City of Sydney Council debated the continued funding of the Dictionary of Sydney at Council's meeting on Monday night.  After discussion, Council resolved to re-affirm the decision made in June 2011 to fund the Dictionary for a five-year period, and to release the funds for 2012-13 financial year, an amount of $200,000. The resolution recognised the Dictionary of Sydney as “a unique initiative of freely available, authenticated historical information about Sydney” and recorded Council’s visionary leadership in supporting the development of this public history project. This unanimous decision by Council will enable the Dictionary, which was close to the end of its operational funds, to continue its work, including coordinating a Federally funded project on the history of the Cooks River, and to ramp up a further fundraising effort to ensure its future. We will be working closely and cooperatively with City staff to create workable goals for the next year, and to meet them. If the City funding had not been made available the Dictionary would have closed its operations in August 2012, losing its staff, and ending the preparation of new material for publication. The possible closure of the project galvanised Dictionary contributors, users and members of the history community. Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP, Councillors, and City of Sydney staff received emails and letters from around Australia and across the world, urging continued support for the Dictionary and emphasising the importance of keeping this project alive. Councillor Phillip Black, who has been a founding Board member of the Dictionary,  was delighted with the outcome: "The Dictionary is a groundbreaking project which brings credit on the City, and will become an integral part of Sydney's cultural landscape. It's vital that we enable it to survive through these difficult early years." Councillor Black thanked the Lord Mayor and other councillors who voted for the measure, saying "the project is evidence of their commitment to an innovative, sustainable city, using technology to project its history and culture to the wider world." Associate Professor of History at UNSW, and author of The Colony, Grace Karskens was also pleased that the project will now continue. "It's a link between academic, amateur and professional historians, between local and family history and citywide themes. Hundreds of volunteers have contributed, and now their work will continue to grow". The Dictionary would like to thank all of our supporters who lobbied Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP, Councillors, and the City of Sydney.  We are very proud to have such passionate advocates and that the Dictionary is so highly regarded. Your support made all the difference, in reminding the Council what an important project they have fostered and helped build over the last five years, and urging them to carry it forward. Many individual contributors, volunteers, readers and enthusiasts wrote to the Councillors, and we were also heartened by the support of Wikimedia Australia, who sent a strongly worded letter. Many tweets and posts of support on other blogs have made us feel like valued members of the online history community, and that will certainly strengthen the project in the future. We would also like to thank those generous supporters who took this occasion to donate to the Dictionary. Without your financial as well as moral support this innovative project would not be possible. So now Dictionary staff can get back to commissioning, editing, linking, researching, illustrating and coordinating the work of our brilliant volunteer authors, as well as fundraising, marketing and administering! We'll be doing our best to help the Dictionary grow and consolidate, but all ideas and suggestions are very gratefully received, so if you have thoughts, please comment or get in touch.