Dictionary of Sydney embraces social media to bring history to life

by StreetCorner
16/05/2011

The Dictionary of Sydney, an online public history project started last year, is going social to increase community engagement with the stories of Sydney's past. The public will now be able to interact with the site via a new blog, and a Facebook page. The Dictionary of Sydney is also starting a Twitter account so we can all learn more about the colourful history of our city.

The Dictionary provides locals, visitors and academics around the world with access to detailed information about all aspects of Sydney life and history and includes stories of colourful Sydney characters and their exploits.

The Dictionary's new blog, titled Looking Up, will share the discoveries and entries from theDictionary's online database and showcase the research of the project's volunteer contributors. Readers will be able to comment on posts and interact with the Dictionary.

"The Dictionary of Sydney is a groundbreaking project that produces a new kind of history - online, growing and changing, and covering every aspect of human life in our city," said Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP.

It is also expected that the Dictionary will 'go mobile' in the future with mobile apps.

The Dictionary of Sydney covers the whole Sydney basin and spans the years from the earliest human habitation to the present.

The project welcomes all kinds of history - social, cultural, political, economic and more - as well as archaeology, sociology, literary studies, historical geography and cultural studies.

The Dictionary contains multimedia resources including images, maps, sound, music, oral history, film, documents and pointers to important objects in Sydney collections.

Some of the fascinating stories of our past uncovered by the Dictionary of Sydney include; essays on the history of circus in Australia by Mark St Leon and the history of Sydney's Russian and Maori communities by Mara Moustafine and Jo Kamira

The Dictionary of Sydney is a collaborative project coordinated by the Dictionary of Sydney Trust and supported by the City of Sydney, University of Sydney, University of Technology, Sydney, Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, State Records of NSW, Historic Houses Trust and Powerhouse Museum.

For more information, go to www.dictionaryofsydney.org

Looking Up blog -

http://dictionaryofsydney.wordpress.com

Twitter - www.twitter.com/dictionaryofsyd

Facebook - www.facebook.com/dictionaryofsydney

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