This document discusses an Instagram archiving pilot project between Inner West Council and Icelab to create an archive of Instagram posts within the Inner West local government area of Sydney. The goals are to encourage participation, showcase the community's cultural identity, and establish a contemporary collection for future generations. Key steps taken include setting up external accounts on Heroku and Amazon S3 to host the archive, establishing initial hashtag categories, and discussing curation guidelines to tell a broader story of the community through built heritage, parks, festivals, and reactions to development changes.

1. Inner West Libraries -
Community, History &
Heritage
Instagram Archiving Pilot

2. Context
• Inner West Council is the amalgamation of the former Ashfield,
Leichhardt & Marrickville LGAs – very vibrant, diverse community:
▫ Ashfield, Balmain, Birchgrove, Camperdown, Dulwich Hill, Haberfield,
Leichhardt, Lilyfield, Marrickville, Newtown, Petersham, Rozelle,
Stanmore, St Peters…..
• Contemporary collecting. Having a Voice - Instagram Competition
and exhibition during Heritage Festival 2017 #instantheritage2017
• Encourage and showcase the capture of the Inner West’s cultural
and historical identity – people, places, spaces
• Entries harvested as the initial load of images into Lentil
• Indyreads pilot with SLNSW has also been very successful in
showcasing parts of the digitised LH collection and making
accessible beyond the library’s 4 walls - Books, Journals, Oral
histories and their transcripts

3. Working with Icelab
• Basecamp – Project Management & Team Communication
software
▫ Majority of communication with Icelab was via Basecamp – this allowed
other team members to be kept in the loop of project progress
▫ Daniel and Jess were also available by phone – this was primarily
needed when setting up the two external accounts - Heroku + Amazon
S3
▫ Supremely patient with the stop / start nature of my progress – thank
you!

4. Set Up
• Relatively small outlay of time and money to have an
active site
▫ Minimum set up required
Two External Accounts – Heroku + Amazon S3 $9 AU / month
• Require a corporate credit card to set up the billing details
Tip : remember to update billing information when credit card
reissued
Dedicated URL / domain name
• Require a good working relationship with the Council IT
department
• This step did take some time as IT was going through a major
restructure at the time of our request ‘.lmc’ to ‘.innerwest’

5. Intial # Tags
#instantheritage2017
#innerwestsydney
#innerwestie
#rozellemarkets
#callanpark
#marrickvillefestival
#innerwestdogs
#balmainhouses
#innerwestcouncil
#innerwestgraffiti
#innerweststreetart
#iwost
#creativeinnerwest
• Didn’t appear to be many tags – only 13
• High volume of images to moderate
• Easy to get carried away, need to establish curatorial guidelines:
• How do you want to present your community?
• Who is your target audience?

6. Our Site...
• Where will it sit on the Council’s Website?
▫ Library page when new Inner West Council website is launched - July
2018
▫ Local Notes – Community, History & Heritage BLOG
Inner West Libraries Project

7. Contemporary collections…
If this image archive was viewed in 50, 100 or 200 years time – what story
would it tell about life in Inner West Sydney in 2018 ?
• We love our dogs, parks, food, festivals and street art !
• But we also love protecting our local heritage and significant built
environment in the face of massive development and change in the
urban landscape
How can we curate this contemporary collection to tell a more complex,
broader story of what is paramount in the community ?
• Built Environment – old and new
• Major works and community reaction – WestConnex and Protests
• Festivals and milestones
• Our open spaces and how they’re used
• Significant landmarks and anniversaries

8. You choose what you collect....
Built Environment Parks & Landmarks
#heritagebuildings
#cornershops
#historicbuildings
#buildingsofbalmain
#frontdoors
#housedetails
#allsoulschurch
#whitebaypowerstation
#callanpark
#ironcovebridge
#enmorepark
#birchgrovepark
#ballastpoint
#leichharrdtpark
#mackeypark
#pioneerspark
#memorial
#wingedvictory
#honourboards

9. You choose what you collect....
Festivals & Living Streets & Suburbs
#iwost
#coffeecultureinnerwest
#publicartinnerwest
#innerwestpublicart
#annettekellermanpool
#ashfieldpool
#dulwichhillfestival
#marrickvllestreetfestival
#stpeters
#marrickville
#leichhardt
#ashfield
#haberfield
#stanmore
#dulwichhill
#rozelle
#balmain
#birchgrove
#lilyfield

10. You choose what you collect....
Associations & Organisations Heritage vs Change
#filef
#heritage
#balmainassociation
#savecallanpark
#westconnex
#changedurbanlandscapes
#flourmills
#innerwestdevelopment
#saveheritage

11. Where to from here?
• Establish the curatorial guidelines:
▫ Monthly themes
▫ Target audiences – locals or tourists ?
▫ Geographical collections
• Establish calendar of themes, events, topics…
• Master functionality within Lentil
• Explore the scope to further develop and enhance the site in-house
• Maintenance of the site will reside in the Community, History &
Heritage team
• Build a vibrant, relevant, sought-out contemporary collection