The Collections Council of Australia is delighted to announce the publication of Significance 2.0 – a guide to assessing the significance of collections (2009), by Roslyn Russell and Kylie Winkworth. Print and online versions of the publication are supported by the Australian Government, represented by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

Significance 2.0 – the book – was published in May 2009. The Australian Government grant has enabled the Collections Council to distribute copies of the book without charge to 2,900 Australian collecting organisations. For a limited time it is now also possible to purchase copies of the book for AUD $29.95 (plus postage and handling) via http://significance.collectionscouncil.com.au.

Significance 2.0 is also accessible at: http://significance.collectionscouncil.com.au. At launch, this website contains the book parts in colour as well as black and white PDF files, optimised for downloading or printing. We invite your feedback on Significance 2.0 and recommend that you sign up to the Collections Council’s occasional e-Bulletin - so that you can receive updates about this project.

We are working on a ‘read-on-screen’ version of the publication (W3C compliant HTML), and have plans to provide a range of supplementary reading and learning resources, including new case studies and an e-learning module. We are also preparing an Open Forum where you can contribute your ideas towards the next edition - Significance 2.1.

The Collections Council conducted a number of consultations in the collections sector to underpin the development of Significance 2.0. We sincerely thank contributors to the Significance (2001) Survey (April 2007), the Significance 2.0 Workshop (April 2008) and the Significance 2.0 Review (February 2009).

Some important presentations to the Significance 2.0 Workshop were posted to the Collections Council website. You are still able to contribute comments to these papers at: http://www.collectionscouncil.com.au/fifth+announcement+2+july+2008.aspx. We aim to develop technical papers around the most interesting themes arising from sector consultations on valuing cultural heritage.

We congratulate the authors, and thank all who contributed case studies and images for inclusion in Significance 2.0.