ALIA Far North Coast Regional Group (NSW)

6:00pm Thursday 19 August 2004
Library, Southern Cross University, Lismore

Welcome by Jennifer Kirton (President)

Present:Jennifer Kirton (Chair), Robyn Murray (Treasurer), Lainey Furness (Secretary), Des Stewart, Leanne Goodwin, Michael Wheeler.
Guest Speaker: Phil Finnemore

Apologies:Cathie Nilon (E-List Coordinator), Pauline Leeson, Martin Field, Judith Field, Alison Ransome, Lynne Watt, John Pinson, Brad Jones

Minutes of last meeting: Wednesday 9 June 2004 held at NSW Agriculture Library, Wollongbar. Moved: J Kirton seconded: D Stewart carried

Business arising from the minutesMembers reported that they had completed the tasks appointed to them regarding a submission to the Senate Enquiry into Progress and future directions of life-long learning.

• Des Stewart reported that CAUL had lodged a submission
• Jennifer Kirton posted a message the Information Library elist
• Leanne Goodwin notified the Ballina Friends of the Library group
• Robyn Murray posted a message to the ALIA NSWFNC elist

Treasurer's report: Robyn Murray, Treasurer. No report

Correspondence:
In: None
Out: None

Agenda items:
Discussion about ALIA FNC representation at the Regional Meeting of the ALIA National Policy Congress to be held in Brisbane on 2 Sept 2004, prior to the full National Meeting in Canberra 19-20 November 2004. No one declared an interest in attending.

Jennifer to post to ALIA NSWFNC elist to elicit further response and to advise of change of date.

Guest speaker:
Phil Finnemore, Manager Electronic Resources and Services, SCU Library gave a demonstration of the SFX / Metalib project. SFX is linking software, and Metalib is federated searching software. Both of these are done through Unilinc in Sydney, but they are produced by the Ex Libris company. SFX allows users to make direct links from one database, from the bibliographic details of an item, to another database which might hold the fulltext of the item. MetaLib allows a user to search several databases at once rather than having to go into one database after another.

A comparative study of the various 'federated searching' systems is available as a pdf document of about 67 pages at the address below.
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/en/whatsnew/4initiatives.html#review

Next meeting:5:30-5:45pm Wednesday 13 October 2004 at Wollongbar TAFE Library. Dinner to follow at the TAFE Nightcap restaurant (non-refundable bookings essential). Encourage new members to attend.

Meeting closed: 7:00 pm

Minutes compiled by
Lainey Furness (Secretary)