Friday, November 13, 2015

We're back!

And the plan is to re-commence updating this blog as the source of news and information about the Australian Paralympic history project.

Although it's been a three year break since this blog was maintained, there has been lots of activity on the Australian Paralympic history project in that time:
  • 836(+) Wikipedia articles have been created (more on them below).
  • 46 oral history interviews have been recorded under the National Library of Australia's Paralympic project as part of its oral history and folklore program.
  • 1,902 images from the Australian Paralympic Committee's collection of more than 40,000 have been digitised and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons for widespread use.
  • The APC's audio-visual collection has been digitised and catalogued by the National Sports Information Centre. The catalogue is fully discoverable online and the NSIC manages all requests for access under an agreement with the APC.
  • Athletes and other members of past Paralympic teams have loaned or donated scrapbooks, medals, uniforms and other memorabilia to the APC.  Loaned items have been scanned or photographed and returned. Donated items are also scanned or photographed and stored in the APC's archives.Agreements with organisations such as the National Sports Museum mean that some of these items are on display in significant national collections, pending the establishment of a permanent Paralympic display.
  • The APC library in the APC Sydney office is a unique collection of 1,312 items, including books about Paralympic sport and Paralympians, results from international competitions, magazines, reports, submissions and proposals relating to the APC and Paralympic sport. The library is catalogued through the NSIC and the Clearinghouse for Sport, which means that all items are fully discoverable online, with subsequent access controlled by the APC.
  • The APC archives contain more than 600 boxes of documents that date back to the foundation of the APC in 1990, plus uniform items and memorabilia that have been donated or have been archived from Games teams since 2000. While these are sorted and indexed, there is still a large task to curate the important historical documents so they are available to those involved in the Paralympic history project and other researchers. The National Library has agreed to accept the curated core collection into its national collection, to ensure its ongoing preservation and access to future researchers.
  • Work is proceeding on the written history of the Paralympic movement in Australia, which will include an online format with links to the Wikipedia articles, photos, videos, oral histories, the library and physical collections. The written history is due for completion in 2017.
The Wikipedia HOPAU project has been one of the great success stories. In October 2015, the articles created through the project were collectively viewed 114,974 times. These were the 20 most popular articles: 

2000 Summer Paralympics - 1477
Ashley Adams - 1445
Australia at the 2000 Summer Paralympics - 1367
Disability sport classification - 1347
Australia at the 1992 Summer Paralympics - 1319
Ellie Cole - 1137
Kurt Fearnley - 1064
Daniel Bell (Australian swimmer) - 1019
Para-athletics classification - 984
Australia at the 1976 Summer Paralympics - 951
T44 (classification) - 947
T35 (classification) - 842
Elizabeth Edmondson - 797
T20 (classification) - 715
T37 (classification) - 713
Para-equestrian - 689
Kelly Cartwright - 684
Australia at the 1972 Summer Paralympics - 679
T38 (classification) - 662
T12 (classification) - 647