Information on Traditional Connections to Sea 34 th Annual IAMSLIC Conference Suva Fiji, 17 September 2008 Jennifer Zadkovich & Suzie Davies
Established in 1975 More than 2000 km long Covers 343,500 sq km 2,900 reefs and 900 islands World Heritage Site Over 70 different Traditional Owner Groups
Development of TUMRAs Traditional Use of Marine Resources Agreements (TUMRAs) – first established in 2005 Formal agreements between Traditional Owner groups & GBRMPA Describes how Traditional Owners work with government to manage traditional use activities in sea country
What is Story Place? An abstracting bibliographic database Resources about Traditional Owner groups adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia Major Concepts - Traditional Owner groups - Indigenous management tools - Traditional use of resources & cultural heritage - Contemporary activities and issues
Why? Positive partnerships in managing the GBR - To assist with TUMRAs Traditional Owners, researchers, interested stakeholders Information repository and sharing Part of wider Traditional Owner Information System (TOIS)
Background Collaborative project between Library, Social Sciences Unit & Indigenous Partnerships & Liaison Unit Project specifications Cultural sensitivity issues Statement of ‘Caution’
Decisions Format / decisions and protocols (in Wiki) - In-house descriptors - Criteria for inclusion - Major concepts Abstracts - James Cook University Native Title Unit AIATSIS (Language bibliographies)
Selection Tools - RefWorks & RefShare (with RSS) Materials - GBRMPA collection - Initial subject searches - INFORMIT - Natl Library of Australia - Ongoing ALERTS
Progress Currently over 1,000 records Released internally 2004 Available externally as of July 2007 Specific subject bibliographies Story Place Search ******
Lessons Learned Take time to plan thoroughly – scope, thesaurus, abstracts Record all decisions – preliminary and ongoing Consider outsourcing (e.g. abstracts) for quality Consider the long term implications of taking on the task - Collaborative projects with other sections
Looking Forward Disks to remote communities Review Australian Inst. Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies Thesaurus (AIATSIS) Google Earth interface Full text access to papers
a new way to share sea country stories