Innovative Ideas Forum 2006

Innovative Ideas Forum

Abstracts

 

Lloyd Sokvitne
Dis-integrating the integrated library information management system.

Over the past two years the SLT has had to deal with major issues
related to the replacement of its Integrated Library Management System
(ILMS). These include the major problem of acquiring sufficient funds
within a single financial year to allow the purchase of a complete
single vendor solution, as well as the need to rapidly and easily
provide new and improved user services independent of the development
timetable and functional priorities of the ILMS vendor.

The State Library has dealt with these issues by developing a Digital
Services framework that enables the identification of modules that are
easier to acquire and replace over time. The first functional module
identified for acquisition by the State Library relates to information
retrieval, which will then be followed over a number of years by other
modules such as acquisitions, cataloguing, circulation, etc.

In November 2005, the State Library of Tasmania began this
modularisation process by going out to tender for a single high
performance searching tool capable of indexing metadata (Marc and
non-Marc) from a variety of sources. We expect this tool to take over
from the ILMS OPAC. The lessons learned from this tender regarding the
separation of the OPAC from the ILMS to date are positive and rewarding,
and the State Library has increasing confidence that the provision of an
external OPAC will not only free such functionality from the confines of
the ILMS system, but also free the data from the confines of the ILMS
and MARC environment, allowing the search function to interact with web
and other networked resources in new ways.

This will be followed by moves over the next three years to separate and
independently acquire the acquisition, cataloguing and circulation
components of the ILMS, and informal preliminary discussions have been
held with major vendors. There are obvious issues to resolve, and it is
important to note that the total cost of ownership of such a system may
in fact be higher than for a single system purchase. To counterbalance
this, the flexibility, adaptability, and delivery outcomes of our user
services will be significantly improved.

Geoff Huston
What's in A Name? Issues in Identification
.
In this presentation I'd like to explore the issues around identity and the
structure of identity name spaces. In particular I'd like to look at what
makes identity systems relevant and useful for an information
infrastructure framework, and where and how identity systems are effective
and in what ways they can fail. The presentation will explore the
proposition that the limitations of URLs are a significant part of the
problem we face today in constructing truly useful information frameworks

Andrew Treloar
The Dataset Acquisition, Accessibility and Annotation e-Research
Technologies Project: building the new collaborative e-research
infrastructure.

The DART project has been funded by the Department of Education Science
and Training (DEST) as part of the Managed Environment for Research
Repository Infrastructure (MERRI) funding round under the Systemic
Infrastructure Initiative as part of the Commonwealth Government's
Backing Australia's Ability - An Innovation Action Plan for the Future.
Over the course of 2006, DART will undertake a co-ordinated programme of
eResearch requirements analysis, software development, policy and
guideline creation and prototyping to investigate how best to:

  • collect, capture and retain large data sets and streams from a range
    of different sources;
  • deal with the infrastructural issues of scale, sustainability and
    interoperability between repositories;
  • support deposit into, access to, and annotation by a range of actors,
    to a set of digital libraries which include publications, datasets,
    simulations, software and dynamic knowledge representations;
    assist researchers in dealing with intellectual property issues during
    the research process;
  • adopt next-generation methods for research publication, dissemination
    and access.

This presentation will provide an overview of the DART programme of work
activity as well as an update on what has been achieved since the
project officially commenced in December 2005.
Further details can be found at http://dart.edu.au/

George McLaughlin
Next generation networks and advanced communication services -
expanding the reach and interactivity of cultural institutions.

Although high-capacity networking and advanced computing systems have
had a major focus on innovating the way high-end science is undertaken,
the ability to support immersive multimedia applications has broadened
the applicability to areas as diverse as telesurgical training,
performing arts with different participants in different parts of the
world, and the ability to interact remotely with a global asset base of
exhibits at cultural organisations around the globe.

Jane Hunter
Extending Digital Libraries Infrastructure to Support eResearch
.
For the past five to ten years, digital librarians have been developing
technologies for indexing, storing, searching, retrieving and integrating
mixed-media digital objects in both open access and access-controlled
digital repositories. Digital library researchers have tended to concentrate
on technologies to support digital objects at the scholarly publishing and
e-learning end of the research chain, rather than the raw data being
produced at the beginning of the chain. However the emerging eResearch
infrastructure is laying the foundation for new forms of intellectual
products that require new modes of curation, publication and collaborative
interaction. In particular, scientific communities and their funding bodies
are pressuring scientists to publish their raw data sets, experimental
details, analytical methods and visualizations, in addition to the
traditional scholarly publications. However these new information formats
present significant challenges to digital library researchers, who are used
to dealing with file-based digital objects. In this paper, I will describe
various approaches and technologies that we are developing that will enable
scientists to capture, index, store, share, re-use, compare, correlate and
preserve their scientific results, regardless of format.

Aaron Corn
The National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia.

The National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia (NRPIPA) arose from the first Indigenous Performance Symposium at the Garma Festival of Traditional Culture in 2002. This meeting of senior Indigenous and other performers and intellectuals recommended that ‘a national recording project be established to ensure that the songs of as many singers as possible are held for future generations’ with an advisory board of senior Indigenous men and women from a broad range of communities guiding its priorities and strategies. This presentation will report on progress made towards realising the long-term aims of the NRPIPA to date, and Indigenous community responses to pilot studies in digital recording and archiving undertaken in 2005.

Sophie Holloway
Australian Social Science Data Archives
.
The Australian Social Science Data Archives has recently released its new data discovery and distribution facility, powered by NESSTAR software. Also under development are two new archive nodes at University of Queensland and University of New South Wales, to establish a distributed archiving model using grid technology.

Alan Bevan
The Le@rning Federation: providing state-of-the art online curriculum content for Australian and New Zealand schools.
The Le@rning Federation (TLF), an initiative of the state, territory and federal governments of Australia and New Zealand, is an innovative project that employs emerging technologies to produce world-class online curriculum content to encourage student learning and support teachers in the P – 10 years of schooling. The online content is of two types: interactive multimedia learning objects that incorporate instructional design, and digital resources. The digital resource collection comprises still and moving images and sound files licensed from museums and cultural institutions, including the National Library of Australia.
Alan will outline the TLF initiative, show examples of the content and describe key strategic elements of the project: the content repository which provides a development, management and distribution framework; the intellectual property rights management system and the support for Australian and New Zealand multimedia developers.

Pru Mitchell
EdNA Online's shared information services architecture and the delivery of education-related resources.

EdNA (Education Network Australia) Online is a national collaborative education project that supports the use of information and communication technologies across all sectors of education and training.
This presentation outlines EdNA's Shared Information Services architecture and its role in delivering education-related resources, events and news. This architecture enables organisations to use quality assured content compiled by EdNA Online to support their own institution, library or online course websites. The services include a search of quality assured databases, a recently added resource alert service, the ability to utilise EdNA subject categories, and education news headlines. Most of these services are also available as RSS feeds that can be delivered to the desktop. The EdNA Online Distributed Search provides a fast, simultaneous search of an increasing number of quality assured education and cultural repositories.

Kevin O'Gorman
Domesticated and feral – sharing resources created by expert resource developers and enthusiastic classroom teachers, while ensuring quality.
 
We will explore the ongoing development and evolution of TaLe services including:

  • Applying standards based metadata to teaching and learning resources.
  • Developing customised search and browse interfaces for different educational audiences.
  • Provision of collaborative tools for professional learning and knowledge sharing.

Greg Styles
Training in Digital Publishing Technology & Workflow.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is home to many of Australia’s largest cultural institutions. In a unique collaboration, these institutions are using new technology to create digital, 100% replicas of Australia’s most important assets for preservation and access. But while digitisation has emerged as an integral part of business, it has also uncovered a critical area of skill needs.
Digitisation involves a comprehensive process carried out by highly-skilled specialist staff. Addressing skill needs in this area is crucial to the continued preservation of Australia’s cultural and historical assets.
Until now there has not been nationally accredited training in this area available. But a new initiative has been undertaken to address the issue. Blended Learning International (BLI) has developed specialised training programs that are grabbing the attention of Australia’s most prestigious cultural institutions. Highly developed and specific training programs are now available that meet the emerging need for skilled technicians and managers working in digitisation, BLI’s Certificate IV & Diploma in IT (Multimedia – focus on Digital Publishing Technology & Workflow Design).

Miriam Saunders
Connecting people to information through the VOCED database.

VOCED is a research database for technical and vocational education and training managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research. It is a free database available on the world wide web at www.voced.edu.au. It contains over 30 000 abstracts and some full text links for documents about vocational education and training research, policy and practice, from around the world, with a special focus on Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
VOCED is recognised as a leading database in the field of vocational education and training research. This presentation will highlight:

  • the major features of the VOCED web site and database
  • the clearinghouse network that provides a national distributed collection and document delivery service that underpins VOCED
new developments and future directions for VOCED.

 

Beatrice Barnett
Vrroom: the virtual reading room of the National Archives of Australia
.
Vrroom.naa.gov.au is the new online interface between the education sector and the National Archives collection. This virtual reading room gives teachers and students access to Australian Government records dating back to Federation. Without relying too heavily on the fast-car metaphor that the name Vrroom evokes, this paper tells the story of the development of Vrroom from concept to prototype, and of the many pit stops along the way.

Tony Boston
NLA services to support education and research.

The National Library of Australia plays a significant role in the provision of services and infrastructure to support research and education in Australia based on its own collection and those of the Australian library sector. This presentation will highlight a number of innovative National Library services such as Libraries Australia, PictureAustralia and MusicAustralia and will discuss present and future initiatives in the context of the Library's strategic directions statement for 2006-2008.

Sue Clarke and Tine Grimston
Gateway to Australian educational research:  new products & services from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
This paper will share information about the various innovative services that enhance resource discovery in providing access to information about education for all Australians. This provision is through ACER's Cunningham Library products and services.
Developments will include the following:

  1. Online publishing initiative: the Australasian Education Directory (AED) with expanded and revised content which now includes New Zealand entries
  2. Online content of national interest: EdResearch Online, Australian research repository of resources in Australian education is available now from EdNA Online:
  3. Improvements in resource delivery services: a proposed new business  for ACER’s Education Research Theses (ERT) database in the context of a paper, entitled "Education Research Theses: Online Communities and Partnerships", delivered at the EDT2005 : Evolution Through Discovery, 8th International Symposium on Electronic Theses & Dissertations at the University of New South Wales in 2005.

Enhanced resource discovery initiatives will be demonstrated and described within the current strategic environment of new methods of access to research information and the emergence of new business models.

Donna Runner, Robyn Everist, Jenny Shaw
A Proposal for a National Catalogue and Resource Sharing Service for People with a Print Disability.
In 2005, Deakin University commissioned a study to scope the issues associated with an international electronic catalogue of resources available to individuals with a print disability. 
The underlying assumption is that current technological advances should proactively meet everyone’s information needs. The numbers of people who will be defined as having a print disability are increasing, particularly because of our ageing demographic. However, the sectors working to provide information to people with a print disability are often fragmented in their approaches. This fragmentation is inefficient.
To achieve greater access to information, institutions must share their resources effectively with each other. This means, for example, that instead of several libraries modifying the same publication to make it accessible to a person with a print disability, that they first check a catalogue to determine if an accessible copy of this publication exists. If an accessible copy already exists, then the institution should access this master. The benefits of this are as follows:
o       to save the person requesting the information a significant amount of time
o       to create opportunities for the person to be more independent
o       to save the institution unnecessary development expense.
Duplication is a waste of scarce funding that could better be spent widening the range of accessible materials.
An Australian national database would contain bibliographic records of accessible electronic information resources that have already been produced for people with a print disability.  Currently, the Copyright Agency Limited maintains a database of records for items reproduced for individuals with print disabilities.  However, this database does not have the depth, complexity, or retrievability for which Libraries Australia is noted.
This presentation will present screen captures of the Copyright Agency Ltd database and compare them to Libraries Australia.  A summary of issues raised in the scoping study will be provided, with suggestions for the next steps that might be taken. 

Simon Porter and Eve Young
Information Management in action: profiling research with a create once and re-use approach to digital repositories and administrative systems.

The University of Melbourne has recognised information management as a critical success factor in its 2006 Growing Esteem Strategic Plan.  Underpinning this recognition is an Information Strategy that articulates the following key principles: Information is strategically important, must be centrally managed, accurate, and accessible.  The 2006 strategic plan encourages ‘Open Access’ publishing of scholarly works as a means to make Melbourne research more easily accessible and increase citation impact.
This presentation demonstrates how the university's significant investment in enterprise administrative systems, combined with a holistic approach to information management, is able to yield significant benefits in profiling research expertise and research publications to a wider audience using open access digital repositories and a create once and re-use approach.  The project involves a multi-disciplinary team and various technologies including Oracle eBusiness Suite and ePrints.org.

Mike Lynch
Developing a national film and television resource centre for education.

EnhanceTV, an online initiative of Screenrights, provides a website and email showcase of the best in educational film and television. In addition, it provides a vast array of support materials for teachers and students at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
This presentation looks at the development of this portal, its unique partnering model and its emergence into a delivery platform serving daily information feeds, support learning materials and digital content delivery.
http://www.enhancetv.com.au
http://www.screenrights.org




Coordination Support Branch
National Library of Australia
Contact: csb@nla.gov.au

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