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ACTive ALIAproACTiveNumber 255: April 2006[ ACTive ALIA Committee Members and Contacts for 2006 | Evaluation methodologies: ACTive ALIA/AGLIN Joint Information Sharing Session, NLA, 22 March 2006 | Click and flick - PictureAustralia NOW has your pics! | Report on the Victorian Association for Library Automation Inc (VALA) 13 Biennial Conference and Exhibition | E-Resources: A new gateway to online resources at the National Library of Australia | News from the ACT Library and Information Services | End of an era at the National Library of Australia | Retirement of Mark Cranfield, Oral History Curator at the National Library of Australia | National Licensing Proposal - draft governance framework | Volunteering for young librarians | ABS Library and Information Week kit - get your orders in fast! | Libraries Australia - a world of information | National Library goes Folkie? | Forthcoming AGLIN/ACTive ALIA Information Sharing session ]
ACTive ALIA Committee Members and Contacts for 2006Sherrey QuinnACTive ALIA Convenor 2006 ACTive ALIA welcomes a new committee for 2006:
ACTive ALIA/AGLIN Joint Information Sharing Sessions Sub-Committee: Our contact details are in Vital Link or on the ACTive ALIA Groups page. Please let us know if you have any ALIA issues to discuss or ideas for events - and Kate and Dianne would love to receive items for proACTive! We acknowledge the enormous contribution that retiring committee members Helen Roberts and Jan Gordon have made to the success of the ACT ALIA Group. They have each been Convenor of the Group, regular contributors to proACTive, sources of ideas for meetings, and tireless workers at ALIA events. Thank you!
Evaluation methodologies: ACTive ALIA/AGLIN Joint Information Sharing Session, NLA, 22 March 2006Sherrey Quinn and Alison Carter Susanne Bruhn, Director, Corporate Performance Management, National Library of Australia discussed with us the NLA's approach to measuring user satisfaction, which is a key performance indicator. NLA services are used both in person and remotely, and it is important for the NLA to have 'a feel for' who its users are and what they think of its services. Susanne presented details of two recent user satisfactions surveys - the Survey of Visitors to the NLA, and the NLA Web Site User Satisfaction Survey.
Visitors to the NLA There are half a million visits to the NLA each year, according to the door counters. The aim of the survey conducted in May 2005 was to gain insight into broad visitor usage of on-site services and facilities, including the range of visitors, the pattern of their usage and behaviour, and their attitudes to services and facilities. The methodology employed by the survey research company was to undertake in-depth interviews with 16 visitors, then use this information to design a questionnaire to use during 'exit interviews' with NLA visitors. Exit interviews (guided interviews using the questionnaire) were subsequently conducted with 153 visitors. Amongst the finding from these interviews are that:
Research in the collections was the main reason for the visit. Susanne discussed in some detail the differences between types of visitors - the 'core visitor', the 'associative visitor' and the 'peripheral visitor'. Lessons from the survey include hours and staffing of the front information desk, display of 'treasures', electronic communication, and car parking.
NLA Web Site User Satisfaction Survey
The methodology used by Neilsen/NetRatings was a 5 minute online survey of users. The survey was launched on exiting the site, and the sampling rate was 10-25%. 573 survey forms were completed.
Results indicated that there is a broad variety of users, most being professionals (including academics, managers and administrators). Many were library and information services professionals. Usage was mostly work related, but academic research, tertiary study, private interest and family history were also nominated. 56% of users had more than two requirements when visiting the site (requirements included NLA catalogue search, NLA electronic journals and databases, information about other libraries' collections and services, requests for items, reference assistance, etc). Susanne also covered other details such as characteristics of users, user location, frequency of use, level of satisfaction, and usability. Areas for improvement include site search functionality, ease of navigation, clear and simple terminology for labels and links, guidance for new users and for users of catalogues and databases. Nielsen/Net Ratings found that the site is currently performing well in relation to other websites that it had surveyed recently. Susanne is willing to provide summaries of the presentations for those who missed the session; please email your request tosbruhn@nla.gov.au.nospam. (please remove '.nospam' from address) Click and flick - PictureAustralia NOW has your pics!
Lucy Carson (please remove '.nospam' from address) On the evening of 2 February 2006, over 900 images from Yahoo! 7's online image repository, flickr, were successfully loaded into PictureAustralia These images were the first of many to be incorporated into PictureAustralia from flickr and are the result of a joint initiative between Yahoo! 7 and the National Library of Australia. One of the aims of this initiative is to increase the number of contemporary images available through PictureAustralia. It has also enabled members of the public to contribute to the service, which until now has been the domain of collecting institutions. Two PictureAustralia groups were established in flickr: 'People, places and events' and 'Australia Day'. There are now more than 200 members in both groups resulting in the metadata from over 2000 images being harvested into PictureAustralia, with new pictures being added each week. The initiative has been promoted nationally through many newspaper articles and on Australian radio. Yahoo! 7 successfully enticed Australian celebrities Andrew Gee (co-host of Australian Idol) and pop star Jade McCrae, to contribute their photos from the Australia Day concert at Parliament House, Canberra, to the Australia Day group. So the next time you search PictureAustralia you might catch some famous faces from Australian popular culture. Other images of Canberra include views of the fireworks over Lake Burley Griffin, the 2005 VP Day Celebrations, the Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and rural settings from around the Canberra district. Of course we still need more pictures from the ACT, so if you're out and about with your digital camera, why not load the pictures into flickr and help contribute to PictureAustralia! You can find more information at: http://www.pictureaustralia.org/Flickr.html
Report on the Victorian Association for Library Automation Inc (VALA) 13 Biennial Conference and Exhibition
Roxanne Missingham The VALA conference provided an opportunity to catch up with developments in information technology, international projects in developing digital libraries, knowledge management projects which have achieved new data models, and examples of constructing new information delivery and access systems and new ideas about human/computer interaction. It has probably been a decade since a library/information conference has had such an interesting range of developments. Developments in information sharing spaces and tools have been relatively fast in the past two years and the maturation of storage services, such as Flickr, blogs, wikis, social communities such as del.icio.us and 'mashes' using a range of web services such as Housing Maps and Chicago crime. These developments challenge libraries to move beyond their current collections and web pages.
Perhaps the most interesting themes echoed through the conference were: Some sessions described one project without looking at implications for the broader library and information services community, however, overall the presentations were stimulating. The highlights for me were the presentations of Prof Jane Hunter (University of Queensland), Anna Raunik (State Library of Queensland, VALA Scholar), Professor Balakrishnan (Indian Institute of Science), Sandy Payette (Cornell University) and Daniel Clancy (Google Print Project). Lloyd Sokvitne (State Library of Tasmania) was notable for telling us to stop recording the information we like as librarians and to start thinking and researching what people really want. Hunter's presentation was on scientific models - a user oriented approach to integration of scientific data and digital libraries. She has been a key player in the development of the semantic web and web services. This paper demonstrated the implementation of these new technologies in a science environment, reusing data through alternative tools and data models. The projects, applied in a research project to develop better fuel cells, was complex due to the very large data sets, scientific publishing requirements and full integration with all aspects of research management. Her team developed a metadata schema, metadata repository, rules to infer high level descriptions from the data, interfaces to manage the inference engine, a new tool for hypothesis testing of the data, and a very complex publishing module which enables results of hypotheses to be published selectively. It uses the ABC ontology model, MPEG3 for data and provides outputs in a wide variety of ways including visual forms. The data is very complex, and is stored using OWL, OWL-S and other protocols. It was a marvellous example of using RDF, ontologies and the semantic web in a large science research project involving industry and academia. Anna Raunik summarised the findings of her travelling scholarship from VALA where she investigated the use of webcasting and webconferencing in public libraries, museums and projects in the UK and US. She visited six libraries and projects in the US and six UK museums and libraries. Resource discovery for webcasts is highly variable - the Library of Congress, with approximately 700 webcasts, does not have them in their catalogue. The services are focused on the business of the organisations, for example the Tate and Natural History Museum webcasts focus on adult education. Webconferencing is been used to support access to local government in the UK with low cost shared facilities and local government staff indexing and filming. Some libraries have interactive sessions with users, staff development sessions and encourage participation. Different funding models are used - with no significant evaluation available yet. Sandy Payette addressed the topic of choosing technology that can evolve to meet user needs. She talked about the new use of technology by 10 and 20 year olds for play and social interaction. She described early signs of change - Grid technology in science (for example the US National Virtual Observatoryand textual hyperlinking in the humanities (for example the University of Virginia Valley of the Shadows). The most important technology trends are service oriented architecture, web 2.0 and the semantic web. Services, not applications are the key, with emphasis on architecture to support participation, remix/transformation of data sources and harnessing collective or collaborative intelligence. Goals for the 'new order' are:
Projects stepping towards the new environment include the Fedora repository projects, now a framework - for example to Encyclopaedia of Chicago); Pathways project using SOA, OWL and OWL-S ( www.infosci.cornell.edu/pathways) and NDSL. Ontology use is essential and challenges include reducing the entry cost barrier, service matching, security and trust and preservation. Professor Balakrishnan described the Indian Virtual Library, which has developed over 90 million pages and over 218 million books. The project is based on a distributed network with lightweight protocols, using Greenstone as the search interface. 21 libraries with over 200 locations are participating, and extremely sophisticated software had been developed to translate Indian languages, storing the information as ASCII. A summariser has been developed again using very sophisticated, well tested algorithms developed by PhD students. Scanning costs around 50 Australian cents per book and is cheaper than the cost of selection of books for digitisation undertaken by other libraries. A print on demand solution is also available. Out of copyright material is copied and he is optimistic of having a model for out of print books based on payments to authors. The translation interfaces are enormously impressive. Daniel Clancy, Chief Engineer, Google Print Project was keynote on the final day. He has been responsible for the Google publishing program (which works with publishers to make works in copyright available through display of sample pages) and the Google library program which is working with five major research libraries (including Oxford and the Library of Congress) to produce a massive digital archive. He emphasised that around 95 per cent of current publications are in electronic form at some stage, and that around 15 per cent are in copyright, 20 per cent in the public domain and 65 per cent are out of print. Google have developed software which enables quick scanning with rectification for book curve, quality of print and recognition for OCRing to occur. It is a very large scale solution with has further challenges for 100 per cent accuracy (in the longer term), non English languages and browsing. He saw Google as providing basic book search and ubiquitous access. He also saw that libraries would have key roles supporting their local communities and interaction of the communities, supporting scholarship and supplying access to the community to works in copyright. All in all a very valuable and stimulating conference. Papers and podcasts are available at http://www.vala.org.au/vala2006/prog2006.htm.
E-Resources: A new gateway to online resources at the National Library of Australia
Belinda Tiffen E-Resources is the National Library of Australia's new resource discovery tool which provides users with access to the Library's online collections. From the E-Resources homepage users can search or browse to locate indexes, full-text databases, free web sites and subject guides. E-Resources replaces the Library's existing Indexes and Databases service and provides a range of innovative new features, including a sophisticated relevance ranking and searching enhanced by the APAIS Thesaurus. The structured list of Australian subject terms provided by the thesaurus is used to enhance searching by employing related, narrower and broader terms from the thesaurus to broaden a search and include all relevant results in a search set. For example, a search for 'music' will also find resource which contain related terms such as 'performing arts' or 'musicians' in their title or description. This enhanced searching ensures users have access to the full range of online resources available in their subject area. For the first time the Library is also offering offsite access to selected subscription resources to eligible readers. Registered users are able to login to access some of our most popular resources including Factiva, Academic Search Premier, Times Digital Archive and the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Currently remote access is limited to holders of an existing Petherick Readers card while offsite access is trialled, but it is hoped to extend the service to other users in the future. From the librarian's perspective, the integrated administrative interface behind the scenes provides easier management of electronic resources. The administrative interface allows storage of licence related information, real-time updating to the public interface and the ability to add 'heat rankings' to selected resources to ensure they are always ranked highly in search results. E-Resources has been implemented after an intensive period of testing with staff and the Library's users and has been enthusiastically received by test groups. The Library will continue to improve the service, with plans to add online tutorials and integrate further help into the interface. For more information about E-Resources visit the web site
News from the ACT Library and Information ServicesMargaret Hyland Acting General Manager - ACT Library and Information Services
Refurbishment of Belconnen Library March - July 2006. Improved accessibility, safety and clear lines of sight will be achieved by reducing height of shelving, relocating the children's area to a more open public area and opening up the centre of the library with lower furniture. Study and reading areas will be more attractive and comfortable. The work will include a new workroom for staff, upgraded to current OH&S standards, and new information and circulation desks. New carpet and furniture will create a very attractive space. The work will be staged to minimise disruption to services, and the library will operate throughout the construction period at normal opening hours. Some services will, however, be restricted or not available for short periods at various times. The non-fiction collection will be unavailable for some time but customers will be able to request material be transferred from other branch libraries. Watch the web site www.library.act.gov.au for further details and progress.
New look web site
Public Internet access PCs in library branches The primary improvement for the public will be not only a very modern PC to work on but much more access to the hardware media that is currently not available, and a much more useable multi language suite.
Email item overdue prenotifier ACT Public Library members can now register to receive email notices from the library, including a courtesy reminder sent by email three days before the due date. This reminder of an impending due date is only available by email. Library members wishing to take advantage of this exciting new service should ask at their branch library, email library.customerinfo@act.gov.au (please remove '.nospam' from address) or phone the ACT Public Library on 6205 9000.
End of an era at the National Library of AustraliaManuscripts Staff - National Library of Australia. Last month marked the end of an era at the National Library with the retirement of Graeme Powell, Manuscript Librarian, after almost 40 years of service. Graeme joined the National Library of Australia in 1967, in what was then the equivalent of the graduate trainees' scheme. He was the graduate trainee from South Australia, and one of his colleagues, the trainee from Queensland, was Jan Fullerton. Graeme was placed in Australian Selections and in 1969, while still in his 20s, he became one of the four Principal Librarians when he was appointed to the position of Manuscript Librarian. This position was well suited to his love and knowledge of Australian history, culture and politics. It was also one in which he was able to make his mark on the development of what is internationally recognised as a significant collection of private records documenting the history of Australia and its territories. From 1979 to 1987 Graeme was based at Australia House in London where he was the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) officer. His efforts in locating, describing and microfilming important research materials about Australia were enormously significant. It has enabled researchers in Australia to view records they would otherwise have had to travel to Britain to use. Graeme's contributions to theoretical debates in the area of Australian private recordkeeping are well documented in the numerous papers he has contributed to professional journals and conferences. His erudition, and great respect for the material held in his trust, is evidenced by the scholarly articles he has written over the years, many of which are based on material in the Manuscript Collection. In 2001 Graeme's significant contribution to the archival discipline was honoured when he was named as a Distinguished Achiever of the Australian Society of Archivists. He also received recognition for his outstanding public service in the work he contributed to the AJCP and his management of the Manuscript Collection when he was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2002. Graeme has earned the gratitude, respect and affection of generations of readers through his vast knowledge of the collection and his tireless commitment to reader services. Testament to this is the fact that he has been singled out for thanks and praise in countless publications resulting from research carried out in the Manuscript Reading Room. Graeme's enduring legacy will be the collections he has acquired for the National Library. Graeme's presence in the memory of the thousands of people he has helped during his long career - readers, donors and staff - will be more transient but is no less significant.
Retirement of Mark Cranfield, Oral History Curator at the National Library of Australia
Margy Burn Mark Cranfield retired from the position of Oral History Curator at the National Library on Thursday 15 December, a position he has held for nearly 25 years. In this time Mark has seen the transformation of Oral History at the Library, initially from a sub-section of two staff, one phone and a couple of filing cabinets overflowing with tape within the Manuscripts section, to the situation today where, at more than 37,000 hours, the collection is the largest in Australia. Under Mark's stewardship last year one hundred extended biographical interviews were recorded by specialist interviewers with eminent Australians from all walks of life including Nobel prize winning medical researchers, astronomers, High Court judges, dancers, academics who did pioneer work in the social sciences and Asian studies in Australia, composers and younger Indigenous leaders. Social history interviews were recorded on subjects such as HIV-AIDS in Australia, Public Lending Right, the experience of the Canberra bushfires, children's playlore, with boss drovers, conservators, refugees, people working in the aviation industry and members of the Polish community in Australia. Specialist folklore collectors recorded music and life stories across Australia with field trips to Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and from north Queensland through the Torres Strait to Broome. Mark has developed and supported a network of specialist interviewers who undertake interviews for the Library across Australia. He has always been generous in giving time, advice, support and encouragement to interviewers, interviewees, collectors and anyone with an interest in oral history and folklore. Mark has also worked with colleagues in state libraries and other cultural institutions such ass AIATSIS and the National Film & Sound Archive as well as the Oral History Association of Australia. Mark has been a passionate and persistent champion of folklore in Australia. The National Library's growing annual presence at the National Folk Festival and the resurgence of academic interest in folklore in WA, Victoria and the ACT is in no small part due to the network of folklore interests across Australia which Mark has carefully tended. One of Mark's many interests was to ensure that the Library documented its own history through interviews with selected former staff. I am delighted that Mark has consented to be interviewed himself by Peter Read in 2006. Mark's achievements in building the Oral History Collection at the National Library were extraordinary. Certainly, his name will always be linked with what is now one of the largest oral history collections in the world.
National Licensing Proposal - draft governance framework
Susan Magnay The National Licensing Reference Group (NLRG), with support from the National Library, is working to create a national licence agreement for selected full-text databases. A governance framework is an essential element for such a national consortium and the Reference Group has issued a draft framework for comment. The governance framework proposes a structure for governance and policy formulation for a national consortium to enable Australian libraries to purchase full text online resources collaboratively. The level of interest in pursuing the national licensing initiative is high among Australian libraries. Over 760 libraries responded to the NLRG's survey in December 2005 of product interests and more than 90 per cent of survey respondents were interested in taking advantage of national licensing arrangements. The top priority for Australian libraries was found to be news and current affairs information services (73.9%), followed by general reference (71.9%) and health information databases (44.4%). The Reference Group is also continuing to develop the costing model for the national licensing initiative and this will also be circulated in the near future to the representatives of the various stakeholder groups within the Australian library sector. Products, governance and funding for the national licensing initiative will be discussed further at the third National Licensing Forum (by invitation) to be held at the National Library of Australia on 3 July 2006. For more information and links to the draft governance framework and the product survey report http://www.nla.gov.au/nlp. To keep up to date with developments you can also subscribe to NLP-L.
Volunteering for young librarians
Sandra Henderson
Manager, Research, The Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development program, an initiative started by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, and a program in which he still takes a personal interest, places young Australian volunteers in a range of countries in the Asia Pacific region. Applications for the next intake of volunteers close on 28 April, for placements later this year, and there are three library-based positions available, all for 12 months. Two of these are in Fiji, at the Fiji School of Medicine and the Lautoka Teachers' College, and a third is at the National Library of Cambodia. If you are under 30 and looking for a challenge, you can find details of the assignments and more information about the AYAD program at http://www.ayad.com.au/public/assignments.aspx. The National Library is a new partner organisation, and has recently organised for a volunteer to work at the National Library of the Solomon Islands under the AYAD program.
ABS Library and Information Week kit - get your orders in fast!LEP Team> - Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics' Library Extension Program (LEP) is again sending out Library and Information Week (LIW) kits to help libraries promote ABS information to their users. This year's kit includes material supporting the Census of Population and Housing on 8 August 2006. Check out the latest LEP Newsletter for more ideas and to enter our new LEP Excellence Award. For more information visithttp://www.abs.gov.au or email library@abs.gov.au (please remove '.nospam' from address)
Libraries Australia - a world of information
Gwyn Wilding Ever wanted to track down a particular book? Find out which library has it? Or perhaps buy it from an online bookshop? All within the one service? Libraries Australia is your answer. Developed by the National Library of Australia, Libraries Australia is a vast catalogue which enables you to search more than 40 million items held in over 800 libraries across the nation. Libraries Australia provides access to a world of information in books, journals, newspapers, theses, pictures, music, manuscripts and maps. It also provides access to more than one million digital images from PictureAustralia, a collaborative online database of pictorial collections from Australian libraries, galleries, archives and museums. You can borrow from a library, buy through an online bookshop, or get a copy through the Library's Copies Direct service, as well as access more than 600,000 items in digital form instantly. Cover art is available for many of the books in Libraries Australia adding an interesting dimension. There are two versions of Libraries Australia accessible at the same URL ( www.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au. One is freely available on the web, and there is also a subscription service for libraries and their users. Individuals can choose to subscribe directly. Access to the subscription service is either through IP authentication or user name and password.
Anyone can use the free service, from anywhere. For example, the service can be used by researchers, students, family historians, professionals, and for leisure activity. Since its launch on 27 February feedback has been very positive. The subscription service provides additional functionality, such as advanced searching, a wide range of databases, the option to download records in a range of formats, including MARC, alerts and the ability to set up personalised access. Has your library added a link to Libraries Australia from its web site or catalogue? Logos are available for your use from www.nla.gov.au/media. The ACT Public Library gives their users the option of searching Libraries Australia from their web site. Go to www.library.act.gov.au/find/search and then click on the 'Go to search' link on that page. You can also access Libraries Australia via the National Library's homepage (www.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au).
Try Libraries Australia today!
National Library goes Folkie?
Liz MacKenzie and Kathy Rushton Once a year the National Library lets down its dreadlocks, dances around the campfire and gets in touch with its inner 'folkie'!
How??? At the National Folk Festival. This long-standing partnership will continue this Easter at the Festival with a range of performances, concerts and workshops supported by the Library, as well as the Library's information marquee in the Budawang Pavilion. A new feature of the marquee this year will be Live@theLounge: twice daily interviews with major Festival performers. You can also experience some reflections on working life (a Festival theme) at the National Library's Festival Forum. See Festival program for further details. The National Library and the National Folk Festival together present the National Folk Fellowship, a special opportunity for folk performers. You can hear the 2006 Folk Fellows, Ben Stephenson and Adrian Barker, showcasing the hidden history of Irish music in Australia at the National Folk Fellows presentation on Easter Monday morning. Come and visit us at the Festival, we'd love to see you there!
Forthcoming AGLIN/ACTive ALIA Information Sharing sessionAGLIN and ALIA ACTive are planning an event for Library and Information Week (22-28 May) which will enable ACT libraries to come together to share information on applying evidence based librarianship. It will be one of our Information Sharing sessions on Wednesday 24 May 2006, 4.30-5.30pm @ the National Library Conference Room. What is evidence based librarianship you might ask? Well, Andrew Booth has defined it as: 'Evidence-based librarianship (EBL) is an approach to information science that promotes the collection, interpretation, and integration of valid, important and applicable user-reported, librarian-observed, and research-derived evidence. The best-available evidence moderated by user needs and preferences, is applied to improve the quality of professional judgements'. At its simplest it is sharing information about our research into our services, user needs and activities. If you have a project or activity that you would like to talk about on how you are using evidence based librarianship in your library - whether big or small - please contact Karna O'Dea 6121 6310 or karna.odea@dewr.gov.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address) about participating in this event.
From AGLIN and ALIA ACTive Information Sharing Committee
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