DocuShare makes it easy for secondary schools

to research online

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 easilysearchable

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 technologybased 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 hardcopies 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

online 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 webbrowser 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 online 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

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.

Quality Endorsed Company. ISO 9002. Lic 1950/01 Standards Australia

Printed in Australia, August 2001 • Case Study

13 14 12

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.