50 years of celebrating Australian lives
Image: 'Australian Crowd' by Stephen Baxter/National Centre of Biography
The Australian National University (ANU) will celebrate 50 years of chronicling and telling the stories of Australians though the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) by hosting a conference on producing biographies in the digital world.
The two-day conference from 30 June to 2 July, will mark the 50th anniversary of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, which has a central role in telling the stories of Australia’s great characters, both famous, infamous and lesser-known personalities from history.
Special guest will be former cabinet minister Barry Jones, who published the first Dictionary of World Biography in 2004.
“Barry Jones is an Australian living treasure. He is also one of the ADB’s best friends,” said Professor Melanie Nolan, general editor of the ADB from the ANU National Centre on Biography.
Mr Jones has written 13 articles for the ADB starting from when he was the Member for Lalor in federal parliament in 1979. He believes the ADB is one of the great achievements, if not the greatest single achievement in the humanities in Australia.
The conference will also feature talks from the editors of the Biographies from the UK, the US, Scotland and Ireland.
Also speaking at the conference is Ann Moyal, the first employee of the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Ms Moyal went on a road trip in 1959 to drum up support for the ADB in history departments around Australia.
The Dictionary captures the lives of significant Australians. It also reflects a cross-section of culture and identities from those who worked in other areas, such as shearers, drovers, barmaids and members of the armed services.
The conference will discuss some of the major challenges involved in producing biographical dictionaries in the digital age, include the cost of sustaining the work online and maintaining an Australian identity in a globalised world.
“As historical records continue to be digitised, it is generally thought that it is cheaper for the work to be kept up to date. But this is not the case because you need the resources to continue to update and revise the work.”
Professor Nolan says keeping a true sense of national identity is also difficult.
“That involves maintaining that sense of Australian-ness in an ever-changing, trans-global world.”
Barry Jones will also be appearing in conversation with Oxford Dictionary of National Biography general editor Sir David Cannadine at the National Library of Australia on Saturday 2 July at 1.30pm.