Roxanne Missingham

more great reports

2011-09-12T01:16:00.000-07:00

1. Supporting Research: Environments, Administration and Libraries. An OCLC Research Report [By] John MacColl [and] Michael Jubb. OCLC Research. (US) http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-10.pdf

2. Jerry Jenkins gives a summary from the British Library’s research at http://www.alissnet.org.uk/uploadedFiles/images/coventry2011jenkins.ppt

3. Higher Education and Emerging Technologies: Student Usage, Preferences, and Lessons for Library Services Erin Dorris Cassidy, James Britsch, Glenda Griffin, Tyler Manolovitz, Lisa Shen, and Linda Turney, RUSQ vol 50 no 4

http://www.rusq.org/2011/06/20/higher-education-and-emerging-technologiesstudent-usage-preferences-and-lessons-for-library-services/

Report of a study of use and preference of popular Internet and communication technologies among students at Sam Houston State University (SHSU). Interestingly interest in use of various channels and software for communication from the university varied between 56.3% interested in asking the library questions through text messages and 54.3% interested in checking out e-books to less than 5% interested in using second life and 10% interested in using Twitter for this type of communication.

Recent reports of interest.

2011-09-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

1. Australia Report: Risks and Opportunities. Produced by the Australian Davos Connection in association with KPMG, it is designed to assist leaders across business, government and the wider community face the future better by understanding threats and opportunities, it analyses risks for Australia because facing the nation over the next decade. The report is available at:

http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/Aus tralia-Report-2010-Risks-and-Opportunities.pdf.

2. Hajkowicz, S & Moody, J 2010, Our future world. An analysis of global trends, shocks and scenarios, CSIRO, Canberra. Describes the outcomes from a CSIRO global foresight project. Lists five global megatrends and global risks that may redefine how people live.

http://www.csiro.au/resources/Our-Future-World.html

Finally for a lovely video see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr7yPLmtD1A – for a defence of the book.

Canberra Times articles

2011-02-07T22:34:00.000-08:00

I am writing to correct an article in the Canberra Times of 7 February and an editorial published on 8 February.

Both articles make the claim is made that the Parliamentary Library “could also be forced to move some of its research archives to the National Library of Australia” in order to accommodate additional staff required for a Parliamentary Budget Office.

No one said anything like this in evidence to the Joint Select Committee on the Parliamentary Budget Office. I do not envisage trying to find a new home for any of our “research archives” or collection materials. What I said about the collections, accommodation and the National Library (from the draft transcript) was:

CHAIR—What of the collection would need to be moved, if any?

Ms Missingham—Probably not a lot of the collection. We did have an expert in to look at our collection layout and there is some work we need to do to have the serials in better runs and have them in better access by rejigging the library. If the DPS staff were to leave, we would have probably an easier to navigate collection. It is certainly true to say as well that the use of our print collection is decreasing while the use of our electronic collection is increasing. However, our print collection grows every year by the size of parliamentary paper runs. Generally we only keep the key journals that are most relevant to us. If they are more marginal journals we do not keep them forever, and we have a relationship with the National Library, which, of course, has a very vast collection and they have a Parliamentary Services desk and we are very well served by that library. But we do not think there would be an enormous amount of shrinkage needed in the physical collection.

In summary there are no plans to send our “research archives”, whatever that might be, to the National Library.

Roxanne Missingham

OFFICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

2011-02-07T21:28:00.000-08:00

OAIC launches blog on its Issues Paper 1 - Towards an Australian Government Information Policy

The OAIC released an issues paper entitled Towards an Australian Government Information Policy at its launch on 1 November 2010 (available at http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers.html). The Issues Paper proposes ten draft principles on open public sector information. The OAIC is now seeking comments on the principles via a blog available at http://oaic.govspace.gov.au/. Alternatively, formal submissions can be made to consultation@oaic.gov.au .

Comments are due by 1 March 2011.

Biblio Tourismo

2010-11-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

Last week the “mild ones” or Biblio tourismo, a tour by librarians on motorcycles visited the Parliamentary Library, among other libraries and sites in the ACT. They enjoyed meeting Dr Andrew Leigh, Member for Fraser and Senator Gary Humphries as well as a number of Library staff.

Biblio tourismo are a group of enthusiastic librarians who take an annual tour of libraries in eastern Australia -their blog can be found here http://biblio-turismo.blogspot.com/

Arriving - at the front of Palriament House with Dr Andrew Leigh, Member for Fraser

Alan Flores, leader of the pack, offers advice to Dr Leigh

Refreshments in the Library with Senators Gary Humphries

Much to talk about!

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) launched - discussion paper Towards an Australian Government Information Policy released

2010-10-31T22:30:00.000-07:00

Today is a momentous day in access to public sector information for Australia. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) was officially launched by the Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information (FOI). (media release is at http://www.oaic.gov.au/news/media_release_oaic_launch.html)

The new Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has been created to bring together three functions:

• freedom of information functions, in particular, oversight of the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and review of decisions made by agencies and ministers under that Act;
• privacy functions, conferred by the Privacy Act 1988 and other laws;

• government information policy functions, conferred on the Australian Information Commissioner under the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010.

The new web site offers access to informative publications including speeches and fact sheets – a model of an easy to use website.

Very importantly, the OAIC today released Issues Paper 1 Towards an Australian Government Information Policy. The Australian Information Commissioner has invited written comment on ten draft principles on open public sector information by 1 March 2011. See http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers.html

The employment market

2010-09-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

Attended an interesting session last week entitled "When the election is a forgotten memory...what will be happening in the employment market?". Thanks to Zenith Management Services for the invitation.

Some comments from the presentations and conversations:

• 54% of CIOs do not believe there are enough skills IT staff in the current marketplace, there are skills shortages overall and an increasing emphasis on candidates having a wide range of skills (Phil Holey-Interlogic)

• changing patterns of employment of engineers are counter cyclical to the economy, Engineers Australia have assessed a significant gap between engineers retiring and those qualifying and coming into the Industry (Andrew Marshall-PCA People)

• Canberra employment patterns are strong, with 70% of employment is in the private sector (Lindsey Morgan-People Intelligence)

• Library and information sector demand remains strong with an emphasis on skills in using technology (John Cooksey General Manager, Recruitment, Zenith Management Services).

Will be interesting to see any changing patterns in the coming year.

Telstra Business women of the year awards

2010-09-03T01:54:00.001-07:00

An excellent awards program - and I can do a little happy dance - see http://www.telstrabusinesswomensawards.com/Assets/pdf/media/2010/Press_Release_270810.pdf

Roxanne

Parliamentary paper series to be online from 2011

2010-06-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

The Joint Committee on Publications has produced the report of its inquiry into the development of a digital repository and electronic distribution of the Parliamentary Papers Series. The report was tabled on Thursday 24 June 2010.

Mr Hayes speech summarised the findings noting:

As a result of their overwhelming support for the development of an electronic Parliamentary Paper Series, the committee has made a number of recommendations in this report which will result in the parliamentary departments developing a digital format repository for the PPS to be based in the parliament... Further, the committee has recommended that the repository be implemented in time to coincide with the start of the 2011 PPS. I would like to stress at this point that there is no intention to stop the printed copy of the series.

See the full speech at http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F2010-06-24%2F0060%22

An important and very exciting step forward! Congratulations to the Committee and the parliament in committing to take an approach that will significantly improve access by the community to the record of policy making of the parliament and government.

Parliament of Australia adopts Creative Commons

2010-05-28T01:40:00.000-07:00

A welcome announcement

The Parliament of Australia is committed to open access to the resources it publishes to support a vibrant democracy. Recognising the important of ensuring access to its resources published on the website the parliament has approved publication under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license instead of copyright protection. Full implementation will occur when the new web site is released in late 2010. Until then a notice appears on the copyright page advising of this change.

The Parliament web site is the first in Australia to implement the 3.0 license. For more information about creative Commons licenses see http://creativecommons.org.au/licences

Information Awareness Month (IAM) 2010

2010-05-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

On 4 May Information Awareness Month (IAM) was launched for 2010 at the National Archives of Australia. The purpose of IAM is to increase public awareness of the breadth of the information industry through a series of events through the month of May. The theme for this year is Access across the generations.

IAM 2010 was launched by Senator Kate Lundy. You can find her speech here.

The program of events for the ACT is available here.

The launch included some great presentations from information users of all generations and ages including a terrific presentations from St Hilda's primary school in WA (see http://www.sthildas.we.edu.au/ for information about the school) and two students from Dickson College who were remarkably thoughtful and articulate about their needs - giving us much food for thought.

Congratulations to all invited in creating this extremely thought provoking event and evetns across the month. Congratulations especially to the National Archives of Australia for their sponsorship and Iron Mountain for their sponsorship. Well done ACT and national committees for a month of stunningly good activities.

Senator TROOD—remarks about the National Library of Australia,

2010-02-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

A very good speech from Senator Trood on 2 February 2010 -

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:

The NLA is a place where resources of national significance are collected, preserved and made accessible to the public. It is a place with a wealth of knowledge that ensures that the nation’s experiences are shared. As the country’s largest and most important reference library, the NLA has the objective of ensuring that Australians have access to a national collection of library material to enhance learning, nowledge, creation, enjoyment and understanding of Australian life and society. It ensures that a representative record of Australian life is collected and preserved for the future. The NLA is not just our national library. It is internationally recognised and we can be absolutely confident that it has the esteem and respect of many of the great libraries of the world. Like all libraries, the NLA is a place of peaceful repose for those who want to read, study and think in surroundings so conducive to these activities.
But the NLA is not just a place to read books. One of its important and longstanding functions is to stage exhibitions that offer an insight into our national life and culture. Many and varied temporary exhibitions are on show at the National Library. For example, in 2008-09 the Nick Cave exhibition looked behind the music to the man himself through a collection of original lyrics, notebooks, artwork, photography and books as well as personal items from his home and office. These kinds of exhibitions will continue to be an important part of the NLA’s activities.
One can appreciate the potential here when one realises the nature of the NLA’s collecting activities. The extent of these additions just over the last year has been truly impressive. The collection includes pictures, manuscripts, maps, music and dance, oral history and folklore and national and international publications. They all contribute to a rich tapestry of knowledge and historical insight over which the library exercises its custody. Some of last year’s acquisitions included drawings of John McDouall Stuart’s famous expedition of 1861 to 1862, which crossed the Australian continent from south to north
.…
But it would be misleading to suggest that, for all the distinguished work that the library is undertaking, it is not facing some enormous challenges. The NLA, like the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Archives of Australia, requires additional funding to ensure that the work that it does is preserved to share with future generations. The digital age has certainly arrived. As a result, digitisation has become an increasingly important medium for Australian government agencies, authors, researchers, film makers, musicians and creators. Australia’s ability to maintain a permanent and accessible record in this area is therefore linked to a national capacity to cope with this digital tidal wave of images and sounds.
The reality is that the national collecting institutions are not resourced to cope with this digital tidal wave. The NLA certainly has the commitment, skills and vision to embrace the digital world. But currently it lacks the resources to undertake the task effectively. There is little doubt that saving Australia’s digital cultural heritage will require significant funding. In this context, I was delighted to see that the 2009-10 Rudd government budget provided some funding for a business case to be set forth for comprehensive funding for digitisation into the future. I very sincerely hope that the government will see fit in the forthcoming budget to further fund this important national activity. Investing in Australia’s digital heritage is an investment for the future. I therefore trust that, despite the difficult budgetary situation, this will be a serious priority in relation to the NLA’s activities.
The library is also engaged in several other exciting projects. One of considerable importance to all Australians is the creation of a national treasures gallery. This will be a permanent space in which to display iconic, rare and interesting items from the NLA collections. I commend the library and its development committee for the entrepreneurial way it is supplementing its existing funds with an active private donations program for the gallery. Funding support for the national treasures gallery is an ongoing challenge.
Finally, I would like to mention the desire on the part of the NLA to persuade the government that the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards should have their institutional home within the NLA. The awards celebrate the contribution of Australian literature to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. There is a
compelling and persuasive logic to the proposition that the annual ceremony of the nation’s premium literary awards should be hosted within the confines of the National Library. I know the library’s director general is passionate in her hope that the awards can come to the NLA. It will not only allow the recipients to be celebrated; it would provide a focus for the awards as an important part of the nation’s cultural life.
There is a great deal more one could celebrate about the NLA. But in closing I would like to recognise the dedicated staff of the library. Under increasing financial constraint, a constraint imposed now over many years, the NLA staff have maintained their good humour, commitment to serving a growing library community and superb level of professionalism. I especially wish to acknowledge the role of the director general, Ms Jan Fullerton, in providing the leadership that makes the NLA such a valuable national institution. Indeed, it is a national treasure.

Library Day in the Life

2010-01-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

I have started this post late in the week as I took a day's leave on Monday and Tuesday was a public holiday in Australia.

A day in the life of a parliamentary library is interesting indeed. The Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia web site notes:

Access to impartial, current, accurate and timely information is fundamental to democratic legislatures. In their legislative and their representative roles, parliamentarians need information as they monitor current issues, develop policy solutions and influence government decision-making.

Parliamentarians are increasingly time-poor and the parliamentary library assists them by providing:

· tailored and confidential answers to specific questions by Members;
· access to expert staff;
· research papers, or briefings, which include analysis of topical issues and Bills before Parliament;
· 24/7 electronic access to relevant information resources and collections including news and current affairs.

Parliamentary libraries may also offer research support to Parliamentary Committees; and information and knowledge management services to Parliament.

http://www.apla.org.au/information/about/an-independent-resource-parliamentary-libraries-in.shtml

What does this mean for my day? On Wednesday it included training a new client and encouraging them to learn about the wide range of services available from the parliamentary library. Because the analytic services are very different it is great to discuss what can, and cannot be done. Parliament is an overwhelming place in terms of the pace and range of issues and the library can help clients pace themselves. Communicating the range of services in a way that isn’t overwhelming is quite a task and we assign every new client a contact officer for the first couple of years to be their usher through the information landscape. It’s a program that works well.

Another major issue for this week si projects that will make is easier and quicker for clients (and the public) to access information. Focus groups for the next Parliament of Australia website are underway and great ideas about. Thanks to an excellent project manager the wide diversity of views of special users groups and the public are being collected well.

Undoubtedly the highlight of my week will be talking to new library and information students at Charles Sturt University on Friday and Saturday. More later.....

Government libraries essential for an effective public sector

2010-01-14T21:26:00.000-08:00

The ALIA submission to Advisory Group on Reform of Australian Government Administration is now online. See http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/submissions/reform.ausgov.html

Government information helps to educate people, stimulate progress and solve complex economic, scientific and social problems. With many new technologies, however, government information has expanded so quickly that basic principles regarding its creation, use and dissemination are in danger of being neglected and even forgotten.

This submission highlights three major issues:

the importance of libraries and information centres in assisting high quality policy advice and service delivery,
the need for whole of government approaches to information for an efficient and effective public service and
the need to make government information widely available with web 2.0 technology to enable a high level of citizen participation in policy development a service delivery.

Library Day in the Life

2010-01-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

Ready to start the year with a bang? Take part in Round 4 of the Library Day in the Life Project beginning January 25th 2010.

Whether you are a librarian or library worker of any kind, help us share and learn about the joys and challenges of working in a library. Join us by sharing details of your day for a week on your blog...

Any one who works in a library can participate. You may share your day (or week) on your blog, Twitter, Flickr and/or YouTube (or any other way you choose. If you have none of these don't worry, just create a new page in the wiki and post your day there.

See http://librarydayinthelife.pbworks.com/

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AMENDMENT (REFORM) BILL 2009 and INFORMATION COMMISSIONER BILL 2009

2009-11-26T18:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday both these bills were presented to the Parliament in the House of Representatives and you can see the second reading speeches online at:

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F2009-11-26%2F0021%22

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F2009-11-26%2F0017%22

Major step forward!

2009 ALIA National Library & Information Technicians Conference

2009-10-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Terri and her marvellous team for running the 2009 ALIA National Library & Information Technicians Conference.

You can find information about the conference, including links to many great photos on facebook at http://conferences.alia.org.au/libtec2009/

Most papers are now available on the program page at http://conferences.alia.org.au/libtec2009/programs.php

It was a very stimulating and inspiring event. I came away with a vision of enthusiastic library staff across the nation focusing on developing their services to engage better with clients, willing to take on new challenges and to develop personal skills to deal with the exciting/turbulent environment.

I encourage everyone to put the next ALIA Technicians conference - Back to basics, Perth, September 2001, in their diaries.

Engagement and Participation: What the Public Want and How our Politicians Need to Respond

2009-10-20T16:26:00.001-07:00

The Hansard Society (UK) has published the sixth Audit of Political Engagement recently (thank you Andy for providing a copy). The report is available online at http://hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/parliament_and_government/archiv....

A very interesting article based ont he results of the study by Ruth Fox is also available online at http://pa.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/62/4/673 - I have used the title of the article as the title of this blog posting.

Haunted and Mysterious Australia - Tim the Yowie Man

2009-08-03T00:31:00.001-07:00

Attended the booked out fireside event at Saint Luke's (http://www.firesidefestival.com.au/host/29.html) for a tour of the cemetary and Tim launched the new edition of his book. It included a spiritual burning of the book - ashes to ashes. Quite a different event! Only mildly traumatic for a librarian.

News from public sphere 2.0

2009-08-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/07/29/briefing-paper-and-recommendation-endorsements-from-public-sphere-2-government-2-0/

News from public sphere 2.0

They have put all recommendations into an endorsement system, where all are encouraged to vote. This is for a final quality assurance of the outcomes, and possibly to assist with prioritisation of the issues, so please participate:
http://au.nationbuilder.com/branches/9/priorities/top

They will handover the briefing paper formally to the Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce in an public Q&A session where you are all invited to participate. Details of the event will be sent in the last Government 2.0 Public Sphere email in the coming day or two.

Again, many thanks for all your contributions to this Public Sphere topic!

Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of Books: Research Report

2009-07-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Productivity Commission has just released its research report on Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of Books at http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/study/books/report

It offers very vauable insights into publishing and concludes:

Having considered industry feedback and undertaken further analysis, the Commission is recommending that the Parallel Import Restrictions provisions be repealed, and that:

– Three years notice should be given to facilitate industry adjustment.

– Current financial assistance for encouraging Australian writing and publishing should be reviewed immediately, and any changes implemented prior to the repeal of the PIRs. The new arrangements should be reviewed after five years.

– To assist in monitoring the impact of these changes, the ABS should undertake a revised version of its 2003-04 industry survey as soon as possible and update it prior to the five year review.

I encourage all to read the report.

Gov2.0/Publicsphere2.0

2009-06-25T00:56:00.000-07:00

Monday's Public sphere2.0 was a terrific and inspiring. Congratulations the Senator Kate Lundy and Pia Waugh and the team for all the hard work and direction.

Monday also saw the offical launch of the Government 2.0 Taskforce whose terms of reference are to advise and assist the Government to:

* make government information more accessible and usable — to establish a pro-disclosure culture around non-sensitive public sector information;
* make government more consultative, participatory and transparent — to maximise the extent to which government utilises the views, knowledge and resources of the general community;
* build a culture of online innovation within Government — to ensure that government is receptive to the possibilities created by new collaborative technologies and uses them to advance its ambition to continually improve the way it operates;
* promote collaboration across agencies with respect to online and information initiatives — to ensure that efficiencies, innovations, knowledge and enthusiasm are shared on a platform of open standards; and
* identify and/or trial initiatives that may achieve or demonstrate how to accomplish the above objectives.

You can participate by going to http://gov2.net.au and adding your comments.

Government 2.0: Policy and Practice: participate next Monday 22 June 2009

2009-06-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/05/29/public-sphere-2-open-government-policy-and-practice/

"Welcome to the 2nd Public Sphere topic - Government 2.0: policy and practice for Australia. An initiative by Senator Kate Lundy.

Government 2.0 is a rising topic of debate across the world. Trends in technology, media and public opinion have made it both more possible and more necessary for governments to reconsider what and how information is made freely available to the public."

A Public Sphere event will be held on 22 June to gather views on how creating an even more participatory form of government in Australia will improve the effectiveness of public administration, enable communities to better help themselves, promote renewed engagement in the democratic process and enhance our capacity to respond to emerging complex social, geopolitical and environmental challenges.

Read more and register at the web site

Putting the pieces together: NLA launches single business delivery service prototype

2009-06-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

The National Library of Australia have launched a new Discovery service prototype.

The release http://www.nla.gov.au/news/story.php?id=227 says:

There’s a host of helpful background information on the National Library’s new discovery service.

Before you start to search, check the information under the “About” link on the top right of the home page.

You can send comments about the prototype to the Library’s development team through the “Feedback” box on the home page.

Go to the prototype at: http://sbdsproto.nla.gov.au/

Online Availability of Government Entities' Documents Tabled in the Australian Parliament

2009-05-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

The Australian National Audit Office recently released the report “Online Availability of Government Entities' Documents Tabled in the Australian Parliament”, http://www.anao.gov.au/uploads/documents/2008-09_Audit_Report_37.pdf

The report begins:
Every year, documents are presented to the Senate, the House of Representatives, or to both Houses of the Parliament for their consideration.2 The tabling of documents is an important means of keeping the Parliament informed of the Government’s activities. It demonstrates the accountability of the Government to the Parliament and the community, and provides an important source of information to Senators and Members as well as placing information on the public record.

The objectives of the audit were to:
• determine the extent to which government entities complied with the requirement to publish and maintain documents online that were presented to the Parliament; • evaluate selected government entities’ policies and practices regarding online publishing; and
• assess AGIMO’s policy and guidance in support of online publishing.

The ANAO recommends that government entities that do not have a web presence, table multiple documents in the Parliament each year, and/or have been affected by a Machinery of Government change, implement arrangements to ensure the online availability of their tabled papers in accordance with Australian Government policy.
Recommendation No.3
The ANAO recommends that the Australian Government Information Management Office and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, in consultation with other relevant government entities, review their guidance and clarify the requirements to publish and maintain documents presented to the Parliament.

ALIA will write to ANAO congratulating them on the report and to Australian Government Information Management Office and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to urge them to work on the recommendations as a high priority.

2009-10 Research and Scholarship program offered by the Australian Prime Ministers Centre (APMC)

2009-05-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Australian Prime Ministers Centre aims to provide a national focus for research and scholarship in the field of Australian prime ministerial history. Based at Old Parliament House in Canberra, the Centre combines a research centre with an exhibition showcasing over a century of political leadership. The Centre also works collaboratively with relevant cultural institutions to support and improve access to prime ministers’ personal and official records.

The Australian Prime Ministers Centre research and scholarship program offers research assistance to established scholars in the form of Fellowships, as well as Summer Scholarships for those in the early stages of their research careers. Fellows are encouraged to submit proposals for research projects that result in the production of an academic paper, bibliography or creative project, while Summer Scholars generally work on a project set by Old Parliament House. A number of scholarships and Fellowships are offered each year.

The closing deadline for applications for the 2009-10 Fellowship program is 31 July 2009. Applications for the Summer Scholarship program close on 2 October 2009. Application forms and more detailed information on the Research and Scholarship Program is available on the website at http://apmc.moadoph.gov.au/research_scholarship.html

Libraries and users: theory and practice

2009-04-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of AARL has a very interesting article by Michael Olsson “Rethinking our concept of users” He analyses a range of theories on user centred approaches to information research and summarises his research on “how academic researchers and theatre professionals (…) make sense of the culturally iconic author: William Shakespeare”. His analysis well supports his identification of Dervin’s argument that an information user should be seen in terms of their knowledge and expertise, rather than simply wanting to find information.

This article is well worth reading – it will be a while before it is available online through Informit and Ebsco – it’s in volume 40 number 1 pp 22-35.

Also a tip – if you read Michael’s summary of what looks to have been a very successful RAILS conference in the journal the link to the conference abstracts is http://www.communication.uts.edu.au/conferences/rails/abstracts.html (the reference in the journal doesn’t have the final l). I am looking forward to reading the full papers, particularly Matt Moore’s. It would be wonderful it the papers and PowerPoint presentations could all be online.

State Records New South Wales on Youtube

2009-03-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

Alan Ventress has let me know that the State Records latest contribution to You Tube is a 10 minute video devoted to family history at State Records.

It can be viewed at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j2nwT2A3gs&feature=channel_page

Their video on the history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge has had over 2000 hits

Well done State Records New South Wales!

Open Library Environment

2009-03-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

Carmel McInerny of the National Library of Australia gave a very interesting talk on “The Open Library Environment (OLE) Project” and other open source initiatives at the National Library on Thursday 5 March. She described the change in the National Librarys (NLA) approach from tendering for the market to provide a solution to use of open source software.

She is the NLA representative on the OLE project which is a Mellon funding project to seek an open source library management system for large libraries (as opposed to small library solutions such as Koha or Evergreen). She quoted Eric Lease Morgan: “Library catalogues need to provide an increased number of services against content not just services against the index”. Referring to the implementation of an approach based on service oriented architecture and business profess mapping she noted that while OLE was at an early stage planning design documents, the benefits would be tremendous.

The advantages of collaboration mean that the models can be carefully thought out and designed. She also talked about using RefTracker and other tool kits (open source and off the shelf) to manage original material acquisitions, the NLA implementation of VU-find for catalogue access (with relevance ranking and facets), Internet Archive „flipbed‟ software for page turning and word searching for digitised printed materials and a project she is leading called GETWISE – gain efficiencies through workflow investigation and system exploration. It was a terrific presentation, providing much food for though for both digital solutions and workflow analysis (business process mapping).

A very interesting and informative presentaiton!

Read books online or via your mobile device in installments

2009-03-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

Daylit is a terrific service that give readers access to around 1000 books either to read online chapter by chapter or to receive in installments.

Thank you Karna for alerting me to the service!

It has many titles across a wide range of genres and years - ranging through Tom Peters management books, science fiction (Wells, Norton, William Rice Burroughs), the classics (Austen, Shakespeare), books that are fun reads (Berlitz Hide This French Book for Lovers - 2 installments are free) and serious reading (such as Best of Technology Writing 2007)

The web site notes: "We created DailyLit because we spent hours each day on email but could not find the time to read a book. Now the books come to us by email. Problem solved...We got the idea for DailyLit after the New York Times serialized a few classic works in special supplements a few summers ago. We wound up reading books that we had always meant to simply by virtue of making them part of our daily routine of reading the newspaper. The only thing we do more consistently than read the paper is read email. Bingo! We put together a first version and began reading "War of the Worlds" and "Pride and Prejudice". We showed it to friends, added more books and features at their request, and presto, DailyLit was born."

It is easy to use:

"DailyLit sends books in installments via e-mail or RSS feed. We currently offer over 1000 classic and contemporary books available entirely for free or on a Pay-Per-Read basis (with sample installments available for free). You can read your installments wherever you receive e-mail/RSS feeds, including on your Blackberry and iPhone. Installments arrive in your Inbox according to the schedule you set (e.g. 7:00am every weekday). You can read each installment in under 5 minutes (most folks finish in 2-3 minutes), and, if you have more time to read, you can receive additional installments immediately on demand. Our titles include bestselling and award winning titles, from literary fiction and romance to language learning and science fiction. DailyLit features forums where you can discuss your favorite books and authors. We also have a gift service, where you can send books via DailyLit to friends, with installments starting on any date you choose (even that very day - perfect for last minute gifts), and each installment comes with a personalized message written by you."

Definitely worth a serious look..

Charles Sturt University

2009-02-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

Library and Information students: I was very fortunate to visit Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga to talk to the 2009 intake of LIS students. It is a bumper year with well over 120 students – all enthusiastic and energetic and interested in a wide range of library careers. All the students do the courses via distance education (online) and many were already working in libraries, most in public libraries. This years intake is around 5 years younger in average age than last year, with people with a wide range of experiences and expertise. I was very impressed by the students and the equally enthusiastic teaching staff.

Digital Economy Future Directions

2009-01-22T22:33:00.001-08:00

A consultation paper on the Digital Economy Future Directions http://www.dbcde.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/94191/Consultation_Draft_-_DEFDP_-_17_Dec_2008_final.pdf has been issued by the Australian Government

Responses are due to DEFutureDirections@dbcde.gov.au by Wednesday 11 February 2009.

This is a very important paper covering issues such as:
* Open access to public information
* Privacy
* development of digital skills
* regulatory framework including copyright
* measurement
* internet filtering (referred to at various places in the document).

I encourage everyone to read the document and make a submission.

2009-01-22T22:31:00.000-08:00

New publication: The 2009 annual Horizon Report of the New Media Consortium is now out. It seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations. The report is available at http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report.pdf and identifies the following key trends
Increasing globalization continues to affect the way we work, collaborate, and communicate.
■ The notion of collective intelligence is redefining how we think about ambiguity and imprecision.
■ Experience with and affinity for games as learning tools is an increasingly universal characteristic among those entering higher education and the workforce.
■ Visualization tools are making information more meaningful and insights more intuitive.
■ As more than one billion phones are produced each year, mobile phones are benefiting from unprecedented innovation, driven by global competition.
IT also identified the following Critical Challenges:
■ There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy.
■ Students are different, but a lot of educational material is not.
■ Significant shifts are taking place in the ways scholarship and research are conducted, and there is a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy.
■ We are expected, especially in public education, to measure and prove through formal assessment that our students are learning.
■ Higher education is facing a growing expectation to make use of and to deliver services, content, and media to mobile devices.

You may find it interesting – many of the trends and issues are relevant to all libraries.

New wiki launched: This week the ALIA Interlending Advisory Committee (ILAC) wiki was launched - http://www.alia.org.au/shareit It aims to be an up-to-date resource on all aspects of interlending and resource sharing, assisting both new and experienced ILL staff in their daily work.

A Resource Sharing Christmas Carol

2008-12-18T01:54:00.000-08:00

We three kings of resource sharing are
Bearing books and articles we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Searching to fill ILL request forms

O Library of wonder, star of night
Library with royal treasures bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect inter library loan

Born a manuscript on Bethlehem's plain
Copies I bring to make libraries live again
Reign forever, ceasing never
Offering access for all to gain

O Library of wonder, star of night
Library with royal treasures bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect inter library loan

Books to offer have I
Knowledge owns a sharing right
Collections and sharing, all readers raising
Blessed by resources, libraries most high

O Library of wonder, star of night
Library with royal treasures bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect inter library loan

Articles are mine, the ideas of worlds
Breaths of life shining on ignorance dim
Learning, sharing, talking, mining
Released from our treasure holds

O Library of wonder, star of night
Library with royal treasures bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect inter library loan

Glorious now behold our sharing
Public, Academic, Special and more
Alleluia, Alleluia
Linking minds to ideas of the world

O Library of wonder, star of night
Library with royal treasures bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect inter library loan

Library Christmas

2008-12-17T17:04:00.001-08:00

Wishing you a very Library Christmas - some celebration activities:

Start the day singing:

"One the first day of Christmas" (note the presents are in alphabetical order starting with Calling Birds)

"Have yourself a very Dewey Christmas"....

"I saw three catalogue records go sailing by"....

"We three resource sharing librarians of orient are"

The begin opening presents after sorting them by size (open the folio's first) and colour.

Wishing you a very merry 394.2663 and a happy 394.2614

Roxanne

New Librarians - they are out there are making a big difference!

2008-12-16T16:56:00.000-08:00

I was very very fortunate to attend the New Librarians Symposium in Melbourne earlier this month. It was truly inspiring with Tania Barry and her team bringing together a magnificent set of presenters and an even more impressive group of attendees.

It was very impressive to see around 250 new librarians (mostly with 5 or less years experience in the profession). They were energetic, focused on creating even better library services, enthusiastic up-takers of technology and had a great spirit of working together.

Tania Barry the convenor did a wonderful job with a terrific team – some of whom are pictured below. Elaina Norlin (at the front of the picture) from the US gave a wonderful presentation of how a new librarian can do anything – including writing a book on usability of web sites and travel the world speaking at library events.

Papers should be available shortly at http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2008/

Great photos can be seen online at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/504662@N20/pool

ACTive ALIA award winners for 2008

2008-12-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Nicola Cross was awarded the ACTive ALIA Initiative award 2008

Nicola Cross has made major contributions to the activities of ACTive ALIA in Canberra over the past year and has always been an active member of the group. Nicola is a very pleasant, willing and enthusiastic member of the library profession and has done a lot to develop others in the profession both by her work as the Information Statistical Skills development officer at the Australian Bureau of Statistics and as a member of the Australian Government Libraries and Information Network (AGLIN) training taskforce and the AGLIN/ACTive ALIA joint information sharing sessions. Nicola is responsible for the administration and booking of worthwhile speakers for this seminars as well as the extensive work she has done for AGLIN organising a variety of speakers to provide inexpensive training opportunities of librarians and related professionals.

She has always contributed to the profession and encouraged others to do so. She is an active member of the Library Technicians Group and has nurtured others to reach their full potential in this sector of the profession. She teaches the full range of cataloguing and metadata work to students at the Canberra Institute of Technology as well as contributing to ALIA. She is a pleasant, keen and willing member of any library group, prepared to go the extra mile to assist others with their professional development in her voluntary capacity and in her professional work teaching information and statistical literacy skills to others.

Nicola has contributed significantly to the ALIA Library Technicians Group, ACTive ALIA, AGLIN/ACTive ALIA Information Sharing forums and AGLIN Training and Development Taskforce. She is a dynamic, enthusiastic and delightful member of the profession.

Helen Roberts was awarded the ACTive ALIA Outstanding Contribution Award, 2008.

Helen has been an associate member of ALIA throughout her working life in libraries. She has been an enthusiastic and committed member of the ACTive ALIA Group (formerly ACT Branch) and of the ACT University and College Libraries group (URLs). For many years she served on the Executive of each group, has been President of the URLs group and was Convenor of ACTive ALIA from 2001 to 2004.

Helen has been a frequent contributor to ProACTive, the newsletter of ACTive ALIA, writing news items, a regular Convenor’s column, and notes on professional issues.

In these roles Helen has been an informal mentor to her colleagues and has provided support and advice to ALIA colleagues in the ACT.

Helen was the Law Librarian at the Australian National University for 17 years until her retirement in 2006. She was a committed professional with deep subject expertise in addition to her library qualifications, having completed her law degree at the Australian National University in 1995. Helen was responsible for the development of innovative services at ANU Law Library, including establishment of the Law Library’s formal role in teaching law students the skills of legal research. Helen was also the Copyright Officer for the Australian National University.

Helen has been a very active member of the Australian Law Librarians group, and was the State news editor for the Australian law librarian.

Helen has contributed to ALIA Group activities and committees in the ACT (see Criterion 1). She has also participated in ALIA activities at the national level, having been a member and Chair of the ALIA Copyright and Intellectual Property Advisory Group, and a member of the Australian Libraries Committee on Copyright and the Australian Digital Alliance.

In 2002 Helen was awarded a Silver Pin for her contribution to ALIA committees and activities.

Helen has been generous with her time and expertise in support of ALIA and other professional groups such as the Australian Law Librarians group. She has given many presentations in the ACT and elsewhere in Australia on law librarianship, copyright, intellectual property, and purchasing electronic resources. Helen has always been willing to participate in seminars and panel discussions on the implications for librarians of changes in copyright or intellectual property legislation, and she has contributed to discussions on a wide range of professional issues.

Helen Roberts has made an outstanding contribution to ALIA at both local and national levels.

Well done Nicola and Helen!

Size does matter: JCPAA report into the efficiency dividend

2008-12-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

You may be interested to read the report of the Committee at
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jpaa/efficdiv/report.htm#chapters

Cultural agencies are addressed in chapter 3.

The recommendations include:

Recommendation 3

The Department of Finance and Deregulation, the Australian Public Service Commissioner and each cultural agency jointly develop a new funding model for cultural agencies. This model should recognise the importance of funding the mandate for growth and development of collections and the proportion of their expenses apportioned to depreciation. The Committee notes that recommendation 8 will also apply to these agencies.
Recommendation 7

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet convene a taskforce with membership from key agencies, including the Australian Public Service Commission, to conduct and publish further analysis on:

􀂄 the relationship between gender wage disparities and agency size and function;
􀂄 the relationship between wage disparities generally and agency size and function; and
􀂄 whether staff classifications continue to represent equivalent levels of skills, responsibility and experience across agencies.
If collecting further data or enhancing databases is required, the agencies involved should receive supplementary funding.
Recommendation 8

The Government either:

􀂄 exempt the first $50 million of all agencies’ appropriations from the efficiency dividend, excluding departments of state (the preferred option); or
􀂄 exempt the first $50 million of the appropriations of all agencies that have departmental expenses of less than $150 million, excluding departments of state.
These benchmarks to be indexed over time.

Victorian public library workforce planning report

2008-07-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

A new report is out - Workforce Sustainability and Leadership: Survey, Analysis and Planning for Victorian public libraries. The report is available from: http://www.libraries.vic.gov.au/cgi-bin/infonet/org.cgi?detail=1&id=60

I am part way through and found it quite interesting - although I am not sure it thinks about what solutions we in libraryland need to take responsibility for in this time of great competition for staff. The report alleges that we have an aging workforce (not comparing their data to historcial data or other professions). I would say that many libraries (like other organisations, particularly research organisations) have an older workforce than in the fast food industry or some other organisations. I am not sure that our age profile has changed dramatically in the last couple of years, but I am confident that our desire for those with considerable experience in the industry, particularly at manager level, means that we won't be likely to have a predominance of teenagers. Regional employment also has many challenges and the younger members of the community continue to be attracted to cities, an ongoing challenge.

The question that is in my mind after reading much of the report is how much we need to take responsibility for developing staff. If we can't attract people with extensive experience to lower level positions as many of these (particularly from the study professionals and those with tertiary education) then we need to recognise that we will have people with less experience who will be retained and productive when offered proper learning and development opportunities, much of which will be in-house. The skills we can provide have application beyond any particular library - cutomer service skills and communication are fundamental to most jobs and are in demand for those who wish to travel and work overseas. Other research (such as the APS state of the service) has identified offering skill development and a key benefit from the perspective of employees - perhaps some best practice examples should be shared to help us all be more effective in this area?

New Librarians symposium

2008-06-19T19:37:00.001-07:00

Ready for an exciting opportunity to meet new librarians, discuss issues and hear fabulous presentations? The next New Librarians will be held in Melbourne on 5 and 6 December this year - the program is now online http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2008/Program.html and registrations opened this week - http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2008/Registration.html

I look forward to seeing you there!

Federal IT buzz

2008-06-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

Interesting developments in federal IT:

Last month the Review of Australian Government's Use of Information and Communication Technology by Sir Peter Gershon was announced - see http://www.financeminister.gov.au/media/2008/mr_112008.html. He achieved significant cost and staffing reductions in the UK review (see http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/C/A/efficiency_review120704.pdf) - an opportunity for librarians to point out the contribution they make to efficiency?; and
the government is considering an "IT strike force" perhaps as a part of AGIMO to oversee changes to legacy system http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,2489appalling7,23762858-15306,00.html

regards

Roxanne

National Library treasures to be on ABC TV

2008-05-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

PREMIERING ON TUESDAY 3 JUNE 2008, 6:50PM ON ABC1

10 episodes of a wonderful new series by Film Australia in association with Early Works and the ABC:

Former director of the National Gallery of Australia, Betty Churcher, presents an insider’s guide to some of the library’s art treasures, which are rarely on public display. From her unique vantage point, Churcher makes intriguing historical connections between paintings and engravings, photography, manuscripts and artefacts, illustrated journals and diaries. This series of short documentaries tells the story of Omai, the first South Sea Islander to visit London; investigates the mystery surrounding the death of Captain James Cook in Hawaii; reveals the exquisite paintings of 18-year-old colonial painter George Raper and Victorian flower hunter Ellis Rowan; and speaks with artist John Olsen about his struggle to paint the biggest commission of his career, the Sydney Opera House mural. These are fascinating tales about the creative process and the works themselves that offer a tantalising insight into Australia’s culture and heritage.

See http://www.filmaust.com.au/hiddentreasuresnla/

It is a brilliant series! And a wonderful raising of the profile of libraries for potential students and recruits!

Victorian Government Publications Index

2008-05-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

The State Library of Victoria has advised that the Index will no longer be updated or maintained from 30 May 2008. The index will remain accessible on the Library's website until late 2008. It has listed all Victorian state and local government publications received and/or processed in the State Library of Victoria from 1987 to 2008. Publications include books, reports, new serials, annual reports, microfiche, microfilm, maps, local laws, ephemera, CD-ROMs, videos, sound cassettes, Internet publications and databases, ministerial statements and notification of administrative changes (including the establishment and abolition of agencies).

To find Victorian government publications you can use:

Recent Australian Government Publications (GovRAP), published monthly in alphabetical and Dewey order monthly at http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/govrap.html; or
the catalogue on the State Library of Victoria (http://calcat.slv.vic.gov.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First) which will continue to contain records for all Victorian state and local government publications received and/or processed by the Library.

Learning commons: developments at Charles Sturt University

2008-05-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

Learning commons: developments at Charles Sturt University. Shirley Oakey gave a marvellous presentation to the ACT ALIA and AGLIN groups on Wednesday 28 May. Her presentation will be put on the web shortly. She covered the many issues involved in establishing physical and online learning commons which are spaces that enable students to interact with each other and the learning spaces using technology to provide support. It evolved from “Information commons” which started out more like extensions of computer laboratories and responds to:

Changes in the way students behave
Changes in the way they learn
Changes in the way they are taught.

A very interesting and informative concept paper can be found online at http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/about/commons/ and the implementations in Bathurst and Albury (Thurgoona) have led to significantly increased us of the spaces and online resources.

E-books hype or the way ahead?

2008-05-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

E-books have seemed to be on the library horizon for a decade or so now – during which we have seen evolutions in readers (to a limited degree), developments in content and changes in companies which some failing, some merging and some continuing.

This week I read two interesting articles on e-books which led me to think that we need to look again at their potential.

“But I want a real book”: an investigation of undergraduates’ usage and attitudes towards electronic books by Cynthia L Gregory is published in the Spring 2008 issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly. She reports that students have mixed attitudes about e-books, students will use e-books but prefer using traditional print books.

“The elusive e-book. Are books finally ready for prime time?” by Stephen Sottong in the May 2008 issue of American libraries is quite provocative. He criticises e-book readers as ergonomically unsatisfactory. And notes that the problems do not go away with the younger “born digital” generation. He comments of the new Kindle readers “The reason they will fail is the same one that doomed the Rocket e-book: why would anyone pay $300 to $400 for a dedicated reader device when display and interface are not as good as a paper book? “

I am reminded of an earlier study based on US universities which found that the most popular e-books in a number of libraries were those where the print copies had been stolen. I think computer sciences was one of the disciplines for which the e-books seemed to be successful, possible because not just had the print books been stolen, but the information is not generally read from page one to the final page but is used in segments, eminently suitable for use electronically.

This all gave me an opportunity to review Project Gutenberg again (http://www.gutenberg.org/) and wonder why I have never read anything that is available there. Perhaps it’s that at work I read many reports published electronically (on the computer) and that at home there remains nothing like curling up in front of a fire with paper….ah well.

E-books I am sure is something we should try out, not just watch with interest!

Back to life

2008-05-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks

Sorry to have been away for a while - have been blogging in recent months on the ALIA Blog and now that I have passed the Presidential mantle on the Derek Whitehead have time for my own blog! We are in a bit of a whirl in the ACT with Library and Information Week - wonderful to see so many terrific library techs last night at the Soul bar in Philip. And I did enjoy a glass or so of sparkling burgundy with colleagues (particularly Anna Maria) - bring back memories - and it was a very good Victorian one!

Today we have a Library and Information Week lunch at La Pasa in Civic and around 20 celebrated - thank you very much Kym and Karna . We launched the ALIA ACT blog - do have a look - its at http://proactiveblog.blogspot.com/

Our next event is on 28 May on the CSU Learning Commons (AGLIN/ACTive ALIA Information Sharing Forum) Time: 4.30pm. Venue: National Library of Australia, Conference Room, Level 4. Speaker: Shirley Oakley, Executive Director, Library Services, Charles Sturt University For more information, contact Karna O'Dea, ph 02 6252 7717, jkodea@netspeed.com.au

seek you more often on the blog!

Roxanne

Librarian recognised in the Queens 2007 honours

2008-01-02T15:21:00.000-08:00

Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, was made a Dame of the British Empire in the 2007 Queens New Year Honours. She is an enormously inspiring library leader whose energy and vision well deserve this recognition.

You can see the complete list at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/29_12_07_hons_queen.pdf

I have written to Lynne congratulating her on behalf of ALIA and Australian library staff.

Lynne gave a wonderful presentation on change management and challenges facing the British Library in Canberra in 2005 - the PowerPoint is available at http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/meetings/brindley.html. It remains a very insightful and worthwhile prspective that I encourage everyone to read.

regards

Roxanne

Holiday in New Zealand

2007-12-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

Apologies for not posting for the past month, I have been on a family holiday in the south island of New Zealand - a truly beautiful place.

We had a wonderful time in the south island relaxing and doing the usual tourist things. Milford Sound was wonderful, as was Dunedin, Christchurch and the so many beautiful glaciers, mountains, green fields and gardens (fabulous rhododendrons and roses). We also saw some large and small libraries (tragic to be a library tourist). Here are two small New Zealand libraries (about 3 metres by 3 metres) that we saw on our holiday—shows that libraries can come in all shapes and sizes and deliver valuable services to their users

1. Glenorchy library

2. Library on the Otago Penninsula

The Librarians on ABC

2007-10-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Colleagues

Well, we have now seen the first episode of "The Librarians" on ABC tv. I joined around 50 at the National Library of Australia to share the experiece - to laugh (we did a lot of this), sigh (hardly any of this) and network to celebrate the new series. Thanks very much to Sue Hutley, Executive Director, ALIA for organising the event and putting on cheese and crackers, tea and coffee for us all.

Some of us came in pearls, cardigans and sensible shoes, others more relaxed. (I had thought about coming in slippers and a dressing gown, but the pearls and cardigan seemed more appropriate). Mark Scott, Managing Director of the ABC snuck in and enjoyed watching our reaction to the program.

Thanks Anna-maria for the photograph - and we'll all watch the next episodes from our homes in future with a cup of coca, or something stronger!

Don't forget you can share comments through ALIA's blog http://www.alia.org.au/thelibrariansblog/

(And also if you are itnerested in PowerPoint use and misuse see the clip at http://metacole.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/the-princess-the-witch-and-the-powerpoint/)

ALIA National Library Technicians conference

2007-10-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

I was very fortunate to attend the ALIA National Library Technicians Conference in Melbourne earlier this month. It was very well attended – with around 400 delegates and trade registered for the conferences.

The program and information about the conference is available online at http://www.alia07.com/.

Ann Beaumont from the State Library of Victoria opened the conference, focusing on the massive changes since she qualified as a technician in the 1960s and the need to focus on users needs. An active library 2.0 participant, Ann described well the need to play with blogs, wikis and other technologies to be able to learn how we can use them to connect with users and to enable users to connect with other users in the 2000s. The conference continued the theme of choice for users and moving services which can reveal our great collections through other papers. Kevin Hennah was fabulous, with many ideas about “making over” our physical spaces to attract new users and engage better with existing users. I came back to my library convinced that we needed to buy his book

Congratulations to Dunn and Wilson study grant recipient Rebecca Evans for her project “Preserving our past to educate our future” which aims to identify, collate and catalogue photographs and other information about library technicians into an image database.

Congratulations to the ALIA Library Technician of the Year for 2007, Jennifer Dyer from NSW who has made an outstanding contribution to library technicians in schools, NSW and nationally. An amazingly dynamic and energetic person, Jennifer has inspired many others and truly deserves this recognition.

Congratulations to the conference team and the very active participants.

You can also keep up with ALIA and ALIA Library Technician developments thorugh facebook – its addictive and a fun way to share – give it a go http://www.facebook.com

Dynamic librarians and library technicians at the Top End

2007-10-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

The Top End Group of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) are a dynamic and successful group linking library staff together to build their expertise and services. I was very fortunate to attend the Top End Symposium which brought together library staff in all sectors. The presentations indicated that Northern Territory libraries were innovators taking new technologies and adapting them to their particular client needs.

Austin Ashe opened with a passionate declaration about the value of libraries - traditional services and online services. His legal career and commitment to communities provided different and complex perspectives on the value of libraries.

"Six Degrees of Separation " by Helen Edney introduced the enormous literacy issues in the territory. She described activities at Katherine library which have focused on improving literacy and developing life long skills from the library's program. It was a very thought provoking and good presentation.

The best paper award was given to Kay Pisel, Kormilda College for her presentation "Where to now? Positioning a school Library in the 21st Century". The range of services offered and sheer enthusiasm of staff was quite inspiring.

"Sharing Library Information - a Podcast Project at CDU Library" by Jessie Mahjouri and Marg Purnell, Charles Darwin University, described using podcasting to deliver training. A remarkably good project, the resulting audio files are easy to use and engaging. Do have a look at their service http://www.cdu.edu.au/library/LILL/podcasts.html

The conference dinner was terrific – with belly dancing and magic tricks. Here is a photograph at the dinner of ALIA local liaison officer, Jayshree Mamtora, Andrew Finegan and me. Stephen Barnett, official photographer of the symposium, has posted a wonderful set of photographs on his blog http://digitaldamage.blogspot.com/

The ALIA National Advisory Congress was also dynamic and valuable.

Congratulations to all who contributed to the events.

2007-09-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Uniting a profession by Jean P Whyte and David J Jones
Launched on 27 September, this new publications from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) traces the quite sensational history of the formation of the Australian national library association. Celebrating it’s 70th anniversary in 2007, ALIA was first truly nationally established at the Australian Institute of Librarians.

Jean Whyte, 1923-2003, was one of Australia’s most outstanding library educators and leaders. For many years she worked on a history of the association/s – collecting papers and writing many preliminary chapters. Dr Jones, her co-author, has contributed significantly in taking over such a major project and adding his analysis.

It is a riveting read. Anyone who thought librarians meek and mild will be amazed at the stories of robust debate, sectoral and state based competition and personal rivalries. It seems little short of a major dramatic event which reveals the characters and commitment of many true library leaders, such as John Metcalf.

The insights of both authors are remarkable – and both have also contributed to the debates in the association for many years.

The book covers the period 1937-1949, to the formation of the Library Association of Australia. It contains marvellous appendices including short biographies of the major characters (over 120), information about office bearers and statistics.

The passion, the disagreements and the sense of commitment from those involved leaps off the pages. A “Bodice ripper” indeed. I encourage everyone to read this volume, whether you are a library professional or not. And ALIA encourages anyone with an interest in preparing the next volume in this history to contact the Executive Director.

To order see http://www.alia.org.au

2007-09-27T20:57:00.000-07:00

Australian Law Librarians Association conference: The ALLA conference (http://www.alla.asn.au/conference/2007/program.htm) was held in Sydney this year and I was fortunate to attend and speak on the first day. Justice Ruth McColl opened the conference commenting on the complex issues in the move to the digital environment and outlining the history of publication of cases and the law. Baden Powell gave a very interesting presentation on technical architecture and new service delivery models. Glenda Browne’s presentation focused on the differences between legal and other indexing, which provided an opportunity to suggest improvements to legal indexes (such as filing St as "St" rather than "Saint"). Carmel O'Sullivan reported on the information literacy training she and colleagues had developed at Blakes. Her lessons learnt were – develop a lesson plan, less is best, action learning is important but not essential for all courses, reflective practice needs to be included and training should, on occasion break with convention. I reported on our client survey and the information life of our clients. All in all a very stimulating experience for the approximately 140 attendees.

Australian Law Librarian of the Year: At the conference the 2007 Australian Law Librarian of the year was announced. Congratulations to Karyn Gladwish, Director Library Services, Australian Attorney-General's Department on receiving the award – very well deserved!

"The Librarians" to be on ABC TV: Tune your sets to the ABC on 31 October at 9.30 pm for the new series "The Librarians". Keep your sense of humour while watching.

Some photos from the IFLA pre conference for Parliamentary Libraries

2007-08-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

Arriving at the South African Parliament for the pre-conference meeting - colleagues from the Congressional Research Service (US), House of Commons Library (UK) and Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament)

The pre-conference was held in the old Chamber

Looking upwards in the South African Parliamentary Library

The South African Parliamentary Library has a wonderful Choir.

News from IFLA and the Parliamentary libraries pre-conference meeting

2007-08-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

It was very interesting and exciting to be at the IFLA Parliamentary Librarians pre-conference and hear of developments around the world. We all have so much in common—primarily a desire to ensure that all of our clients receive top quality services, that we use new technologies to achieve this and a commitment to efficient and effective research programs.

Mr S. L. Tsenoli, on day one of the conference, noted that the three most important issues for a parliamentary library were: to have a clear understanding of the needs of their clients, a flexible approach to service delivery and a determination to provide a first class service. These were reaffirming words for us in APH as the research that we have done into our clients needs really has provided the basis for our strategic planning to work towards flexible services, based on using new technology as well as existing technology and the right staffing mix.

Ian Watt from the EU reported on their major change program which, like ours, has been complex and led to considerable debate about service levels and staffing levels and skills. The concept of a skilled researcher requiring high level information skills is topical, as is breaking down boundaries between library and research staff and indeed breaking some of the boundaries between libraries and their clients.

Cape Town is cold and wet (average dam levels for the last year have been over 100%—we can but dream of this sort of environment). The South African Parliamentary Library has a terrific choir, cricket team and rugby team—all as a part of their wellness program—more food for thought!

Durban was been sunny and warm and the IFLA conference provided good food for the mind.

Australia was very visible at IFLA. Alex Byrne is the current President of IFLA and contributed to many sessions.

The Northern Territory Library won the prestigious annual Gates Foundation Access to Learning Award. The US$1 million award recognises the library’s work to provide free computer and Internet access and training to Indigenous communities and for its unique ‘Our Story’ database. The Northern Territory Library program is contributing to improvements in the lives of Indigenous Territorians living in remote communities. It assists people to retain 60,000 years of oral tradition, and plays a part in helping our Indigenous communities to survive and prosper through improved literacy skills and access to information.

IFLA Draft Guidelines for Libraries of Government Departments—the Government Libraries section have released the proposed guideline in draft form on their web site at http://www.ifla.org/VII/s4/index.htm#Publications. It is intended to both provide guidance for new libraries when they are established and to be a tool for established libraries. The Parliamentary Library section is providing significant input and has suggested that is should be more of a framework with examples and best practice in appendices. If you have suggestions please make them directly to the section chair at nancybolt@earthlink.net

The Parliamentary Library Section presentations at the conference can be found at http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/Programme2007.htm:

SOLEDAD FERREIRO and JOSÉ MIGUEL MUGA (Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Valparaiso, Chile)
Understanding Cybersocial Network trends, for innovation in Libraries
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/102-Ferreiro_Muga-en.pdf

INNOCENT RUGAMBWA (Parliament of Uganda, Kampala, Uganda)
Effective partnerships in parliamentary libraries and research services: a strategic intervention for survival in the 21st century
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/102-Rugambwa-en.pdf

HUGH FINSTEN and WILLIAM R. YOUNG (Canadian Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Canada)
Partnering at the Canadian Library of Parliament
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/102-Finsten_Young-en.pdf

All provide some very interesting examples of library developments.

Many Australians gave presentations (and ex-Australians) including:

Rapid and easy access: finding and getting resources in Australian libraries and cultural institutionsPAM GATENBY (National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia)
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/113-Gatenby-en.pdf

The Reflective Online Searching Skills (ROSS) Environment: embedding information literacy into student learning through an online environment.
HELEN PARTRIDGE (Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia)
Paper not available online

Public Libraries and their Communities: South Australia readsTERESA BROOK (Public Library Services, The State Library of South Australia)
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/128-Brook-en.pdf

Reaching new audiences: the People Australia and Picture Australia projects at the National Library of Australia
PAMELA GATENBY (National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia)
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/147-Gatenby-en.pdf

Library 3.0: where art our skills?GRACE SAW and HEATHER TODD (University of Queensland Library, Brisbane, Australia)
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/151-Saw_Todd-en.pdf

Taxonomy Directed Folksonomy: integrating user tagging and controlled vocabularies for Australian education networksSARAH HAYMAN (education.au, Adelaide, Australia) and NICK LOTHIAN (education.au, Adelaide, Australia)
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/157-Hayman_Lothian-en.pdf

Special Measures for Special Libraries: Analysing Systems, Needs and WorkflowsSUE HENCZEL
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/152-Henczel-en.pdf

Finally the 2010 IFLA conference will be held in Brisbane. A major undertaking, work is already underway forming a committee and planning events. It should be a great opportunity for many Australian library staff and those in the region to experience international speakers and develop networks that cross the globe.

Regards

Roxanne Missingham

Public Libraries Australia 2007 conference

2007-08-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

Public libraries are tremendously important in Australia - they are the heart of many communities supporting literacy, education, community development, business and culture. The Public Libraries Australia 2007 conference provdied a great opportunity to share information, build stronger networks and be inspired.

Rivkah Sass - Director, Omaha Public Library, USA, inspired us to always think of the customer and work at changing our priorities to match theirs. She talked about building partnerships with community organisations, understanding our communities and their diversity and changing our processes and services.

Workforce planning to ensure that we are able to recruit to fill future positions was addresses by a number of presentations. The Intergenerational report, released by the Australian Treasury on 2 April (http://www.treasury.gov.au/igr/IGR2007.asp) identifies a reducing workforce with an aging population, falling fertility rates and rising life expectancy. Presentations by Julie Sloan, Director, Julie Sloan Management Pty Ltd, Moira Deslandes, CEO, Volunteering SA and Robert Knight related to this issue.

Shane Cathcart was inspiring with his description of West Torrens Hilton Library’s move from Siege to Sojourn. The development of a new youth strategy at the West Torrens Library Service from 2004 – 2006 focused on understanding their community, developing a basis for discussion of issues with them (including a code of conduct), new ways of engagement and a community support now built on understanding and partnerships.

Christine Mackenzie, CEO, Yarra Plenty Library, also gave an outstanding presentation on Yarra Plenty’s rebirth in the digital age, bringing staff forward with new flexible approaches, building flexibility, using new technologies to enable staff to deliver value added services and using new mechanisms to increase knowledge (such as the unconference).

Papers should be on the web site soon at http://www.pla.org.au/Conf2007/Conf07.htm

Well done Bernie, Geoff, Bill, Janice and Robert.

Regards

Roxanne Missingham

August 2007 ALIA Board meeting in Adelaide

2007-08-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

Adelaide is a beautiful city. The Board members of the Australian Library and Information Association was fortunate to meet on 4 August in such a lovely place. The activities started with a bang with Mary Ellis winning the South Australian Library Achiever of the Year award (for details of the award see http://www.alia.org.au/awards/merit/sa.laoty/).

Mary is an outstanding library and community worker, whose work redeveloping the community information for Onkaparinga, the largest council in South Australia has led to significant improvements for the community (http://www.alia.org.au/awards/merit/sa.laoty/mary.html). Mary, and her colleagues, have used new technology to enable those in the community to access 1300 community information resources, through the database, training across the Library and broader Council staffs and promotion in the community. Congratulations to Mary and her colleagues, all who were nominated, the South Australian ALIA Group for the event and Raeco for their support and sponsorship.

At the ALIA Board meeting on the following day we discussed many issues and a full report will appear shortly. In the meantime, I thought it would be useful to highlight three major areas of discussion. Our first major item was the review of ALIA's advisory committees and representatives. ALIA is a strong organisation becuase of the work done by many individuals through advisory committees and representational roles and these have not been reviewed since the new ALIA structure was put in place in 2000. While many groups are working well addressing issues of important to members, some have completed their activities and wished to cease. The review has resulted in some recommendations for changes to the By-laws, and some areas where it was clear that ALIA has not articulated what is wants and serious consideration of the area s required – particularly in international relations and public libraries. The Board also met with the Public Libraries Australia Board to discuss how the current cooperative relationships should develop.

The Board also discussed the National Advisory Congress for 2007, which will focus on the issues of Education and Workforce planning. Interestingly, these were key topics at the Public Libraries Australia Conference over the following two days. Australia as a whole is facing the prospect or a serious reduction in new entrants to the workforce. Many librarians will be retiring over the next decade and we do not yet have an understanding of the numbers or skills required by the profession (including library technicians) for the next 2, 5 or 10 years. Research is essential to develop this, and then to develop a strategy to ensure there is a pool of appropriately skilled people ready to take up the positions as they fall vacant. For Education a background paper will cover:

Skills and capabilities that are needed by employers;
Scope of the library and information science sector;
Recruitment issues
Qualification issues; and
What role ALIA should play.

It should be a very importance and dynamic series of discussions through the Congress meetings in 2007 and I encourage you to attend – see http://www.alia.org.au/governance/nac/2007/ for further information.

Finally congratulations to Jane Gordon and Trevor Wakely who were appointed to the By-laws Committee.

regards

Roxanne

Welcome

2007-07-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Colleagues

Well we all have to start somewhere so here is my first blog entry. I have read many other blogs with interest - particularly It's all good and The shifted librarian. Some many interesting ideas to share – hopefully this blog be useful to someone too.

This year I thought a blog would help me communicate with others interested in library and information science issues, particularly digital library and service issues.

I also hope to be able to report on events in Australia during my year as President of the Australian Librarian and Information Association (ALIA). ALIA celebrates it's 70th year in 2007 and during the period there have been many changes to the membership of the association, library education and indeed to the activities and work of those in libraries. While the format of our collections and services have changed the underlying philosophy of delivering services to our clients has never faltered.

Last week was the annual conference and general meeting of the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia (APLA). The events were held at the Australian Parliamentary Library. At the conference presentations covers issues relating to our theme of collaboration and innovation in library services and research. Speakers covered issues including:

the changing nature of political use of the Internet – both citizens and politicians;
the needs of clients of Parliamentary libraries and the pressures on their time with a need for more analysis, speedier access to information and regional news resources;
the importance of parliamentary libraries in their parliaments;
new ways of thinking about our resource discovery services (catalogues), access to collection resources and delivery mechanisms (getting into other delivery services);
being smart in working collaboratively – thinking practically and working with the relationships that work on any particular issue;
grabbing new technologies and experimenting with service delivery working beyond our walls; and
that much can be done through learning by doing which can’t be done through planning.

There were great speakers and conference papers will be on the APLA web site shortly:

Harry Evans, Clerk of the Senate, Opening Address

Dr Luke Buckmaster and Dr Sarah Miskin, Politics and technology in the 21st century—taking it to the streets

Kent Fitch and Alison Dellitt (National Library of Australia), Rethinking the catalogue

Client perspectives
The Hon Dick Adams MP (Australian Labor Party, Lyons, Tasmania), Joint Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the Parliamentary Library
Senator Russell Trood (Liberal Party of Australia, Queensland) Joint Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the Parliamentary Library
Senator Lyn Allison (Leader, Australian Democrats, Victoria)

Rose Holley (National Library of Australia) The National Newspaper digitisation project

Mal Booth (Head, Research Centre, Australian War Memorial) Innovation online delivery at the AWM

Vic Elliott (Executive Director, Scholarly Information Services and University Librarian, ANU) Collaboration in Australian university library and information environment

Carmel McInerney (Asknow! Coordinator, National Library of Australia)
Collaboration in online reference—Ask Now

Ian Harris AO, Clerk of the House of Representatives, Close

And some pictures of those attending the events, including the current Australasian Parliamentary Librarians –

Look forward to keeping in touch

Regards

Roxanne Missingham