Sound footings: Building a national digital library of Australian music

Abstract

MusicAustralia is a Web portal for anyone interested in Australian music. A joint development of the National Library of Australia and Screen-Sound Australia: National Screen and Sound Archive, it provides users with access to a federated resource discovery service for Australian music in notated and audio representations and in digital and non-digital formats, as well as a directory service providing information on people, organisations and services associated with Australian music. This paper outlines the architecture of the MusicAustralia service, focusing particularly on its federated service model and the infrastructure elements and business processes developed to support this architecture. It also looks at the way in which another major component of the federated digital library of Australian music - the Peter Burgis Performing Arts Archive - is using the MusicAustralia service model and architecture to shape its own strategies and structures. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.