Metrics - meaningful or make-work?

In September last year Anne Beaumont became the State Library of Victoria’s first Data analyst – Discovery systems.
So what does she do and how might it affect the State Library’s activities?

Anne’s work is about trying to quantify what people do via the various interfaces to the State Library’s online offerings – the website(s), local systems such as Primo and Voyager, hosted systems such as the Reference Guides and remote databases - and to track these activities over time and between different client groups.

This year the State Library has been lucky enough to participate with other Arts Victoria agencies in a shared trial of the Experian Hitwise product, which as well as producing some comparative website data also provides demographic information which has not previously been available – and is providing the basis for some stimulating discussions.

Anne will talk about her work and share some of what she has learnt – including the odd ‘war story’.

Speaker:

Anne has been working in libraries since 1969, when she started work in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library. Whilst at the Parliamentary Library she studied part time at ANU where one of her subjects was Statistics – which concentrated on statistical method. After returning to Melbourne to work in one of the CSIRO divisional libraries she resumed her B.Comm. at Melbourne University. They taught statistics differently, so she did Economic Statistics, which covered things like the CPI. Actually the two subjects were complementary and have both helped in her career, as she went from CSIRO to Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC), ACI and the State Library of Victoria as the first Business Information Librarian, where the ability to source statistical information was an important part of the job.

After a period as Reader Services Librarian, Anne moved into information technology and found that she could use the tools the library management system provided to her to find information she would have found very useful when managing the provision of information services to the public. Information such as the usage on a daily/weekly/monthly basis – including public holidays and the effect of changing the order of search options in a menu. A change in the ILMS meant better tools were available and a wider range of information could be found.

After 4 years out of the direct IT area but involved in the slv21 projects, Anne now has the wonderful opportunity to spend all her time counting stuff, using an even wider range of tools, and boring the socks off anyone who will listen!

FREE ENTRY

Not a VALA member? Visitors are welcome at VALA meetings - just come!

VENUE: Tutorial Room, Ground Floor, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, Melways Map X871 I6.
See Google Maps for details
(On-site parking available after 5.00 p.m. – have gold coins available for the parking fee. Public transport via tram.)

DATE & TIME: Wednesday 23 June 2010

Drinks and refreshments from 5:30 pm.

AGM at 6:00 pm, followed by Anne's presentation.

Contact: VALA Executive Officer This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Want to join Committee and the speaker for dinner (your expense) afterwards?

Dinner RSVPs only by 5.00 p.m. Monday 21 June: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (03) 9725 2725

See also the topics covered by previous VALA General Meetings

Imagining the Futures of Search

An evening with Douglas W. Oard from the University of Maryland (USA)

For decades before Web search engines emerged on the scene, research labs around the world were developing the core technology of “ranked retrieval” that now forms the pervasive basis for many end-user search applications. For decades before Google Book Search threatened to reshape the boundaries between the physical and the virtual, research labs around the world were creating the imaging, OCR, and search technologies that came together in that system. This evening, we will peek into those same research labs to see what’s going on there today that may again shake up our world.

We have but one past and but one present, but there are many possible futures. Tonight, we’ll briefly glimpse three: ubiquitous search of foreign-language content, support for search and sense-making in conversational media such as speech and email, and what could happen when and if our machines start “reading” our documents and our documents start “reading” each other. How might our profession, and our society at large, adapt to best balance the costs and the potential benefits that these innovations would bring? And how might we, as a profession, and as a society, help to shape the ways in which these new technologies actually develop? It will be an evening with more questions than answers, as is appropriate for an organisation whose very name is Libraries, Technology and the Future.

Speaker:

Doug Oard is an American library educator and technologist who is in Melbourne this summer and autumn for a sabbatical visit at the University of Melbourne and RMIT University. At the University of Maryland, College Park, he holds joint appointments in the College of Information Studies (Maryland’s iSchool) and in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Doug is in many ways an unrepentant engineer, with three degrees (Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D.) in Electrical Engineering, but in other ways he is one of us (having, for example, recently served as Associate Dean for Research at Maryland’s iSchool). You can read a bit about his work at http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~oard/.

FREE ENTRY

Not a VALA member? Visitors are welcome at VALA meetings - just come!

VENUE: Tutorial Room, Ground Floor, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, Melways Map X871 I6. (On-site parking available after 5.00 p.m. – have gold coins available for the parking fee. Public transport via tram.)

DATE & TIME: Wednesday 26 May 2010

Drinks and refreshments from 5:30 pm with presentation commencing at 6:00 pm.

Contact: VALA Executive Officer This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Want to join Committee and the speaker for dinner (your expense) afterwards?

Dinner RSVPs only by 5.00 p.m. Monday 24 May: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (03) 9725 2725

See also the topics covered by previous VALA General Meetings

Creative Commons Panel Session

Hear Professor Anne Fitzgerald, one of Australia's most respected Intellectual Property and eCommerce lawyers talk about Creative Commons and its application in Australia. Hear also from Vaughn Koops, Executive Officer of the Victorian Parliament's Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee. The Victorian Parliament recently inquired into improving access to Victorian public sector information and data, and the Government Response was tabled in Parliament on 2 February 2010.

Speakers:

Professor Anne Fitzgerald from QUT will represent Creative Commons Australia.

Anne Fitzgerald is a Brisbane-based intellectual property and e-commerce lawyer. She is a Professor in Law Research at QUT Law School where she is involved in research on several projects including the OAK Law (Open Access to Knowledge – Law) project, the Legal Framework for e-Research project and the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information.

Anne has served terms as a member of Australia’s two principal federal government-appointed standing advisory committees on intellectual property: she was a member of the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) which advised IP Australia from 1996 to 1999 and, as a member of the Copyright Law Review Committee’s Expert Advisory Group (1995 to 1998), participated in the CLRC’s major review (“the simplification reference”) of the Copyright Act.

Doctor Vaughn Koops is the Executive Officer of the Victorian Parliament's Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee.

Faciliator: Shaun Miller, Partner, Marshalls & Dent Lawyers

Shaun Miller is a leading Australian film and entertainment lawyer who has worked on projects including "John Safran’s Music Jamboree", “The Secret” and the telemovie "Curtin", as well as the Academy Award winning "Harvie Krumpet". Shaun also works in the area of intellectual property law, and recently spoke on the ABC's Law Report on the copyright issues relating to "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye", the unauthorised sequel to J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye".

FREE ENTRY

VENUE: Room G O4, Ground Floor, La Trobe University City Campus,
215 Franklin Street (near Queen Street, opposite Queen Victoria Markets),
Melways Map 2F B1 Parking available nearby - street parking fees apply until 7.30 p.m.
Public transport via the La Trobe Street, Elizabeth Street or William Street trams, or Flagstaff railway station.

DATE & Time: Wednesday 24 March 2010

Drinks and refreshments from 5:30 pm with presentation commencing at 6:00 pm.

Contact: VALA Executive Officer This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Public Interest Journalism - Where to from here?

Speaker: Eric Beecher, Publisher, Crikey

As the media landscape continues to rupture both here and overseas, how will quality journalism prevail in the age of new media? What is a sustainable funding model? Can twitter single-handedly save journalism, or does it threaten to reduce our attention span to 140 characters for good? Rupert v Google, new media v old media, the death of the newspaper, the role of social networking and the potential demise of investigative journalism.

VALA is delighted to have one of Australia's most respected journalists and media commentators talk about this important topic as it has a significant impact on how libraries deliver up-to-date, accurate, and authoritative online news information to their clients.

About Eric Beecher

Eric Beecher is the publisher of Crikey, Australia's leading online platform for independent journalism. Eric is also one of Australia's most respected journalists and media commentators. Eric has worked as a reporter on The Age, The Sunday Times, The Observer and The Washington Post. He has been editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and editor in chief of the Melbourne Herald and Weekly Times newspaper group. In 2007 Eric won the Walkley Award for Journalism Leadership.

Not a VALA member? Visitors are welcome at VALA meetings - just come!

Venue: Tutorial Room, Ground Floor, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne See Google Maps for details (On-site parking available after 5.00 p.m. – have gold coins available for the parking fee. Public transport via tram.)

Date & Time: Wednesday 25 November 2009 5.30 p.m. Sparkling wine and extra nibbles for Christmas 6.00 p.m. Meeting