Item Type: Series

Linked To

Creating agencies

Corporate Services

Item

Items in this series (911)

Box

Boxes in this Series (67)

Photograph

Photos in this series (7)

Series

Related series

The City of Sydney has not been able to determine if there are current copyright restrictions on this item. The user may need to obtain permission from third parties to reuse their material. When using or sharing this item, attribution should be given to the City of Sydney Archives.

Tools

Download Add to My Collection Contact us about this Suggest an edit to this item Citation for this item

Community Ephemera Collection

Description

Unique IDAS-1142Start date1850 - ongoingStart date qualifiercircaFormatVarious - See Descriptive NoteDescriptionCommunity Ephemera Collection

This series contains items from an ongoing collecting initiative called the Community Ephemera Collection, developed by CoSA in conjunction with City Libraries. The intention is to collect materials that reflect the diverse nature of the city's villages which can be used in the future as a resource to understand the changing social contexts of the City.

Items of ephemera have been donated by the public through collection points at the City Libraries. Items are also donated by council staff, volunteers and "community champions" and include such material as posters, flyers, stickers, beer coasters and trade catalogues.

The project was officially launched on May 1, 2010 at the Surry Hills Library. Some material was donated prior to this date by staff and volunteers, from as early as 2008.

Some donations are from earlier periods. Invitations collected by Laurie Lambert, and originally part of CRS 71, were added to this series in 2010.

Cataloguing System

Until December 2011, Archivists catalogued items according to geographic location and date of collection. This system was replaced in January 2012 with a category system, based on a thesaurus of terms. Items are sorted by year and category. In February 2012, all items catalogued using the previous system were resorted and re-catalogued, leaving some gaps in item numbers.

Generally, items from one year will have the prefix of the following year. As donations arrive at Archives, they are sorted into categories. At the conclusion of the calendar year, each category of item is boxed and catalogued. Exceptions may occur when many items are received for a single category and the box is cleared to make way for more donations.

See file CRS 950: S076116.

Ephemera Classification System

The thesaurus was developed in December 2011 and January 2012 and based on ephemera cataloguing systems used by the State Library NSW and the National Library of Australia. The categories listed in the Ephemera Thesaurus reflect the range of items donated and is frequently revised to ensure it reflects current donation trends.
As at 21 February 2012, the following categories are listed in the CoS Ephemera Thesaurus:

1.Aboriginal Australians
2.Animals and pets
3.Arts, Craft and Design
4.Charities, Aid, Advocacy and NGOs
5.City of Sydney Council & Libraries
6.Nightclubs, Pubs & Hotels
7.Community Protest and Action Groups
8.Consumer Goods
9.Education
10.Environment & Sustainability
11.Exercise, Sport, Gyms & Fitness
12.Festivals & Fairs
13.Food & Drink
14.Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian & Transsexual (GBLT) Affairs
15.Health & Beauty
16.History & Heritage
17.Household Services
18.Kids & Parenting
19.Medical & Mental Health
20.Museum Exhibitions
21.Music
22.Parks & Gardens
23.Political Advertising (Federal, NSW State and Municipal Government)
24.Property and Development
25.Reading, Writing, Books & Bookshops
26.Religion & Philosophy
27.Roads, Vehicles and Transport
28.Small business, tax and finance
29.Stage Performance, Theatre and Dance
30.Travel, Tourism and Immigration
31.Television, Film and Radio
32.Websites, Computers and IT
33.Women
34.Community newsletters and newspapers

Definition of Descriptive Terms

Specific terms are used to describe the format of items in the Ephemera Collection. The definitions of these descriptions are taken from the Powerhouse Museum Object Name Thesaurus.

Key terms use in the Ephemera Collection are:
- leaflet (single sheets, printed on one or both sides usually for advertising purposes, often folded.)
- pamphlet (publications of between 2 and 4 pages, fastened but not bound.)
- booklet (Non-periodical publications, fastened or bound between 5 and 50 pages.)
- magazine (Periodical publications containing miscellaneous articles or pieces in prose or verse, often with illustrations.)

The Michael Bogle Collection

This sub-collection of the Community Ephemera Project consists of five ring-binder folders containing ephemera collected by Michael Bogle between 1984 and 2009, when the collector and his family lived in Darlinghurst and Surry Hills. The Michael Bogle Collection consists of items numbered 2010/014, 2010/015, 2010/016, 2010/017, and 2011/174.

The first four folders were donated in August 2010 and include items which were “found objects” in the streets bounded by William Street in Darlinghurst and Elizabeth Street, Cleveland Street and South Dowling Streets in Surry Hills.

Note that some items of ephemera may include addresses or originate from other places, but all were found within the precisely bounded area in Darlinghurst and Surry Hills. None of the items are the result of “bin diving” but were found while walking the streets and lanes of the area.

The Council’s move to wheelie bins led to much less rubbish blowing along the street and poorer collecting prospects. Previously there had been open-topped bins and plastic bags often torn open by “the ferals” and scattered in every direction before they could be collected. The gradual move to digital photography also reduced the amount of found photographs.

After 25 years of collecting, Michael concluded his collecting after a quarter of a century and stopped gathering material. He made up some “City” covers for the four binders and donated them to the City of Sydney Community Ephemera Collection.

The fifth folder does not follow the same geographical or broad collecting scheme as the first four. The fifth folder contains items that warn us, celebrate some topic or attack us regarding some "problem". All of them are slightly "deranged". All are collected in the Sydney area, most from the Chippendale, Ultimo, Darlinghurst, Surry Hills and Kings Cross area.
Start Date qual:
Start Date: 01/10/2008
End Date qual:
End Date: None

New Process

As of 28-01-2021 – There is a new process for titling, storing and processing general ephemera.

We will abandon separating general ephemera into 34 category boxes stored in the back room. Instead, add all general ephemera items to the latest box (all the categories will now become Subject Tags in Recollect) as they come in. The received items will have an item number/year e.g. 2020/01 in the annual spreadsheet. Write this on the physical item in the box.

Additional metadata will be added to the annual listing spreadsheet that will be uploaded to Recollect including:
• Title: Ephemera – Subject - Year
• Date (of item)
• Format*
• Author/Creator – only where known. This is different to Publisher.
• Publisher – only where known, for example Belvoir Street Theatre
• Archivist note – include name of donor where known, and TRIM correspondence number where any (rare)
• Alternative ID – the Annual consecutive Item number that is e.g. 2021/01
• Series
• Consignment – there may be only be one consignment per year.
• Subject tags** – These will be 34 category/ies previously determined, but the categories will now be taken out of the title of the item so the title complies with the 100-character limit.
• Registered date, by, status

We may add some formats that aren’t already in Recollect picklist, for example, Coaster.

Each year in January upload the spreadsheet to Recollect. Send the boxes offsite when full.

A guide will be written to support the decisions made by the City Archivist Janet Villata.

NOE: With subject tags they may need to change a bit to be consistent if already used for Books and Journals – e.g. Aboriginal Australians, Women

Relationship summaryCREATED BY: Corporate Services AG-0111 (1/10/2008) LanguageEnglish (eng)

Item

Ephemera. Free Public Library (Lending Branch) Borrowers Ticket, 1885-1886

Ephemera - Borrower's Ticket Public Library of New South Wales Lending Branch, Sydney, 1908

1150 5263157894737/6250000000000

1150 44052863436127/50000000000000

1150 92035398230087/100000000000000

1150 24000000000001/25000000000000

1151

1151 381787330317/3125000000000

1151 4090909090911/25000000000000

1151 12385321100919/50000000000000

1151 226814516129/781250000000

1151 16666666666663/50000000000000

1151 37674418604661/100000000000000

Ephemera - Charities Aid Advocacy 2016

Ephemera - Arts Craft Design 2016

Ephemera - General Category Files- 2016

Ephemera. City of Sydney Library. What's On brochures 2009-2016. (71 brochures - room in box to

Ephemera - 2016 Council Election - campaign material and flyers - 10 September 2016

Ephemera - travel tag - F.R.Strange Pty. Limited Auctioneers 57 North George Street Sydney no date

Ephemera. City of Sydney Library Card. Sydney Municipal Library Queen Victoria Building 1936-1937.

Ephemera - Entry Form. Short Poppies National Festival of Student Film and Video. No date

Ephemera - Exhibition Flyer. Power House Museum Locomotive 3265 Restoration Appeal. 2001

Ephemera - postcard. Exhibition Smugglers Customs and Contraband 1901 - 2001. 15 December 2001 -

Photograph

Invitation to attend the Jubilee of the Municipality of The Glebe, 1909

Invitation to the Opening of Sydney Town Hall, 1889

Invitation - Swearing-in of Earl Hopetoun as Governor General, Centennial Park Sydney, 1901

Formal Invitation

Mayoral Invitation to Federal Convention Delegates and Menu, 1897

Formal Invitation

Series

Working Papers - Noel Dwyer, Illuminations and Decorations Committee 1954 Royal Visit

Access

Public access statusOpen to public accessPublic access noteAccess Notes:
Restriction Category:

Identification and Arrangement

Source system ID1142System of arrangementVarious - See Descriptive Note

Relationships

Creating agenciesCorporate Services