Innovative Ideas Forum 2007

Innovative Ideas Forum

National Library of Australia 19 April 2007

Program

the program includes links to papers and/or presentations where these are available

 

Morning

9.00am (chair: Warwick Cathro)
Welcome by Ms Jan Fullerton

9.10am
Susan Chun (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Topic: By the People: Social Tagging and the Museum Collection
Abstract: This presentation will explore the work of the steve.museum project, a collaboration of museums interested in the value of social tagging to collect user-supplied descriptions of museum collections. The discussion will briefly review the research being done by the project participants into the nature and quality of descriptions that are supplied by volunteer "cataloguers" who "tag" art using the tool that has been developed by the steve project. We will also look at the experience of tagging art in museum collections from the point of view of the user, and consider the other potential benefits of user tagging of artworks for the museum curator, educator, or researcher.
[Presentation]

10.00am
Courtney Gibson ( Head of Arts, Entertainment and Comedy, ABC TV )
Topic: The ABC's digital future. [Paper]

10.45-11.15 Morning tea

11.15am
Kent Fitch (Computer Programmer, Technology and Architecture, National Library of Australia) and Alison Dellit (Librarian, Bibliographic Standards and Strategy, National Library of Australia)
Topic: Rethinking the catalogue [Presentation] [Paper]
Abstract: Information discovery and access has changed forever.  The library catalogue is no longer relevant in its current form.
There are new search habits, new technology and new communities. Libraries have a responsibility to engage with these changes; to make our collections easier to find, our systems fun to use, and our digital spaces as much a centre of community as our physical spaces are.  In this context the NLA is exploring how we can take advantage of search and social networking technologies to rejuvenate the lifeblood of the library - our catalogue. Our presentation discusses some the aspects of this reassessment:

  1. A mentality shift by both library and IT staff
  2. A "one-stop shop" for searching resources, providing access beyond our local collection, and to different types of resources in a seamless way, underpinned by a "single business" model.
  3. A conversation space, where information about resources is shared, with incentives to participate
  4. An intuitive interface, with clustering, relevance ranking and grouping features, that makes searching, exploring and getting easy and fun
  5. A rethinking of resource description to enable access
  6. Collaboration with a wide range of information providers (for example, Google, Amazon, LibraryThing, Wikipedia, Flickr, Digg, YouTube, Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive), exchanging, reusing and enriching each others' resources.
  7. New ways of information delivery allowing easier access to both physical and digital resources

12.00pm
Jane Cruickshank (Program Manager, Industry and Cultural Development Division, Australian Film Commission)
Topic: The Australian Film Commission – Digital Initiatives.
Abstract: Jane will present two initiatives of the Industry and Cultural Development Division of the AFC – Regional Digital Screen Network and Australian Screen Online.

LUNCH 12.45pm - 1.45pm
Afternoon


1.45pm (chair: Tony Boston)
Professor Amanda Spink (Professor of Information Technology and co-leader, Information Research Group, Queensland University of Technology)
Topic: Peoples’ information behaviors and web interactions. [Presentation]
Abstract: The presentation will provide insights into recent developments and new directions in our understanding of peoples’ information behavior. Humans have sought, organized and used information for millennia as they evolved and learned information behaviors. Recent more complex models of peoples’ Information behavior include information organising and use behaviors, information seeking, sense-making, everyday life information seeking, information foraging and new integrated approaches. We are learning more about the evolutionary, social and cultural aspects of peoples’ information behaviors, and how human lifetimes consist of developmental transitions in an individual’s information behavior from childhood, adolescence and adulthood. In particular, we are also learning more about peoples’ Web interaction behavior, including the emergence of more longitudinal complex behaviors such as multitasking and successive searching. The implications for library and information services will also be discussed.

2.30pm
Abby Blachly (LibraryThing)
Topic: LibraryThing and Social Cataloging
Abstract: LibraryThing is a book cataloging website that lets people catalog their personal libraries. Because LibraryThing is a website, not a desktop application, it has grown into a whole new thing entirely, connecting thousands of readers to each other and to other books they might be interested in. With LibraryThing, book cataloging moves from an individual activity to the social realm. This presentation will show LibraryThing in action, discuss some of the aspects of social cataloging and the 'hive mind' at work--including wiki-like features and tagging--and speculate about how LibraryThing can influence and work with a larger library world.

3.20-3.45pm Afternoon tea

3.45pm
Graham Young ( Editor of On Line Opinion and The National Forum )
Topic: “User-driven media - the wisdom and foolishness of crowds".
Abstract: The day of the “produsers” has arrived - both consumer and manufacturer, author and audience, enthusiasts claim that they are the future of the web. And they’re certainly capable of amazing things. Who could have predicted that a self-organising encyclopedia written almost entirely by any motivated amateur who wanted to, could have out-pointed Encyclopedia Britannica for accuracy in a test run by Nature magazine? But when it comes to news, a recent survey conducted with 1243 tech-savvy Australian respondents found that only 3% used Wikipedia, compared to 39% for the ABC, 19% for the SMH, 12% for The Age and 11% for Crikey. Is user-driven media just another fad?

4.20pm
Close: Warwick Cathro

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