Unlocking The Garage: a web portal for car enthusiasts

This paper seeks to look at the rationale, technical challenges and rewards involved in conceptually linking discrete digital resources in a way that is useful to the library's public.

Any subject analysis of reference enquiries submitted to state or public libraries over a given period is likely to identify car repair information as an enduring source of popular interest. The Garage web portal was developed in response to the very large number of requests – received over many years from both individuals and public libraries around the state of Queensland – for information about vehicle maintenance and restoration. Its inspiration was in the recognition that a substantial and potentially very useful part of the State Library's extensive collection in this area was not visible to the public.

The Garage's technical achievement was in bringing together the impressive, ten‐year indexing effort of two expert volunteers and a unique collection of several hundred historical photographs on Queensland motoring – and in making these available through a searchable portal on the State Library's web site.

The paper considers the opportunities inherent in opening up high demand areas in library collections and it offers an illustration of how expertise in the community can be shared with the library's wider public. It will be of value to anyone with an interest in capitalising on particular collection strengths in response to user driven demand – and it will be of particular interest to those who recognise car enthusiasts as a significant client group.