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ACTive ALIAproACTiveNumber 261: April 2007[ Library technicians graduation and awards | Innovative Ideas Forum - National Library of Australia | ACTive ALIA / AGLIN Information Sharing Forum - 21 February 207 | ACTive ALIA / AGLIN Information Sharing Forum - 18 April 2007 Report on: Writing a business case and managing contracts - what do you need to know? | Upcoming Events: Information Awareness Month May 2007 ]
Library technicians graduation and awards
Roxanne Missingham Karen Mills, Convenor of the ALIA ACT Library Technicians Group and I were very fortunate to be able to attend the CIT scholarship and prize presentation night in March. We presented ALIA awards to Georgina McGrath and Amanda Wrigely for outstanding achievement. They have both demonstrated a tremendous commitment to and knowledge of libraries and will make a very significant contribution to the workplace (in Amanda's case will continue to do so). On behalf of the Active ALIA we congratulate them on their achievement and encouraged them to stay in the profession. 
In photo (from left to right: sRoxanne Missingham, Georgina McGrath (award winner), Amanda Wrigely (award winner), Karen Mills, Convenor of the ALIA ACT Library Technicians Group Innovative Ideas Forum - National Library of Australia
Aileen Weir On 19 April 2007, over 200 delegates were treated to a thought-provoking and stimulating program on the rise of social interactivity on the web and its impact on digitisation initiatives of cultural institutions and media. The day began with a presentation by Susan Chun, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the "steve.museum" project which attempts to capture the terminology used by a layperson to describe a painting or work of art into the curatorial record. Concerned that digitised items were not discoverable, this project attempts to harness the way people seek images by encouraging them to apply tags to the database. Initial research shows that eighty percent of the terms that users came up with were not already part of the record. To evaluate the effectiveness of tagging, Ms Chun will be conducting a major quantitative research project to analyse why people tag, the kinds of tags they use, whether or not they return to the database, and the impact of cultural differences in how people tag. Tagging by enthusiasts or experts can often enhance the description of the images and, in some cases, may correct inaccuracies imposed by the curatorial staff. The degree to which museums will incorporate user-generated tagging into their catalogues or websites will vary from institution to institution. Next to speak was Courtney Gibson, Head of Arts, Entertainment and Comedy at ABC TV. Ms Gibson raised a number of important questions and issues surrounding the role of the public broadcaster in the digital world. Should users be paying for content created by the public broadcaster on the web? How does the ABC balance distribution with copyright ownership? ABC content is often used by others on the web who add advertising and this raised complex copyright management issues. People are using media simultaneously and expect to text, watch and use the Internet simultaneously. However, as Ms Gibson concludes, it is obscurity, not piracy that threatens creative artists. In "Rethinking the catalogue", Allison Dellitt and Kent Fitch demonstrated an 'LCSH suggester' tool designed to streamline and facilitate the range of different cataloguing tools and standards traditionally used by librarians when cataloguing. With the prevalence of websites like Amazon and Wikipedia, the challenge is to provide users with a reason for searching the library catalogue. Adding value to resources through ranking, grouping and clustering, and engaging with users by enabling tagging, will help validate the place of library catalogues. Jane Cruikshank, from the Australian Film Commission, then demonstrated "Australian Screen Online", an educational database of Australian film clips and critiques aimed at secondary school students and students of film. In "People's Information Behaviours", Amanda Spink, from QUT, talked about her research into the social, personality, cognitive and cultural aspects of how people seek information on the web. Her research indicates people spend less than 30 seconds evaluating search results and rarely go beyond the first page of results or use advanced search techniques. With her demonstration of the "LibraryThing" website, Abby Blachly showed the power of the social web as a reader advisory tool. LibraryThing users are adding about 20,000 tags a week, and are sharing recommendations and reviews of books with other users. No authority records or screening of tags is done, with the website relying on economies of scale to obscure highly personal or irrelevant tags. LibraryThing is working with other libraries to expose this user-generated information in other catalogues. The afternoon concluded with a presentation by Graham Young, founder and chief editor of "On Line Opinion", on the prevalence of blogging and user-generated content. ACTive ALIA / AGLIN Information Sharing Forum - 21 February 207
Report on: A day in the life of a virtual librarian Approximately 25 people attended a lively presentation on the life of a virtual librarian on the 21st February. Kate Davis started the session by assuring us that despite being a 'virtual' librarian, she was not an avatar, she was real. A run through of a typical day in the virtual world followed.
A day in the life... In the course of any day Kate is following library special interests or blogs through her Bloglines account. This enables Kate to follow new information relevant to her field and also to contribute new information. Bloglines is an online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, and rich web content, which Kate uses to manage her RSS feeds. Using a Meebo account allows Kate to access instant messaging from several different providers. For example, each day, Kate monitors two MSN accounts and one Google account at the same time. Meebo also provides a list of all her contacts and indicates if they are online or not. Remember the Milk is an online task manager that can be accessed at work or at home, and allows tasks to be grouped in tabs. Kate's work begins, with administrative work for Asknow!, which involves liaising with partner libraries, or OCLC, maintaining the Asknow! website and producing documentation. For a couple of hours Kate will work on Asknow! technical support. Asknow! is an online chat reference service, staffed by up to three reference librarians from Monday to Friday. These librarians are rostered on from partner libraries across Australia. The service is most popular between 3pm and 7pm assisting with homework. The usage of Asknow! peaks during March, June and August. 130,000 sessions have been conducted over the past four years. Next, Kate might work on the reference desk, and might also answer some email enquiries at the same time. As Kate comes off the reference desk, she might then spend time working on various wikis. For example, a wiki is used to manage the Asknow! Instant Messaging pilot. The Instant Messaging pilot currently operates from 1-6pm Monday to Thursday from NLA and Friday's from the State Library of Victoria (at time of writing). An open source aggregator called Gaim is used to staff the IM service. Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client that offers access across five networks. So why go virtual?
Kate spent some time discussing reasons for entering the virtual reference arena: The future of virtual reference Kate concluded the session by looking at the trends in virtual reference and how various libraries are innovating in this area:
An enthusiastic question and answer session concluded the presentation. ACTive ALIA / AGLIN Information Sharing Forum - 18 April 2007 Report on: Writing a business case and managing contracts - what do you need to know?
Nicola Cross Roxanne Missingham, Parliamentary Librarian, and Russell Coleman from the ANAO presented a valuable session for library staff dealing with project and contract management processes at the April Information Sharing Forum. Roxanne spoke about the practicalities of writing a business case, offering some excellent advice and insights into how to achieve successful outcomes. The importance of understanding both your business and your organisational environment was highlighted; as well as strategies for creating the right environment. Elements of an effective business case were outlined and discussed: slides from the presentation are available on the aglin web pages. For more information, guides, tools and templates see the AGIMO website: http://www.agimo.gov.au/government/the_ict_investment_framework/business_case_tools_and_review. Russell Coleman then spoke about Procurement and Contract Management from an ANAO perspective. This was a useful look at some of the important aspects for library professionals, with the recognition that contract management is often not easy, requiring time, knowledge and skill. The presentation took us through key steps and issues in the procurement process, with some interesting discussion of risk management, the skills needed for negotiation, and ethical issues. An essential guide to be aware of is the new ANAO Better Practice Guide Developing and Managing Contracts: getting the right outcome, paying the right price (February 2007). http://www.anao.gov.au/uploads/documents/Developing_and_Managing_Contracts.pdf Both presentations can be accessed via the AGLIN web pages, under the 'Events Look What You Missed' link. Upcoming Events: Information Awareness Month May 200722 May - National Library Technicians Day in the ACT Come and celebrate National Library Technicians Day with the ALIA ACT Library Technicians' Group at CIT! This is a great opportunity to meet the new committee and hear about the upcoming LibTech events in the ACT. All welcome, including students. Lucky door prize sponsored by Zenith Information Management Services.
Where: Functions@CIT (CIT Restaurant), K Block at the Reid Campus, Constitution Avenue.
23 May - Targeted information services: the business benefits
Where: National Library of Australia, Ferguson Room 30 May - Demystifying the ABS The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency, but what exactly do we collect? This session explores the breadth and depth of ABS collections, and is aimed at information professionals and those interested in understanding key ABS concepts and statistics. Presented by Nicola Cross, ABS Information Skills Program.
Where: ABS House, 45 Benjamin Way, Belconnen
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