News and views

New University Librarian at ANU

In late 2002, the Australian National University announced the appointment of Mr Vic Elliott as the director of scholarly information services and university librarian at the ANU. He commenced work in February 2003.

Vic comes to the ANU with a very distinguished background in advancing the development of innovative information access and service delivery within university libraries. For the last five years, he has been the university librarian at the University of Tasmania and, prior to that time, he was the university librarian at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has also worked at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington and at Brunel University Library in the UK. He holds an MA with first class honours in English from Victoria University of Wellington and an MLitt from the University of Oxford. Vic is currently a member of the executive committee of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) and from 2000-2001 served as chair of the CAUL Electronic Information Resources Committee (CEIRC).

Multilingual IT services at ANU

Sally Anne Leigh

Software which enables any student to type assignments in a range of vernacular scripts, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, Urdu, Sanskrit is now available across the Australian National University campus on 1200 computer terminals (both Mac and PC). This means also that a student can now sit at any one of these terminals and read the local newspapers in the language of origin and interact with language teaching software.

Staff Changes at the NLA

Following Andrew Gosling's retirement, Wan Wong, senior Chinese librarian, is now acting chief librarian.

Amelia McKenzie, who has a long association with APSIG, has been appointed to the post of director, Asian collections and will take up the position later this year.

Mrs Lily Li, a long time member of staff in the Chinese Unit, has also opted for early retirement and will leave the library in late May. Her contribution to the Chinese collection is greatly appreciated.

Research on NLAs London Missionary Society collection

Dr Ryan Dunch, an Australian scholar based at the University of Alberta, Canada, started his Harold White fellowship at the NLA in mid January. His research on reading missionary modernity in late Qing China will mostly be based on the London Missionary Society Collection of rare and unusual items in Chinese, which the library acquired from the Society in 1961.

New Chinese acquisitions at NLA

New Chinese acquisitions are listed on the NLA website since October 2002. Published on a monthly basis, they contain brief bibliographic information, in Chinese and Romanised forms, for new items acquired, including monographs, serials and electronic publications.

New Indonesian Acquisitions Program participant

Oliver Mann

On 1 January 2003 the Australian Defence Force Academy Library joined the National Library's Indonesian Acquisitions Program, which is managed by the NLA regional office in Jakarta. The purpose of the program is to acquire recent Indonesian publications in accordance with program participants' specific profiles. The addition of the ADFA Library brings to nine the number of libraries participating in the program - seven in Australia, plus the National Library Board of Singapore and the British Library.

Roger Tol moves to Jakarta

Our colleague Roger Tol, formerly chief librarian of the Koninklijke Instituut tot der Taal, Land- and Volkenkunde in Leiden, the Netherlands, writes:

'I will move to Jakarta shortly to succeed Jaap Erkelens as Head of the KITLV Office in Jakarta as of 1 May. My colleague Sirtjo Koolhof has been appointed the KITLV's chief librarian as of 1 March. My current e-mail address will remain valid. Sirtjo's e-mail address is: koolhof @ kitlv.nl Thank you so much for your collegiality and co-operation. I hope we shall continue on the same footing in my new position. With best wishes, Roger Tol.'

Sporting APSIG

On 19 February, Jill Haynes, Manager, National Sport Information Centre, (NSIC), based at the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, hosted a late afternoon visit of nearly twenty local librarians to see how they operate. NSIC is recognised as one of the best sport libraries in the world. Established in 1982 in Canberra to provide services to the Australian Institute of Sport, since 1987 it has expanded its role to provide sport information services to the Australian sport community.

A highlight of the visit was hearing of the work the NSIC has undertaken in the Asia/ Pacific region. The Oceania Sport Information Centre is a joint project initiated by the University of the South Pacific, the Oceania National Olympic Committees and the National Sport Information Centre. Located at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, it provides sport information services to the Pacific region. Consultancy work has also been undertaken in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Hong Kong.

Books for Buka

Jeanette Regan

Books for Buka was formed in February 2003 by Lorese Vera (please remove '.nospam' from address) of Canberra in response to a need identified on the island of Buka, Bougainville. After 10 years of civil war, educational resources on the island are almost nil. Of special concern is the total lack of a school library, when in Australia school libraries regularly throw away books no longer considered 'up to the minute'. It is these books as well as books from the general public that will be collected to form the basis of a library. Please contact Books For Buka if you can help.

Telephone Lorese on ph 02 6161 8215, fx 02 6205 6411.

The Nusa Tenggara Association

The aid organisation, the Nusa Tenggara Association, which has school library projects in poor villages in Eastern Indonesia, has a new, illustrated website.

NTA have their latest newsletters mounted. For further information contact George Miller (please remove '.nospam' from address).

New APSIG e-list. Please join us!

We invite all APSIG members to join the new aliaAPSIG e-list and keep up-to-date with developments. All contributions welcomed.

To subscribe to the aliaAPSIG e-list, head to the aliaAPSIG web interface, enter your preferred e-mail address and choose a password.

You'll be sent an e-mail asking you to confirm your subscription - just follow the instructions and e-list away!

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