Australia’s peak architectural and design index, covering more than 50 000 items, will be easier to access following the launch of a digitised web edition. The Australian Architectural Index, already the fundamental tool for building researchers and architects, covers items from as far back as 1830, including tender notices, published descriptions of buildings, illustrations, and architect biographies.   Professor Miles Lewis, from the University’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, says the web version will also be easier to update than previous iterations of the database.  “The original work, started in the 1970s, was a collection of index cards funded by the National Estate Program, the Australian Research Council and the Faculty.  These cards were later copied onto microfiche, and copies of the microfiche are at present held in a number of Australian university and state libraries.   “For individual users the web form will be far more accessible, and the capacity to search and sort will be a great benefit.  An even greater advantage is that the contents, which were essentially entered as raw data, can now be corrected, expanded, and cross-linked in response to information and comments from users.”Although Australia wide in its coverage, and particularly strong for the period 1840 to 1910, the majority of content is Victorian, however Professor Lewis says proposals to link with other data bases around Australia were welcome. 

www.mileslewis.net/australian-architectural.html