What We Hold:
The Australian War Memorial holds a vast collection of official, private, and published material relating to Australians’ experience of war and conflict.
Understanding What May Be Sensitive Information:
While sensitive content is not usually an issue where events occurred over 50 years ago, it can be problematic and present significant challenges for collections containing post-1975 material, especially content created in the most recent decade. Examples of sensitive content might include:
- Doctrinal information.
- Technical and/or operations information.
- Private details about identified individuals.
- Depictions of the human consequences of warfare.
- Content which may cause offence to a reasonable adult or embarrass a donor not expecting their material to be discoverable and available online.
The Role of DAM in Storytelling:
The Australian War Memorial digitised more than 130 Private Records collections relating to post-1975 wars and conflicts as part of a major initiative to make this nationally significant material available online. The project ensures that the experiences of contemporary veterans are represented within the Memorial’s digitised collection, making them accessible to veterans across Australia and to audiences around the world.
What We Have Achieved:
A fully integrated CMS and DAM platform enables the Memorial to securely store, manage, describe and selectively restrict digital assets while maintaining appropriate access controls. This streamlined approach allows the Memorial to preserve and share authentic contemporary stories without compromising privacy, operational security and ethical obligations to donors, readers and third parties.