‘Living Maths’ film comes back to life in digital form

Monash University Library recently presented both the Caulfield Grammar School (CGS) Archives and past student and staff member Don Wirth with a restored digital copy of Living Maths at CGS, a film made by the Faculty of Education at Monash University in 1973.

Lisa Smith, Director for Client Services, says the film served as a test case for converting material from a variety of older formats to a more modern digital access format. She explains: “This served a preservation purpose for the Library as well as enabling such films’ potential inclusion in the University’s ARROW repository for Monash research output.”

The film came about because Don Wirth had a connection with Monash, having tutored students in the Education Faculty. The Faculty was interested in the innovative teaching program he was doing at Caulfield Grammar in the field of mathematics.

The film provides a unique view of the CGS mathematics program in 1973, an innovative model centred on investigative, problem solving and self paced learning. “Those learning models are of keen interest to educators across the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors today,” adds Lisa.

The Library was first contacted by the CGS Archivist Judith Gibson last year via the ask.monash online enquiry service. Jenny Casey, then acting as Music and Multimedia Coordinator, followed the query through and discovered that the Matheson Library did hold the 16mm film within its collection.

Silvertrak Digital, a specialist service based in Canberra, undertook the complete restoration and conversion to a digital preservation format.

3 April 2009

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