37th Annual Report 1996-97
National Leadership and
Coordination
Objectives
- To provide leadership to the Australian system of libraries and information services and work with other institutions in the national interest.
- To foster the development of effective and equitable Australian library and information services.
As the Director-General noted in his review of the year, the emerging electronic networked environment has profoundly affected the Library's national leadership role. This is nowhere better seen than in the wide range of national activities undertaken during the year concerning access to information in electronic format.
The Library has been active on several fronts. Firstly, on the broad policy level, we collaborated with a range of external bodies to promote a national approach to improving the infrastructure of access to networked information of all kinds. Secondly, in the context of Australian electronic publishing, the Library addressed a series of significant policy issues for libraries arising from the electronic environment, such as legal deposit; access conditions, including copyright; and preservation.
Building on these developments, the Library collaborated internationally on issues such as resource discovery, development of standards (for example, metadata standards) and the organisation of Internet resources.
The infrastructure of access to information
The Library regards access to library resources for all Australians as a key strategic direction, fulfilling our objective to foster the development of effective and equitable library services. At the same time, we recognise the range of pressures requiring all Australian libraries to operate with increased efficiency, and, as a consequence, the value of effective cooperation between libraries in collection development, document supply and preservation. The Library believes that one of the keys to realising this objective is the development of appropriate policies in support of an efficient national network-based library infrastructure linking together different library sectors such as State, university, government and special libraries.
The Library initiated a range of collaborative projects dealing with national collecting issues. These included discussions with the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, to develop better access to chemistry information in print and electronic form. Also with CAUL, the Library took part in a research project to examine integrated document access in an electronic environment (funded by the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs), and a joint project to define the extent of overseas print monograph collecting by Australian research libraries. The Library obtained funding from several organisations to undertake a survey of the academic and business community's need for information about Korea. The Library also continued to provide advice and assistance to the South Asia: Renovating the National Collection project funded by the Australian Research Council and La Trobe University.
These projects illustrate the scope of the distributed national collection concept, which the Library continues to support. The Library's May 1997 submission to the Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy (West Review) analysed the place of the distributed national collection concept in a cooperative national library and information infrastructure, expressing the view that such an infrastructure is a key foundation of the higher education system.
In addition to these activities, the Library was involved in government information policy through its representation on several important working groups and policy-making bodies:
- the Deputy Director-General chaired the Information Management Steering Committee of the Commonwealth Government Information Services Policy Board, which reported in May to the Chief Government Information Officer on the principles, strategies and responsibilities for the distribution of and access to government information;
- the Library collaborated with the Office of Government Information Technology on determining the best mechanisms for improved and integrated access to government information via the Internet;
- the Deputy Director-General was a member of the new Information Policy Advisory Council, established in late 1996 by the Minister for Communications and the Arts, to report on online infrastructure and services development in rural and regional Australia;
- the Library is leading a working group to advise the Online
Government Council
(a CommonwealthState body) on the effective delivery of government information and business services via the Internet, covering Commonwealth, State and local governments; - Library staff were involved in a reference group of the Australian Law Reform Commission review of the Archives Act 1983.
The Library is increasingly involved in externally funded collaborative projects, bidding for funding with institutional partners. Late in the year the Library was advised that it had been successful in obtaining funding to develop a Libraries Sectoral Network as part of the Australia's Cultural Network project.
The Library also received funding in June from the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee's Standing Committee on Information Research, to work on projects in partnership with several other institutions on new standards for catalogue access and the further development of metadata standards.
Electronic information: challenge and opportunity
In addition to addressing the broader infrastructure aspects of access to information from all sources, the Library addressed several important policy issues arising from the electronic environment which affect our national responsibility to collect Australian materials. While it is apparent that this emerging form will never completely displace traditional paper-based publishing technologies, it raises significant and associated issues which need to be addressed: legal deposit; access conditions, including copyright and fair dealing; and preservation.
To initiate debate on these points the Library issued a major position paper in October, National Strategy for the Provision of Access to Australian Electronic Publications. The position paper made 15 recommendations for a national-level approach to the issues of access, deposit, copyright and description as they pertain to the new electronic environment, and invited comments from the Australian library and information community. There was a very positive response and support for a national approach to these issues.
In addition to seeking national collaboration on policy issues, the Library continued its work on addressing the practical and technical issues for libraries in dealing with publications in electronic format. The PANDORA (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia) project was established to determine the feasibility of storing and preserving Australian electronic publications which never appear in print form, and which at present fall outside legal deposit provisions. The Library has established contact with the creators of selected electronic publications and is investigating the technical requirements for storage and preservation of these materials. In recognition of the importance of the project as a model for future development, the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee's Electronic Working Group provided funding of $100,000 in April for the PANDORA project.
The emergence of distributed network structures via the Internet has also brought with it the opportunity to improve access to Australia's print-based documentary resources, especially unique special collections of archives and manuscripts. During the year the Library collaborated with a range of other collecting institutions to develop an electronic Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts. When complete, this database will provide enhanced access at the national level to several thousand collections of personal papers and organisational records held in a wide range of Australian institutional repositories. The register replaces the printed Guide to Manuscripts relating to Australia which the Library published between 1965 and 1995. In its new electronic form, the register will be simpler and less costly to produce, and is expected over time to carry entries for a much greater body of material. The register is mounted on the Library's information server and is accessible to remote users through the Internet.
In another project of this nature, the Library assumed responsibility for and completed the compilation of the Directory of Oral History Collections, a collaborative project, managed by a committee representing a number of Australian collecting institutions, to provide access to oral history collections throughout the country. The directory itself will be published in print form and will ultimately be available as a database on the National Library server. It is expected that the directory will provide details of the oral history collections of around 450 Australian institutions.
Copyright
Noting the importance of copyright issues in the electronic environment, the Library continued to support initiatives of the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS) to uphold the rights of library users to have reasonable access to information, including information in electronic form. The Library made comments on the Simpson Report on Copyright Collecting Societies and on the International Publishers Association's Libraries, Copyright and the Electronic Environment, and responded to the issues papers produced by the Copyright Law Review Committee as they became available.
To assist the Library's own staff in dealing with the complexities of the Copyright Act 1968 in the new electronic environment, we issued the publication National Library of Australia Copyright Guidelines, which sets out in a clear and simple style the internal policy and procedures Library staff should follow to comply with the Act as it currently stands.
International standards initiatives
The Library has traditionally taken a strong role in the development of international bibliographic standards (for example, cataloguing rules for printed materials). We are now taking a leading role in the international discussion of metadata standardsthat is, a system to describe and index electronic documents on the Internet. In March, the Library hosted the Fourth International Dublin Core Workshop on metadata, in partnership with the Ohio Center for Library Cooperation and the Distributed Systems Technology Centre. The meeting was an important step in reaching international agreement on the shape and content of the metadata elements which will form the international standard for Internet indexing. In order to introduce these issues to the Australian library community, the Library also held, in association with the Dublin Core Workshop, the first Australian metadata seminar, in which a large audience covering the library, museum, archives and government information and commercial sectors heard a range of international speakers illustrate the importance of metadata and its application.
Collaboration in preservation
The Library again administered the popular Community Heritage Grants program, which provides funding to community organisations Australia-wide for the preservation of documentary material of national significance. The Department of Communications and the Arts contributed $50 000 to the program. Twenty-eight applicants (out of 198) were successful in obtaining grants in 1996: these were announced in September 1996, and awarded at a ceremony in November, with part sponsorship from Ansett Australia. Applications for the 1997 Community Heritage Grants program were invited in May 1997.
This community-oriented approach to preservation issues complements the Library's work in developing national strategies for the preservation of Australian works in electronic form. As noted above, a growing amount of electronic publishing will never appear in print form, and must be captured and preserved in its digital form as a legitimate part of the nation's recorded culture. In support of this initiative, and taking a national approach to the problem, the Library chaired a working group on Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI), with members from a range of Commonwealth organisations and sectors. In January, the Library launched a Web site providing guidance for preserving access to information in digital form, or 'digital objects'. Further development of the site has resulted in it being widely acknowledged as an authoritative resource.
Notwithstanding our keen interest in exploring the potential of digital technology for preservation reformatting, the Library remains committed to preservation microfilming as the major storage medium for fragile print collections. The Library published the proceedings of the National Preservation Office's 1995 conference, Multimedia Preservation: Capturing the Rainbow.
Collaboration with other national bodies
As the national issues with which the Library deals cross the spectrum of cultural and educational concerns, so also have the Library's relationships with external bodies broadened. The Library is engaged with an increasing range of professional, academic and government groups.
The Library continued to host and provide financial support to ACLIS, a peak body representing Australian libraries. The Library also made a financial contribution to the ACLIS/ALIA/NLA Strategic Review of Library Coordination and Representation, which was conducted during the year to review the structures of ALIA and ACLIS and present options for the most effective organisational structure for the sector. The review recommended that a single peak body represent the library industry, based on the ALIA infrastructure. As a result, the Library's financial support for ACLIS will cease at the end of the 199798 year.
Other organisations and groups with whom the Library liaised and worked during the year, some of whom have already been mentioned above, include:
- Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee
- Academies
- Council of Australian University Librarians
- Council of Australian State Libraries
- Cultural Ministers Council working groups and committees
- Australian Research Council
- Australian Archives
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
- National Museum of Australia
- National Film and Sound Archive
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