Libraries, Wikis and Sports History

Wikis can be a good introductory source for sports history research. Wikipedia is the obvious starting point. In fact, Wikipedia pages are often the first results one finds via a Google search. If you'd like a potted history on a sporting club (e.g. the mighty Celtic FC) or a brief biographical sketch of a sporting figure (e.g. legendary Australian rugby league administrator, Harry Sunderland), then why not begin with Wikipedia? Just be wary that information may be 'borrowed' directly from other sources (e.g. the Australian Dictionary of Biography). Best of all, if you aren't happy with an entry, you can make the necessary changes yourself!

Some 'closed' wikis can be more useful than Wikipedia for more specific subjects. I love the subject guides at the Montana Historical Society's wiki. For example, the Montana Pronunciation Guide is a wonderful innovation, and I would love to see similar guides relating to regional Australian names. I like the fact that while users cannot edit the Montana Historical Society's guides, they can contribute their own stories.

Energy and Teamwork

Following on from last week's post about Flickr, I have been exploring Flickr in search of photos that illustrate our library's values. Here's my favourite so far: a striking image taken by Vegan Butterfly that typifies the value Energy and Teamwork: our pulling together in pursuit of a common goal. We may be of different shapes and sizes (i.e. we have different talents and temperaments) but that doesn't get in the way of coming together and all doing our bit for the State Library, its collections and its clients.

This sculpture sits outside the Drayton Valley Municipal Library in Alberta, Canada. 'Pulling Together' is not only the name of the sculpture, but it's the motto of the town of Drayton Valley as well!

Flickr

This cracking shot of a cricket crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground c.1900-1910 was my introduction to Flickr. The State Library of New South Wales has started to add some of its photographic treasures to Flickr. They make an interesting counterpoint to many of the post-modern photos that anyone with a digital camera can create and upload to Flickr. I have never seen so many photos of the State Library buildings taken from bizarre angles!

Tagging photos is an interesting exercise. I can certainly see the value of applying tags to images. My only wish is that there could be some control over the tags, some kind of standard. For example, digital photographers have uploaded photos of the State Library and tagged them with various headings. These include statelibraryofnsw, statelibrary, slnsw, statelibraryofnewsouthwales, old library sydney, and possibly several others as well! A controlled vocabulary or authority file would be a wonderful idea. However, it is probably asking way too much. (Who would be in charge? One of the beauties of the internet is that nobody is in charge!)

Or maybe I need to stop thinking like a librarian.

The Opening Whistle

In embarking on this learning journey, a heap of sporting cliches spring rapidly to mind. Waiting for the starter's orders ... not wishing to make a false start ... hoping all the training has paid off and that I've turned up ready to play. Please excuse the cliches, as my love of sports - and of sports history in particular - will figure prominently in this blog.

As many coaches have emphasised to me over the years, you only get out of it what you put into it. To gain the maximum benefits from the Learning 2.0 programme, I intend to relate all that I learn to the practice of sports history, to engaging with other sports historians in galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM for short!) and to making sports archives more accessible to those who require them.

I discovered the sports history discipline at an opportune moment. Now more than ever there are researchers interested in sports history. At the same time, more records are being created, and hopefully more are becoming accessible. Traditionally, my role would be to unite researchers and those records, but in this 21st century post-modernist electronic world, I'm not too sure. Facilitator, intermediary, anonymous benefactor? Active, passive, proactive or something I haven't yet considered? Join with me as I discover the world of the Web 2.0 and try to make sense of what these technologies can mean for GLAM sports historians like me.

All the while I hope to use and discuss examples from the collections of State Library of New South Wales. This stunning photo above of a bumper crowd at a representative rugby union match in 1903 (http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=430479) is but the tip of the iceberg!