The International Historians Association (IHA) is a non-profit organisation based in Australia. They specialise in aiding the development of local historical networks that will help promote local history throughout Australia. Their main areas of research are focused on general Australian history, and also its capital Canberra.
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History
The association was founded in 2009, when a number of freelance writers noticed the lack of readily available knowledge about the history of Australia. They decided to begin piecing together vast amounts of information about its history. The idea was and still is supported by local and the national government, which feel the idea will greatly improve knowledge and tourism.
The main aim of the foundation became clear a couple of years after it was founded, they aimed to launch a website and online encyclopaedia for Canberra’s Centenary celebrations in March 2013. The aim was to have a basic encyclopaedia of around 100,000 articles ready for the celebrations.
The future of the association will lie with government involvement, men's sheds and school projects to keep the information growing and improving.
Aims and goals
The association aims to manage and provide an online resource about Australia’s history throughout the 21st Century and beyond. This is centred on the aim that the collated information will be accessible and be able to be accessed by future generations, to read about the history of Australian achievements, events, individuals and businesses.
Community sheds
The First Responder Community was the first virtual shed to be launched by the IHA in 2014 in an effort to recognize the valuable heroic work of the hundreds of thousands of first responders that are in their retirement years and are in need of aged care, health welfare and mobility equipment. This community group supports retired police, fire fighters, paramedics,rescue workers and the military by developing programs that assists in their mental alertness and physical well being.
Encyclopaedia
The content for IHA’s encyclopaedia was generated by a number of volunteer freelance writers. After 2013, members of the IHA will manage the content, but more focus will be placed on men's sheds, schools and other volunteers to add additional content.
The content itself is extremely varied, and includes a number of different presentation formats from text articles to video and images. It includes Australian people, corporations, products, events, art, technologies, and discoveries.
While the history of Australia is one of its main focuses, it also focuses heavily on individuals. It allows them to write a personal history, which can then be linked to other pages and viewed by relatives once the individual has passed, leaving an online legacy for the people of Australia.