ACTive ALIA

proACTive

Number 214: July 2001

Seminar on electronic resources: acquisition and access | Information literacy seminar | New civic library: community consultations | Professor Arunachalam's visit | Library and Information Week at the ACT Government and Assembly Library

Seminar on electronic resources: acquisition and access
Electronic resources are the hot topic in libraries; they pose challenges in selection acquisition, cataloguing and support as a service for our users. To provide information and the opportunity to discuss these issues a very successful seminar was held, which was organised by ALIA ACT Branch (now ACTive ALIA) and Kinetica. Over 120 people attended on Wednesday 20 June from 1:30pm to 5:00pm in the National Library Theatre. The seminar was so popular that it had to be relocated from the conference room (4th Floor) as there were too many bookings to fit in the conference room. Special thanks to May Priddle, who took the numerous bookings for the seminar.

The seminar was structured around two panels, each of three speakers. Roxanne Missingham chaired panel 1, on acquisition issues, and Helen Roberts chaired panel 2, on access issues.

In panel 1 Jan Gordon (ADFA) spoke on Decision making, how to choose electronic resources, Helen Roberts (ANU Law Library) spoke on Dealing with vendors and Margaret Philips (NLA) spoke on Consortia, the mysteries revealed. In panel 2, Roxanne Missingham (NLA) spoke on Resource discovery: catalogues vs html (database and static) access, Margaret Cazabon (Parliamentary Library) spoke on Keeping your access alive (web link checking) and Nerida Hart (FACS) spoke on Marketing to your customers.

Question time was held after each panel. Many questions were asked and interesting themes emerged - such as that government libraries felt disadvantaged by their lack of access to the consortium negotiations available to other library sectors. They reported that new staff would come to them from universities where, as students, they had got used to using online resources and were dependent on access to them, but the government libraries could not provide them.

At the conclusion, Helen Roberts asked, 'Where to from here?', requesting that suggestions for future ALIA events be sent to her at helen.roberts@anu.edu.au. After the meeting, a number of members suggested possible themes for seminars such as marketing, or secrets of successful libraries. If you have any further ideas please let Helen know - we want to address your interests and concerns in our program. [Helen Roberts]

Information literacy seminar
Over forty people attended a seminar on information literacy at the Australian National University on 31 May, organised by ALIA URLs (ACT). Information literacy would seem to be a topic of interest to all library sectors. This level of interest was reflected in the diverse composition of the audience at the seminar with representatives from school libraries, CIT, the higher education sector, special libraries and the National Library all in attendance. This wide-spread interest amongst participants was an indication of the range of different environments to which the modules are suited.

The seminar presented two interactive web-based training modules in use in two higher education libraries in the ACT.

Web-Ezy Glenda Henderson from UNILINK demonstrated the different features of Web-Ezy, as used by the Australian Catholic University. Web-Ezy has been developed by UNILINK and is available for purchase under an arrangement whereby UNILINK will customise and manage the product. This product was shown to be particularly suited for environments where there was not in-house expertise and staffing to develop a customised product. Applications were also demonstrated for various other customised sites, such as Kings School.

InFlite Margaret Henty and Mandy Lupton from the Australian National University Library demonstrated InFlite, which is a localised version of PILOT, available at Queensland Institute of Technology, and Catalyst, available at University of Technology Sydney. (Jenny Edwards was to have taken part in the demonstration but unfortunately was unable to attend.) This product is more suited to a library environment where staff are available on site to customise the product and make it part of an Information Literacy program.

There are eight tutorial modules: Starting your search; Determining your information needs; Locating and retrieving relevant information; Researching with electronic tools; Evaluating information; Organising your information; Using information appropriately; Overview of ANU Library.

You can find more information on:

• ANU Library InFlite at http://inflite.anu.edu.au/
• Australian Catholic University at http://www.acu.edu.au/library/signadou/
• PILOT at QIT at http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/catalyst/index.htm
• Catalyst at UTS is at http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/catalyst/index.htm

New civic library: community consultations
In February this year the ACT Government announced a $7.9 million project to significantly refurbish the arts, entertainment, civic and heritage focus of the Civic Square and relocate the Civic Library from its current location in East Row to Civic Square. The new facility will be constructed in 2002 with completion expected in 2003.

ACT Urban Services Minister Brendan Smyth stated that 'The Link and Library Project will involve demolishing the existing Link building and excavating the site to construct a new two-storey facility. It will include direct access from Civic Square to the facility's ground floor which will comprise a relocated Civic Library, display areas for the ACT Heritage Library and the Canberra Theatre Centre's box office and cloaking facilities. The first floor will link the foyers of the Canberra Theatre and the Playhouse with a central area including bar services, hospitality/function areas and additional toilets'.

ACT consulting company Libraries Alive! Pty Ltd has been hired by the Department of Urban Services to provide advice on the services to be offered from the new Civic Library. Libraries Alive! has sought professional comment from staff of the ACT Library and Information Service, and community input through meetings with library users and community groups.

ALIA members who would like to comment or contribute suggestions for this exciting new community facility are urged to do so. Please call either Ian McCallum or Sherrey Quinn at Libraries Alive! Pty Ltd on 02 6257 9177 or sherrey.quinn@alianet.alia.org.au

Further information, including maps and concept diagrams: http://www.act.gov.au/actinfo/library/newcivic

Professor Arunachalam's visit
Monday 23 July - lunch and talk APSIG will host a lunchtime talk by Professor Subbiah Arunachalam of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India, 12:15pm-1:30pm, at the Blue Elephant Indian Restaurant, 29 Lonsdale Street, Canberra City. Cost $10.00 (approx) per head for a choice of curries.

Your booking is essential, RSVP to: Jeanette Regan (jeanette.regan@anu.edu.au) by noon Friday 20 July.

Professor Arunachalam will be visiting Canberra for a few days only. He has undertaken research on the use of information, and you can find his recent article of his, 'Doing research in the developing world: can new technologies help achieve information equity?' at http://pantheon.yale.edu/~dstern/arunach.html

Library and Information Week at the ACT Government and Assembly Library
During LIW, the library entrance featured the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), to promote our holdings of ABS publications to visiting clients. As our library is a participant of the LEP (Libraries Extension Program), ABS information is an important part of our collection.

Online Day, 18 May, featured a demonstration of the library's intranet and a celebratory afternoon tea. [Susan White]