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Last updated: 14.05.26

My Place – Tim Sherratt

Using maps, directories and photo collections to build a more complete picture of Victoria's cities and regions.

Historian and hacker Tim Sherratt is experimenting with new digital tools to help you navigate the State Library of Victoria's collections by place.

Detail of a hand-drawn Mahlstedt Fire Map showing South Melbourne in 1884

Contents

Signpost - Kyneton-Heathcote Road, Redesdale, from Mcniffs Road to Lyell Road - west side. (1970)
Connecting people to places using library data – Tim SherrattDilan Gunawardana18.02.26Maps, directories, photographs and newspapers hold rich stories, but only if people can find them. Tim Sherratt's SLV LAB residency set out to change how that discovery works.
A cropped portrait of a man (Tim Sherratt) with long grey hair standing in front of computer server cables, wearing thick black glasses and a grey t-shirt
Generosity, open access and collaboration – Tim SherrattPaula BrayTim Sherratt01.12.25The hacker‑historian reflects on three decades in the GLAM sector, practicing openness and building digital tools to help us see collections differently.
A laptop and a desktop screen side by side in an office - the laptop shows the SLV LAB logo on it, while the desktop displays a github repository
An introduction to the My Place projectTim Sherratt04.12.25
Blue digital boundary boxes overlaid on a digital map of Victoria
Creating bounding boxes for parish maps in the SLV collectionTim Sherratt04.12.25
Man on a street corner in the 1970s with a vintage car - Fitzroy
Geolocating photos from the SLV's Committee for Urban Action collectionTim Sherratt03.02.26How the CUA browser was developed
A section of a map from the 1800s of State Library Victoria laid on current day digital map of the same site.
Turning the SLV's maps into data with Allmaps and some GLAM plumbingTim Sherratt04.12.25
Listings of names and address information on a directory page
A new way of searching Sands & MacTim Sherratt04.12.25All 24 volumes of the Sands & McDougall’s directories are now searchable.
interface showing two directory records from Sands & Mac
Some Sands & Mac tweaks thanks to ALTO and IIIFTim Sherratt04.12.25
A map of Victoria showing where newspapers have been published expressed as coloured dots
Counting down... (to the end of my SLV residency)Tim Sherratt04.12.25
Night mode version of the web browser developer console
Exploring SLV URLsTim Sherratt04.12.25
A man with long white hair wearing black glasses and a tshirt (Tim Sherrat) gesturing as he presents to a room of people in front of their laptops
Hacking the Library (in the best possible way) – notes from Code ClubDilan GunawardanaTim Sherratt25.11.25
Blue dots overlaid on a map of Melbourne
Exploring Victorian newspapersTim Sherratt18.12.25Newspapers are a vital source for local history. During my residency I pulled together some metadata relating to Victorian newspapers and put it on a map for easy exploration. Here's how.
A section of a map from the 1800s of State Library Victoria laid on current day digital map of the same site.
My Place – exploring SLV collections through a street addressTim Sherratt09.02.26Making a web interface that surfaces directory records, maps, photos, and newspapers from the SLV collection related to an address search.
19th century maps from SLV's Collection overlaid on Melbourne City blocks
Exploring georeferenced maps from the SLV collectionTim Sherratt16.02.26

Resources

How to 'hack' a library website – a video tutorial by Tim SherrattMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
tutorial
Tim Sherratt->Dilan Gunawardana->Yeoseop Yoon->
  • Linked open data
  • Collections
Slides from Tim Sherratt's 'Hacking the Library' workshopMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
tutorial
Tim Sherratt->
  • Hacking
  • Collections
  • Digital literacy
Slides with notes from Tim Sherratt's technologist talk: My PlaceMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
documentation
Tim Sherratt->
  • Mapping
  • Open access
  • Hacking
  • History
  • Victorian history
Spatial database for My PlaceMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
dataset
Tim Sherratt->
  • Mapping
  • Linked open data
  • Open access
  • Collections
My Place code repositoryMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
codebase
Tim Sherratt->
  • Open access
  • Collections
My Place demo apps code repositoryMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
codebase
Tim Sherratt->
  • Open access
  • Code
AllMaps georeferencing code repositoryMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
codebase
Tim Sherratt->
  • Code
  • Open access
SLV–AllMaps userscriptMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
codebase
Tim Sherratt->
  • Code
  • Open access
Add links from SLV digitised items to entries in Wikimedia CommonsMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
codebase
Tim Sherratt->
  • Open access
  • Wikimedia
Display SLV IIIF urlsMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
codebase
Tim Sherratt->
  • Code
  • IIIF
  • Open access
Add My Favourites to SLV websiteMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
codebase
Tim Sherratt->
  • Open access
  • Hacking
SLV digitised collections egg huntMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
codebase
Tim Sherratt->
  • Hacking
  • Open access
My Place – end of residency presentationMy Place – Tim Sherratt->
documentation
Tim Sherratt->
  • Mapping
  • Hacking
  • History
  • Linked open data
  • Open access

Glossary