Steady Sema hands hold on to Hansard records

Sema sets about the long task of transforming hard-copy documents, including original Hansard transcripts from Australia’s federation in 1901, into digital images that will be accessible online.

The project began in late 2009 when Sema entered into a Deed of Agreement with the Department of Parliamentary Services to deliver a solution to digitise the Hansard records and make them freely available to citizens. The project scope includes the scanning of the documents to create more than 15 million impressions over four years, including materials in varying stages of fragility but of significant national historic significance.

Specialist document preparation includes tagging, batch separation and removal of spines, glue and any metalware, while output to full-colour 300 dpi PDF is supported by XML metadata that is audited to ensure it meets integrity requirements.

Currently, the records are becoming increasingly more available through this site. According to Sema, this information will grow as the project continues over the four years due to the volume of the records. As each document is digitised, quality checked and validated, the audit process is then completed and the records are then securely destroyed on site, with the records.