Australia’s ‘Silver City’ bids to diversify local economy through arts and culture as mining town identifies art, culture and tourism as key to staying relevant
Melbourne, Australia, 26 September 2018 – Axiell, the leading supplier of software to the cultural sector, today announces that it has been selected by Broken Hill City Council to manage their archive, art and geology collections. The city is looking to build on existing economic platforms, like art, culture and tourism to reinvigorate the local economy. Axiell’s EMu Collections Management System will centralise collections from the Broken Hill & Outback Archives, Albert Kersten Mining & Minerals Museum (Geocentre) and Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, opening up the City’s significant history to a much wider audience.
Broken Hill, located in the far west of outback New South Wales, is Australia’s longest running mining town. It was nicknamed the ‘Silver City’ following the discovery of silver ore in the 1880s and the subsequent mining of silver, lead and minerals has played a significant role in helping Australia become the prosperous country it is today.
Tara Callaghan, Gallery and Museum Manager at Broken Hill City Council, said:
“Broken Hill is home to unique and important collections of national significance. The Broken Hill City Council runs three fantastic institutions that have custodianship of these collections: The Broken Hill Outback Archives, The Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and the Albert Kersten Mining and Minerals Museum. For us, it is essential that we preserve and maintain these collections.”
Axiell’s EMu Collections Management System provides the user-friendly solution needed to help staff manage the physical and digital collections of the BHOA, BHRAG and Geocentre from a central location. This will ensure consistency across records and collections, while making conservation and digitisation workflows more efficient. Now, researchers, historians and members of the public will be able to easily search the catalogue online for digitised images, documents and videos across three sites:
- Broken Hill and Outback Archives (BHOA) – the archive documents the region’s importance in Australian history; including social, industrial, colonial and indigenous history
- Albert Kersten Mining and Minerals Museum (Geocentre) – an internationally recognised geological science museum, which outlines how the world’s largest deposit of silver lead and zinc was formed in Broken Hill
- Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery (BHRAG) – the oldest regional art gallery in New South Wales, with an extensive collection of more than 2000 colonial, modern and contemporary Australian artists, as well as a strong representation of leading Aboriginal artists
Tara Callaghan, Broken Hill City Council, continues:
“When looking for a Collection Management System we wanted a system that would be sophisticated enough to deal with all of the diverse manner of artefacts, objects, artworks, minerals and documents in our collections. Axiell EMu impressed us with its ability to store all different types of collections and files, as well as the significant emphasis placed on object conservation, safety and handling. We are excited about EMu’s ability to link with Council’s new website and look forward to sharing Broken Hill’s treasures with the world.”
Ben Sullivan, Managing Director Axiell ALM, comments:
“I visited Broken Hill as a kid and experienced the cultural sites first hand so I am extremely pleased that we are now helping to unify these collections and share them with the world. Our vision is to enable cultural assets to be made available to more people, more easily. Now, Broken Hill will benefit from Axiell’s unique expertise across archives, galleries, museums and more – meaning their staff will be able to manage the collection more collaboratively, whilst still being able to work in a way that suits them.”
For more information:
Maria Wasing
CMO Axiell Group
Phone: +46 73 852 17 52
E.mail: maria.wasing@axiell.com
About Axiell
Axiell serves libraries, schools, archives, museums and authorities with technically advanced and innovative solutions developed in close cooperation with its customers in 55 countries. More than 3000 library organisations with thousands of branches use an Axiell library management system and Axiell Arena, a tool for the virtual library. The systems for archives, libraries and museums are used by over 3400 cultural institutions over the world. In addition, more than 3000 schools use an Axiell system. The Axiell Group, headquartered in Lund, has more than 310 employees based out of 26 offices in Sweden, Australia, Abu Dhabi, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Together, we form one of the world’s largest companies in these sectors. To find out more about us and our products, please visit https://www.axiell.com.
