2006 News Archive


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22/11/06 - Libraries Australia Forum presentations

The PowerPoint presentations used at the 2006 Libraries Australia Forum are now available on the agenda page:
http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/aum/laf06/agenda.html


04/09/06 - Libraries Australia Document Delivery Upgrade complete

Libraries Australia Document Delivery has been successfully upgraded to 2.7.4. While the core functionality has remained unchanged, several new features have been added.

New Features

Complete documentation on the new version of the service can be found on the Release Notes and in the new version of the Manual. Brief summaries of the new features can be found in the "At A Glance" documents available here - http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/manuals.html


31/08/06 - Expanding Non-Latin script cataloguing in Libraries Australia

Thai Support for Thai script cataloguing is now available in Libraries Australia

In November 2005, the National Library implemented an upgrade to the National Bibliographic Database that includes Unicode support. This has brought many benefits to the Australian library community, including the opportunity to provide a wider coverage of non-Latin script cataloguing. Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) script cataloguing has been available in the national database since 1995, and the support of Thai script represents the next phase in a staged implementation to support a wider range of community languages.

Australia is a multicultural society and many libraries reflect this diversity in their collections. In supporting these community language collections, a number of local library systems are already Unicode compliant and more are in the process of developing Unicode-based systems. Libraries Australia is taking advantage of Unicode implementation at the national and local levels and is committed to expanding bibliographic description and access to a more diverse range of languages.

Thai script was identified as the first target language because of the presence of a substantial number of bibliographic records in the national database and the existence of Thai collections in 18 local libraries. Testing of Thai script showed effective support of Thai script from data entry, searching and data exchange.

Libraries Australia will continue phasing in support of other non-Latin script cataloguing. Target languages on the horizon include Arabic, Hebrew, Tamil, Cyrillic and Greek.
For more information see


23/08/06 - Libraries Australia Document Delivery upgrade

Next week the Libraries Australia Document Delivery system will be upgraded from version 2.3.3 to 2.7.4. This upgrade includes some new features, some new reports and a new look. The base functionality of the system remains unchanged, so you won't need re-training. New functionality has been fully documented in the 'At a glance documentation' and in the updated manual (which now includes the exercises from the workbook).

While the system is being upgraded, it will be unavailable, and we suggest you use this time to log into the Training database and check out the new features that will be avilable next week..

Remember that email addresses need to moved to the notes field by the end of this week in preparation. As advised earlier, the E-Mail field within the Delivery Address in Libraries Australia Document Delivery is a system field. This field will revert to system purposes when Document Delivery is upgraded. Existing E-Mail field content for every library's address details, or user's address details (for those libraries that have separate addresses for their users) will need to be removed. Please transfer any contact details you have stored in that field to the notes field instead.

New Features

Important Dates


22/08/06 - New version of Libraries Australia

A new version of Libraries Australia was released today.

Information on the changes and enhancements made to functionality can be found here:-
http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/oldreleases.html#Release2_1_7


10/08/06 Trans Tasman Survey

On March 1, 2006, the Trans Tasman Interlending service was launched. The service enables members of Libraries Australia Document Delivery and New Zealand’s Te Puna Interloan to seamlessly request and supply interlibrary loans and copies to each other. This survey concludes on Friday 25th August.

More about the survey


27/07/06 - Expert Advisory Group to review the guidelines for the cataloguing of electronic resources

This EAG has been formed to review the Libraries Australia guidelines for cataloguing of electronic resources. The group will commence meeting via teleconference in the near future.

More information on this group can be found here: http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/EAGeres.html


14/07/06 - Libraries Australia Registrations

The Libraries Australia Forum (previously Kinetica Annual Users meeting) will be held at the University of Melbourne Law School on Friday 3 November. You can now register online for the Forum, and the associated Libraries Tour on Thursday 2 November. The Registration form is on our Website at:  http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/aum/laf06/rego.html

You will also find details of the program, associated events and details about venues and accommodation on the Website at: http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/aum/laf06/

Further information will be added in coming weeks.

We look forward to seeing you at the Libraries Australia Forum in November.

 


24/04/06 - Libraries Australia Advisory Committee nominations

Nominations are now being accepted for a new member of the Libraries Australia Advisory Committee for the period of 1 July 2006 to 31 December 2008.


27/2/06 - National Launch of Libraries Australia Free

The free Libraries Australia service was launched nationally by Senator Coonan at Parliament House attended by almost 200 guests. Flyers and posters have been distributed to all public libraries in Australia. Media Release


21/02/06 - Release 2.1 of the Libraries Australia Search Service, incorporating the Libraries Australia Free Service

Both the free service and the enhanced service will share the same web address - http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/

Those libraries that have access to Libraries Australia via a login and password see the home page for the Free service when accessing Libraries Australia Search. To access the Enhanced (subscription) service please use the Login link at the top right hand corner of the screen to input your login and password.Note that if your library uses IP authentication or a scripted login, you are taken directly to the enhanced service search screen.

Once in the enhanced service, users are able to do advanced searching, set up alerts and personalise their access, and carry out all functions. The new Free Libraries Australia enables Australians anywhere to search the Australian National Bibliographic Database and PictureAustralia, and provides options for them to locate and get items of interest to them, either through a library or via a commercial document supplier or online bookshop. The free service does not offer the same features and functionality as the enhanced service e.g. MARC records, advanced searching, alerts, enhanced requesting etc.

For those libraries who currently offer, or are considering offering, end user access to their library patrons, we encourage you to make the enhanced service available to them. The free service is also invaluable to your patrons if you can not offer remote access to the enhanced service for them. The new services' features include improvements to search results sorting and date of publication indexing, inclusion of cover art, changes to extend the availability of printing and downloading options, and access to "get this item" functionality from Alerts. Release notes for both free and enhanced services can be found on our Website at: http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/oldreleases.html#Release2_1