APSIG Newsletter [50] - November 2002

Forum

From the Convenor

Dear Colleagues

It has become a busy year. Let me list some of the year's events associated with APSIG:

Members have been requesting a focus for our activities. Well, by default rather than being planned, this seems to be happening.

In May, Judy Blood, a founding member of the Friends of the UNTL (Universidade Nasional Timor Lorosae) Library, spoke to Canberra based APSIG members and asked for their assistance to establish library services for this new library.

At the June meeting of the ALIA Board of Directors, the new guidelines for assistance to libraries in the region were approved by the ALIA Board. These guidelines, which were developed by APSIG and the ALIA International Relations Committee have been 18 months in the making! So it is great to see this matter finalised. [A copy of the guidelines is at the end of this newsletter].

June saw a visit to Australia by Christophe Augius, chief librarian, New Caledonia's Territorial Library (Bibliothèque Bernheim). During his time here, Christophe visited a number of libraries in Canberra and elsewhere. He also spoke to Jennefer Nicholson, [executive] director, ALIA, Canberra-based APSIG committee members and Marie Murphy about the establishment of a library association in New Caledonia.

Another matter of keen interest to Christophe and for libraries in our region, is a new free-ware library system that has been developed. Christophe's article describing the Koha system is included in this issue. Christophe stated that the format of the database is very user friendly and he has a high regard for it.

APSIG's latest development is a new discussion list, which has been, established on the ALIA Server. Initially the APSIG Committee had concerns about a specialised list through ALIAnet, as the copyright for all messages initiated on this list is held by ALIA. We have therefore continued to use lists such as Asialib, however, it appears that we are not reaching all our members. Please contact Deveni Temu, library manager, St Marks Theological Library, Canberra, contact: dtemu@csu.edu.au, ph 02 6273 1572 for details on subscribing to the ALIA APSIG discussion list or see the ALIA website.

Events in Canberra have also included a visit to Canberra by Linda Crowl, publisher, Institute of Pacific Studies, Fiji; and our Traveller's Tales in May.

With such an eventful few months, let us all continue the momentum and work together for the benefit of us all throughout the region. I look forward to reading and responding to any comments or suggestions you send to ALIA APSIG.

We apologise for the lateness of this issue. A report on the second half of the year will be in the next newsletter.

Jeanette Regan
Convenor, APSIG

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