Online Heritage Resource Manager (OHRM)
Papers | ImplementationsThe Online Heritage Resource Manager or OHRM is a context based resource discovery and access system that links creators, archival and heritage resources and published materials within the one system.
The logical structure of the OHRM, as illustrated below, is based around:
- capturing key information about persons or corporate bodies in the Entity table;
- capturing key information about archival resources in the ArcResource table;
- capturing bibliographic citations of published resources, whether print, digital, online or offline in the PubResource table; and
- capturing the relationships of 'Entities' to other entities, archival and published resources in appropriate 'relationship' tables, i.e. RelatedEntity, Earrship and Eprrship.
From this database, both static and dynamic HTML output can be generated to build a comprehensive web resource.
OHRM Papers
For more information on the OHRM, its conceptual underpinnings
and development plans, please explore the following papers:
- McCarthy, Gavan, 'Engineering Utility: A Visionary Role For Encoded Archival Authority Information In Managing Virtual And Physical Resources', paper presented at AusWeb99, the Fifth Australian World Wide Web Conference, April 1999.
- McCarthy, Gavan, 'Heritage and the Internet - Encoding Context Objects: Using Knowledge to Reduce Risks', paper presented at the Australian Society of Archivists 1999 Conference, Brisbane, July 1999.
- McCarthy, Gavan, 'Utilizing the Web to build a network of archival authority records', Janus, vol. 1999.1, pp. 96-107.
- Evans, Joanne, 'Exploring Bright Sparcs: creation of a navigable knowledge space', paper presented at Charting the Information Universe, 13th National Cataloguing Conference, Brisbane, 13-15 October, 1999.
OHRM Implementations
Archival Gateways
- Bright Sparcs (1994 - ) A register of over 3,000 people involved in the development of science, technology and medicine in Australia, including references to their archival materials and bibliographic resources.
- Australian Science at Work (2000 - )- A register of the many industries, corporations, research institutions, scientific societies and other organisations that have contributed to Australia's scientific, technological and medical heritage, with references to their archival materials and a bibliography of their historical published literature.
- A Guide to Australian Business Records (2005) - A gateway to Australia's business heritage which draws together historical information on Australian businesses and business people (business entities). It links business entities with information on extant archival records created by the entities and held in archives and libraries, together with citations of published works about the entities. Where business entities are known to be related these relationships have been included as hypertext links.
- Unlocking Regional Memory (2004)- A gateway to regional archives in New South Wales.
- Cyberfibres: Online Register of Australian Fashion and Textile Design (2000) - Explores Australia's fashion and textile heritage (no longer online).
- Australian Trade Union Archives (2001) - A gateway for researchers and scholars of labour history, designed to link together historical detail, archival resources, published material and current information about Australian industrial organisations, mainly including trade unions and also employer bodies.
- Australian Women's Archive Project (2000 - ) - An on-line register containing biographical data about Australian women and their organisations, with links to the archival repositories where their records are held and to other sources of information. Since the establishment of the register, a number of exhibitions have been developed that further enrich this fascinating resource.
Resource Gateways/Compendiums
- Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS) (2006)- A gateway which links together current information, historical detail and published material relating to agreements made between indigenous people and others in Australia and overseas. (No longer using the OHRM, but still reflecting its informatics).
- South Seas Companion (2004) - An encyclopaedic reference guide to the history of European voyaging and cross-cultural encounters in the Pacific during the years between 1760 and 1800.
- Australian Sound Design Project (2002 - ) - This website is dedicated to researching and publishing original works and the discourse relating to sound and its design in public space, and features the original works of over 200 Australian sound designers, artists and composers in sound, text and image.
- Reason in Revolt – Source documents of Australian Radicalism (2005 - ) - A collaborative project with scholars at Monash University and the University of Melbourne using the OHRM to map, register and digitise key documentary resources relating to the history of Australian radicalism.
- Imperial College FOI Compendium (2003 - 2006) - The Freedom of Information Compendium links together information about Imperial College's Organisational Units (departments, divisions etc), College Committees (including the Court and Council), and the classes as defined in the Publication Scheme (e.g. Academic Year Dates or Student Welfare).
- Lost Lives (2002 - ) - A website commemorating the Second World War in the islands of New Guinea. Uses the OHRM data structures for managing the data but presents the information in a customised template.
- Australian Venom Compendium (2004 - ) - A resource for the general public, students, research scientists and clinicians which describes Australia’s most venomous creatures, envenomation treatment regimes (current and historical), symptoms and causes of envenomation, published resources, a glossary of terms and more.
- HIV Policy for the Asia Pacific Region (2004 - ) - A regularly updated compendium of government documents and evaluations, NGO and IGO reports and documents and policy analyses related to HIV/AIDS policies in the Asia Pacific region.
- Post Office Mauritius (2006 - ) - A research companion with biographical and bibliographical information about the Post Office Mauritius stamps and subjects related to them. It is based on Helen Morgan's research for the book Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps.
- Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia (2005 - ) - A catalogue of historical images of Chinese, Chinese immigrants and their descendants held in Australia. It primarily draws on the photographic holdings of the Chinese Museum but also includes photographs from other online archives, publications and private family collections. Built into the database is the beginnings of an encyclopaedia of Chinese-Australian history, complete with bibliography, which provides contextual information about the images in the database.
- eGold - A Nation's Heritage (2006 - ) - Telling the story of gold through images, stories and multimedia interactives, eGold connects individual stories to the wider historical themes of global gold rushes, global migration flows, building the Australian nation and democratic change during the gold rushes.
- Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences: A Historical Compendium (2003 - ) - A historical compendium of the people, departments, schools, research centres and affiliated organisations that make up the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, with references to archival materials and a bibliography of historical published literature.
Dictionary of Biography
- Australian Dictionary of Biography Online (2006 - ) - The online publication of the Australian Dictionary of Biography uses the OHRM to manage the entries and relationships to archival and published resources. It has customised display templates and search functionality.
Relationship mapping
OHRM Availability
- The OHRM is available under license at no cost for non-commercial, heritage and public good purposes. Contact the eScholarship Resource Centre for more information about the latest version of the OHRM.