I have just spent three absorbing, and very educational days with Niles Elvery, Regional Coordinator, and three other members of the Q ANZAC 100 team from the State Library of Queensland.  The first morning was a unique opportunity to look at some of the State Library’s precious original First World War materials.

Niles explained the history of each item, then we were invited to don white gloves and handle these treasures which included a diary written at Gallipoli in 1915, letters and photographs.

The afternoon session was a fascinating and very informative talk on the delicate and time consuming work involved in conserving these precious items.  The public were then invited to share their own heritage materials and advice was given on how to care for these items so that they may be preserved for the future.

This session produced some wonderful treasures from the First World War that once belonged to fathers or grandfathers.

The next two days were spent in a workshop that introduced participants to the range of online tools available which enable the promotion and sharing of information.

A brief video was viewed showing the statistics on just how much social media is now used to share information.  Amazing!  We spent the time learning more about tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Flickr and how we could use these online tools to allow our organisation to better engage with the community.

The emphasis for the workshop was the sharing of First World War information and we learnt about the Historypin project within the Q ANZAC 100 portal, and we were shown how to pin photos etc to this project.

Photo courtesy of Cairns Libraries Facebook Page

Dell, Cynthia and myself then went into the Q ANZAC 100 project and pinned photos and information on one of the First World War soldiers buried in the McLeod Street Pioneer cemetery.

The team from SLQ were great teachers and I am sure all participants left with a better understanding of social media tools and the importance of using social media as a means for wider communication.

The team from SLQ were also very inspiring and very passionate about Q ANZAC 100 and the need to keep this history alive for future generations.

See also:

• Q ANZAC HistoryPin Hub
• Cairns Libraries’ Facebook post
• SLQ’s Q ANZAC 100 webpage
• SLQ’s Facebook page