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about me

Tim Sherratt

I'm a digital historian, web developer and cultural data hacker who's been developing online resources relating to archives, museums and history since 1993. I've written on weather, progress and the atomic age, and developed resources including Bright Sparcs, Mapping our Anzacs and QueryPic. I'm currently working as a freelance troublemaker, as well as being an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Digital Design and Media Arts Research Cluster at the University of Canberra. I'm one of the organisers of THATCamp Canberra and a member of the interim committee of the Australasian Association for the Digital Humanities.

Email: tim@discontents.com.au

current projects

experience

2012
Digital Humanities Specialist, Australian National Dictionary Centre, ANU
2012
Harold White Fellow, National Library of Australia
2011
Director's Fellow, National Museum of Australia
2010–
Adjunct Associate-Professor, Digital Design and media Arts Research Cluster, University of Canberra.
2010
Technical Analyst, Public Sector Data Program, Australian National Data Service.
2009–11
Websites Research and Development Officer, National Museum of Australia.
2007–9
Websites Content Developer, National Archives of Australia.
2003–6
Postdoctoral Fellow, History Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. Working on an ARC-funded project entitled ‘The Human Elements: A Cultural History of Australian Weather’.
1999–2003
PhD studies, History Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, on the topic Atomic wonderland: Science and progress in twenieth-century Australia.
1997–
Freelance historian and web developer.
1997–99
Research Associate, Australian Science Archives Project (later the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre), University of Melbourne.
1996–97
Deputy-Director, Australian Science Archives Project. Responsible for Canberra Office and online publishing and outreach program.
1995–97
Research Fellow, History and Philosophy of Science Department, University of Melbourne.
1994–97
Manager, Canberra Office and Head of Information Services, Australian Science Archives Project. Initiated development of ASAP’s internet publishing and outreach program. Developed and maintained ASAP’s website, offered consultancy services in electronic publishing to ASAP clients, and conducted research into the provision of on-line information facilities – particularly through the Bright Sparcs project.
1993
Senior Archivist, Australian Science Archives Project, appointed to establish the ASAP Canberra Office. The position involved developing and managing archival and educational projects, supervising archival processing, fund-raising for projects, and liaising with other institutions.
1992
Archivist with the Australian Science Archives Project. Included the development of ASAP publications and educational material. Organised a major national conference entitled, Recovering Science – Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future.
1991–96
Editor of the History of Australian Science Newsletter.
1989–91
Assistant archivist with the Australian Science Archives Project. Major responsibility for the processing of the records of Edwin Sherbon Hills.
1987–89
PhD studies in History of Philosophy of Science, supported by Australian Postgraduate Research Award, investigating the ‘atomic age’ in Australia.
1985–86
Research Assistant to Professor R.W. Home, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne. Worked on a variety of projects associated with the history of physics in Australia, including Physics in Australia to 1945 – a biographical and bibliographical register.
1985–88
Casual Tutor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne, teaching ‘History of Astronomy’ and ‘Upheavals in science’.

publications

books and monographs

  • Inigo Jones: The Weather Prophet,
    Metarch no. 16
    ,
    Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne
    , 2007. [more...]
  • With Libby Robin and Tom Griffiths (eds), A Change in the Weather: Climate and Culture in Australia,
    National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra
    , 2005. [more...]
  • Atomic Wonderland: Science and Progress in Twentieth Century Australia,
    PhD
    ,
    Australian National University
    , 2003. [more...]
  • With Lisa Jooste and Rosanne Clayton (eds), Recovering Science - Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future - Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Melbourne, October 1992,
    Australian Science Archives Project, Canberra
    , 1995. [more...]

articles and book chapters

  • ‘Bringing Life to Records: 'Mapping Our Anzacs' at the National Archives of Australia’, in
    Kate Theimer (ed.), A Different Kind of Web: New Connections between Archives and Our Users with Web 2.0, Society of American Archivists, forthcoming (2011).
  • ‘Emerging technologies for the provision of access to archives: issues, challenges and ideas’, draft report,
    2009. [more...]
  • ‘The motion that might have saved the Whitlam government’,
    National Archives of Australia
    website,
    2008. [more...]
  • With Tom Griffiths, ‘What if the northern rivers had been turned inland’, in
    Stuart Macintyre and Sean Scalmer (eds), What if? Australian history as it might have been, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 206, pp. 234–254.
  • ‘Frontiers of the future: science and progress in 20th-century Australia’, in
    Deborah Bird Rose and Richard Davis (eds), Dislocating the frontier: essaying the mystique of the outback, ANU E-Press, Canberra, 2006, pp. 121–142. [more...]
  • ‘Civilisation versus the giant, winged lizards – Changing climates, changing minds’,
    Altitude, no. 7, 2006. [more...]
  • ‘Human elements’, in
    Tim Sherratt, Libby Robin and Tom Griffiths (eds), A Change in the Weather: Climate and Culture in Australia, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, 2005, pp. 1–17. [more...]
  • ‘Remembering Lawrence Hargrave’, in
    Graeme Davison and Kimberley Webber (eds), Yesterday’s Tomorrows: The Powerhouse Museum and its precursors, Powerhouse Museum in association with UNSW Press, Sydney, 2005, pp. 174–185. [more...]
  • ‘The weather prophets’, in
    Federation and Meteorology, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 2001. [more...]
  • ‘A climate for a nation’, in
    Federation and Meteorology, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 2001. [more...]
  • ‘Atomic testing’, in
    Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, pp. 42–3.
  • ‘David, Tannatt William Edgeworth (1858-1934)’, in
    Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, p. 178. [more...]
  • ‘Florey, Howard Walter (1898-1968)’, in
    Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, p. 258. [more...]
  • ‘CSIRO’, in
    Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, pp. 164–5. [more...]
  • ‘Science, history of’, in
    Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, pp. 572–3. [more...]
  • ‘A wartime observatory observed: the Mount Stromlo community, 1940-1945’, unpublished,
    1996. [more...]
  • With Gavan McCarthy, ‘Mapping scientific memory’,
    Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 24, no. 1, May 1996. [more...]
  • ‘'A physicist would be best out of it': George Briggs at the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission’,
    Voices, no. Autumn, 1993. [more...]
  • ‘Australian scientists at the British atomic tests’, in
    Robyn Williams (ed.), Science Show 2, Nelson, 1985, pp. 216–9. [more...]
  • ‘'A political inconvenience': Australian scientists as the British atomic weapons tests, 1952-3’,
    Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 6, no. 2, December 1985, pp. 137–152. [more...]

reviews

  • ‘Review of The Virtual Representation of the Past’,
    Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 38, no. 1, May 2010,
    pp. 147–9.
  • ‘Review of Treasures of the Museum, Victoria, Australia, and Land Nation People: Stories from the National Museum of Australia’,
    Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 16, no. 1, 2005,
    pp. 122–125. [more...]
  • ‘Review of Tom Frame and Don Faulkner, Stromlo: an Australian observatory’,
    Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 15, no. 1, June 2004.
    [more...]
  • ‘Review of Roger Cross, Fallout: Hedley Marston and the British bomb tests in Australia’,
    Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 14, no. 2, November 2002,
    pp. 209–10. [more...]
  • ‘Review of Clarence Hardy, Atomic rise and fall and Enriching experiences’,
    Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 13, no. 1, December 2001,
    pp. 105–7. [more...]
  • ‘Review of Wayne Reynolds, Australia's Bid for the Atomic Bomb’,
    Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 13, no. 4, December 2001,
    pp. 536–8. [more...]
  • ‘Review of Scienceworks, the Museum of Victoria’s Centre for Science and Technology’,
    Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 9, no. 4, December 1993, pp. 387–8. [more...]
  • ‘Making science for whom?’,
    Antithesis, 1988. [more...]

magazine articles

  • ‘Looking at the sun’,
    Memento, no. 35, 2008, pp. 14–17. [more...]
  • ‘From cameleers to citizens: Muslims in Australia, 1901–75’’,
    Memento, no. 33, 2007, pp. 12–13.
  • ‘The many battles of Jock Marshall’,
    Australasian Science, vol. 17, no. 2, 1996, p. 64. [more...]
  • ‘Political fallout: Australian scientists and the atomic bomb’,
    Australasian Science, vol. 17, no. 3, 1996, p. 64. [more...]
  • ‘From Beetles to a Nobel Prize’,
    Australasian Science, Autumn, 1994, p. 64. [more...]
  • ‘Finding Life in Ancient Corals’,
    Australasian Science, Summer, 1994, p. 64. [more...]
  • ‘A War Against Disease’,
    Australasian Science, Spring, 1994, p. 64. [more...]
  • ‘No standing back - Dame Jean Macnamara’,
    Australasian Science, Summer, 1993, p. 64. [more...]
  • ‘A passion for physics - Joan Freeman’,
    Australasian Science, Winter, 1993, p. 64. [more...]
  • ‘A model scientist’,
    Australasian Science, Autumn, 1993, p. 56. [more...]
  • ‘Communicating with Wild Life’,
    Australasian Science Mag, no. 4, 1992, p. 8. [more...]

conference papers and presentations

  • ‘Archives of emotion’, Rethinking Archival Methods workshop, Sydney, 29 November 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Small stories in a big data world’, National Digital Forum, New Zealand, 20 November 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Too important not to try’, Dipping a toe into Digital Humanities, Deakin University, 19 October 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Digital disruptions: Finding new ways to break things’, Faculty of Arts eResearch Forum, University of Melbourne, 12 October 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Doing Our Bit’ Build-a-thon, Mosman Library, Sydney, 11 August 2012. [more...]
  • ‘The responsibilities of data’, Framing Lives: The 8th Biennial Conference of the International Auto/Biography Association, Canberra, 19 July 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Beyond the front page’, presentation to the combined meeting of the Canberra Society of Editors and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers, Canberra, 27 June 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Mining for meanings’, Harold White Fellowship Lecture, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 8 May 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Inside the bureaucracy of White Australia’, Digital Humanities Australasia, Canberra, 29 March 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Mining the treasures of Trove: new approaches and new tools’, peer-reviewed presentation at VALA2012, Melbourne 2012. [more...]
  • ‘Making friends with text mining’, contribution to the A Conversation about Text Mining as a Research Method panel, American Historical Association annual conference, Chicago, 8 January 2012.
  • ‘Invisible Australians: Living under the White Australia Policy’, contribution to the Crowdsourcing History: Collaborative Online Transcription and Archives panel, American Historical Association annual conference, Chicago, 7 January 2012 [more...]
  • ‘It’s all about the stuff’, presented at the National Digital Forum, New Zealand, November 2011. [more...]
  • ‘Every story has a beginning’, keynote presentation at the Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers Annual Conference, Brighton, Victoria, 2011. [more...]
  • ‘Confessions of an impatient historian’, presentation at
    Scholars' Lab, University of Virginia, 8 June 2011.
    [more...]
  • ‘The 4Es -- Doing more with metadata’, presentation at
    CAARA Residential School, Canberra, 10 November 2010.
    [more...]
  • ‘Liberating lives: Invisible Australians and biographical networks’,
    'Life of Information' symposium, Canberra, 24 September 2010.
    [more...]
  • ‘(a hopefully fairly painless introduction to) Linked Open Data’, presentation at
    NSW Reference and Information Services Group seminar, State Library of NSW, Sydney, 4 May 2010.
    [more...]
  • ‘Of maps and metadata’, public lecture at
    , New York Public Library, 6 April 2009.
  • ‘Mapping our archives’,
    American Association for History and Computing, George Mason University, 4 April 2009.
  • ‘Recording the weather’,
    Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference, Perth, August 2008.
    [more...]
  • ‘What are the "matters of essentially national concern"?’, presentation at
    staff training session, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, 25 February 2008.
  • ‘All this paraphenalia – a Constitution for a nation’, presentation at
    branch training session, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, 12 December 2007.
  • ‘A climate of uncertainty’,
    Australian Historical Association Biennial Conference, Canberra, July 2006.
  • ‘Inigo Jones: the weather prophet’, public lecture at
    , National Archives of Australia, Canberra, 8 June 2005.
    [more...]
  • ‘Wragge’, after-dinner performance at
    Climate and Culture conference, Canberra, 26 September 2002.
    [more...]
  • ‘Unsung heroes’, speech at
    launch of Murray Upton, A rich and diverse fauna, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, 1998.
    [more...]
  • ‘A conspiracy reveal’d’, after-dinner speech at
    Working with Knowledge Conference, Canberra, 6 May 1998.
    [more...]
  • ‘Unpacking the cabinet’, speech at
    Cabinet of Curiosities Farewell, Canberra, 26 February 1997.
    [more...]
  • ‘The Bright Sparcs Project - Combining Directory and Publishing Functions in a Subject-Specific Resource’,
    Resource Discovery Workshop 96, Melbourne, 18 March 1996.
    [more...]
  • ‘On the beach: Australia’s nuclear history’,
    French Worlds, Pacific Worlds, University of Melbourne, July 1996.
    [more...]
  • ‘Pathways to memory’,
    Proceedings of AusWeb96 - The Second Australian World Wide Web Conference,
    AusWeb96, 1996.
    [more...]
  • ‘Advertising your archives on the WWW’,
    Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference, Canberra, 1995.
    [more...]
  • ‘A world to win: The WWW experience of a small organisation with big dreams’,
    Asia-Pacific WWW Conference, Sydney, 1995.
    [more...]
  • ‘Phyllis in atomic wonderland’,
    AAHPSSS Annual Conference, University of NSW, 1992.
    [more...]
Kate Theimer (ed.), A Different Kind of Web: New Connections between Archives and Our Users with Web 2.0,
Society of American Archivists,
forthcoming (2011).
Stuart Macintyre and Sean Scalmer (eds), What if? Australian history as it might have been,
Melbourne University Press, Melbourne,
206,
Deborah Bird Rose and Richard Davis (eds), Dislocating the frontier: essaying the mystique of the outback,
ANU E-Press, Canberra,
2006,
Graeme Davison and Kimberley Webber (eds), Yesterday’s Tomorrows: The Powerhouse Museum and its precursors,
Powerhouse Museum in association with UNSW Press, Sydney,
2005,
Federation and Meteorology,
Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne,
2001.
Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History,
Oxford University Press, Melbourne,
1998,
Robyn Williams (ed.), Science Show 2,
Nelson,
1985,
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