The VALA2006 13th Biennial Conference and Exhibition was held at Crown Towers, Melbourne, Australia from 8 – 10 February 2006. The theme for this conference was Connecting with Users.
E-Research refers to large-scale, distributed, information-intensive forms of inquiry conducted collaboratively between institutions, and intra- and inter-nationally. The paper details the strategies that the Information Division (ID) is implementing to support eresearch and information management within the University. The culture at the University of Melbourne emphasises a client-focused approach where the ID staff partner with academic departments and business units to assemble suitable project teams to translate the vision into technical solutions. The paper will explore ID initiatives which support e-research and information management using new technologies which emphasise interoperability and flexibility.
This paper describes the development of a database to facilitate research into 19th century library management practices and borrower behaviour in Bendigo, Australia. The database schema was designed to reflect the cataloguing and numbering systems utilised in the library in the 1880’s. The schemes proved surprisingly versatile and effective in a database environment, and worked well to both illustrate and model the organisation of the library and to manage the data in a modern database.
This paper describes the process of developing an information management strategy for Monash University, presents an overview of the resulting strategy and describes the process of implementation that has been devised and is being followed. The strategy will be progressively implemented over the next 3-5 years as part of ongoing operational activity and new development projects. An internal communication plan for the strategy has been developed and will be rolled out in 2005/6. Implementing the strategy has already been accepted as one of the five key priorities for Monash University in 2006. A number of projects will also be funded in 2006 that directly flow from the work of the Information Management Steering Committee.
In the past year the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna M?tauranga o Aotearoa has facilitated successful collaborative projects across central and local government and other sectors. This paper will focus on case studies of three collaborative projects that have made an impact on New Zealand’s information landscape. Each has required different approaches to collaboration. This paper will share the many highlights and lessons learned and will suggest successful strategies that have been developed for managing collaborative projects.
By taking a consortial approach to the purchase of a new library management system, five Auckland libraries were able to pool the experience and knowledge of their staff, stretch their budgets and end up with a solution that none of them could have arrived at alone. The learnings from this joint venture have been far reaching in the libraries and their councils, and the project is fast becoming a benchmark for local body collaboration in New Zealand.
The University of New South Wales Library and College of Fine Arts are leading an Australian Research Council funded project to create the Dictionary of Australian Artists Online (DAAO). The DAAO aims to be the authoritative online biographical dictionary of Australian artists. This ambitious project brings together academic libraries, the research community, cultural institutions and information technology specialists into a unique collaboration.
Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University, and Professor of Community Informatics and the Information Society, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au and http://www.cput.ac.za
Please tag your comments, tweets, and blob posts about this session: #VALA2006
The vision of Australia as a knowledge society underpinned by e-democracy was strongly articulated in national consultations towards an information economy strategy for Australian civil society in 2003 – 2005. The consultations had two purposes:
To assist with Australia’s contributions to the two UN/ITU World Summits on the Information Society (Geneva in 2003, Tunis in 2005),
To complement Australia’s Framework for the Information Economy 2004-2006, a major policy statement by the Australian government.
This paper gives an account of the research approach used for the consultations, reports on major findings from the consultative process, and offers comment on these from a library perspective. In the interests of spreading useful and reliable knowledge as widely as possible, improving engagement with their communities, and bettering their reputation worldwide, libraries should work harder to play a key role in the concerns enumerated by civil society.
Providing connectivity to public libraries has been a State Library of New South Wales priority since 1997. Without content and the skills for effective use of this content, connectivity is of little value. This paper explores initiatives to enhance the use of online content. Building skills and confidence in staff and clients are important elements in maximising the benefits of enhanced connectivity.
Using established State and Federal government traineeship schemes and special grant funding, a program of IT traineeships was developed to assist rural communities improve their skills to access online services. In the Get Connected @ Your Library project, young people from the community were offered traineeships in Certificate II or III in Information Technology and were placed in the local public library. Outcomes to be considered include the impact of predominantly male IT trainees in the library environment, the response from the younger demographic of library users and the development of informal mentoring relationships sponsored within the library context.
Google Book Search: Making all the world’s books fully searchable
