AARL

Conference reports

National Resource Sharing Forum, National Library of Australia, November 11, 2002

Margaret Henty
Australian National University

Nearly 150 participants assembled at the National Library on November 11 and 12 to bring themselves up-to-date with matters relating to resource sharing and document delivery. The two-day program was divided into two distinct parts: the first to hear from a variety of speakers about current developments within Australia and overseas, the second to provide an opportunity to inspect and discuss some of the many different products which can help libraries to automate their document delivery services. Day-one was introduced by Jan Fullerton, the director-general of the National Library, who reminded us of the importance of rapid and easy access to library collections and the need for services to back this up. So important is this, that it forms the basis of one of the Directions for 2003-2005 recently issued by the library.

Speakers for the rest of the day included Mary E Jackson, of the Association of Research Libraries in Washington DC, Tom Ruthven and Roxanne Missingham both from the National Library, representatives of the National Libraries of New Zealand and Canada, representatives of different library sectors within Australia (university, specials, public), Mandy Bigg from Gratisnet and Margaret Jones from the University of Western Australia.

Mary E Jackson is a welcome return visitor to Australia and it is always a pleasure to hear her talk about developments in the wider document supply scene. In this address, she covered a variety of trends and developments in North America. These included the view that mediated services are unlikely to disappear for a while, that the electronic book has some way to go before it has an impact on document delivery, that book borrowing will move increasingly to a circulation model with direct contact between borrower and holding library, that the development of the NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol will assist the move to a circulation model and that there has been no reduction in the amount of photocopy traffic which might have been expected in an increasingly electronic library environment. She spoke of the potential for globalisation in document delivery. The American Association of Universities and the Association of Research Libraries have established a Global Resources Program with seven international partnerships including Germany and Japan. This has prompted the Library of Congress to express an interest in becoming the lender of first resort for overseas materials. The potential for globalisation is huge, with huge challenges to match - the cost of timely delivery, the difficulty of finding holdings, payment mechanisms and currency conversion. In response to all these changes, ARL has merged its Access to Information Resources Committee with the Research Collections Committee.

Her advice on what libraries can do to make their document delivery operations more effective included: order electronically and create a paperless office, limit the amount of checking done and use technology wherever possible to speed operations. All of these suggestions were to be echoed throughout the day. Tom Ruthven of the National Library reported on the Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Benchmarking Study, recently undertaken by the National Resource Sharing Working Group. The objectives of this study had been to identify the characteristics of high performance libraries, to provide an instrument for change, to provide benchmarking information and to provide information by library sector. The best practice participants for requesting sites were found to be those which received user requests electronically, had minimum delays between receiving patron orders and passing them on to supplier libraries, used large union catalogues, sent requests electronically and used electronic document delivery methods. The five key suggestions for improvement were found to be: reduce the number of steps in the process, use automation wherever possible, ensure staff are experienced and well-trained, make sure your holdings are available to all and engage in cooperative agreements. Full details of the survey can be seen at http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/nrswg/illdd_rpt_sum.html.

Roxanne Missingham of the National Library outlined a proposal to trial a new model to 'test collaborative, unmediated access for both copies and loans' and called for volunteers to participate. The new model would be a collaboration between a small number of libraries, run for a period of six months, focus on a specific user group, allow users to order direct and have copies supplied direct and loans through the 'home' library. The Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) would be involved in the trial. The proposal was greeted with considerable interest.

Overall this was an interesting and rewarding day with many highlights. The National Library of New Zealand has done some interesting research on the value of the national union catalogue, which has an estimated value of hundreds of millions of dollars. The National Library of Canada is working on a number of initiatives designed to improve document access, especially in the development of improved automated systems. Mandy Biggs of Gratisnet outlined the benefits of a cooperative approach among health libraries. Margaret Jones discussed the joint implementation of LIDDAS by the four university libraries which make up the Western Australian Group of University Librarians (WAGUL) and the convergence of document delivery and reciprocal borrowing within their system. Reports and power point presentations for the day are available at the National Library website (http://www.nla.gov.au/rsforum/index.html#programfield) and are well worth a visit.

Winds of Change: Libraries in the 21st Century

Peter Clayton
University of Canberra

Winds there most certainly were in Wellington in November for the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) annual conference. One speaker observed that he now knew the meaning of the acronym WWW: Wet Windy Wellington. The Conference organisers even kindly included an umbrella in every delegate's satchel.

Spread over three full days, the Program Committee had devised three themes reflecting Winds of Change: Electrical Storms, Sheltering from the Storm, and Under the Umbrella, and plenary and other speakers duly attempted to reflect these. However, some of the themes I noted had little to do with weather. In an outstanding keynote address Derek Law (University of Strathclyde) referred to 'old wine in new bottles', the repackaging and representation of our well established professional expertise in the digital domain. The transformation of cataloguing data into metadata provided just one of his examples. Librarians can provide real, useful information, unlike Google which merely serves the 'satisfied inept... We're teaching information literacy in the hope of killing Google.' On the other hand, our 'user friendly systems aren't.'

Another theme to emerge strongly was 'the library as place'. For some time we have been talking about virtual libraries, yet many of our users value having a physical entity which symbolises our values and provides a social, cultural and intellectual focus. This was one of many points made by Chris Batt (Re:source: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries UK) in another exceptional plenary. In a paper well worth seeking out, Batt also noted that 'The internet is no more disorganised than the average public library', and that having successfully introduced public access internet terminals throughout the country - the only UK government initiative ever to be completed on time and in budget - public libraries are now 'at the heart of public policy in the UK'.

Perhaps most noticeable to an Australian visitor was the conspicuous involvement of Mäori people, language and traditions throughout the conference. We started with a lengthy powhiri, almost entirely in Mäori and involving the local tengata whenua welcoming the visiting manuhiri into the marae (the meeting house, or conference venue). The opening plenary was in almost as much Mäori as English: Professor Whatarangi Winiata talking about the maintenance of Mäori culture. In an oral tradition, there are five tests of trusted repositories:

1. Receive the information with the utmost accuracy
2. Store the information with integrity beyond doubt
3. Retrieve the information without amendment
4. Apply appropriate judgement in the use of the information, and
5. Pass on the information appropriately.

As Derek Law pointed out, these apply just as much to archiving in a digital age.

This and every plenary ended with a waitata, or song: the entire audience rose and sang thanks (in Mäori, of course) to the speaker (the Mäori words were conveniently projected onto the screen). Finally, the conference ended with a poroporoaki. One cannot spend long in New Zealand without becoming conscious of biculturalism and aware that in some respects it has not been an easy path to take. Many Asian immigrants feel disenfranchised, as biculturalism is not complemented by any reference to multiculturalism; and there are Mäori counterparts to Australian problems with sacred sites, not to mention similar issues with health, education and crime. Yet in stark contrast to the place of aboriginals in our own society, there is also a conscious attempt to recognise and involve the Mäori in their shared country.

Not all the sessions were at the level of these. Most disappointing for me was Larry Prusak (IBM Global Services, and Institute for Knowledge Management), who chose to talk about the differences between information and knowledge in his plenary. This consisted of a series of wild generalisations ('You can't learn anything from a book' - only experience counts; 'Distance education just doesn't work: it can't be done'; and that language education hasn't changed since the year 1200: 'It takes just as long today'). He also claimed that 40 per cent of the US economy was based on 'bullshit' (his word). All this was at times self-contradictory (how can one learn about Aristotle other than from a book?) and included some personal anecdotes, delivered with the polish of a practised evangelist. (It is only fair to note that other opinions of this session differed.)

As well as the plenaries other, parallel sessions covered such varied topics as information literacy (Phil Candy); several sessions on the development of government websites; digitisation; virtual reference services (Catherine Jane and Dawn McMillan); Mäori services; IT, etc. I attended a Research Special Interest Group Workshop; various other workshops had already been booked out by the time I made an 'early' registration.

In a small country, this annual conference attracted around 700 delegates and one could see why: the program was, in general, excellent; the venue (the Michael Fowler Auditorium and adjacent Town Hall) superb, with magnificent timber balconies and ceiling in the auditorium; the trade exhibit sold out; and the social program both lively and meeting a range of needs, including those of 'firstimers'. The conference organisation was most professional. As well as the umbrella, delegates received a CD-ROM with many of the conference papers and perhaps the largest name badges I've seen, which incorporated a 'pocket programme', venue map, and exhibitor list and locations. Next year's LIANZA conference - 'Oceans of Opportunity' - will be on 7-10 October in Napier, a place reputed to have a far more appealing climate than Wellington. If the organisers manage to match 'Winds of Change' they will have done well indeed.

IFLA Internet Manifesto Workshop

The IFLA Internet Manifesto Workshop will be held on 23-24 January 2003 at the University of Technology, Sydney, Building 10. Presenters: Susanne Seidelin, director IFLA/FAIFE committee, and Alex Byrne, chair IFLA/FAIFE committee.

On 1 May 2002, the IFLA Internet Manifesto was launched. Through it, IFLA asserts that:

• Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual both to hold and express opinions and to seek and receive information; it is the basis of democracy; and it is at the core of library service.
• Freedom of access to information, regardless of medium and frontiers, is a central responsibility of the library and information profession.
• The provision of unhindered access to the Internet by libraries and information services supports communities and individuals to attain freedom, prosperity and development.
• Barriers to the flow of information should be removed, especially those that promote inequality, poverty, and despair.

The Manifesto continues by establishing principles of freedom of access to information via the Internet and noting the need to develop strategies, policies, and plans to implement the Manifesto. It aims to highlight the importance of unhindered access to information to help communities and individuals to attain freedom, prosperity and development. The Manifesto emphasises the role of libraries and information services in facilitating that access as essential gateways to the internet.

Participants in the IFLA Internet Manifesto Workshop will interactively explore the challenges of implementing the Manifesto in their own libraries and information services and of promoting its ideals in the wider community. Library directors and managers, information services professionals and library association officers will work together to highlight strategies to ensure that the internet remains a freely available means of accessing the information we need to live, work and play. Further details are available at http://www.alia.org.au/conferences/ifla.manifesto/. [no longer available]

The workshop is a satellite to the ALIA 2003 Information Online conference being held on 21-23 January 2003 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. More information at http://conferences.alia.org.au/online2003/.