Tim Sherratt

Historian, hacker, GLAM data tragic

I’m a historian and hacker who researches the possibilities and politics of digital cultural collections. I’ve worked across the cultural heritage sector and have been developing online resources relating to libraries, archives, museums and history since 1993. You can follow what I’m up to through my news feed or on Mastodon.

My main project at the moment is the GLAM Workbench, which brings together many examples, tools, code and tutorials to help people explore the digital collections of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums.

Many of my research outputs, including presentations, publications, and code are freely available through Zenodo.

You can download my CV as a PDF, or explore below.

current digital projects

  • GLAM Workbench (2018 to present)
    A collection of tools, examples, and tutorials aimed at helping researchers work with the digital collections of libraries, archives, and museums.
    https://glam-workbench.net/
  • The real face of White Australia (2010 to present)
    This project aims to make people more aware of records documenting the history of the White Australia Policy. https://www.realfaceofwhiteaustralia.net/

recent grants

  • ARC Linkage LP200301446, Everyday Heritage, $372,528
    Joint Chief Investigator focused on the digital components of the project.
  • ARC Linkage LP160101232, Heritage of the Air: How Aviation Transformed Australia, $440,000
    Joint Chief Investigator focused on the digital components of the project.
  • Asking questions with web archives – introductory notebooks for historians, USD$3,500
    Grant awarded in 2019 under the International Internet Preservation Consortium’s Discretionary Funding Program for the development of the Web Archives section of the GLAM Workbench.

fellowships & awards

  • Creative Technologist-in-Residence, State Library of Victoria LAB (2025)
    https://lab.slv.vic.gov.au/experiments/my-place-tim-sherratt/people-place-library-data-tim-sherratt
  • British Library Lab Research Award (2020)
    For work on the Web Archives section of the GLAM Workbench. The judges noted: ‘we genuinely think Tim’s work has been at the forefront of computational hacking work in GLAMs’.
  • Digital Drop-In, DXLab, State Library of NSW (2017)
  • Harold White Fellow, National Library of Australia (2012)
  • Director’s Fellow, National Museum of Australia (2011 to 2012)
  • Winner and First Runner Up in the DH Awards Category ‘Best Use of DH for Fun’ (2012)
  • Australia Day Achievement Award, National Archives of Australia (2009)
    For work on ‘Mapping Our Anzacs’.
  • Dwight Prize for Final Year Honours in History and Philosophy of Science (1985)

employment

  • Freelance digital historian and cultural data specialist (1997 to present)
  • Associate Professor of Digital Heritage, University of Canberra (2015 to 2023, part-time from 2017)
  • Trove Manager, National Library of Australia (2013 to 2015)
  • Digital Humanities Specialist, Australian National Dictionary Centre, Australian National University (2012)
  • Technical Analyst, Public Sector Data Program, Australian National Data Service (2010)
  • Adjunct Associate Professor, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra (2010 to 2014)
  • Websites Research and Development Officer, National Museum of Australia (2009 to 2011)
  • Websites Content Developer, National Archives of Australia (2007 to 2009)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, History Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University (2003 to 2006)
    Working on an ARC-funded project entitled ‘The Human Elements: A Cultural History of Australian Weather’
  • PhD studies, History Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University (1999 to 2003)
  • Deputy-Director, Australian Science Archives Project (University of Melbourne) (1996 to 1997)
  • Manager, Canberra Office and Head of Information Services, Australian Science Archives Project (University of Melbourne) (1994 to 1996)
  • Senior Archivist, Australian Science Archives Project, University of Melbourne (1993)

education

  • Australian National University – PhD 2005
    Thesis: ‘Atomic Wonderland: Science and Progress in 20th Century Australia’
  • University of Melbourne – BA (Hons) 1985
    Thesis: ‘A Political Inconvenience: Australian Scientists at the British Atomic Tests, 1952–1953’

books & monographs

  • Inigo Jones: The Weather Prophet, Metarch Papers, no. 16, Bureau of Meteorology, 2007.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3586044
  • With Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin, A Change in the Weather: Climate and Culture in Australia, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, 2005.
  • With Lisa Jooste and Rosanne Clayton, Recovering Science — Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future — Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Melbourne, October 1992, ASAP Canberra, 1995.
    http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/confs/recovering/

articles & book chapters

  • With Tracy Ireland, Steve Brown, Kate Bagnall, Jane Lydon, & Sharon Veale, ‘Engaging the everyday: the concept and practice of “everyday heritage”‘, International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol. 31, no. 2, October 2024, pp. 192–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2024.2417066
  • ‘An approach to assess the quality of Jupyter projects published by GLAM institutions’, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, vol. 74, no. 13, December 2023, pp. 1550-1564.
    https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24835
  • ‘Digital revolutions: The limits and affordances of online collections’, in Paul Ashton and Paula Hamilton (eds), The Australian History Industry, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2022.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4925423
  • With Kate Bagnall, ‘Missing Links: Data Stories from the Archive of British Settler Colonial Citizenship’, Journal of World History, vol. 32, no. 2, June 2021, pp. 281-300.
    https://doi.org/10.1353/jwh.2021.0025
  • ‘More than newspapers’, History Australia, volume 18, number 4, November 2021.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5595420
  • ‘Hacking heritage: understanding the limits of online access’, in Hannah Lewi, Wally Smith, Dirk vom Lehn, and Steven Cooke (eds), The Routledge International Handbook of New Digital Practices in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Heritage Sites, Routledge, 2019, pp. 116–130.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5035855
  • ‘Unremembering the forgotten’, in Matthew Gold and Lauren Klein (eds), Debates in Digital Humanities 2019, University of Minnesota Press, 2019, pp. 123–140.
    https://doi.org/10.5749/9781452963785
  • With Kate Bagnall, ‘The people inside’, in Kevin Kee and Timothy Compeau (eds), Seeing the Past with Computers: Experiments with Augmented Reality and Computer Vision for History, University of Michigan Press, 2019, pp. 11–31.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3579530
  • ‘Trove: connecting us to the past’, Teaching History (Journal of the History Teachers Association of NSW), vol. 53, no. 2, June 2019.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3544673
  • ‘Withheld, pending advice’, Inside Story, 2 February 2018.
    https://insidestory.org.au/withheld-pending-advice/
  • ‘Asking better questions: History, Trove and the risks that count’, CopyFight, NewSouth Publishing, 2015, pp. 112-124.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747258
  • ‘Contexts, connections, access: The glorious possibilities of getting it all wrong’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 209–10.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/01576895.2014.911691
  • ‘It’s all about the stuff: Collections, interfaces, power and people’, Journal of Digital Humanities, vol. 1, no. 1, Winter 2011.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747236
  • ‘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, 2011, pp. 128–138.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747304
  • ‘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.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5111320
  • 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, 2006, pp. 234–254.
  • ‘Civilisation versus the giant, winged lizards – changing climates, changing minds’, Altitude, no. 7, 2006.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3586002
  • ‘Human elements’, in Tim Sherratt, Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin (eds), A Change in the Weather: Climate and Culture in Australia, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, 2005, pp. 1–17.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747356
  • ‘Remembering Lawrence Hargrave’, in Graeme Davison and Kimberley Webber (eds), Yesterday’s Tomorrows: The Powerhouse Museum and its Precursors, 1880–2005, Powerhouse Museum in association with UNSW Press, Sydney 2005, pp. 174–185.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5111286
  • ‘Science, history of’, in Graeme Davison, John Hirst, Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998, pp. 572–573.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747281
  • ‘CSIRO’, in Graeme Davison, John Hirst, Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne,1998, pp. 164–165.
    http://discontents.com.au/csiro
  • With Gavan McCarthy, ‘Mapping scientific memory — Understanding the role of recordkeeping in scientific practice’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 24, no. 1, May 1996, pp. 78–85.
    https://publications.archivists.org.au/index.php/asa/article/view/8549
  • ‘“A physicist would be best out of it”: George Briggs at the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission’, Voices, Autumn 1993, pp. 17–30.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12741677
  • ‘Australian scientists at the British Atomic Tests’, in Robyn Williams (ed.), Science Show 2, Nelson, 1985, pp. 216–219.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12741555
  • ‘“A political inconvenience” — Australian scientists at the British atomic weapons tests, 1952–1953’, Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 6, no. 2, 1985, pp. 137–152.
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5111263

software packages

media

invited posts & presentations

other posts & presentations

other digital projects

See wraggelabs.com for a more complete list.

  • Trove Data Guide (2024)
    This project aims to give researchers a critical understanding of Trove data, both its limits and its possibilities.
    https://tdg.glam-workbench.net/home.html
  • TroveNewsBot – the Fediverse edition (2023)
    Updated version to work with Mastodon.
    https://wragge.github.io/trovenewsbot-fedi/
  • The Redaction Zoo (2017)
    Work exhibited as part of the ‘Beauties and Beasts’ exhibition, Belconnen Art Centre, 6–28 May 2017.
    https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4981433
  • Real words :: Imagined tweets (2017)
    Historical Hansard interjections reimagined as tweets.
    http://hansard-interjections.herokuapp.com/tweets/
  • redacted (2016)
    Interface to explore redactions extracted from digitised ASIO files.
    http://owebrowse.herokuapp.com/redactions/
  • Historic Hansard (2016)
    An experimental, easy-to-read version of the proceedings of the Commonwealth of Australia Parliament.
    http://historichansard.net/
  • Closed Access (2016)
    A workbench for exploring closed files in the National Archives Australia.
    http://closedaccess.herokuapp.com/
  • The Vintage Face Depot (2015)
    A twitter bot providing uncanny connections with the past.
    https://wragge.github.io/face-depot/
  • In a word… — Currents in Australian affairs, 2003–2013 (2014)
    Exploring keywords from Radion National programs.
    https://inaword.herokuapp.com/
  • Eyes on the Past (2014)
    An experiment in building evocative and unexpected interfaces to digitised newspaper collections.
    http://eyespast.herokuapp.com/
  • Trove places (2014)
    Explore Trove’s digitised newspapers by place.
    https://troveplaces.herokuapp.com/
  • Trove API Console (2013)
    Learn how to use the Trove API by example.
    https://troveconsole.herokuapp.com/
  • TroveNewsBot (2013)
    A widely cited example of the possibilities of using Twitter bots to mobilise cultural collections, nominated in the DH Awards 2013.
    https://twitter.com/TroveNewsBot
  • The Future of the Past (2012)
    Winner of the DH Awards 2012 category ‘Best use of DH for fun’.
  • QueryPic (2011)
    A heavily used research tool that visualises search results in Trove’s digitised newspapers. Now part of the GLAM Workbench.
    http://dhistory.org/querypic/
  • Headline Roulette (2010)
    How well do you know your Australian history? A simple game using Trove’s digitised newspapers.
    https://headlineroulette.net/
  • Mapping Our Anzacs (National Archives of Australia, 2008)
    An innovative project displaying places of birth and enlistment of Australian WWI service personnel. It was judged winner of ‘Archives website of the year’ by the ArchivesNext blog.
  • Muslim Journeys (National Archives of Australia, 2007)
    An online exhibition I curated and edited which won the Australian Society of Archivists Mander Jones award for ‘best publication that uses, features or interprets Australian archives, written by or on behalf of a corporate body’.
  • Bright Sparcs (Australian Science Archives Project, 1994)
    A biographical database of Australian scientists — one of the first resources of its kind on the web. Now part of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science.

professional activities

  • Member of the ARDC Community Data Lab Phase 2 Steering Committee – from 2026
  • Member of the Technical Advisory Group, Australian Creative Histories and Futures – from 2025
  • Co-chair of the Collections as Data Interest Group, Research Data Alliance – 2024 to 2025
  • Member of Trove Researcher Panel, ARDC – 2022
  • Member of the Australian Historical Association Executive Committee – 2018 to 2019
  • Organiser of THATCamp Canberra – 2010, 2011, 2014
  • Committee member, Australasian Association for the Digital Humanities – 2011 to 2015
  • Member of the organising committee for the Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives and Museums International Summit (LOD-LAM), San Francisco – 2011
  • Member of the Academic Advisory Panel for Vrroom, National Archives of Australia – 2006 to 2007
  • Co-organiser of the symposium ‘Climate and Culture in Australia’ supported by the National Academies Forum and the Bureau of Meteorology – 2002
  • Specialist advisor on Documenting a Democracy, National Archives of Australia – 1999 to 2000
  • Editor of the History of Australian Science Newsletter – 1991 to 1996
  • Organiser of the symposium ‘From Maralinga to Pine Gap — The Historical Fallout’, University of Melbourne – 1987