ACTive ALIA

proACTive

Number 231: February 2003

11th Information Online Conference and Exhibition

Are you in a 'wicked' information space? Are you developing new services to support access to online resources? If so you would have been in very good company at the 2003 Information Online Conference. It was the largest Australian Online Conference yet - 1200 delegates and very many more attendees in total. A most successful event, bringing together the experiences of developing both new online services and supporting activities, such as the development of information literacy skills.

Canberra and region were well represented in all streams - local speakers included Ian Barndt from the DCITA on information architectures for effective content management; Adrian Cunningham from the National Archives on records of e-government; Beverley Forner (Managing Director, Thiri Pty Ltd) on an innovative new service enabling small amounts to be paid electronically; Barbara Lewincamp on the digitisation projects undertaken at AIATSIS; Iain Brown on the portal developed by Defence Library Service; Kathleen Lazzari on Centrelink's resource discovery project; Roslyn Raward from the University of Canberra on usability analysis of websites; Jeremy Hodes on developments in information management at ATSIC; Roxanne Missingham (NLA) on digital footprints and Bet Dracoulis (NLA) on a new online reference service 'Asknow!', led by the NLA, involving all Australian state libraries and the ACT Library and Information Service. The ACT speakers were outstanding and it was a great reflection of the innovation happening locally. I encourage all who have projects coming to fruition this year both to continue the tradition of publishing papers and to submit articles to proACTive on your successes.

So what was the hot new topic at Online? Virtual reference was undoubtedly the brightest star on the information online sky. Extending our information services enable our clients to ask questions online and be answered truly online, rather than later by e-mail, is leading in a revolutionary change to access to library services.

The conference saw the launch of the Council of Australian Libraries 'Asknow!' service, which has provided significantly improved access to traditional reference services in a collaborative project. Research into the service, which has been in operation since August 2002, has found that most users are aged between 35 and 49, many are new users of libraries and 91% would use the service again. People in rural Australia have found the service particularly useful, overcoming problems of distance and saving time for information seekers.

Diane Kresh (Library of Congress) reported on the international digital reference initiative 'Questionpoint', which provides access to professional reference service 'anytime, anywhere through a collaborative web based network of libraries'. She encouraged librarians to 'think globally, act locally'.

Management of online developments was also a hot topic. A paper by Elaina Norlin (U of Arizona), delivered by Steve Coffman, called for very careful analysis of users' needs and the relevance of the technological options available. Corilee Christou (Cahners Business Information) called on all to 'know your users!', with a strong understanding of the different types of users, to know your collection and be creative. Management of access to electronic resources was a theme taken up by many speakers. A move to a new model was proposed by Heather Layton, DSTO, and Vicki Nicholson, Ebsco, with a trial of the Cox model licence for electronic journals. Ross Dawson provided a broader perspective for this sort of project in his call for collaborative information leadership and innovation in new information projects to reach beyond traditional approaches.

Steve Coffman (Library Systems and Services Inc.) gave the opening plenary paper and all credit to Steve for provoking us all in his initial presentation and his role as 'senator Coffman' in the closing panel session. Steve urged conference participants to use their library skills in the online environment. He called on us all to explore new ways of obtaining funding for future development, to seek out better ways to offer our old services and to fundamentally rethink all our services. And to save money to invest in new services!

All papers will be published shortly on the conference website, http://conferences.alia.org.au/online2003/. Congratulations to the conference organisers and all speakers.

Roxanne Missingham