DocuShare makes it easy for secondary schools 
to research online
A
joint collaboration between
Fuji Xerox Australia and 
the University of South
Australia will see a major collection
of archives, books and memorabilia
on former Australian Prime Minister
Bob Hawke made available for
research and public access. Part 
of the Hawke Centre, a project
initiated by the University of 
South Australia to deliver dynamic
education programs and foster
excellent research for public good,
the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial
Library is one of the first of its kind
in Australia. It aims to identify,
collect, conserve and make
available the Prime Minister’s
papers and memorabilia, and those
of his colleagues in public life, and
related materials from his times. 
According to Elizabeth Ho, director 
of the Hawke Centre, the Prime
Ministerial Library represents a major
information resource for external
researchers and digital access is 
a critical requirement.
“Digital archiving removes the barriers
of distance,” explained Ms Ho. “We
needed to be able to take hard copy
documents and photographs and make
them available in an easily-searchable
digital format over the internet. It is all
about access: we wanted to make it
easy, for example, for secondary
schools across Australia to research
the Hawke era on line, with unparalleled
archived resources at their fingertips.”
Finding the right solution to fit
Within the University of South
Australia, The Hawke Centre turned to
its own Document Services department
for advice on handling the mass of
documents. With digitisation, storage
and searchability all key issues,
Information Technology Coordinator
Mike Hobart turned to Fuji Xerox
Australia for advice.
“The University of South Australia has
a successful strategic partnership with
Fuji Xerox. They have worked closely
with us over the past six years, helping
us make the university print room more
efficient, improving our workflow and
revolutionising the way we serve the
needs of our clients within the
University. Fuji Xerox deals with the
document in all its forms – be it hard
copy or digitised – and I had no
hesitation in approaching them for
advice on the right solution.”
Fuji Xerox proposed DocuShare, its
web technology-based document
management system. Like the Web,
DocuShare is an inherently ‘open’
system and can be installed on
Wndows NT or UNIX Web Servers,
with users able to access from any
desktop that has a Web Browser and
Intranet or Extranet access.
University  of  South  Australia  
CASE STUDY
Bob Hawke lends his life to
knowledge sharing at University
of South Australia
Fuji Xerox software solution catalogues life and times 
of one of Australia’s most notable Prime Ministers
Thanks to DocuShare’s tools that allow us to 
assign different users with access to various
directories, we were able to quickly ‘share’ the 
newly digitised files with the Hawke Centre…”
Sharing knowledge across 
many locations
“Any business or organisation that
needs to share information and
knowledge can benefit from
DocuShare,” explained John Murphy,
Education Industry Manager, Fuji Xerox
Australia. “It is ideally suited to
applications across multiple sites, as
between Document Services and the
Hawke Centre – two sites at the
University of South Australia.” Another
key suitability of DocuShare cames
from it allowing each party involved 
to focus on its own core competencies:
“Whilst Document Services had the
skills and expertise to create digitised
documents from the hard-copies being
made available, it had no experience 
in archiving library documents
appropriately. Similarly, the library 
was unsure which types of screen
resolutions or file formats best digitise
the document. DocuShare solved this.”
How it works: using a standard web
browser users can post, change, 
search for and retrieve information in 
a secure, controlled environment with 
all changes immediately accessable 
to authorised users. Office documents,
calenders, bulletin boards, scanned
images, video clips, sound files and
more can be added and recovered
without the intervention of a web
master or site administrator.
“Thanks to DocuShare’s tools that allow
us to assign different users with access
to various directories, we were able 
to quickly ‘share’ the newly digitised
files with the Hawke Centre for them 
to categorise accordingly in the correct
on-line directory,” said Hobart.
He added: “For example, Document
Services places the scanned files into
the ‘general’ directory to which the
archivist has prior access rights
assigned. Whether the files are JPEGs
of scanned photographs, PDFs of
speeches, even video streams, they 
go to the same place – the archivist is
then responsible for where that digitised
file ends up.”
Storage and sharing made easy
Being web-browser based, DocuShare
means there is no extra programming
or training required. Similarly, it allows
storage of files to be platform
independent. To Hobart’s delight, even
presenting images on-line is made easy:
“Any web designer will tell you about
the long winded approach of preparing
images for web download. First of all
the image is scanned, then a separate
thumbnail is created, then a link has
to be set up between the two. With
DocuShare, once you scan an image,
the thumbnail and relevant link is
generated automatically.”
Working with Fuji Xerox Document
Services is now able to create digital
resources and make them available 
via the Web, quickly and easily, paving
the way for other applications.
“This project was an opportunity for
Fuji Xerox to demonstrate an integrated
solution utilising an intranet and
Internet access relationship,” said 
John Murphy. “As one of the first
projects in Australia for delivering
digital library services, we see it as
having huge potential for
demonstration and referral to other
clients requiring this type 
of collection management support.”
Further Information
Tania Billington
Fuji Xerox Australia 
Phone: 02 9856 5469
www.fujixerox.com.au
Australian Head Office
Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Ltd
101 Waterloo Rd, North Ryde NSW 2113
Phone (02) 9856 5000 Fax (02) 9856 5003
© Fuji Xerox, Xerox, The Document Company, DocuShare and the stylised X are registered trademark/trademarks. 
Whilst the information is correct at the time of printing Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Ltd ABN 63000341819
reserve the right to change the specifications of the equipment described herein without notice.
13 14 12
Quality Endorsed Company. ISO 9002. Lic 1950/01 Standards Australia      Printed in Australia, August 2001 • Case Study
University  of  South  Australia  
CASE STUDY
Fuji Xerox deals with the document in all forms – be it hard copy or digitised – 
and I had no hesitation in approaching them for advice on the right solution.