National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568
No. 23
September 1996


Contents

National Library of Australia Gateways was edited and designed by Leora Kirwan using desktop publishing software. Please address any comments or enquiries to:

The Editor, Gateways
National Bibliographic Publications
National Library of Australia
CANBERRA A.C.T. 2600
(email lkirwan@nla.gov.au)

All articles in this publication may be reproduced without written permission on the condition that their source is clearly acknowledged.

National Library of Australia Gateways is issued bimonthly and prepared by the Services to Libraries Division of the National Library of Australia. Subscriptions are available on application at the rate of $40.00 p.a. from:

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Tel.: (02) 6262 1646 Fax: 61 6 273 1084


IMAGES 1

In August the National Library of Australia launched a new service to Australia and beyond-the remarkable 'image gallery' on the World Wide Web. Images 1 is the most comprehensive service of its kind in Australia with more than
13 500 of the library's own pictorial works already available.

Visitors can explore a gallery of online images from paintings, drawings and objects to rare prints. Expert cataloguing enables those searching for a particular image to find it quickly and easily through multiple access points. Visitors can then fill out and print the online forms and request the reproductions by mail.

Australian National University academic, Dr Elizabeth Findlay, compiler of the link site OZArt which pulls together 500 Australian art sites on the Web, said of the National Library site:

'Images 1 is an exciting innovation, exploiting the promise and potential of the World Wide Web. It is a pioneering, exemplary model to be followed by other institutions. Images 1 is extensive and easy to use, making it a very important search tool.'

The great strength of the online collection is in Australian historical images-native flora and fauna, the voyages of explorers like Captain Cook, prime ministers, famous and ordinary Australians, historical events and the Australian way of life. There are many contemporary images as well as pictures on the exploration of New Zealand and the Pacific.

Best of all, and unlike many other art sites, it is fully indexed.

Images 1 project leader, Pam Gatenby, says: 'This is a major first step in making our collections truly national and available to everyone. Australian and overseas publishers, art historians, students, curators, journalists, scholars and the general public will no longer have to visit the National Library to discover the rich diversity of our collections.'

[Lin Utyzon]



You can investigate the Images 1 site on: http://www.nla.gov.au/images1/

For further information, please contact: Gillian Gregory Acting Manager, Public Affairs, tel. (02) 6262 1338, fax: (02) 6273 5483

RIGHT: Ceramic artist Lin Utzon, Sydney 1995.
Photo: Greg Weight




Advanced electronic document delivery

Australian libraries will soon be able to receive, via email, a copy of a journal article that is held in another library anywhere in Australia thanks to a new enterprise of the National Library of Australia.

The National Library, in partnership with the National Library of New Zealand, the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) and the United Kingdom's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), has commissioned the development of electronic document delivery software for use with email over the Internet.

This group steering the JEDDS (Joint Electronic Document Delivery Software) Project is led by the AVCC, and has contracted the Research Libraries Group (RLG) in California to further develop RLG's Ariel document transmission system.

'Our aim is to provide library users in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA with better access to documents held in library collections within each country and internationally by the use of electronic delivery over the Internet,' says Warwick Cathro, Assistant Director-General, Services to Libraries Division, National Library of Australia.

JEDDS/Ariel is software which enables a PC with Internet connection, scanner, and printer to digitise documents on demand and act as a document transmission station.

'Not only is it faster than a fax, but it also sends and receives much higher-quality images without incurring long-distance phone charges,' says Dr Cathro.

Ariel currently uses the TCP/IP File Transfer Protocol (FTP) which largely limits its use to library-to-library transmission. The focus of the enhancements is to allow transmission direct to the desktop of the end user, by employing 'store and forward' email technology and standard protocols (MIME, GEDI). This will enable documents to be received and viewed on a widely available range of standard platforms using public domain software. Ariel will also be enhanced, using ISO international standards, to enable it to communicate easily with WORLD 1 and with library interlending and document management systems. Further enhancements to facilitate compliance with copyright law will also be included.

In parallel with the development, the partners will work with Australasian and international standards bodies to ensure the upgraded Ariel complies with the developing standards in electronic document delivery.

The software will be developed in stages to enable individual services to be released as soon as possible. Stage one will provide electronic document delivery between libraries via email, using the MIME protocol. The design specifications from RLG for this stage have been accepted and development is on schedule for release within six months.

The National Library of Australia and each of the other partners will receive a site license for the developed software and all new versions of the JEDDS/Ariel software released by RLG over the next five years, and will be able to onsell the software to their clients.

'The JEDDS project complements the work of the NDIS project which is delivering WORLD 1, our new online system,' says Dr Cathro.

RLG president James Michalko says, 'The JEDDS partners share the same vision of improved resource sharing and information delivery straight to the student or scholar. Together we will get there faster.'

For further information, please contact: Warwick Cathro, Assistant Director-General, Services to Libraries Division, NLA, Tel: (06) 262 1484; or Charu Sood, Director, Interlending Services, NLA, Tel: (02) 6262 1265

Australian Committee on Cataloguing

The Australian Committee on Cataloguing (ACOC) met at the National Library on 19 August, and here are the highlights:

Australian thesaurus

ACOC discussed the results of the survey of thesaurus usage in Australian libraries. The survey, conducted for ACOC by AIMA Training and Consultancy Services, identified the three widely-used Australian thesauri as being the APAIS Thesaurus and the two lists of Australian additions and changes to Library of Congress Subject Headings. A large number of subject-specific thesauri are used by a very small number of libraries, for specialised indexing activities.

The results of the survey did not suggest that there was a need to develop a new Australian thesaurus. However, the results did confirm the value of consolidating the two Australian supplements to LCSH: ALIA's List of Australian Subject Headings (LASH) and ABN's additions and changes to LCSH (ABN Subject Authorities). Following an agreement between ALIA and ACOC in 1995, these two lists are being combined under the supervision of the ABN Subject Headings Review Panel.

ACOC noted with pleasure that the forthcoming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander thesaurus will use the ABN list of Australian languages, which is based on the database used at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. ACOC expressed support for developers of thesauri to strive for consistency with other thesauri where this was appropriate, to facilitate cross database searching.

IFLA study

ACOC considered the IFLA study of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. The study recommends the basic requirements for national bibliographic records, based on a thorough examination of the functions of bibliographic records for finding, identifying, selecting and obtaining publications. ACOC was very supportive of the work so far, and will send its comments to IFLA.

Future of AACR

The many detailed revisions to AACR2 are now being finalised, in particular revisions which will assist the cataloguing of computer files. A consolidated list of amendments to AACR2 will be printed. In addition, an electronic version of AACR2 is being prepared.

Having addressed most of the detailed revisions to AACR2, the Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR (JSC) has reached the stage where the outstanding revisions are all very broad in nature. An international conference on the principles and future development of AACR will be held in Toronto, Canada in September 1997. The conference will be attended by about 40 invitees, with Australia being represented by Ann Huthwaite who is ACOC's representative on JSC. The conference will address the following broad issues, with specially commissioned and refereed papers: 'content versus carrier' relationships between bibliographic entities; the concepts of 'work' and 'publication'; the issues of main entry and entry under corporate body; and the relationship of the rules to the form of catalogue technology (including metadata and MARC formats). The documentation for the conference will be made available for consultation on the Web.

Dewey

With the publication of DDC 21st edition, planning is under way for the 22nd edition. Giles Martin, who is ACOC's representative on the Editorial Policy Committee for the Decimal Classification, reported that areas being considered for revision include 100 Philosophy and psychology, 610 Medical sciences and 800 Literature. During the preparation for the 22nd edition, ACOC will endeavour to discover any revisions which would improve access to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander subjects and culture.

Further information is available from ACOC members: Pam Dunlop (Chair), Helen Hoffmann, Ann Huthwaite, Giles Martin, Susanne Moir, Chris Taylor, Janet Thorp and Julia Trainor. The next meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Monday 5 May 1997. ACOC's Internet home page may be found at http://www.nla.gov.au:80/lis/stndrds/grps/acoc/acoc.html

New Regional Officer in Asia

[Oliver Mann]

ABOVE: Oliver Mann (right) with Doctorandus Aman Tarigan of Nusa Cendana University, Kupang, Indonesia

Oliver Mann has been chosen to succeed Amelia McKenzie as the National Library's Regional Officer, Asia, based in Jakarta, when Amelia completes her three-year posting to Indonesia at the end of 1996. The Regional Officer is responsible for acquisition and liaison functions in Indonesia and neighbouring Asian countries on behalf of the National Library and other Australian libraries.

Oliver has a strong background in Indonesian and other Southeast Asian library matters. He is currently Research Services Coordinator at the Northern Territory University Library, Darwin. His responsibilities include providing expertise on the Southeast Asian and north Australian region, and contributing to information skills programs, particularly on Southeast Asia. He manages specialised services to support research, including the INTAN MAS database and the ATAS satellite broadcast facility. INTAN MAS is a database on the provinces of eastern Indonesia from Lombok to Irian Jaya, and on Australia's relations with ASEAN and its member nations. He also coordinates the University Library's international activities.

During 1994 Oliver was Research Fellow in Australian-Southeast Asian Relations at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, where he further developed the INTAN MAS database. He has played a strong role in developing the Northern Territory University Library's Southeast Asian collections. He has also been active in cooperation with eastern Indonesia and other regional libraries. He has travelled widely to in Asia, and is the author of numerous papers and articles.

Memory of the World Conference, Oslo, 3-5 June 1996

The Norwegian National Commission for UNESCO hosted the first Memory of the World Conference, in Oslo, Norway, from 3-5 June 1996. More than 150 participants from 65 countries attended this very successful meeting. Many of the participants were from developing countries and their presence was made possible through the generous support of the Norwegian National Commission for UNESCO. Representatives from several Asian countries attended but there were no participants from the Pacific Island countries.

Background

The Memory of the World Program was launched in 1992 by UNESCO to protect and promote the world's documentary heritage. In very general terms the program aims to:

Australia has played a significant role in establishing the foundations of this important and ambitious program. On behalf of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Jan Lyall accepted the task of preparing the program's guidelines. She was assisted by Stephen Foster and Roslyn Russell from Australian Heritage Projects and Duncan Marshall, a heritage consultant. With the help of numerous national and international individuals and organisations, Jan Lyall also conducted a worldwide survey to examine current preserv-ation activities and to identify significant documentary heritage.

The Memory of the World Program will operate in a manner similar to the World Heritage Convention. Documentary heritage is to be nominated to an international committee for listing on a world register. Strict selection criteria are to be applied and only material deemed to be of international significance will be placed on the register. Once on the register, projects aimed at preserving and providing access to this internationally significant documentary heritage can be undertaken. Because of the opportunities offered by digital technologies, many of these Memory of the World projects will involve digitisation. A technical subcommittee has been established to develop technical standards and recommendations for digitising. Another subcommittee is examining existing methods and standards for preserving traditional materials.

Funds to carry out the projects may come from UNESCO or from other sources. Owing to the limited funds available from UNESCO it is envisaged that the developing countries will probably derive the greatest financial benefit from UNESCO. For countries such as Australia, the advantage of having collections or items registered on the Memory of the World list, is not that funds will be made available from UNESCO, but that there is likely to be a greater chance of gaining commercial sponsorships for projects. Listing will bring with it an acknowledgement of significance. It is hoped that this recognition will also assist in obtaining funds from governments.

The conference

The conference got off to an impressive start with a dramatic opening by Ms Ase Kleveland, the Norwegian Minister for Cultural Affairs. From beginning to end the Norwegian commitment to the program was evident: all speakers, including the Minister, emphasised the need to preserve and provide access to the world's documentary heritage. Many examples were given of what is happening in Norway and how Norway is assisting other countries.

Jan Lyall, in delivering the keynote lecture on the first day, provided a broad overview of the program. Papers presented at the conference ranged across preservation activities in various parts of the world, technical issues, access through the Internet, legal issues, world priorities, to a fascinating session where the pilot projects, conducted with funds from the Memory of the World Fund, were demonstrated.

One of the most interesting pilot projects is being carried out at the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague. A digitisation program was launched by the library in cooperation with a private firm, Albertina Ltd. A demon-stration CD-ROM was first published in 1993, featuring some of the most precious manuscripts and other collections in the Czech National Library, with annotations in the vernacular, English and French. In addition, a CD-ROM series has started, with the release of the first two disks in early May 1995. Digitising the most beautiful manuscripts and old prints of the library will improve access to these treasures without exposing the originals to heavy use, thereby contributing to their preservation.

Comprehensive information about the project outlined above is available at http://www.nkp.cz/externi/digit/digit.htm. The site contains images from the project, details about technical issues and information on a range of other matters which need attention when a digitisation project is being planned.

The last afternoon of the conference consisted of regional workshops which were charged with the task of developing regional plans for implementing the Memory of the World Program. The regional workshop for Asia and the Pacific was chaired by Ray Edmonson from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. All groups reported the outcomes of their discussions at a plenary session which also provided an opportunity for a number of participants from war-ravaged countries such as Rwanda, Bosnia and Afghanistan to appeal to UNESCO for assistance in preserving their endangered documentary heritage.

Stephen Foster attended the conference as rapporteur. With the assistance of Jan Lyall, he is responsible for editing the conference papers for publication. In addition to the print version of the proceedings, which should be available in September 1996, the papers will be made available electronically on the UNESCO Memory of the World Web site at: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/memory/mempage.htm

[Visiting the Norwegian Folk Museum]

Visiting the Norwegian Folk Museum.
ABOVE Left to right: Ray Edmonson, National Film and Sound Archive (Australia), Ediyami Bondan Andoko, National Library of Indonesia, Inguun Kvisteroy, Norwegian National Commission for UNESCO, Sani Maiya Rana, National Archives of Nepal, Liangyu Cai, Research Institute of Music of the Chinese Academy of Arts, Jan Lyall, National Library of Australia.

Proclamation from First International Memory of the World Conference, Oslo, Norway June 3-5, 1996.

An additional feature of the plenary session was the agreed wording of a proclamation summarising the outcomes of the conference. The text of the proclamation, which may assist participants in gaining support in their own countries, is reproduced below.

WHEREAS:

The documentary heritage which constitutes the recorded Memory of the World is unique, fragile and irreplaceable:

THEREFORE be it resolved that:

The First International Memory of the World Conference, with 65 countries represented from all parts of the world:

New WORLD 1 Services Branch

[WORLD 1 Customer Support Team]

The Customer support team behind the WORLD 1 Service
ABOVE Back row, left to right: Margarita Moreno (Acting Manager, training and Documentation); Kathleen Lazzari and Ruby Dutta, (both Training and Documentation), Ros McDonald and Christine Clay (Marketing).
Seated, front: Lea Nelson (Training and Documentation), Grant Cole (Finance Manager), Bryony De La Motte, (Implementation Director), Rob Walls (Marketing Manager)

ANB to cease

The Australian National Bibliography will cease publication at the end of 1996.

In recent years, subscriptions to ANB have declined markedly, as users have been able to meet their information needs through more powerful online searching. The Australian National Bibliography is wholly derived from the National Bibliographic Database. However, the limitations of the printed and microfiche formats have meant that the coverage of ANB has not been able to keep pace with the growth of information in other formats such as cartographic, film, video, sound recording, etc. The National Bibliographic Database is a much more complete and up-to-date record of Australian publishing in all formats, and contains contributions by hundreds of Australian libraries. The database is accessible online by the powerful ABN Supersearch Service.

For these reasons, and due to the pressing need to review its priorities, the library has decided to cease publication of ANB in its printed and microfiche formats. The December 1996 issue of ANB will be the last printed issue and the January-December 1996 cumulation will be the last microfiche issue.

Subscribers to ANB will receive a package of information about the ABN Search Service. In addition, subscribers will receive advice about how they can replace their ANB subscriptions with search reports tailored to their particular subject interests and including new Australian publications in all desired formats.

Warwick Cathro, Assistant Director-General, Services to Libraries

CJK in the National Library

[Minoru Inahama] Monday 3 June 1996 was one of the most momentous days in the history of the National Library's Asian Collections Section since it was formally established in 1962. On that date the National CJK System was successfully implemented in Asian Collections, ending many years of reliance on Romanised automated systems and card catalogues to provide access to Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) scripts.

Starting in June, Asian Collections staff began to create bibliographic records including CJK scripts and to add holdings to existing records containing these scripts. Meanwhile, for the first time, readers were able to search online for East Asian publications using CJK characters in their search terms and seeing CJK scripts in their search results.

RIGHT: Minoru Inahama, an exchange cataloguer from the Japanese National Diet Library.

One of the first readers to make use of the new CJK online catalogue in the Asian Collections Reading Room was Dr Vera Mackie of the University of Melbourne, a 1996 Harold White Fellow at the National Library, who is undertaking a research project on gender, ethnicity and citizenship in contemporary Japan. She found the CJK online catalogue easy to master and extremely helpful in providing Japanese script in records for items held at this library and elsewhere. Subsequently many other readers have reported similar experiences.

In the three months since implementation, Asian Collections staff have already been able to achieve encouraging levels of productivity in cataloguing onto the CJK System. Australian and overseas experience has shown that even for native speakers who are experienced cataloguers, creating original automated records with East Asian scripts is labour intensive, so maximum use is being made of copy cataloguing. From July onwards, Asian Collections staff have been accessing the RLIN database in the United States to obtain high quality records including CJK script for loading to the CJK database. For all three East Asian languages, hit rates on RLIN have been over 70 per cent.

The National Library's local system, including the opac, is being kept up to date daily by ftp with the latest bibliographic data from the CJK System. Romanised East Asian records with holdings are therefore continuing to be available on the opac.

Overseas newspapers

The March issue of Gateways carried lists of overseas newspaper titles from outside the Asia-Pacific region which the National Library intended to acquire or cancel, and invited comments and suggestions from interested parties.

Responses, commenting on the proposal and making suggestions for other titles to be acquired and retained, were received from numerous quarters. These suggestions have been most useful, and have been incorporated into the library's planning for the re-shaping of its collection.

A final list will appear in the next issue of Gateways, and will show all overseas newspaper titles (except those in non-Roman scripts) which the National Library intends to acquire and retain, as well as a list of titles cancelled. This list was also made available on the library's web site.

Indonesia online

[Wayang kulit figure] In July 1996 Asian Collections introduced to the NLA server the first of several revamped home pages for each of its major language collection areas. The new Indonesian Collection Home Page, has advanced from being a simple digital copy of a reading room handout, to one that now provides access to other Internet sites relating to Indonesia. A list of linked sites currently includes several online newspapers and magazines in Indonesia, institutions with online descriptions of their own Indonesian library holdings and other international servers with significant links to further resources.

In the near future, it is hoped that the Indonesian Collection Home Page will include much wider descriptions of the National Library's own Indonesian materials as well as a greatly expanded listing of relevant and interesting sites for the NLA's Internet clientele. As the Indonesian Collection Home Page is further improved and its format is established, the home pages for each of the other major language collections, i.e. Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai, will also provide readers with the same level of description and links to worldwide resources.

Access the Indonesian Collection Home Page at URL: http://www.nla.gov.au/1/asian/indo/

Acquisition of personal documents

The National Library has recently acquired some unusually personal documents written last century by two men who were later to be federal ministers and parliamentarians.

Patrick McMahon Glynn was an Irish lawyer and writer who emigrated in 1880 and two years later settled in Adelaide. He first served in the South Australian Parliament in 1887 and from 1901 to 1919 he was a Member of the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament. The library has held his papers for many years, including a series of diaries that are a splendid source of information for students of the Commonwealth's early years.

His grand daughter Mrs Moira Peters has now presented a long and eloquent letter that he wrote to Abigail Dynan ('Dear Miss Dynan...') proposing marriage. What is extraordinary is that the letter is written on Federal Convention notepaper and was in fact composed in the New South Wales Parliament on 7 September 1897 in the middle of a debate about the future Commonwealth.

Although he was well and truly middle-aged, Glynn was an ardent suitor and suggested that 'I will with your consent, go to you on Friday, marry on Saturday, and return same day...We can be married on the arrival of the train! My friend Mr O'Malley will give me away; I hope he has not done so already.' Neither his ardour nor his faith in the postal services were misplaced; Miss Dynan accepted and they were married in Melbourne on 11 September.

The letter is accompanied by the embroidered pouch in which it was kept by Abigail Glynn and, after her death in 1930, by her daughter.

John Greig Latham was another lawyer-politician, although of a more sombre temperament than the exuberant Glynn. In a long life he held many high offices: he was twice Commonwealth Attorney-General, Deputy Prime Minister under J.A. Lyons, first Australian Minister to Japan, and for 16 years Chief Justice of the High Court. Shortly before his death in 1964, he transferred a huge collection of papers to the library, which in the last 30 years has been used by countless researchers. The papers document virtually all his public activities, from his days as an undergraduate and champion lacrosse player into his remarkably active old age, when he presided over numerous cultural, educational and community organisations.

The library has now acquired from a Melbourne bookseller a small collection of letters, photographs, speeches, exam papers and printed items to add to the Latham Papers. Of particular interest are a photograph of Latham on the lacrosse field, two letters that he wrote to his mother while a young teacher at the Hamilton Academy, and what is almost certainly his earliest extant letter. Written in 1885, when he was seven, he wishes his papa a happy birthday, signing it formally 'John G. Latham'. Like many children, he had trouble with layout, and the final letter in his name had to be relegated to a new line. The discovery of these papers was unexpected and it is pleasing to be able to add such very early documents to one of the outstanding Australian manuscript collections.

[Jock Marshall] Papers of A.J. (Jock) Marshall-scientist

The antics of a male satin bower bird wrecking a rival's bower, the mutton bird gonad cycle, symbolism in the Bible, leeches, the British monarchy, cannibalism and characteristics of the Kakapo parrot are just some of the diverse topics represented in one of the finest scientific manuscript collections to have been transferred to the Manuscript Section in recent times. The papers of A.J. (Jock) Marshall, eminent and outspoken zoologist, explorer, naturalist, writer, and international authority on the bower bird, have been donated by his family under the auspices of the Australian Science Archives Project.


RIGHT: Jock Marshall

The papers document the full range of Marshall's scientific and non-scientific interests and include diaries and field notebooks, correspondence files, manuscripts of books and articles, lecture notes, broadcasts, talks, scientific and family photographs. Prominent among the hundreds of correspond-ents are names such as Julian Huxley, D.L. Serventy, Geoffrey Dutton, Lord Casey, Clifton Pugh and Russell Drysdale. Marshall forged a close friendship with the latter and together they published Journey among Men, a best-selling anecdotal account of a journey taken through outback Australia. A pen and ink drawing of his friend, made by Drysdale in 1961, is housed in the library's Pictorial Collection.

Born in 1911, Marshall's fascination with the natural world began at an early age and whilst growing up at Penshurst, then a semi-rural area on the northern outskirts of Sydney, he attended Sunday school with his pet ringtail possum in his shirt pocket. He later recalled that he did not do well at school, preferring to catch butterflies and explore the bush rather than doing homework.

Marshall's left arm was amputated after a gun accident at the age of 16, an incident which he did not let stand in the way of his achievements. He was of the opinion that most people have one arm too many: he played billiards using his toes for a cue and wielded a blistering tennis serve. In addition, he enlisted as Australia's first one-armed infantryman in World War 2 and was a member of sledge and sea expeditions to the Spitsbergen Peninsula in the Arctic Circle, and to Jan Mayen Island off Greenland.

His entry into formal academia was a roundabout one, gained through work as a professional collector of specimens for museums in Northern Australia. In the 1930s he joined Oxford University zoological expeditions to the New Hebrides and New Guinea, on the basis of which he was offered a scholarship to study at Oxford. Inspired by his studies there, he completed a science degree at Sydney University as well as working part-time as a tutor, newspaper writer and broadcaster. He went on to earn a double doctorate at Oxford, and established an international reputation as Reader in the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, University of London, and as a visting lecturer at Yale and the University of California. He was lured back to Australia as Founding Professor of Zoology and Comparative Physiology, Monash University in 1961, a position held until his premature death in 1967.

An ardent Australian conservationist, Marshall vocally criticised attitudes of graziers to kangaroos, campaigned for the planting of only native species on the Monash campus, and delighted in deflating English stuffiness by remarking that he was an Old Dumbletonian (he was a former pupil of Dumbleton Public School, just north of Sydney).

The National Library is grateful to the Australian Science Archives Project which has recently sorted and prepared a detailed list describing this impressive collection (MS 7132), thereby ensuring that the results of Marshall's extensive output are more readily available to researchers in the Manuscript Reading Room.

Pacific conferences

In July, Margaret Phillips travelled to Hawaii to attend the Eleventh Pacific History Association Conference and to represent the National Library at two meetings being held in association with it: a Pacific Manuscripts Bureau Management Committee meeting and a gathering of librarians and archivists associated with Pacific collections. In order to maximise the opportunities afforded by the trip, acquisitions visits were also made in Honolulu and during a stopover in Fiji on the way back to Australia.

Conference and meetings

The theme of the conference was 'History, Culture and Power in the Pacific', addressing the political and gender bias of the past history of the region and asserting the need for the stories of the Pacific Islanders themselves to be heard so that reconciliation and decolonisation can take place.

The opening address was given by Professor Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, from the Centre for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii. Her paper was titled 'A history of settler racism in Hawaii or how white men think'. It was a powerful, sometimes controversial, presentation of the experiences of native Hawaiian people, from their first contact with white people until today, when alienation from their land is still a central issue of contention. According to Professor Kame'eleihiwa, of all the Pacific peoples, Hawaiians suffered the greatest degree of dispossession from their land.

There was a rich array of sessions to choose from with four or five running concurrently over three full days. The standard of most of the papers was excellent and a number developed themes which Professor Kame'eleihiwa had introduced. There was a series of papers on gender relations, others on sovereignty and decolonisation, to mention just a few. The closing address was given by Professor Greg Dening from the University of Melbourne who spoke eloquently on 'Empowering imagination'.

At the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau Management Committee meeting, member library representatives reaffirmed their commitment to financial support of the bureau and the Executive Officer, Mr Ewan Maidment, was commended for the large amount of microfilm now being produced. It was particularly satisfying to note that much of the microfilm is being produced as a result of field trips to the Pacific Islands, with recent filming activity taking place in Tonga, Fiji and Tahiti.

At the meeting of librarians and archivists associated with Pacific collections in Hawaii, California, New Zealand, American Samoa, and Australia, there was the opportunity to share information about the strength of existing collections, future collecting intentions and amounts spent on Pacific materials. It became apparent that there is scope for increased communication and cooperation between libraries, especially in the area of microfilming. It was a very useful and informative meeting and an informal network of participants now established should result in enhanced communication between the libraries.

Acquisitions

In Honolulu a visit was made to the Pacific Maps Center in order to add to the library's holdings of maps of the region.

Fiji was the major focus of acquisitions activities with Margaret visiting a total of 22 agencies in three days. Assistance given by staff of the University of the South Pacific Library in setting up the program of visits was much appreciated and contributed significantly to the success of the trip. Discussions relating to the acquisition of Pacific materials were held with Deputy University Librarian, Elizabeth Fong. Jayshree Mamtora of the Pacific Information Centre within the USP Library spoke about her work in producing the South Pacific Bibliography and the South Pacific Periodicals Index.

At the invitation of the Fiji Library Association, Margaret Phillips gave a talk on 'Using the Internet for acquisitions work and issues for deposit libraries raised by electronic publications'.

The Government Printer, the Ministry of Information, the Central Planning Office, the South Pacific Forum Secretariat, the Pacific Concern Resource Centre, the Fiji Women's Rights Movement, the National Archives and the Fiji Museum were amongst the other agencies visited.

In the course of the three days, it became evident why identifying and obtaining publications from the Pacific region is fraught with difficulties. If an organisation has no PC, it is difficult to maintain an efficient mailing list for distribution of its publications catalogue. Even if a PC is available, it is likely that funds for gratuitous postage are not. A shortage of funds in many sectors means that serial publications are delayed or cancelled, perhaps re-instated some time later, perhaps not. The publication of the Fiji National Bibliography, for instance, was suspended in 1985 and at this point there is no indication when it will recommence.

Even when publication is possible, shortage of staff for preparation of text can mean that it is delayed so that, for instance, an index covering the year 1988 does not appear until 1995. Limited funds result in small print runs and sometimes 'on demand' copying is employed. These titles are unlikely to find their way into stock lists and catalogues for ready identification by distant libraries. A trip to the region enables some of the titles to be obtained and contacts with publishers and suppliers established or renewed to increase the chances of supply being maintained in the future.

The National Library of Australia has a strong collection of publications and other materials relating to the Pacific and is committed to maintaining and developing it. Acquisitions visits to the region are an essential part of this activity. This latest trip was part of the ongoing program to advance collecting from the Pacific and to enhance professional communic-ation with colleagues in other institutions working with Pacific materials.

1996 federal election-the 'other' campaign

The Australian Collection Development Unit mounted its own campaign for this year's federal election. Rather than trying to influence the voter, this 'campaign' sought to record how the voter was being influenced by the candidates, parties and lobby groups in the election. It was an exercise to gather a reasonable sample of printed material generated by the event, something which has been done in a concentrated manner for federal elections since the 1980s. The results have meant that the Library is developing a substantial collection of research material related to federal politics.

As with past elections, all the candidates and all the parties were contacted. In addition, material and duplicates from State libraries and individuals contributed to the overall result. A wide range of campaign material was collected, including stickers, press statements, how-to-vote cards, newsletters, pamphlets, postcards, invitations, and policy launches. Apart from the major parties, a good selection was gathered from minor parties, fringe groups and independent candidates.

A new factor for 1996 was the inclusion of comments from the large number of lobby and pressure groups based in Canberra.

The 1996 election was the first cyber election in Australia. Political parties, individual candidates, commentators and newspapers established sites which were regularly monitored so that print copies of key documents could be captured and added to the collection. Moves were also made to download and preserve selected files. These moves constituted a critical exercise as most of the election sites vanished within days of the polls being declared.

The collection is still being added to. It will be kept together and catalogued with a collective entry on ABN.

Anyone wishing to donate further material can contact Richard Stone, Manager of the Australian Collection Development Unit - tel (02) 6262 1306 : email rstone@nla.gov.au

Post-war diplomats

by Michael Wilson, Project Coordinator

Diplomats have few defenders. The common complaint is that they are an anachronism: extravagant to maintain and, with the speed of travel and communication, unnecessary. Their public image is not helped by the nineteenth-century champagne and opulence stereotype preferred by Hollywood. But the skilled profession of communicating and presenting Australian purposes and interests to other countries and, in turn, analysing their motives and policies as bases for Australian action, requires specialised and contextual knowledge. This knowledge is essential to Australia's efforts to trade, invest and maintain its security in a decidedly uncertain world.

A few Australian diplomatic memoirs and accounts have appeared but the inner workings and processes of Australian diplomacy have not had much attention. Now, the oral histories of 25 retired diplomats, their work in Canberra and at the Australian diplomatic missions overseas, have been recorded by Michael Wilson, himself a former diplomat, with the support of the Dept of Foreign Affairs & Trade, and the Oral History Section of the National Library. Among those interviewed were Tom Critchley, former High Commissioner to Malaysia (1957-64) and Australian Ambassador to Indonesia in the late 1970s; Alan Renouf, Secretary of the Dept of Foreign Affairs & Trade 1974-77 and Australian Ambassador to the United States; and Maris King, Head of the South Pacific Section in 1979.

[Alan Renouf]

ABOVE: Retired diplomat, Alan Renouf

These are the accounts of the work of men and women who were employed from World War 2 to about 1990, who knew how the internal world of international relations was managed. Each knew key figures, held important positions in Canberra and represented Australia in other countries during some of the most significant, threatening and rewarding events in Australia's international experience-the struggles for independence in Asia and the withdrawal of colonial powers; the wars in Asia against communism; the efforts to establish collective security through multilateral and regional structures and to set international standards and directions for trade and development.

They were advisers in Canberra, in four cases head of the department. They did many jobs overseas: as political and property officers, cypher operators, secretaries in cities subject to bombing attacks. They were often in primitive discomfort and frequently in hard conditions while struggling endlessly with a mean and uncomprehending Canberra bureaucracy:

'Well, if you go and get malaria it'll be your responsibility', and
'...in fact anything over five pounds had to be referred to the Treasury before it could be bought', and
'We had no security...which meant our cypher books were all kept in a naval dockyard...about a mile-and-a-half away and I had to traipse backwards and forwards...'

Life overseas for women officers and spouses was harsh:

'We were expecting our first child...we had to live in a one bedroom flat which was open to the monsoon rains. There was only a blind in front of the window which could tear and the rain would pour in...'

They are people who speak naturally of service and duty, who if the department said 'go there', went. Few posts conformed to glamorous Hollywood stereotypes and not all were important or congenial: Addis Ababa by night in the 1970s was described as 'a symphony for hyenas and machine guns'.

One Australian diplomat defined diplomacy as the art of the skilful fumble. If unswerving devotion to the national interest is the hallmark of the good diplomat then these officers were superb jugglers.

Recorded as part of a joint project between the Oral History Section, National Library, and the Dept of Foreign Affairs & Trade, entitled: Australian Diplomacy, the Stereo-types and the Reality. Twenty-five Lives.

New directory underway

A directory of oral history and folk collections, instigated by the 1992 Towards Federation 2001 Conference, and followed up by a committee representing the National Library, National Film & Sound Archives, and State libraries, has reached data entry stage.

This will be completed during August and September, using a database developed by NF&SA and NLA Information Technology staff. Once this phase is completed, the data will be reformatted and a draft directory circulated. It is hoped that the product will be available in print as well as on the NLA server.

The directory will be an invaluable guide to oral history and folk material around Australia, and is intended to be an aid to researchers.

Subject headings and place names have been included for each collection, and these will be indexed. The 500 or so entries range from small church, school or historical society recordings and transcripts, to larger university, State library and archival collections.

Entries were compiled using a standard questionnaire distributed through State representatives, and material supplied to the co-ordinator in print form or diskette. The directory will be an ongoing resource, maintained and updated from within the Oral History Section.

For further information contact: Martin Woods, tel. (02) 6262 1323, or email:mwoods@nla.gov.au

Australian Poetry Live

Australian Poetry Live is an historic successor to Australian Poets Speaking Their Own Verse, a pioneering set of three long-play recordings released in 1960 by the ABC in association with the National Library.

[Hazel de Berg]

Those earlier recordings, unobtain-able now, were the result of collaboration between a remarkable Sydney woman named Hazel de Berg and the distinguished author, poet and broadcaster, John Thompson.

In 1958 Thompson co-edited the first edition of the Penguin Book of Australian Verse. Aimed at the local market and 'the general English-speaking public', the book contained material by 59 poets selected 'chiefly from printed sources i.e. author's works, general collections, periodicals and newspapers'. Arranged chronologically, the publication commenced with Mary Gilmore's 'Nationality' and concluded with Vivian Smith's 'Portuguese Laurel, Flowering'.

ABOVE: Hazel de Berg
During preparation of the Penguin Book of Australian Verse, John Thompson encountered Hazel de Berg (later one of Australia's leading oral historians). For a year or so, to assist the Royal Blind Society, she had been working with open-reel tape recorders -a relatively new technology at the time. She devised, for Talking Books, the idea of recording 'introductions' from Australian writers to readings of their works. These proved popular and attracted considerable community support.

Mrs de Berg, encouraged by John Thompson and fellow poet Douglas Stewart, quickly extended her activities in a new and exciting direction. Thompson and Stewart envisaged a series of recordings in which poets represented in the Penguin Book of Australian Verse would read examples of their work. They hoped that copies would find their way into every Australian home.

During the next two years Hazel de Berg carried out the field work for the project. Sixty-eight poets were recorded commencing, as the Penguin Book of Australian Verse had done, with Dame Mary Gilmore (then 93) reading 'Nationality' and concluding with Mrs de Berg's own tribute, 'On Recording the Poets'.

The original de Berg-Thompson project was a far-sighted and invaluable contribution to Australian culture. In Australian Poetry Live, Geoff Page has returned to the de Berg archive and used it as the basis for this new anthology. He has retained many of the readings from the earlier release and added later recordings made with 'younger' poets such as John Tranter, Jennifer Rankin and Geoff Page himself.

John Thompson died in 1968, Hazel de Berg in 1984, and Douglas Stewart in 1985.

Travelling Through the Storm

A new album of Australian bush songs and poems

Prior to his untimely death last December, Alan Scott-one of Australia's leading folk song collectors and himself a wonderful singer in the old bush style-had recorded some 50 songs in the National Library's fully-equipped recording studio. These recordings formed part of a major cooperative project between Alan, his friend folklorist and poet Keith McKenry and the library to produce high quality studio recordings of important but often little-known Australian bush songs and poems. Alan's songs and Keith's recitations now form part of the library's extensive Oral History Collection. They are progressively being made available to the public as compact discs on the independent Fanged Wombat label, distributed nationally by Larrikin/Festival.

The second in their series of albums, Travelling through the Storm, has now been released. Like its predecessor, Battler's Ballad, it presents an engaging collection of 24 remarkable Australian songs, poems and tunes, few of which have ever been available previously on a commercial recording. Performed simply and directly, with humour and sensitivity, they are a delightful introduction to the musical and poetic traditions of the Australian bush.

A 20-page illustrated booklet accompanies the album, providing detailed background notes on all of the items. It also contains a biographical memoir of Alan Scott, and several fine photographs of Australian traditional musicians from Real Folk by well-known folk song collector John Meredith. The album is also enhanced by a pen drawing of Alan and Keith, completed just a few days before Alan's death by artist and folklore collector Ron Edwards.

The album will be a valuable addition to any library of Australian music and verse. It is available in the National Library Shop, by mail order-postage free- from Fanged Wombat (02) 6247 9656, or from music shops. Its recommended retail price is $25.

[Book Cover]

'The tribute of applause.' - A snapshot of Australian theatre history

L' Entr'acte is a French name for an Australian colonial theatre phenomena.

Tabloid-sized publications bearing this name were distributed free to theatre patrons in various Australian cities from the middle of the 19th century onwards. These four-page theatre programs included a large amount of advertising. Numerous and ephemeral, their existence and the extent to which libraries hold them are poorly recorded on the National Bibliographic Database.

The National Library has previously had only very scattered holdings of L'Entr'acte, some of which are pasted into scrapbooks. However, recently the library was fortunate in acquiring a bound volume covering the theatre scene in Melbourne in the 1860s.

The volume includes over 300 issues of L'Entr'acte and its rivals, such as Dramatic Chronicle and Program. Small handbills for other local attractions are also inserted into the volume which appears to have been the result of theatre going by one individual or a family.

The collection provides a vivid snapshot of what Melbourne theatre goers were offered in the heady post-goldrush days. Shakespeare, melodrama, burlesque and opera dominate. Visiting American and English actors and singers who dazzled the colonials, indulged in fierce rivalry, and were duly lauded in the L'Entr'acte editorial notes in over-blown prose.

In between the seasons of Hamlet and King Lear and Faust, attractions of particular interest included, in 1863, a melodrama entitled North and South in 1862: Or the War in Virginia. This was '.. founded in several incidents of the present civil strife in the Western World...' In other words, the American Civil War was raging as this attraction entertained Melbourne audiences.

Later, in 1867, more exotic offerings included The Royal Tycoon Japanese Troupe performing 'extraordinary somersaults by Heeconsukhe ... and New Conjuring Tricks by Boohicrosan'. This is possibly one of the earliest examples of Japanese acts in the colonies.

The decade marked the arrival of the Lyster Opera Company which featured in the colonies over the next few decades. A significant link exists in that the library holds a substantial collection of 19th-century opera libretti published for opera patrons (including performances by Lyster's company) printed by the same firm which produced L'Entr'acte.

The publisher claimed that L'Entr'acte had a print run of 2,000 of which 800 were distributed 'around Melbourne in the afternoon', and the remaining 1,200 were given gratuitously to patrons at the theatres.

Theatre in Melbourne in the 1860's was a healthy and competitive scene as evidenced by this title.

DNC workshop in the NT

[Law, Byrne & Vass]

ABOVE: Cliff Law, Alex Byrne and Lorraine Vass at the Northern Territory DNC workshop

On 21 May, the Distributed National Collection Office and the ACLIS Northern Territory Branch held a very successful and well attended workshop focusing on the Distributed National Collection and issues of collection development and collaboration between the different library sectors in the Northern Territory.

All NT librarians were invited to the workshop to share information about:

The workshop was timed to coincide with the meeting of the out-of-town public librarians in Darwin so there was a wide geographical as well as sectoral representation. The Northern Territory, with its strong networks of libraries, is ideally placed to develop active and working cooperative relationships across all library sectors in the areas of collection building and sharing.

The gathering heard from Alex Byrne, (Northern Territory University) Lea Giles-Peters (Northern Territory Library) Andrew Wells (Public Libraries), Freida Evans (Special, Law Libraries), Ann Alderslade (Special and Health Libraries), and there was input from the participants on:

ACLIS NT has taken the recommend-ations from the workshop as part of its action plan. Some of these have already been implemented and others are in progress.

Libraries interested in working with the DNC Office to develop collaborative collection development and access strategies should contact:

Cliff Law, Director DNC Office
National Library of Australia
Tel (02) 6262 1503
email: c.law@nla.gov.au

Appointment of Andrew Wells

[Technical Services Branch senior staff]

Back row: Margaret Phillips, Peter Haddad, Ann Triffett, Richard Stone and Jasmine Cameron
Seated: Pam Dunlop, Andrew Wells and Margaret Henty



Andrew Wells is the new director of the Technical Services Branch of the National Library of Australia. He comes to the library with extensive experience in a variety of libraries.


Andrew spent the first 10 years of his career in university libraries, chiefly in cataloguing. Commencing in 1986, he worked as a freelance librarian while he completed an MA in philosophy. During this period, he worked in a wide range of libraries, mainly in the cataloguing and indexing area, and participated in a NSW Government Printing Office project devoted to transferring images to videodisc.

In 1989, Andrew joined the State Library of New South Wales, where he subsequently occupied several positions in collection management and services to public libraries. In 1994 and 1995, he managed the State Library's Document Delivery Service before moving on to a short posting as chief librarian at the Darwin Public Library and Information Service.

Andrew has served on several advisory committees to the National Library, most notably the ABN Standards Committee, which he chaired for several years.

Several staff changes have occurred recently within the Technical Services Branch. Margaret Henty has taken up the position of senior manager, Collection Development Policy, Peter Haddad is the senior manager, Cataloguing, and Pam Dunlop is the manager, Projects and Special Materials Cataloguing. Margaret Phillips has returned to the position of manager, Monograph Acquisitions, after a secondment to formulate guidelines and policy for the handling of electronic publications.

10th David Nichol Smith Seminar



The Tenth David Nichol Smith Seminar was held 2-5 July 1996, as a joint conference of the National Library of Australia and the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University. It was convened by Dr Ian Higgins and Dr Gillian Russell, both of the English Department of the ANU. The 78 participants came from New Zealand, England, Wales, the Netherlands, Canada, the USA, NSW, ACT, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia.



The seminar was held at the National Library, which was appropriate since the library has been the joint sponsor of the series since its inception. The first seminar was held in 1966 to honour the memory of Professor David Nichol Smith and to celebrate the presence in the library of his fine collection of English literature. Since then the seminar has been held at three to four yearly intervals, sometimes in Canberra, sometimes further afield in Melbourne or New Zealand.

As Professor Nichol Smith was an English literature scholar, the seminars have often focused on English literature topics, but eighteenth-century studies include many other topics, and this year's theme of 'Margins and Metropolis: Literature, Culture and Science 1660-1830' gave scope for a good balance of subjects, while the extension of the period into the neighbouring centuries gave useful flexibility in the time frame. In particular, it allowed for papers on the early history of Australia-for example Dr Paul Turnbull's, 'Behold the heads of traitors 1790-1830'. Dr Turnbull is a former Harold White Fellow of the National Library, and both his paper and his work as a Fellow dealt with issues of early Aboriginal/white relations.

It was interesting to see the broadened range of papers and the increased emphasis on travel, exploration, and Pacific issues in them. The convenors are arranging for selected papers to be published in a special issue of Eighteenth-Century Life, possibly in 1997.

What's New on the National Library's World Wide Web site

July and August were busy months on the National Library's Web site. In addition to some of those sites already mentioned in this issue, the following may be of interest:

National Library activities and initiatives

NDIS and WORLD 1

Other Australian Commonwealth Government information

Disabled sportsmen and women

The Pictorial Section recently purchased a series of 13 photographs of disabled athletes from the Sydney-based photographer Serena Ovens.

Many of these athletes competed in the Barcelona Paralympic Games in 1993, while others are veterans of a number of Commonwealth and Olympic Games, Amputee National Games, Intellectually Disabled Paralympic Games and World Disabled Games. A wide range of sports are represented and several of the subjects are gold medallists.

Alison Quinn OAM, who won two gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Games, is shown walking her dog by the seashore; the wheelchair archer Eric Klein was a Commonwealth gold medallist in 1974, and a World Champion in 1977; the double amputee Albert Lee won a Gold Medal at the 1989 Disabled Waterskiing Championships in Perth; Robert Jordan represented his country in the 1988 and 1992 Paralympic Fencing Team, and the swimmer Joseph Walker OAM won nine Gold Medals at the 1992 Madrid Intellectually Disabled Paralympic Games.

Other athletes represented in this collection are the golfer Colin Lee, the Push and Power Games champion, Wayne de Bono, the surf skier Geoff Burgess, the New South Wales Little People's Basketball Team, double amputee Mark Whiteman, and champions of the future Nathan and Joshua Stewart, both of whom are single amputees. These two brothers, aged 10 and 12, come from Mudgee, and play soccer, T ball and softball on equal terms with their school mates. They also compete in athletic and swimming multi-disability carnivals in Sydney. Joshua is aiming to compete in the 2000 Olympic Games, and Nathan has his sights set on 2004.

 
It is planned to exhibit these inspiring photographs in the near future, and the Pictorial Section hopes to add to the collection with photographs of the 1996 Australian Paralympic Team which performed so brilliantly in Atlanta.

Coincidently, Jim Nomarhas, a member of the National Library's staff, was a member of that team and won a silver medal in the shooting. Jim is a photographer!

'Harold Cazneaux: Photographs'

The National Library welcomes home a major touring exhibition of the magnificent prints of Sydney photographer Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953). The exhibition opened in the library's exhibition gallery on 26 July for its first showing in Canberra.

'Harold Cazneaux: Photographs' reinstates Cazneaux as one of the great artists in Australian photography. A leader of the Australian Pictorial Movement, Cazneaux championed the notion of the photographer as artist. His work included very chic photographs for Sydney Ure Smith's The Home magazine; atmospheric industrial images commissioned by BHP; portraits of 'society dames' and celebrities, landscapes and the famous, evocative Sydney streetscapes.



LEFT: 'The Ships Cat', c1912 - Sydney.

Curator Sally Webster has carefully selected a collection of over 80 vintage prints. These works are drawn from the National Library's own collection and the personal archive of the Cazneaux family and feature images from the decades when Cazneaux dominated the photographic scene. In addition, the exhibition includes a number of his lesser known works completed before 1917.

'Harold Cazneaux : Photographs'
NLA Exhibition Gallery 26 July-24 November 1996.

A travelling exhibition of the National Library of Australia and the Historic Houses Trust of NSW.


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Last updated 2 June 1998