What do museums and mice have in common? Through Australian Museums On Line (AMOL), the common mouse can open a path into Australia’s museums and galleries. This innovative website is a gateway to Australia’s vast heritage collections held in heritage and art museums.
The website is unique in its involvement of the many regional and local museums across the country, many supported by Local Government, along with Australia’s national and state museums. Details about more than 1,000 of these diverse museums can be accessed through AMOL’s Guide to Australian Museums.
They range from the Australian War Memorial, which houses Australia’s most significant collection of military relics and records, to the Bega Valley Regional Gallery which houses a permanent collection of works by major Australian artists and hosts a program of exhibitions ranging from the traditional to the abstract.
Museums listed in the Guide can be searched via type or collection strength. Through a geographic map package, users from the general public can also click on regions within Australia to uncover museums which may otherwise have remained hidden.
Discover and explore our rich heritage. AMOL is unique in its strong focus on regional Australian museums and the opportunities it offers to help these museums promote their organisation on a national and international level.
An AMOL grants program has provided funding to help some of these museums purchase much needed software upgrades and equipment. Grants have been offered to 29 regional and local museums over the past year.
One grant recipient, the Battery Hill Mining Centre at Tennant Creek (NT), has purchased a digital camera which will be used to fully document and digitally record 25 significant objects. These records will be added to AMOL’s Open Collections, a database containing more than 420,000 object level records, with 30,000 images and 51 full collections.
A search function allows users to browse these records to find information about objects created by individual artists or artifacts relevant to their studies or area of interest. AMOL also features a growing collection of stories which provide contextual information about objects or significant events in our past.
For example, The Golden Virginal focuses on a 16th century musical instrument residing at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Users can run the mouse over an image of this instrument to uncover its history and construction. Clicking on soundbytes brings the virginal to life via a recorded performance.
Another exciting story, the Pandora Expedition, explores the Pandora shipwreck in its final resting place off the coast of Queensland. AMOL also caters for professionals and volunteers working within Australian museums. Through AMOL’s Museum Craft section these users can access a growing collection of resources and guides, along with dynamic online discussion forums.
Participation in AMOL is free and access to the Internet is not necessary. Join now. Contact the AMOL Coordination Unit on (02) 9217 0469 or email amol@amol.org.au
AMOL is an initiative of the Heritage Collections Council (HCC), a collaborative Commonwealth, state and museum sector body.
Click here to visit the AMOL web site
