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ACTive ALIAproACTiveNumber 256: June 2006[ ALIA State Convenors' Teleconference | Congratulations Roxanne! | Making your information Mission: Possible | UC Donate to Salvation Army | News from the ACT Library and Information Services | Long-term Repositories: Taking the Shock out of the Future | AIATSIS Language and Place Name Thesauri | The ABS and libraries: a testament to information sharing | AGLIN Australian Government Libraries Information Network 3rd Annual AGLIN Conference 2006 | News from the NewGrads | Forthcoming ACTive ALIA/AGLIN Information Sharing Forums ]
ALIA State Convenors' TeleconferenceSherrey Quinn,Convenor, ACTive ALIA Convenors from ALIA State Groups around the country joined a teleconference discussion on 5th May to discuss matters of interest to regional convenors: local liaison officers, Board meetings, visits by the Executive Director (ED) or ALIA President, and updating group webpage's. This was the first time convenors had met in this way to discuss common issues. Local Liaison Officers (LLOs) are based in most states to assist in local matters and offer a method of liaison between local members and the ALIA National Office. For example, they manage administrative tasks and logistics associated with visits by the ED and ALIA president, and with regional National Advisory Congress meetings; they help promote ALIA events; they help with recruitment of members and follow-up of lapsed members, and are there at a local level to answer questions from members or about ALIA. LLOs are ALIA national office employees. The ACT does not have an LLO at present. There are various reasons for this, including difficulty in attracting interested applicants for the role, strong volunteer activity and contribution among ALIA groups in the ACT (including participation in joint initiatives with other information groups such AGLIN - the Australian Government Libraries and Information Network), and the proximity of National Office staff from whom to seek advice and assistance. News from the State groups:
Group programs for the year were briefly discussed. Convenors were encouraged to share information about their events via the aliaOBBL (office bearers' list), how they were organised and notes on what worked and what didn't, in order to share experience and stimulate ideas. Details of events are usually listed in the events pages on alianet Visits. The ED and President are making visits around the country during 2006. Convenors were asked to plan events early and issue invitations well in advance if we wish to invite the ED or ALIA President or Board members to functions, as their diaries are pretty full.
The ALIA blog is available at: http://blogs.alia.org.au/
Board meetings: ALIA Board meeting dates are given at http://www.alia.org.au/governance/board/meetings.html. Updating group webpages. ALIA National Office staff prepare and update webpages for groups. In order to make it easy for groups to keep their pages up-to-date, new material or revisions are accepted via the update form, by email to 'webupdates@alia.org.au' or on paper by fax with changes marked. Future teleconferences are planned for the convenors of national and subject-focused ALIA groups.
Congratulations Roxanne!Sherrey Quinn, Convenor, ACTive ALIA On behalf of ACTive ALIA members I congratulate Roxanne Missingham on her election as Vice-President and President-elect of ALIA at the recent elections. Roxanne has been an ALIA Board member since 2004, and took office as VP at the May 2006 Annual General Meeting. Roxanne is an enthusiastic and tireless contributor to ALIA. She has also published extensively on professional matters, and is a mentor and role model for many younger (and not so young!) librarians. Roxanne has held many offices on ALIA committees, in local ALIA groups, and is currently one of the 'group of five' who organise the Joint AGLIN/ACTive ALIA Information Sharing Forums, which provide informal professional development sessions for librarians and information workers in the ACT. We are fortunate in having Roxanne's energy, enthusiasm and knowledge on the ALIA Board. Roxanne's statement of professional concerns is here.
Making your information Mission: PossibleTracey Bicknell, FACSIA Let's set the scene. It's early April in the Knowledge and Information Service (K&IS), Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA), in Canberra. The marketing committee is looking for inspiration, something smart, racy and catchy for the Library Week promotion. Just then a figure cloaked in black crashes through the window and throws down a small envelope, before escaping through the same window. Inside the envelope is a message that begins, 'Your mission, if you choose to accept it...' Well, not exactly. That was the daydream someone in the team was having but it did bring us to our theme of 'Making your information Mission: Possible'. K&IS prides itself on trying to find the impossible for clients and we thought this theme worked well for us. We also decided to promote FaCSIA, given its recent expansion of responsibilities into a lead agency for Indigenous affairs. We organised for an inspirational talk by Tjanara Goreng Goreng, Director in the Communities Engagement Branch, in FaCSIA, who spoke on knowledge and information in Indigenous culture. Her talk gave the audience an insight into Indigenous culture and displayed the wealth of knowledge gained with the integration of the former Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination staff. Our second event for the week was a talk by Emma Robertson, author of the hilarious book 'At wit's end before breakfast: Confessions of a working mum'. Emma wrote the book while working and raising two young girls. For FaCSIA it was very relevant and a light-hearted look at the dramas of balancing work and life as a parent. To tie in with the work FaCSIA does on a community level we ran a raffle and not one, but two, World's Biggest Morning Teas, raising over $700 for the Cancer Council. Underlying all these activities was subtle but constant promotion of Knowledge & Information Services. We promoted the alert services, the research service and our new Ariel document delivery. We sent out flyers, emails, newsletters, spoke to people, put up posters and floor walked. It was time consuming and demanding but very rewarding. We increased the subscription to our alerts and made more people aware of our research consultancy service. We booked training sessions throughout FaCSIA and Centrelink. Most importantly we connected with our clients. Our mission now? Do even better next year.
UC Donate to Salvation ArmyAnita Crotty, University Librarian at UC featured in the Canberra Times CC column - UC waived library fines for a week in late June if students donated food for the Salvation Army. They have two trolley loads already.
News from the ACT Library and Information ServicesMargaret HylandActing General Manager - ACT Library and Information Services
Library and Information Week Celebrations
Email Notification of Pending Overdue Library Materials ACT Public Library members can now register to receive email notices from the library, including a courtesy reminder by email sent three days before the due date. This reminder of an impending due date is only available by email. Signing up for email notices is also a way to save money. You will not only help the library save money spent on postage, but you will also get email notices quicker than snail mail, and possibly avert accruing overdue fines. Library members wishing to take advantage of this exciting new service should grab their library card and phone the ACT Public Library on 6205 9000, ask at their local library, or email (please remove '.nospam' from address). ACTLIS is currently investigating the delivery of library notices by text messaging. Watch this space!
Most Popular Library Items
The most requested DVDs in April were:
Erindale Library's New Bookclub Belconnen Library Refurbishment The refurbishment of Belconnen Library is progressing well, and is expected to be complete in early August 2006.
Long-term Repositories: Taking the Shock out of the FutureAPSR is now taking registrations for the Long-term Repositories: Taking the Shock out of the Future to be held on August 31 and September 1, 2006, at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. Underlying any repository service is a commitment to sustainability and viability. Repositories being set up now need a framework for longer-term survival. This two-day forum on PREMIS Preservation Metadata and the Trusted Digital Repositories Methodology is designed to meet that need and will be presented by APSR in association with the National Library of Australia. Day One will be a practical exploration of the issues associated with the implementation of a preservation metadata scheme based on the PREMIS model and Day Two will consider the RLG-NARA Audit Checklist for Certifying Digital Repositories. Further details and a registration form can be found here. APSR has further major events in planning for 2006, including:
AIATSIS Language and Place Name ThesauriAlison Carter A joint ALIA, AGLIN and Australian & NZ Society of Indexers information sharing session was held at AIATSIS Library on 3rd of May 2006. Approximately 25 people attended. Rod Stroud gave an excellent overview of the origins and development of the AIATSIS language and place name thesauri. The software used is called Multites. This was chosen as it is easy to use, there were good reviews of the product, it's able to serve information to the Web and to interact with the catalogue, and it enabled better searching than other products available at the time. The information contained in the language thesaurus has been collected over a long period of time. The thesaurus took 15 months to computerise. It is important to know that the thesaurus is not a definitive language classification, even though it covers approximately 250 languages. Users of the thesaurus include indigenous communities, linguists and the general public. The thesaurus contains headings for language group and people. Searching the thesaurus will lead you into searching Mura, the AIATSIS catalogue covering the Library collection and the audiovisual archive, which are rich in language materials. Keyword searching is the default option, or you can search by typing in the first few letters of the word - the advantage of the second method is that you do not necessarily have to know how to spell the word, or you may be aware that there are several different spellings of the same word. Having found the word you are looking for you can also use the thesaurus to find the place of the language. This link - AIATSIS Language Thesaurus - will enable you to search the thesaurus for yourself. Issues: There is continuing debate on how many languages there are, spelling variations, and geographical boundaries. The place name thesaurus was developed more recently and it has been incorporated into Multites. It has all the same functionality of the language thesaurus and can be searched here AIATSIS Placename Thesaurus. It includes individual place names as well as names of areas; it deals with both historical and contemporary names, so that its terms can be used to adequately describe both past and present. A demonstration of the thesaurus followed. An overview of the Family History unit's use of and contribution to the thesauri was presented, with a demonstration of ABI - the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Biographical Index, which is a personal name index to published material held in the AIATSIS Library. ABI contains approximately 50,000 records. You can find out more about the Family History Unit here. Both thesauri are on the web for anyone to use ; they are updated every three months. A subject/topical thesaurus is currently in development - a major task. The evening finished with a tour of the AIATSIS Library, tea and coffee.
The ABS and libraries: a testament to information sharingHelping to inform Australians - a shared goal of libraries and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS celebrates the valuable information literacy role played by libraries as we sponsored Library and Information Week 2006.
Beyond merely providing free access to statistics: encouraging informed use... The solution: Enter the ABS' Library Extension Program (LEP), offering free training, advice and support to help build librarians' knowledge about ABS information, how best to navigate our web site - and much more.
And the information sharing continues... We'd like to hear from libraries interested in building this relationship with us. Your library could become an ABS information resource expert in your organisation! For more information, please phone 6252 6606 or email (please remove '.nospam' from address).
LIW: a great ABS information sharing opportunity!
AGLIN Australian Government Libraries Information Network 3rd Annual AGLIN Conference 2006AGLIN: Partnering the Whole of Government Outcomes is the theme of this year's AGLIN Conference, to be held at the National Library of Australia on July 27-28. In today's political environment there is an increasing drive to the provision of shared services, due to the economies of scale and effort-sharing benefits that can be achieved. This is particular applicable to special libraries, given the similar services provided. Key speakers for the conference include:
Themes to be covered include:
The conference dinner will be held at the National Library on Thursday July 27. Gary Nairn, MP for Eden-Monaro & Minister for AGIMO, will be the speaker. A dinner ticket is included each registration; additional seats are available for $110 includes GST. Special accommodation packages are available through the Brassey Hotel - cost is $110, including buffet breakfast. The Brassey is located around 1 kilometre (15 minutes walk) from the National Library. A full program is available from: http://www.nla.gov.au/aglin
For further details, please contact the Organising Committee as follows:
News from the NewGradsIt's been a long time coming... but the ACT NewGrads group is finally ready to reappear on the Canberra library circuit. We've got a number of events planned over the next few months, and we'd love to see some recent graduates and students come along to meet, greet, and, of course, consume some vino!
21 July Friday night drinks and pizza at Debacle
14 August Visit to the Parliamentary Library
Late August ACTive ALIA Midwinter Dinner
December NLS2006 ACT NewGrads dinner Keep your eye on the ALIA NewGrads email list for further details, or contact Kate Davis (please remove '.nospam' from address).
Forthcoming ACTive ALIA/AGLIN Information Sharing Forums
US Information Resource Center Resources and Services. Alexis Yeadon is an American librarian who has lived and worked in Canberra for over 20 years. She will talk about her current job as director of the U.S. Information Resource Center and review some of the resources available to librarians. NB Attendees will need to bring photo ID for security purposes.
Parliamentary Committees and their reports Parliamentary committees are one of the main sources of advice and analysis to Parliament and to Government on legislation and subjects of national importance. In this talk, Roy Jordan, Information Specialist in the Law and Bills Digest Section of the Parliamentary Library, will outline the structure and role of Parliamentary Committees, as well as explain their publications and how to access them on the Parliament House website. RSVP for both events to Karna O'Dea: 6121 6310 or e-mail (please remove '.nospam' from address). Other forthcoming local events
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