The VALA Award, made biennially, is presented to the Australian library or information centre judged to have made the most innovative use of information technology during the previous two years.

All libraries and information centres in Australia are eligible for nomination by staff, users or other interested persons.

Click here for further details about VALA Award recipients.

VALA Award 2010

This winner of the VALA Award this year is iBIMS™ - The Digital Link @ Willoughby City Library.

A Chinese OPAC available via the internet, iBIMS™ (the Intelligent Book Information Management System) is the first truly bilingual (dual language display) web-based OPAC of its kind, bridging the communication gap between non-English speaking patrons and librarians who cannot speak the native language for accessing the LOTE (Language Other Than English) language collection. It can be run on any PC, handheld device or any smartphone with a web browser and internet connection.

iBIMS™ is also setting the standard for a multi-lingual web-based search engine for other ethnic languages such as Korean, Japanese and Greek.

Congratulations, Michele Burton!