.

Recognising that women's archives are often generated at an individual or local level, the NFAW has since engaged in a national campaign to help individuals and communities identify such records and to work towards their preservation.

Noting the frustration that all researchers into women's history experience, due to the fragmented nature of data relating to women's records, the NFAW developed a central database to record information about these records.

Aiming to ensure that the outcome was made publicly accessible, they called upon the expertise of software developers and archivists at the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre (Austehc) at the University of Melbourne, to build a web-based platform for this database.

The ARC funded development of the Register

The Register grew substantially in 2003-2004. A team of investigators from around Australia, with the support of the Australian Research Council (ARC) through the Linkage - Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) Scheme, worked on a project that aimed to link the NFAW community-based initiative with the concerns of the academy, broadening the range of data available online to researchers in history and the other social sciences and creating for them an indispensable tool.

The key focus of this significant ARC project was the identification of records relating to women's organisations and women within organisations.

How the community can help

Any information regarding the location of archival material relating to Australian women's organisations, defunct, or still in existence, in private hands or in official repositories, would be greatly appreciated. Please direct any queries, information or advice relating to the project to Dr Nikki Henningham at n.henningham@unimelb.edu.au or on 03 8344 3355.

© Copyright of the Australian Women's Archives Project
Published by Austehc, The University of Melbourne, 2004
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/awap/register.html