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Number 249: April 2005

ALIA/AGLIN information sharing session

No 1, 24 February 2005
Initiatives in the tax office library network

At the first ALIA/AGLIN information sharing session for 2005 Charu Sood, executive director of information services, Australian Taxation Office, gave an interesting overview of initiatives in the tax library network.

Charu joined the tax office in 2000 and since then has set about transforming the libraries network of 23 individual libraries across Australia from a print based traditional service to an efficient national network with a focus on value adding and service to the desktop.

In 2001 shortly after Charu joined the tax office the staffing of the libraries was cut by twelve positions. Instead of seeing this as a negative Charu took this opportunity to rationalise services and closed eight libraries which were not viable. In 2002 Charu successfully argued for and was funded for 15 extra positions and an extra $500 000.00 in additional funding for updating library collections which has since been rolled into the base library materials budget. This year information services has been funded $700 000.00 to upgrade its systems to support desktop delivery.

Last year in an internal services survey of staff satisfaction for 18 internal services providers, information services set the benchmark with highest average satisfaction level for services.

Charu's talk focused on only two of the successful initiatives they have implemented: e-alerts (electronic newsletters for ATO staff) and skilling (skills transfer to library customers, and development of training programs).

Charu's PowerPoint presentation [495kb ppt] can be viewed on the AGLIN website.

Snapshot of recent events in the ACT

Kippax library public meeting

About 30 people attended a public meeting at Kippax on 6 April 2005 to provide community input to collection development for the new Kippax Library. Merrilee Pigram, general manager, ACTLIS, gave an update on planning and construction progress for the new library building at Kippax, due to be completed later in 2005. Merrilee invited community members to nominate types of material and subject matter that they would like to see reflected in the collection. New books (fiction and non-fiction), large print, music, DVDs, reference material to support local community groups' interests and children's homework were popular nominations. Collecting material about Alan Falconer Kippax, an Australian and Sheffield Shield Cricket representative, was an interesting suggestion. Kippax Fair, Holt is named after him, in keeping with the street theme for Holt which is 'Australian sportsmen and sportswomen'.

Dymocks Belconnen provided a display of new books, and attendees were able to suggest titles for purchase by ACTLIS for the new library, and to request reserves.

Recent developments at the British Library

Presentation by Lynne Brindley, chief executive, British Library, 14 April 2005

Lynne Brindley has been the chief executive of the British Library since 2000. Since her appointment, Lynne has led a major strategic repositioning and modernisation programme to ensure that the BL continues to provide relevant services to users in the 21st century, and that the library is recognised for its contribution to research, innovation and culture. Lynne came to the BL from the University of Leeds where she was pro-vice-chancellor and university librarian.

Lynne gave a fascinating and inspiring address about the challenges she faced and the changes she has implemented at the BL since 2000. Among the wide range of topics Lynne discussed were restructuring; new senior appointments; staffing implications of BL's new directions; re-engagement with the community; technology developments; legal deposit and digital formats; new storage building in Yorkshire, with robotic delivery; educational programs; public libraries; digitisation; marketing; economic impact of BL; partnerships and funding.

For those unfortunate enough to miss this session, Lynne's presentation [690kb ppt] is available on the NLA website. It is also available with highlights [25kb pdf], and with photo.

Travellers tales from Indonesia and Vanuatu

ALIA Asia-Pacific Special Interest Group

On Tuesday 19 April there was a presentation in APSIG's popular series of travellers tales in which colleagues report on work and travel in our region.

A Jakarta tale: eight years, five presidents and three bombs
Oliver Mann, manager, picture australia, NLA

Oliver Mann was the national library's regional officer in Jakarta from 1996 to 2004, responsible for the acquisition of Indonesian books, journals and newspapers from Jakarta and the provinces. Now back in Canberra, Oliver reflected on his experiences during a turbulent period in Indonesia.

Swimming with the fishes... volunteering as a librarian in Vanuatu
Kylie Moloney, acting Kinetica customer service manager, NLA

During 2004 Kylie worked as a volunteer librarian in Vanuatu on the Australian Youth Ambassador for Development program (AusAID). She worked at the Vanuatu Institute of Technology (VIT) as well as on more remote islands of Vanuatu. Kylie talked about her experiences setting up new libraries, training people in librarianship and promoting the possibilities, opportunities and benefits of libraries; as well as how she learned to weave traditional baskets, slept on the library tables at lunchtime and swam with the fishes every day in the beautiful Pacific oceans surrounding Vanuatu!

Southern cross resource finder

The southern cross resource finder (SCRF) is a new online resource developed at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College London.

It enables users to discover collections from British libraries, archives and museums which hold resources useful for the study of Australia and/or New Zealand.

Southern cross resource finder is based on the earlier publication Resources for Australian and New Zealand studies: a guide to library holdings in the United Kingdom, produced by Valerie Bloomfield (Australian Studies Centre and the British Library, 1986). Entries from this publication have been updated and reproduced in the database format. SCRF deals primarily with print collections and includes references to maps, pictures and audiovisual material. Detailed description of archival collections is outside the scope of the present resource, however reference to these collections has been made where archival or manuscript collections are closely related to a print collection.

The SCRF project aims to increase accessibility to Australian and New Zealand related material held in the United Kingdom and in the future may expand to include entries for collections in Europe and for archival and manuscript collections.

The website was officially launched in Australia by Professor Geoffrey Bolton at the National Library of Australia on 28 April 2005.

ALIA elections - assistant returning officers

Members of ALIA groups in the ACT are called on each year to serve as assistant returning officers for the ALIA elections. Tasks include opening the ballot papers, sorting them into general membership and National Policy Congress (NPC) voting, and counting the ballot papers (but not the votes) in preparation for the Australian Electoral Commission to collect for the vote count the next morning.

This year 'returning' took place at ALIA house on the 13 April. It sounds boring but it was good fun (naturally it was carried out with a sober sense of responsibility!). Excellent light refreshments were provided, Jennefer Nicholson and Georgina Dale presided over the event, and ACTive ALIA thanks the volunteer AROs for 2005: Beth Clary, Margaret Drury, Peta Kemmis, Ian McCallum and Sherrey Quinn.

ALIA election results are on ALIAnet.

Did you know?

Past images, present voices, first published in print in 1996, and on CD-ROM in 2004 is now online [13.5mb pdf], courtesy of the Canberra Stories Group and the ACT Heritage Library. Past images, present voices documents the history of Kingston, Canberra's first suburb, originally known as Eastlake. Val Emerton and the Canberra Stories Group collected the reminiscences of early residents and illustrated them with their own historical photographs.

New Civic Library construction started

Canberra Theatre Centre recently announced that the builders Bovis Lend Lease have commenced the Civic Library and Link Project.

Construction of the new link building between the Canberra Theatre and The Playhouse, together with the new Civic Library, will take approximately 15 to 18 months and is expected to finish in the middle of 2006.

Further details and map available on the Canberra Theatre website.

Mobile library service reaches out to community groups

On 26 April 2005 ACT Urban Services Minister John Hargreaves unveiled a new mobile library vehicle at the launch of a new service that will enhance community access to a range of library resources.

'Public libraries are for everyone in the community and this doorstep service will help ensure that all sections of our community are able to access library services and resources,' Mr Hargreaves said.

'The second of two new mobile library vehicles, this service is designed to reach out to groups such as people with disabilities, government housing residents, indigenous people, refuge centres, culturally and linguistically diverse organisations, and people living in outlying areas.'

Mr Hargreaves said the first of the two new vehicles, launched in August 2004, was tailored to meet the needs of increasingly frail aged residents in hostels and nursing homes.

Both vehicles have wheelchair access and wireless technology, enabling customers to use the library catalogue, request items online and access the internet. The new vehicle also holds special collections to cater for the interests of groups who may normally not use libraries.

The vehicle will be in service at the Lanyon Market Place and Weston Creek and will also be available fortnightly on Saturday mornings and once a month at Tuggeranong Homestead Market.

For more information on the new mobile library service, contact the ACT Public Library on 6205 9000 or visit the ACT virtual library.

Adapted from media release. [162kb doc]

Forthcoming local events

29 June 2005 'Devising an information management strategic framework for DEWR' - David Williams (DEWR); and 'An information management roadmap for Geoscience Australia' - Paul Trezise (GA). AGLIN/ALIA joint info sharing session.

12-13 July 2005 AGLIN 2nd Annual Conference, 'The innovative library manager'.

25 August 2005 'Development of a system to manage the defence glossary' - Sherrey Quinn (Libraries Alive!); and 'Language management in Centrelink' - Anne Daniels and Pam Garfoot (Centrelink). The Centrelink paper is an Online 2005 encore presentation. AGLIN/ALIA joint info sharing session.

19 October 2005 'Moving right along: using RFID for collection management at the parliamentary library' - Gaik Khong and Shirley White; and 'Digital media monitoring for parliament' - Catherine Gilbert. These papers are Online 2005 encore presentations. AGLIN/ALIA joint info sharing session.

26-27 October 2005 2005 actKM Conference Managing knowledge for better performance Sixth annual conference.

4 November 2005 'Jobs and skill gaps: what the market is looking for' panel discussion by Anna-Maria Sviatko (One Umbrella), Megan Curlewis (Informed Sources) and speaker to be advised (Zenith).

24 November 2005 'Risk management: theory and practical application in a library context' speakers Paul Longley (DEWR) and Margerita Moreno (NLA). AGLIN/ALIA Joint Information Sharing Session.

Since times and venues may change, please check the events notices on the ALIA website for up-to-date details.

Changes and new events will also be publicised in the ACTive ALIA e-list.

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