Peak Bodies Forum 2004

Minutes of the meeting held 10 December 2004

Council Room, National Library of Australia

Present:
Jan Fullerton National Library (Chair)
Warwick Cathro National Library
Jasmine Cameron National Library
Evelyn Woodberry Council of Australian University Librarians
Anne-Marie Schwirtlich Council of Australian State Libraries
Lynn Fletcher TAFE Libraries Australia
Jennefer Nicholson ALIA
Imogen Garner ALIA
Joanne Longley Australian Law Librarians' Group
Kym Holden Australian Government Libraries Information Network
Pru Mitchell Australian School Libraries Association
Brian Plummer Public Libraries Australia
Ross Harvey Charles Sturt University, representing library educators
Mary Peterson Health Libraries Australia
Roslynn Membrey Australasian Parliamentary Libraries Association
Sarah Waladan Australian Libraries Copyright Committee
Roxanne Missingham National Library
Pam Gatenby National Library
Sandra Henderson National Library (minutes)

Apologies: Andrew Wells (CAUL); Rosemary McLauchlan (Information Online Group)

1. Review of Action Items from 2003 meeting.

1. That the National Library and CAUL ensure communication about the DEST projects reaches the wider library community, to assist in the integration of results into other library sectors (NLA ; CAUL).
The NLA has publicised the projects in several meetings and newsletters. The project managers have also given some presentations. Further promotion will be carried out as the projects proceed. Jennefer Nicholson will alert the editor of InCite that coverage of progress could be an ongoing item in InCite.

CAUL provides regular updates to CAUL, CAUDIT and ACODE which are distributed widely. All projects have websites (listed below). The ADT which has been active for some years regularly features on national and international conference programmes.

For the benefit of those not familiar with the DEST projects, Warwick Cathro gave a quick overview. The projects are:

2. The National Library will convene a Roundtable on the issue of national site licensing in the second half of 2004 (NLA).
The roundtable was held 8 December and is on the agenda as a separate item.

3. The National Library, CAUL and CASL will undertake research into current licensing principles and practices, and into the feasibility of determining a basic set of national electronic resources (NLA ; CAUL ; CASL).
This action falls into the outcomes of the site licensing forum, and much of this work in covered by the action items from that meeting.

4. The National Library and CAUL will examine the issues around evaluation of e-resources, and particularly the use of COUNTER to measure the use of such resources (NLA ; CAUL).
The NLA is using other means to measure use of electronic resources, and reports through its Balanced Scorecard system. There is at present very uneven use of COUNTER measures by e-resource vendors, making it not as useful as it could be. The NLA continues to moniter COUNTER developments, and may make more use of this tool in the future. CAUL is a member of COUNTER, and Diane Costello represents CAUL at COUNTER meetings. CAUL, through CEIRC, encourages all vendors to consider COUNTER compliance as an element in its Checklist for Vendor Negotiations.

5. ALIA will host a Round Table on government publications during 2004. The National Library will assist (ALIA).
The roundtable is planned for April 2005, in Sydney. Mary Peterson, Joanna Longley and Brian Plummer said that there is currently a high demand for government information through health, law and public libraries, so the issue is of particular concern in those library sectors. The government is referring people to public libraries, but access to the documents is not always easy. The issue is not at present on the political agenda, and there was support for taking steps to raise this issue with the Minister for Finance (AGIMO (Australian Government Information Management Office) is now within the Finance portfolio). The National Library agreed to provide a statement on the issue, but it would also be useful for individual libraries to add specific examples.

ACTION
1. The National Library of Australia to develop a short statement outlining the issues facing libraries in providing the public with access to Commonwealth Government publications. This statement is to be used by the public, law, health and TAFE library sectors as part of an advocacy campaign to raise awareness within the Commonwealth Government of the issues. A list of relevant Ministers and departmental secretaries will be provided for the campaign.

6. The National Library will distribute a scoping paper on newspaper digitisation (NLA).
A paper has been circulated to the CASL working group, but will not be distributed further until more work has been done on identification of possible funding sources. Work is proceeding on development of a LIEF (ARC Linkage - Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities) grant application with some higher education institutions, with the aim of digitising nine major daily newspapers from inception to the start of the copyright-restricted period. The opportunities for NCRIS (National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy)involvement is also being explored. The February conference on newspapers being convened by the NLA in conjunction with the IFLA Section on Newspapers was mentioned.
Roslynn Membrey asked if there have been any approaches to newspaper publishers, and the it was confirmed that the NLA is exploring this as well.

7. The National Library will prepare a simple information package on the management of publications for long-term access (NLA).
The National Library has prepared information, and this was available at the meeting. Documents and sites of interest include:

During the past year the National Library also prepared two information kits for community groups wanting to preserve documents they hold. These are available in printed form upon request, or are available online

8. The National Library, CAUL and CASL should seek to be involved in the NSCF meeting to be held in early 2004 (NLA ; CAUL ; CASL).
A number of staff from these groups attended the meeting.

9. All Peak Bodies representatives to urge their organisations and members to contact State and Federal parliamentary members to express support for the recommendations of the report [Libraries in the online environment], and to urge a timely response from the Federal Government (All Forum members and constituents).
10. Public Libraries Australia members should promote the recommendations of the Senate report to local and state governments (PLA).
11. ALIA will convene cross-sectoral discussions on the report in each state (ALIA).

It appears that no funding will be made available at this stage, although the report remains valuable.

12. ALIA will produce an information sheet on the possible copyright implications of the Free Trade Agreement negotiations (ALIA).
Information was made available and regularly updated on the ALIA site. http://alia.org.au/advocacy/inquiries/detail.php?ID=18

13. The National Library will liaise with the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee to define what information should be compiled to support future review (NLA).
The Free Trade Agreement discussions have dominated ALCC discussions this year. It may be possible to revisit this issue at a later time.

14. The National Library will make available on its website information about its collection valuation procedures and policies (NLA).
This information has been prepared but is being checked for audit compliance by the Library's Corporate Services area. It has been supplied upon request to several organisations.

15. The National Library will write to the Independent Scholars Association of Australia, recommending they liaise with CAUL about the issues relating to access to research resources (NLA).
Correspondence between the National Library, CAUL and the Independent Scholars Association has been reproduced in the meeting papers. There was some progress on the issue, and many universities allow walk-in access to on-line databases as well as the print collections.

16. The National Library will ensure the issue of access to electronic resources by independent scholars is on the agenda for the site licensing Round Table (NLA).
This issue was discussed at the site licensing meeting. While many licences permit walk-in access, there are problems with remote access by non-affiliated users.

17. The National Library will invite a representative of library educators to Peak Bodies meetings in the future (NLA).
Done. Ross Harvey is attending the 2004 meeting.

18. Professor Kirk will report back to the group about the Peak Bodies meetings (Joyce Kirk).

19. The National Library will convene annual meetings of the Peak Bodies Forum (NLA).
Done

2. Kinetica
Roxanne Missingham provided a short demonstration of Libraries Australia, which was launched on December 8 as the first stage of Kinetica redevelopment.

Mary Peterson asked whether the system could interface with GratisNet. Roxanne indicated that while the Library has held discussions with GratisNet, at the present time GratisNet accept output from the new service. In response to a query about access by individuals, the meeting was assured that work on this was continuing and there are currently a small number of individual subscribers.

Mary Peterson also asked whether it is possible to add additional databases to an individual library's profile in Libraries Australia. Roxanne replied that discussions are being held with, for example, Informit about this. Roxanne also indicated that the NLA is happy to go out to meetings in regional areas to promote Libraries Australia.

3. Site Licensing
The site licensing forum held two days before the Peak Bodies meeting had been a very successful event, with positive discussions about ways to move forward on this issue. Six action items were agreed, and these are:

  1. The National Library of Australia will convene a meeting of existing consortia in mid-2005 to consider the establishment of an annual forum for the exchange of information and discussion of issues of mutual concern at the national level.
  2. The meeting in mid-2005 will consider the establishment of an annual roundtable between consortia, vendors and publishers to discuss issues such as licensing, access levels, copyright and pricing structures.
  3. The Australian Government Libraries Information Network will facilitate a reference group of existing consortia who will develop a proposal for a core set of Australian electronic resources for a self-funded national site license, to be provided through the library sector to its users. The reference group will also define the audience for this core dataset.
  4. The Australian Library and Information Association will develop a strategy for promotion to the public of the availability of electronic resources in libraries.
  5. The Australian Library and Information Association will continue to pursue the inclusion of library interests in the National Broadband Strategy as recommended in the Senate ECITA report Libraries in the online environment (Recommendation 7).
  6. The Australian Library and Information Association will develop a strategy for increasing the awareness amongst library staff of electronic resources and for providing training to support library staff in the use of these resources.

4. National Resource Sharing Working Group
The National Resource Sharing Working Group met for the last time in 2004, and a list of issues to be addressed was developed.

The National Library will convene a roundtable in 2005 about resource sharing, and Libraries Australia is likely to renew interest in the issues. Eve Woodberry said there is a general feeling in CAUL that work on issues such as the ILRS Code should be the responsibility of the National Library because of its close links with National Library infrastructure.

Eve also said that another issue for the roundtable to consider is the effect user expectations are having on interlibrary loan services.

5. Copyright
Sarah Waladan joined the meeting for discussion of this item, and spoke about the effects of the Free Trade Agreement and the report of the review of the Digital Agenda Act.

Major FTA provisions impacting on libraries are:

  • The extension of copyright from 50 to 70 years
  • The carriage service provider implications
  • The potential for impact of the provisions concerning technological protection measures.

The report of the DAA review was pushed into the background by the FTA negotiations, and some aspects have been superseded by the FTA. There has been no government response to the DAA review report.

In response to a question about fair use, Sarah said the ALCC will continue to lobby the Government to make it broader to counteract the negative impact of the more restrictive conditions imposed by the FTA. The Government response to date is encouraging.

Jennefer Nicholson said that it would be useful if the ALCC can publicise the FTA implications, through training and meetings. Mary Peterson said it is essential to make this a national campaign.

ACTION
2. The Australian Libraries Copyright Committee Board to meet early in 2005 to develop a strategy for educating library staff on the practical implications of the Free trade Agreement.

Anne-Marie Schwirtlich asked if current library courses address this issue. Ross Harvey said content on this issue was minimal. Lynn Fletcher said there has been an information package developed in the VET sector, and she will provide details. Jennefer Nicholson said ALIA will endeavour to link to all relevant information from their website.

6. Collections Council of Australia
This is a new body, and Anne-Marie Schwirtlich is on the board in an ex officio capacity as she Chairs CASL. Anne-Marie reported that the aims of the Council are very broad, but the funding level is low. She provided some information about the other board members.

The next meeting of the Council is scheduled for February 2005. Anne-Marie sought feedback from the Peak Bodies Forum about the sector's interest in the work of the Council, and issues she should take to the Council. The Senate report on the Role of Libraries in the Online Environment is an obvious source of issues for the agenda.

There is a view that libraries are generally well organised and not needing outside assistance. Initial observations are that the Council's collections focus is on cultural heritage, and 3-dimensional objects. Collections access is a cross-sectoral issue which could be put on the agenda.

Warwick Cathro asked if the Council had any relationship with the Collections Australia Network (CAN), but it appears that there is no relationship between the two.

ACTION
Collections Council of Australia: representation of library sector interests
3. The recommendations of the report of the Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee's Inquiry into libraries in the online environment be promoted as the core set of issues of interest to the Australian library sector (Ms Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, Chair of the Council of Australian State Libraries).

7. Visual Arts Forum
The National Library convened the Visual Arts Forum in May 2004, in response to a request from the visual arts sector. The Forum was preceded by a survey of visual arts libraries, which gave a broad picture of the sector and the issues of concern. Key areas of concern were Indexes and databases, and Digitisation. These were explored further in workshops at the NLA in late October.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the indexes and databases area. There are a number of small data collections which could go on to the NBD if resources for this were available. Some of the issues may be able to be met by enhancement of the Australian Libraries Gateway, and further work on identification of software for indexing.

Many visual arts libraries would like to get involved in digitisation, but progress is slow because of the disparate nature of the sector's libraries.

8. Archiving Web Resources conference
Pam Gatenby spoke about the recent web archiving conference. It was a very successful event, with 200 registrants from 22 countries. Key outcomes for the National Library were given in the paper for this item. Work on the audit of activities will start in 2005 with government publications, and some methods for thematic harvesting will also be investigated if resources permit. Action Two is already in the Library's Information Technology Plan, and will be done in early 2005. An account of the conference appeared in a blog by Axel Bruns (http://snurb.info/ ).

9. NPLAN
Pam Gatenby introduced this item. The National Library is responsible for NPLAN. All state libraries have been making steady progress with microfilming. There is a significant retrospective backlog, with an estimated microfilming cost of about $20 million. There are concerns about the quality and preservation status of some of the earlier NPLAN microfilm, and it is hoped a survey of key titles can be undertaken. There is also concern about the housing of some of the microfilm masters - these may in be poor environmental conditions, or be in unknown locations. The ongoing storage of paper copies is an issue because of the space requirements.

There is a five-year plan to raise the profile of NPLAN. There is a new website and a survey of key titles not yet microfilmed by the state libraries is to be done. The digitisation of newspapers is a crucial issue for the future. Eve Woodberry asked about storage of digitised newspapers and Warwick Cathro said that this is still being explored, but the initial idea was to store these centrally. Jasmine Cameron added that there are no plans to digitise current newspapers, only those out of copyright.

10. Public Libraries Australia
Brian Plummer updated the Forum on PLA developments. A new board was elected in July, and MOUs have been signed with CASL and ALIA. There are now 115 members, including 89 institutional members, and state subcommittees have been formed. They will assist with recruitment of local members.

Current projects include work of defining the roles of ALIA and PLA in the public library sector, advocacy, and establishing partnerships with local government.

Jan Fullerton expressed disappointment that PLA had not been represented at the site licensing forum, and Brian said PLA needed to find more people willing to share the representative work. Jan also said it was important that PLA become a truly national body, and Brian believes the state subcommittees will assist in this.

There was general support for the PLA and the need for it to become a strong and representative voice for public libraries. With libraries operating at all three levels of government, the local level is important.

11. CASL Information Access Forum
This Forum was held in Adelaide in October. Warwick Cathro provided a summary of the proceedings. The CASL Forum is aiming to improve the 'finding' and 'getting' parts of the infrastructure for the general public, using the mythical 'Joan from Gilgandra' who, in her research of the Cooee marches, needs to interact with a variety of local and other information providers. A key aspect is identification of the barriers Joan will encounter, which include complex interfaces, delays in accessing information, costs and the widespread nature of the relevant information. A set of recommendations arising from that Forum will go to CASL. Possible avenues include:

  • Sharing of information on website design, usability and testing
  • Sharing of guides to Internet resources
  • Exploration of ways of federating the searching of library catalogues and databases
  • How the Libraries Australia service might best be utilised to improve user services
  • Better use of document supply networks
  • More consultation with public libraries about document supply issues
  • Better information sharing about digitisation projects
  • A common application to manage aspects of online reference services

The aim is to have an action plan developed for consideration by the March CASL meeting.

12. Education for librarianship
Ross Harvey spoke about the common issues addressed by the two agenda papers on this topic.

One concern is the age profile of library educators, and the quite different educational requirements for practitioners and academics.

There has been a trend for library schools to be downgraded within tertiary institutions, and there is now only one stand-alone school. This means that in many cases there is ineffective advocacy within institutions by the library school, and more schools are likely to close in the next few years. The library educators now have an active discussion list, and are working more cooperatively than in the past.

Distance education is becoming more common, and a situation where some core subjects are offered by this means, supplemented by local teaching of more specialised subjects, may develop. This model is being developed in Tasmania and Darwin.

Jennefer Nicholson commented that some institutions are not filling LIS academic positions as they fall vacant. ALIA is convening a forum in 2005 to bring employers and educators together.

Pru Mitchell brought up the issue of mentoring. With practitioners very busy, there is often reluctance to accept students for workplace training. There is also an increasing tendency for unqualified people to be appointed to teacher-librarian positions (ie, they are teachers but not librarians). Attracting librarians into teacher-librarianship is a problem. The fact that Charles Sturt University is now producing most of the teacher-librarians may be an issue, in that this course may not produce graduates suited to the varying needs of all the state and territory education systems.

Jennefer said the recent New Librarians Symposium had attracted 260 people, and ALIA has established a New Generation Advisory group, to provide advice to the ALIA board.

Mary Peterson said that some special libraries were seen as desirable workplaces by young librarians. Her own library receives many resumes from people seeking work.

Several people asked if there was any way of implementing cadetships or traineeships, because there was interest in this. Lynn Fletcher commented that the announcement of the closure of the University of Canberra course had generated increased interest in the Canberra Institute of Technology course.

ACTION
4. The Australian Library and Information Association to develop a strategy for on-going discussions between library employers and educators on the best way to ensure professional courses continue to exist and continue to serve the needs of employers and students.

13. CASL
There was no discussion of the paper.

14. CAUL
14. CAUL Eve Woodberry suggested that Forum members look at the AUQA (Australian Universities Quality Agency) site, which includes copies of reports from those universities which have been audited to date. The AUQA site http://auqa.edu.au/ includes an 'AUQA Good Practice Database' which contains information on library practices identified as being worthy of note. Jan Fullerton asked if there is any scope for a more formal relationship between CASL and CEIRC. Eve recommended that libraries interested in joining CEIRC should look at the website which includes guidelines for members. Previous discussions between CEIRC and CASL had identified problem areas including those of defining the user base, and identifying suitable datasets. CEIRC is open to further discussions with CASL.

15. Other business
Business for the next meeting

  • ASLA-ALIA Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians
  • Benchmarking
  • Digital repositories
  • Open archiving/self archiving
  • Education

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