Pic: Traffic flowing smoothly on the Sydney Harbour Bridge after two new lanes were opened, July 1959 Source: National Archives of Australia (A1200, L32700) http://dictionaryofsydney.org/image/71696
Keep up to date with the Dictionary. Subscribe to our Newsletter.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" text_font_size="14"]
[contact-form-7 id="8661" title="Subscribe"]
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_3"][et_pb_divider admin_label="Divider" color="#ffffff" show_divider="off" height="20" divider_style="solid" divider_position="top" divider_weight="1" hide_on_mobile="on"]
[/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" text_font_size="14" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Blog
Keep up to date with the Dictionary. Subscribe to our Blog.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" text_font_size="14" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
[subscribe2]
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label="Row"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_divider admin_label="Divider" color="#ffffff" show_divider="off" height="20" divider_style="solid" divider_position="top" divider_weight="1" hide_on_mobile="on"]
[/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label="Row"][et_pb_column type="1_3"][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_3"][et_pb_divider admin_label="Divider" color="#ffffff" show_divider="on" divider_style="solid" divider_position="top" divider_weight="1" hide_on_mobile="on"]
[/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" text_font_size="14" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Catch up on our latest newsletters here:
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Dictionary of Sydney newsletter, 23 May 2018 (1.93 MB) pdfDictionary of Sydney newsletter, 15 December 2017 (1.39 MB) pdfDictionary of Sydney newsletter, 11 July 2017 (643 KB) Dictionary of Sydney newsletter, 2 June 2017 (314kb) pdfDictionary of Sydney Newsletter, 16 May 2017 (1.27MB) pdfDictionary of Sydney Newsletter, 21 January 2017 (1.45MB) pdfDictionary of Sydney Newsletter, 28 October 2016 (1.5MB) pdfDictionary of Sydney Newsletter, 9 June 2016 (984KB) pdfDictionary of Sydney Newsletter, April 2016 (1.7MB) pdfDictionary of Sydney Newsletter, 16 December 2015 (1.3MB) pdf
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_3"][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_fullwidth_image admin_label="Fullwidth Image" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/slnsw.dxd.dc.prod.dos.prod.assets/home-dos-files/2015/06/COSA_1888-City-of-Sydney-Birdseye-view_CROP_centre2.jpg" show_in_lightbox="off" url_new_window="off" animation="off" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
[/et_pb_fullwidth_image][et_pb_row global_module="9305" admin_label="row" make_fullwidth="on" use_custom_width="off" width_unit="on" use_custom_gutter="on" gutter_width="1" padding_mobile="off" allow_player_pause="off" parallax="off" parallax_method="off" make_equal="off" column_padding_mobile="on"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" custom_padding="20px|10px|20px|20px" text_text_color="#dd3333"]
The Dictionary of Sydney uses an open-source platform called Drupal for encoding and presenting historical information about Sydney online. Content is structured around entities, using controlled vocabularies and subjects. Information relating to each entity appears in context.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Technology" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
All the text and metadata in the Dictionary is encoded in extensible markup language (XML) using text encoding initiative (TEI) standards. Text is tagged semantically, to identify links to related information.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column_inner][et_pb_column_inner type="1_3" saved_specialty_column_type="3_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Copyright" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Software
The Dictionary's content was originally aggregated and curated on the Heurist Platform developed by Arts eResearch (formerly Archaeological Computing Lab) at the University of Sydney. In 2016/2017, the content was migrated to a customised version of Drupal developed by the Digital Experience Division at the State Library of New South Wales.
Website
The design and build of the main Dictionary website was originally undertaken jointly by Arts eResearch and StudioEmotion design. In 2016/2017 this design was largely recreated by the Digital Experience Division at the State Library of New South Wales when the content was migrated to Drupal.
The blog pages of this site were designed by Michelle Catteril and built using Wordpress with a template by Divi.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column_inner][et_pb_column_inner type="1_3" saved_specialty_column_type="3_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Copyright" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" text_font_size="14"]
Model
While the content appearing in the Dictionary of Sydney has been licensed from others, the model into which these items are placed is original work of the Dictionary of Sydney. This includes creating the ontological structures, set of historical relationships, subject thesaurus, and other elements within the website. The Dictionary of Sydney has created a unique model and asserts copyright in it. For further inquiries regarding this model, please contact the Dictionary.
Text and multimedia
For information on copyright relating to text and multimedia in the Dictionary, click here.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column_inner][/et_pb_row_inner][/et_pb_column][et_pb_fullwidth_image admin_label="Fullwidth Image" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/slnsw.dxd.dc.prod.dos.prod.assets/home-dos-files/2015/06/COSA_1888-City-of-Sydney-Birdseye-view_CROP_centre2.jpg" show_in_lightbox="off" url_new_window="off" animation="off" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"] [/et_pb_fullwidth_image][et_pb_row admin_label="Row"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="right" text_font_size="10" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" saved_tabs="all" global_module="11276"]
Detail from MS Hill's 1888 map 'The City of Sydney', a birds-eye view over the city looking to the south and west across Darling Harbour. http://dictionaryofsydney.org/image/97526
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row global_module="9305" admin_label="row" make_fullwidth="on" use_custom_width="off" width_unit="on" use_custom_gutter="on" gutter_width="1" padding_mobile="off" allow_player_pause="off" parallax="off" parallax_method="off" make_equal="off" column_padding_mobile="on"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" custom_padding="20px|10px|20px|20px" text_text_color="#dd3333"]
Another of the many things we’ve been working on at the Dictionary is a redesign and rearrangement of our front page and better integration of our blog site and the Dictionary of Sydney Trust site into the main project.
We’ve been working with digital agency The Nest, who have been building us a new website design, with a lot more flexibility and functionality for the different aspects of the Dictionary’s work and organisation. We hope it will get a lot more people reading the blog, following the Dictionary’s progress, and participating in the project as readers, authors, or supporters.
In the new design, we'll be taking the bouncing balls off the front page, though not losing them altogether
We’re getting close to unveiling it — and this blog will be moving over to that site when we do. So keep popping back. We’ll let you know when the big ‘reveal’ will take place.
On Tuesday night on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live, Mark St Leon will be talking about his book Circus: The Australian Story, published by Melbourne Books. Mark is a Dictionary author and recently joined the Dictionary of Sydney Trust Board, bringing his years of experience in arts management as well as his historical expertise.
Mark is the author of the Dictionary’s article on Circus, one of our most popular and lively pieces, and also provided some images and footage out of his collection for illustration. Tune in to the program at 576 on your radio dial, or via the program website, where you can download it as a podcast after Wednesday . It’s sure to be a good listen.
And, here’s the podcast.
The Dictionary of Sydney brings together the intellectual property of a large number of contributors in an innovative way. All of the content you will find here has been provided to us by others and the Dictionary is not the copyright holder of much of the material appearing within the project. We have received permission to use, for our purposes, everything you find here. If you wish to use any of this content for your purposes (above and beyond normal personal use or uses permitted by copyright law such as 'fair dealing') you will need to make a direct request to the owner.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Text
All articles (also known as entries) in the Dictionary of Sydney are newly commissioned texts from the listed authors and have been licensed to the Dictionary for its use, adaptation and integration into our project (present and future).
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]The copyright in each article lies with its listed author(s) who retains the right to license it commercially, publish elsewhere, adapt or otherwise exploit their rights as the copyright holder. The Dictionary of Sydney has an Input Agreement for individual contributors providing written entries and for institutions providing, mostly, multimedia resources of various kinds.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_3" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_divider show_divider="off" disabled_on="on|on|off" admin_label="Divider" _builder_version="3.23.4" height="20px" hide_on_mobile="on"][/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Authors
The Input Agreement for individual authors includes three key points:
Authors keep copyright in their work.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that they do not submit material for which copyright clearance has not been obtained.
The Dictionary reserves the right to reformat material to take advantage of the possibilities of digital presentation. We will not, of course, do anything to alter the substantive meaning of an author's words and authors will always be acknowledged.
Submitted work is edited and returned to authors for final acceptance. We also undertake document, picture, film and audio research. When the essay is reproduced online it will be presented with a range of images, maps, audio clips, reproduction of documents, reading lists, downloadable pdfs and so on. New possibilities may arise as the technology matures.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]In many cases, authors also agree to license their work under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (version Au-2.5) (commonly referred to as CC-BY-SA). The Creative Commons licence describes the circumstances under which third parties may use articles without having to ask permission or pay fees. This is a voluntary licence and it encourages the wider dissemination and use of the information. Articles which are so licensed are clearly indicated by the CC-BY-SA logo next to the title. You can see the full details of the CC-BY-SA licence here.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]In summary, this licence means that third parties are specifically allowed to copy, distribute and adapt the article provided that they attribute the original source, and that adaptations, such as translations, abridged versions or new articles based on the original, are made equally free for others to further adapt and re-use under the same CC-BY-SA licence.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]If you would like to re-use article(s) in ways not permitted under this licence you need to contact the author(s) to gain specific permission. Text such as captions, subheadings, descriptions and blog posts are written in-house.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_3" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_divider show_divider="off" disabled_on="on|on|off" admin_label="Divider" _builder_version="3.23.4" height="20px" hide_on_mobile="on"][/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Multimedia
The Dictionary of Sydney has partnered with a wide range of public institutions, commercial companies and individuals to find and license multimedia items (images, video, audio) to associate with our articles. The Dictionary has sought and received specific permission to use each one of these items in the project.
If you wish to re-use this content you need to undertake your own copyright assessment and/or contact the listed provider (look for the Contributor and Creator information with the content record on the site). We have made best efforts to obtain permissions and show the correct attribution, citation and metadata for all material in the Dictionary but if you believe we have made a mistake or omission, please contact us.
In some circumstances we have used multimedia items which have been published elsewhere with one of the several Creative Commons licences available. We have indicated this fact within the metadata of the item.
If you would like to know more about the copyright status of such an item please check at the location where the item was first published. Attribution texts (metadata) are supplied by the provider of the multimedia items and are either their copyright or not copyrightable.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.27.4" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]
Technology
For information on copyright as it relates to the technology of the Dictionary (software, website design, model) please click here.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_fullwidth_image src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/slnsw.dxd.dc.prod.dos.prod.assets/home-dos-files/2015/06/COSA_1888-City-of-Sydney-Birdseye-view_CROP_centre2.jpg" admin_label="Fullwidth Image" _builder_version="3.0.87" animation="off" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"][/et_pb_fullwidth_image][et_pb_row admin_label="Row" _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="3.0.87" text_font_size="10" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" text_orientation="right" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" global_module="11276" saved_tabs="all"]
Detail from MS Hill's 1888 map 'The City of Sydney', a birds-eye view over the city looking to the south and west across Darling Harbour. http://dictionaryofsydney.org/image/97526
The Dictionary of Sydney is made up of a small team of part-time staff and an energetic and dedicated group of volunteers,and is part of the Mitchell Librarian's division at the State Library of New South Wales. You can contact us via the form here. Due to funding cuts, staff hours are limited but we will do our best to reply as soon as possible.
Linda has worked for the Dictionary of Sydney Trust since March 2010. Prior to this she worked on research and digitisation projects at the State Library of New South Wales, News Limited and Corbis. As a freelance researcher since 2000 she has also contributed to a wide variety of projects for Australian and international book publishers and designers, museums, libraries, photographers and film-makers. Linda holds a BA(Hons) (Syd) and a Grad Dip Information Management (Lib) (UNSW).
Detail from MS Hill's 1888 map 'The City of Sydney', a birds-eye view over the city looking to the south and west across Darling Harbour. http://dictionaryofsydney.org/image/97526
In September 2018, the Dictionary of Sydney Inc was wound up and management of the Dictionary was transferred to the State Library of New South Wales where the Dictionary of Sydney is made up of a small team of part-time staff and dedicated volunteers.
We are grateful for the contributions of all of those on the Dictionary's board of management over the years.
'The end of the book' by J. Brooks Thornley, 1896, State Library of Victoria H96.160/480
If you're a history lover with internet access you should have discovered London Lives, an amazing resource for discovering ordinary Londoners of the past.
Tim Hitchcock is one of the people who created it and other sites such as Connected Histories. He's just written a fascinating post on what the creation of online historical resources might mean for our understandings of history as a practice and the book as an object at the basis of that practice. Read the whole thing.
The Dictionary of Sydney, it seems to me, sits somewhere between the digitised source materials of Old Bailey Online and Trove Newspapers, and the venerable technology of the printed encyclopedia. We can include full sources, links to other sites, multiple entries on specific topics, sound and film, and other amplifications of the possibilities of the encyclopedia, and we also add an underlying data structure which connects every entity in the repository and which will eventually provide a way of asking new questions of the material we gather.
But with our current text-based focus, and our editing standards, we haven't transcended the book, and I think Hitchcock is correct when he says:
This transition from the ‘book’, to something new, fundamentally undercuts what we do more generally as ‘historians’. When you start to unpick the nature of the historical discipline, it is tied up with the technologies of the printed page and the book in ways that are powerful and determining. Our footnotes, our post-Rankean cross referencing and practises of textual analysis are embedded within the technology of the book, and its library.
The Dictionary has these features as well as the links, browse and search functions that are new to digital history. As we have learnt how to edit, build and work with this linked information, it has become clear that our individual contributors' work now sits within an assemblage of other material that might either support or contradict any given statement made by an individual historian. The author has well and truly ceded control of the context of their work. We don't yet know how readers are reacting to these possibilities, and still, the most common question Dictionary staff are asked is 'When will you be publishing a printed version?', to which the answer is 'We won't'. At close to a million words, it's already far too big.
Are we creating a transitional format for history here, one of many that will emerge in coming years? I hope so. It's going to be fun finding out.
Mark is the author of the Dictionary’s article on Circus, one of our most popular and lively pieces, and also provided some images and footage out of his collection for illustration. Tune in to the program at 576 on your radio dial, or via the program website, where you can download it as a podcast after Wednesday . It’s sure to be a good listen.
And, here’s the podcast.