Official Visual History Archive launch praises Monash ITS expertise

The official launch of the Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive at Monash was successfully held on Thursday 17th May. The day comprised of a live demonstration at Monash's 30 Collins St location, an ABC John Faine  radio interview and a Monash Club pre-launch party followed by the official launch in Robert Blackwood Hall that evening.

The launch helped raise awareness that Monash University is the first Australian institution and the second university outside of the US to provide access to the full archive of over 52,000 holocaust testimonies held in the Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive (SFVHA) currently held by the University of Southern California (USC).

Speakers at the launch included Monash's Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard Larkins, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research Professor Edwina Cornish, Professor of History and Executive Director USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education Professor Douglas Greenberg, Founder of the Shoah Foundation Stephen Spielberg (in a specially pre-recorded video message), and Associate Professor Mark Baker from Monash University's Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization.

Professor Douglas Greenberg from SFVHA said the collaboration with Monash was an, "...extraordinarily successful collaboration both because there's great intellectual energy at Monash to use the archive and because the IT resources and people at Monash are the most highly skilled people we've dealt with anywhere in the world".

In a joint collaboration between the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, the Monash Library and ITS the archive is now available via Monash. All 2,521 Australian survivor testimonies have been downloaded and locked to the Monash data store, with the other testimonies available for download on demand.