National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568
No. 28
July 1997


Contents

Database Developments

News

Network Services

Interlending Services

Collections

Overseas visits

Visitors

Internet

Publicity

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

The Editor, Gateways
ABN/Ozline Marketing
National Library of Australia
CANBERRA A.C.T. 2600
Fax: (02) 6273 1180
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 free. Back issues are at http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/gateways


PANDORA looks to the future

Pandora Team Picture

Left to right: Margaret Phillips, Wendy Smith and Debbie Campbell
What will happen to electronic publications of today? How many of them will be available for research use in the future? Effective preservation strategies have been developed for traditional library materials. These have evolved over many years of research and collection management. Electronic publications now pose a different set of preservation challenges.
The Library's PANDORA (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources in Australia) Project has as its key goal preservation of electronic publications in all forms.


These may include electronic books, journals, a home page, festival programs, election results or a mixture of multi-media and other materials.

Access to this material in the long term will be an important achievement for PANDORA. The project team is looking at ways of future-proofing access while currently testing access through the cataloguing of selected items.

Not all electronic material made available to browsers on the World Wide Web will be selected and preserved. The National Library is concerned about choosing material which appropriately represents Australian heritage and will allow historic research by future generations.

Despite concerns about the amount of 'junk' on the Web and its transitory nature, it has become a powerful vehicle for the fast and easy dissemination of information. Australia's electronic heritage material will be made more readily accessible to the public through libraries which provide Web access.

Other issues taken into consideration by the project team include making the material available to readers within fair dealing provisions while observing publishers' commercial considerations appropriately, maintaining reference-standard information about the material, and assessing the possibilities for cooperation with other libraries in creating digital archives.

Research into technologies such as search engines, the Dublin Core metadata standard, digital object storage and permanent naming conventions is being conducted by the project team, in order to create a system which will make the electronic material available for generations to come.

Although the National Library has taken a step into the unknown with the PANDORA venture, it has proved to be a challenging endeavour, increasing knowledge within the Library and allowing the Library to continue in its role of providing advice to the Australian library community. More information is at: http://www.nla. gov.au/policy/plan/pandora.html

Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM)

The Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM), launched by the National Library on the World Wide Web this month, is a centralised register of locations for primary research material.

RAAM is a cooperative venture and contains information contributed by libraries, archives, museums and historical societies on their holdings of personal papers and records of non-government organisations. While RAAM does not provide detailed descriptions of the collections themselves, it alerts researchers to the existence of collections and enables them to pursue further enquiries about the material either on-line or through direct contact with repositories.

RAAM is a research tool which offers flexibility in searching. A user can search the database using a name, an occupation or any other indexed term. A search on Alfred Deakin, for example, will retrieve records for collections, single items and microfilms held in three different repositories. There is also a link to an electronic finding aid for the main collection held at the National Library.

Any repository who has contributed to RAAM can also be browsed by name or by State or Territory location to find information on their holdings. RAAM also includes a link to the World Wide Web edition of the Directory of Archives in Australia which lists repositories throughout Australia with contact details and collection scope information. The link enhances information in RAAM by supplying information to the researcher about particular archives repositories.

Much of the information now contained in RAAM was previously only available by searching a number of separate databases, catalogues and printed finding aids. Records are included from over 100 repositories including the National Library's Manuscript Collection, the La Trobe Library, the Noel Butlin Archives Centre (ANU), major university archives and the Australian War Memorial. Personal papers held by the Australian Archives will also be included.

'RAAM.... alerts researchers to the existence of collections and enables them to pursue further enquiries about the material either on-line or through direct contact with repositories.'

RAAM is a successor to the Guide to Collections of Manuscripts Relating to Australia, which was published by the National Library from 1965 to 1995. New records have been added to the existing 6000 records from the Guide and to manuscript items selected from the Australian National Bibliographic Network (ABN), to create a database of over 20,000 records.

The scope of RAAM has been expanded to include collections of archival material held in Australia,

whether of Australian origin or not; single unpublished primary sources; and photocopies or microfilms of Australian archival material, including non-government overseas material relating directly to Australia.

Repositories of archival material are encouraged to include as many eligible entries as possible, even if these are of a brief nature. Excluded categories of material include government records, secondary sources such as family and local histories, microfilms of non-Australian archival material and material that is entirely video, pictorial, cartographic, musical or audio in format.

Future manuscript contributions to ABN will be regularly retrieved for inclusion in RAAM. Institutions will also be able to contribute to the database through an online form, electronic transfer of records or, in some instances, by submitting written records.

RAAM can be accessed at http://www.nla.gov.au/raam/

For further information about RAAM, contact Paula Waring , Manuscript Section, National Library: (Email: raam@nla.gov.au)

Spotlight on overseas publications

One of the new items on the National Library's World Wide Web site is the Recent Acquisition of Overseas Publications listing. The list of recent overseas acquisitions is used by staff involved with collection development to evaluate acquisitions against the collection development policy.

The list may also be of interest to the Library's clients and so it is being made available through the NLA website at (http://www.nla.gov.au/nacq/).

It has been compiled from ABN and shows the books and serials published overseas that have been acquired for the National Library's collection recently, and catalogued onto ABN.

The list has been tailored in the following ways:

The list is available for browsing in three sequences: by Dewey classification, by subject heading and in an alphabetical listing.

A new list will be compiled every two weeks and it is intended that the back lists will be maintained on the server for 6 months.

National Diet Library records in the Australian National CJK System

The Australian National CJK Service is very pleased to announce the addition of over 250,000 National Diet Library records to the database. This data includes Japanese monographs from 1993 to the present created by the National Diet Library of Japan.

The records contain both romanised and vernacular data. The vernacular data is transmitted in multiple 880 fields (US MARC standard), using REACC codes while the romanised data employs the Hepburn romanisation system. The addition of this data has more than doubled the number of records for Japanese materials on the database. The database will be updated with over 6,000 National Diet Library records every month.

This data is hosted only in Japan, Canada and Australia. The addition of this data to the Australian National CJK system is due to the efforts of Linda Groom (former ANCJK manager) and Prof. Purcell (from the University of New South Wales), in negotiating with the Kinokuniya Company, agents for the National Diet Library.

Once an agreement was reached between the Kinokuniya Company and the National Library, the Japanese data then converted by the Library of Congress into the US MARC format. Sample data was then sent to Innovative Interfaces Inc and the load tables were defined in the Innopac system.

Another first for the CJK Service

The Australian National CJK Service is pleased to announce the introduction of the new 'Automatic Romanisation of Chinese' feature to the system. This enhancement reduces the keying required when cataloguing by automatically converting Chinese characters into the appropriate romanised form. This is the only system that offers automatic romanisation into both Wade Giles and Pinyin. Libraries that use Wade Giles Romanisation can catalogue using this feature to convert the Chinese characters into the Wade Giles Romanisation scheme, while Libraries that use Pinyin Romanisation can convert the Chinese characters into Pinyin Romanisation.

How does it work?

Cataloguers simply enter the Chinese characters into the title, imprint and other fields, then select the 'Romanise' option from the menu. The system automatically converts the Chinese characters into their equivalent romanised form and places the Chinese script in the appropriate (880) fields of the MARC record. Not only does this feature have the advantage of eliminating rekeying, it also places the Chinese characters in the 880 field. Linking data, which is often a source of confusion to cataloguers, is also automatically done. This feature takes advantage of conversion tables which list the Chinese character and its equivalent Pinyin or Wades Giles Romanisation. Of course there are words which can be pronounced differently depending on the meaning, and these may result in the incorrect Romanisation. The Library therefore recommend that cataloguers check the Romanisation.

To contact the ANCJK team: Ph: 1800 025 166 or (02) 6262 1682 or email ancjk@nla.gov.au

Sample CJK cataloguing screens

BeforeAfter












Before ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After

NLA catalogue available on the Web

All Australians are potential users of the National Library of Australia's extensive collections whether or not they live in Canberra. To make information about these collections widely available, the Library has provided Telnet access to its Online Public Access Catalogue since 1992. A new level of service will shortly be available enabling users of the Library's collections anywhere in Australia (or the world) to access the NLA Catalogue using a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

A trial version of a Web interface to the NLA Catalogue has been available for access in the Library's Main Reading Room and as a link from the NLA Home page since mid-May. While the Library did not advertise the availability of the interface widely to external users during the trial phase, a considerable number of users have come across the link while browsing the NLA Web site. 'Thank you so much for putting the National Library's collection on the Internet' one user wrote, 'I only just discovered it today but I will be a regular user.'

The trial interface has been designed with two methods for gathering feedback from users, an online survey form and an e-mail contact address at the bottom of each page. Feedback on the interface has generally been positive, with most users pleased to discover the Library is extending its Web-based services in this direction.

Visitors to the site have also embraced the opportunity to communicate with the Library on a range of other issues related to the delivery of library services, from a complaint about an interlibrary loan overdue notice to offers to donate material to the library's manuscript collection.

The Web interface is a customisation of the WebPAC product developed by Ameritech Library Services for the provision of online public access to library catalogues. WebPAC provides an HTTP/ Z39.50 gateway to the NLA Catalogue. HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the communications protocol used by the World Wide Web to transfer data across the Internet.

Z39.50 is a protocol allowing searching and retrieval of data from distributed databases. An HTTP/ Z39.50 gateway is a powerful tool enabling Z39.50 compliant databases such as the NLA Catalogue which would otherwise not be accessible using a Web browser to be searched using HTTP.

One of the advantages of such a tool is that it enables the user to exploit HyperText links between related data. A user browsing a list of retrieved items via the Web Interface can 'click' on the author's name in displayed records and be linked directly to other works by the same author. 'I like the ease of making links and going forwards and backwards' is a typical comment from users.

Users can also link directly from collection-level descriptions in the NLA Catalogue to electronic finding aids or to the documents themselves when they are available in electronic form. This capability opens enormous opportunities for the Library to provide global access to its collections through a range of current and future digitisation and preservation initiatives.

For instance, the Library is planning to make the Web interface the primary entry point for online electronic documents selected by the Library for preservation. Catalogue records are already being created for these items with the electronic address of the publisher's site and the NLA archive. Users will be able to exploit these addresses to navigate to the current version of the item or to earlier versions or issues captured for preservation by the Library.

To see an example of such a record, do a title search on Australian Humanities Review.

To find out more about the Library's work in preserving electronic documents, see the article about the PANDORA project on the front page of this issue.

The Web interface is still a work in progress. Development of the interface will proceed via a four-phased approach:

In the meantime, the trial version will remain accessible via links from the NLA Home Page at http://www.nla.gov.auor directly via http://www.nla.gov.au/webpac/

Farewell to Eric Wainwright

Eric Wainwright at ALIA Presentation

Eric Wainwright at the ALIA presentation of the H.C.L Anderson award

Eric Wainwright has resigned from the staff of the National Library of Australia, having accepted an appointment as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Services) in James Cook University in Queensland.
Eric came to the National Library in 1988 from the University of Adelaide, where he was University Librarian. His contribution to the National Library of Australia, and the wider profession, was formidable. Eric was responsible for the Library's last two strategic plans, including the 1993 Service to the nation: access to the globe. He also had carriage of several initiatives of major importance to the Library, and to the Australian library community.



This included the Towards Federation 2001 meeting of 1992, which agreed on major initiatives 'to enable Australians to have the maximum possible bibliographic and physical access to their recorded documentary heritage by the year 2001'.

Eric was also actively involved in almost all major technological initiatives by the Library of recent years. This included the NDIS and NSP projects. He was appointed to the Interim ABN Network Committee in 1981, and then sat on the Network Committee in one capacity or another for the next 16 years. Eric in the last two years also made a major contribution to the work of the Office of Government Information Technology (OGIT) of the Commonwealth Government. He led the taskforce responsible for the report of the Information Management Services Committee on 'Management of Government Information'. This work was of national significance, and its importance was reflected in his appointment as one of the three Commonwealth Government nominees on the Information Policy Advisory Council, reporting to the Commonwealth Minister for Communications and the Arts.

There are very few areas in the National Library operations in which Eric did not have a strong interest and influence while with us. The National Library of Australia Council hosted a lunch in his honour on 6 June, which was attended by senior Canberra-based professional colleagues.

Australian ISBN Agency moves to D W Thorpe

The National Library has successfully concluded negotiations with the Melbourne-based publisher D W Thorpe on the transfer of the Australian ISBN Agency. The National Library established the Agency at the end of 1969 and has been instrumental in establishing the service and promoting the widespread use of ISBNs among Australian book publishers. The allocation of ISBNs is a service to publishers, and it is therefore appropriate that a publishing body should undertake the task of administering the Australian ISBN Agency.

Under the terms of the agreement, D W Thorpe will continue to provide the same service, and customers should experience no inconvenience.

The new address details of the ISBN Agency is:

Thorpe Bibliographic Services
18 Salmon Street
PORT MELBOURNE VIC 3207

Phone: 03 9245 7397 Fax: 03 9245 7395
Email: isbn.agency@thorpe.com.au

Please note that the ISSN Agency and Cataloguing-in-Publication will continue to remain with the National Library.

Networked Services Project update

The Networked Services Project is being undertaken by the National Library to find replacement software for the current ABN and Ozline services. It commenced in January 1997. Detailed information appeared in NLA Gateways nos 26 and 27. In this issue we present an update to the earlier reports.

Tenders received

Tenders for the Networked Services Project closed on 19 May. A number of strong responses were received, and are being evaluated by the project team. The team's assessment will be augmented by advice from ABN/Ozline staff members and from the group of expert practitioners (see article, Networked Services Expert Practitioner Group) set up by the National Library to assist in the evaluation of tenders and possible variations from the services ABN/Ozline currently provide. As part of the evaluation, reference sites will be contacted.

Business planning

A few weeks before the ABN/Ozline Annual Users Meeting the Network Committee will hold a planning day with key National Library staff to review the progress of the Networked Services Project, and to consider a new business direction for ABN. The Network Committee is mindful of changes in the market place for shared cataloguing and interlibrary loan and document supply. At the planning day, to be held on 25 July, the Network Committee will consider possible new service models for ABN's replacement system. The Network Committee will report on the planning exercise at the Annual Users Meeting on 12-13 August.

News from Ozline

EDGE joins Ozline

The EDGE database, formerly known as LISARD, has been added to Ozline. It is free for July and August to allow users to see how useful it will be for their business. EDGE is produced by Information Edge in Sydney. There are currently 58,000 records with articles from 1972 to date, and updates are added monthly.

EDGE focuses on management, environment, and selected industries such as packaging, glass, and building products from Australian and international journals.

The management articles are relevant to busy professionals in both corporate and public sectors. Topics covered include international economics, management techniques, best practice, quality management, information technology, marketing, R & D, human resources, materials handling, and occupational health.

The environment articles cover litter, re-use, waste management and environmental management. More information is at: http://www.nla.gov.au/ozline/edge.html

Ozline Database Producers meet

The future of Ozline and the year 2000 were two topics discussed at the meeting of representatives of 15 databases on Ozline in May in Melbourne.

Following an update on progress with the Networked Services Project, there was a wide-ranging discussion on the use of the databases on Ozline, the general features of any replacement system, and options which might be considered in the interim to make Ozline more widely available.

The year 2000 and the implications for date range searching were also canvassed, particularly when dates are in the format YYMM such as 9705 for a journal article published in May 1997. To allow date range searching, the date will need to be in the format YYYYMM, eg 199705. The National Library is considering how it can assist database providers to address 'the year 2000 problem' in their databases.

More routine matters such as the charges for 1997/98, usage, and marketing were also discussed.

AGIS and AGI2 to merge

The Attorney-General's Information Service Database will revert to a single file format from 16 June. Material published between 1975 and 1988, which is currently contained in the AGI2 file, will be included in the main AGIS file.

Usage over the past 18 months has indicated that users prefer to search a single file rather than having to search a separate file for the older material.

AGI2 will cease as a separate file. A single search on AGIS will now provide access to articles published since 1975 in over 100 Australian and New Zealand law journals.

CONF, FILM and TRAN to cease on Ozline

The producer of the Conferences (CONF/CONC), CSIRO Films (FILM) and Translations (TRAN) databases has decided that they will no longer update these files.

These databases will cease to be available on Ozline from 30 June.

Networked Services Expert Practitioner Group

The National Library has established an Expert Practitioner Group to advise it on areas of functionality in the systems proposed in response to the Networked Services Project Stage 1 RFT. Following a recommendation of the Network Committee at its March 1997 meeting, a group of sixteen expert practitioners who have current 'hands on' knowledge of online library systems has been set up. At the Committee's suggestion, the Expert Practitioner Group includes representatives from different types of libraries, as well as from different areas of functional expertise. Areas of advice for the NSP has been divided into cataloguing, searching, interlending, and interfaces with local systems.

To obtain a wide representation of customer views, the Library asked CAUL, CASL, the Standards Committee and current ABN/Ozline customers to nominate suitable experts, emphasising the need for nominees to have expertise in one or more areas of library system functionality. Over thirty nominations were received, forming a very strong field for selection of the final membership. As well as having expertise in the nominated functional areas, group members represent academic, state, special and public libraries, come from all states and territories which nominated members and represent both Full Service and Search and Products users of ABN/Ozline. Members of the Expert Practitioner Group are listed at the end of this article.

The Expert Practitioner Group met in the National Library on 23-24 June. The meeting discussed functionality issues raised by responses to the RFT, with Expert Practitioner Group members identifying their preferences for system capabilities. Issues discussed covered both the broad functionality required of various parts of the NSP, and some quite detailed issues relating to the impact of a new system on current ABN users. At the broad level, items of particular importance were development of the cataloguing client software, the Z39.50 Union Catalogue Profile, and the future service strategies of Australian libraries. The Group also confirmed the need for continued provision of the functions and services now provided by the ABN ILL Subsystem. Detailed discussion items covered data migration, support for ABN immutable numbers, the need to translate NUC symbols into plain text, telecommunications issues, and charging matters. As a result of the contribution of the Expert Practitioner Group the National Library has confirmed and clarified its understanding of the future needs of its ABN/Ozline customers.

NSP Group members

Networked Services Project Practitioner Group members

Networked Services Project Practitioner Group members

Document delivery

Glenis Matheson, Commonwealth Parliamentary Library
Sally Anderson, NSW Department of Agriculture Library
Sharon Howells, University of Newcastle Library
Vanessa Little, PLAIN

Cataloguing

Shane White, University of Western Australia Library
Leonie Bourke, Access Co, Standards Committee
Judy Churches, ANU Library
Dale Chatwin, ABS Library, Standards Committee

Interfaces with local systems

Deb Stumm, State Library of New South Wales
Geoffrey Dengate, Griffith University, CAUL nominee
Craige Hicks, Deakin University, CAUL nominee
Craig Anderson, Yarra Plenty Regional Library
Robyn Benjamin, University of Western Sydney - Hawkesbury

Searching

Sherrey Quinn, BHP Research
Lynn Evans, QUT Library
Joyce Searle, State Library of South Australia
Cathy Burton, ADFA Library

Accreditation for ABN cataloguers

The Network Committee has commended the establishment of an accreditation system for contributors of cataloguing to the National Bibliographic Database (NBD). The costs and benefits of an accreditation system will be considered by the Network Committee at its November meeting.

Concerns about the quality of cataloguing on ABN, following the growth in the outsourcing of cataloguing, have prompted the exploration of an accreditation system. Cataloguing records contributed to the NBD attract a credit of $7.00 per record, and the Network Committee wishes to ensure that ABN gets good value for the credits it issues.

The Standards Committee met by teleconference on 25 June to draw up a proposal for an accreditation system. This proposal will be mounted as a discussion paper on the Standards Committee home page, and will become the basis for consulting ABN users on the issue.

Following discussion at the Annual Users Meeting on 12-13 August, and at state users group meetings, the Standards Committee will review its proposal at its next meeting on 10-11 September. A final proposal will be put before the Network Committee at its November meeting.

The background issues are documented in the Network Committee paper, Impact of Outsourced Cataloguing on the NBD, which is available on the National Library's Web server at the following URL: http://www.nla.gov.au/abn/committees/971cat.html

ABN for Australian subject access

For many years librarians and library users in Australia have been frustrated by the limitations of the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) when it has come to describing a publication which is either uniquely Australian or for which the LCSH terminology is inappropriate for the Australian scene. This frustration will soon come to an end through a project which has been undertaken by the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) Section at the National Library.

The aim of this project is to maximise the impact of online access to Australian subject terms. It is based on the second edition of List of Australian Subject Headings, an unpublished ALIA work, commonly called SLASH, which will gradually be implemented on the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) database.

The Australian subject headings in SLASH can be divided into four categories:

(1) SLASH terms that represent a new concept not covered in LCSH,

(2) SLASH terms for names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their languages,

(3) SLASH terms that refer the user to the equivalent LCSH term, and

(4) SLASH terms that replace LCSH terms with an equivalent Australian term.

The current focus is on the first category of SLASH headings that represent new concepts not covered in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). This is the most straight forward category because the new heading and the references linked to the heading do not conflict with existing Library of Congress subject headings and references on ABN.

Quite a few headings have now been approved by the Subject Headings Review Panel (SHRP) and have been implemented, with their reference structure, onto the NBD. All approved headings have the following ABN verification note: 'Approved by ABN Subject Headings Review Panel. List of Australian Subject Headings Project.' Some examples are: Acacia harpophylla, Apex clubs, Assets tests, Australian robins, Brownies, Community broadcasting, and Droving.

Headings which conflict with existing Library of Congress subject headings and references (categories 3 and 4) will be reserved for implementation at a later stage. It is not certain, at this stage, how these two categories will be handled.

It is hoped that by the time the project is completed in 1998, there will be improved access to Australian materials via these Australian subject headings and, significantly less frustration felt by librarians and users over the use of American subject headings.

The project team is made up of four members: Kirsten Bird, Papiya Chakravarti, Lindy Dwyer and Carrie Reyn.

Enquires about the project can be directed to either Papiya Chakravarti, or Linda Dwyer via email: pchakrav@nla.gov.au or ldwyer@nla.gov.au, or telephone 1800 026 155 (toll free).

A training agent near you

Eleven new ABN training agents were trained in May which brings the total number of agents to forty. A supplement to this issue of Gateways lists all the training agents, which course they run, and how to contact them.

The eleven new agents attended an intensive week of courses run by Lea Nelson, Kathleen Lazzari, and Tom Ruthven from the ABN/Ozline Training Unit. The courses covered the expected learning outcomes of each course, how the courses are structured, tools and aids which can be used, and teaching methods which suit the ABN courses. As well they received the latest information on the Networked Services Project, and the full range of services which are offered by ABN and Ozline.

The photograph of happy new trainers was taken half way through the week.

ABN Training Agents

Left to right back row: Barbara Hart, Margaret Brookes, Robyn Sanders, Nancy Li, Mary Hamilton, Dianne Langford, Dorota Pudlowski, Maya Zaric-Young Left to right front row: Margaret Thornton, Mary Gosling, Judith Purser, Jenny Warren

ANCJK Technical Committee meets for last time

The ANCJK Technical Committee met on 11 June 1997 at the National Library to discuss a number of issues, including the future of the Committee. As a result, the mechanisms for members to provide advice to the ANCJK Service will change. A technical experts list will replace the technical committee list. This list will continue to be a closed mailing list limited to members but will cease being moderated. In addition, an Annual Users Group meeting will be held in conjunction with the ABN Users Meeting on 13 August, from 2.00-5.00pm at the National Library. And finally, Bick-har Yueng, East Asian Collection Librarian from the University of Melbourne, was voted as the CJK representative on the Standards Committee.

The committee also revised the Pinyin word division standard. This change will eliminate some of the ambiguity generated in some polysyllabic words. The standard has now changed to:

Where a cataloguer inputs Pinyin data into the National CJK System, each Chinese character should be input as one Pinyin syllable, except for proper and geographic names, where the syllables should be joined. In order to avoid the ambiguous reading of polysyllabic words, when joining the syllables, an apostrophe (not an ayn) should be inserted in front of any syllable that begins with the letters a, e and o where the syllable is not the first syllable of the polysyllabic word.

Also on the agenda was a paper highlighting the issues associated with cross updating the Wade Giles and Pinyin databases. Members agreed to update their holdings on the CJK system whenever they modify a bibliographic record. This has two benefits; the record will picked up for cross updating and will also be picked up for transfer to the member library's local system.

The ANCJK team also reported on the status of enhancements to the system. Most of the enhancements are well under way and will be featured in future issues of Gateways.

Films have moved

Between 6 June and 16 July, the National Library Film and Video Lending Collection relocated to Cinemedia in Melbourne. The National Library believes that this new arrangement secures a strong future for this valuable national cultural resource and service.

Together with Cinemedia, the National Library is working to ensure that there is minimum disruption to service during this time. All current orders will be honoured.

The following activities occurred by 16 July:

222 Park Street
South Melbourne 3205
Phone: (03) 9651 0600 Facsimile: (03) 96510606

Email: sfcv@cinemedia.net

Customers who have previously collected their films from the National Library in person, will now join borrowers from all around Australia who enjoy door-to-door delivery of their orders. All borrowers are responsible for the cost of returning the films and videos and may do so either through Australia Post, a courier service or airfreight.

Customers are not compelled to use the contracted courier of Cinemedia and the National Library suggest that enquiries be made about the most suitable and cost effective service available.

For further information contact:

The Manager
Film and Video Lending Service
Phone: (02) 6262 1359

Document Supply's copyright fee paid service

The National Library of Australia Document Supply Service has signed a commercial document delivery licence with Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). This licence will enable the Document Supply Service to supply copies which cannot be supplied under the fair dealing and library provisions of the Copyright Act. The licence comes into effect on 1 July 1997.

Until now the National Library has been unable to supply copies for purposes which fell outside the fair dealing and library provisions. Under the licence the purpose for which the document is requested is not relevant and there is no need to complete any declarations.

If a customer's request cannot be supplied under the fair dealing and library provisions of the Copyright Act they may wish to use this service.

The Licence agreement covers copying from the works of CAL members. There is no limit on the amount which may be copied from periodical publications such as newspapers and magazines. Copying from journals on any one occasion must not exceed two articles from any one issue, unless they relate to the same subject matter.

The CAL licence defines journals as 'periodical publications that typically contain articles of 2500 words or more, or have an issue price of $10 or more'. Copying from books on any one occasion must not exceed the greater of 10% or one chapter.

Requests supplied under the Licence will attract a copyright fee of $5.00 for journal articles of more than one page, and $0.20 cents per page for all other material. These charges are in addition to the normal interlibrary loan charges.

Copyright Fee Paid requests may use the Fast Track Plus (2 hour turnaround), Fast Track (24 hour turnaround) or the Standard Service. The normal interlibrary loan charges for these services will apply, plus the copyright fee as outlined above.

For more information on the Copyright Fee Paid Service contact:

Document Supply Service
Phone (02) 6262 1269
Fax (02) 6273 2719

Email: docss@nla.gov.au

Recent manuscript acquisitions

The Condor
The Condor, wrecked in 1853

Manuscripts acquired for their historical content can be evocative and eloquent. Many often possess an additional, intangible appeal based on the circumstances in which they were created. Their very existence can convey more about human tribulation than what is said (or left unsaid) in the text. Three recent acquisitions by the Library are poignant mementos in themselves.

In 1843 Ann Wood, accompanied by her brother, travelled to Tasmania on board the Mona. She was to marry a man in Launceston. Upon arrival, the two faced the painful revelation that Ann's betrothed was already living with another woman, so they returned to England almost immediately. The journal kept by Ann's brother chronicles the shock tersely: 'Of the meeting I shall say nothing'. But elsewhere in the journal his reflections become more lyrical: 'Little could any one have anticipated that my dear sister & myself should so speedily have returned, or rather set out on our return, to our native land. The long and fondly cherished hopes of our hearts have been frustrated. Our gourds are blasted. The reed on which we leant has snapped and pierced our hands, teaching us that we should never forget the lesson taught by Him who inspired the Sweet Singer of Israel to indite [ie. compose] the words "Trust not in princes nor in the sons of men"'.

A series of documents and a Bible testify to the narrow escape by Francis Wickham, his family and other passengers from a fire on board the Condor in 1853 after it had sailed from Melbourne. The documents describe the catastrophe and the rescue, while the Bible contains the inscription: 'This Bible was saved from the burning wreck of their ship Condor and presented by the Master William Leighton to F.D. Wickham a passenger with his wife and 3 children'.

An original manuscript diary kept by Gordon Burt from 1942 to 1944 while a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Muntok Camp on Banka Island, South Sumatra, speaks of the remarkable ingenuity of its creator. As each page was written it was sewn into a leg of Burt's trousers, to avoid discovery by his captors. The diary describes privations, illnesses and deaths, as well as church services, classes and the joy of receiving Burt's first mail in nearly three years. It would have taken great fortitude to keep the diary going: '...some days I have nearly vomited from sheer hunger'.

And what became of all these people? Ann Wood eventually married a Presbyterian minister. Francis Wickham practised as a solicitor, first in Launceston and then in Melbourne. Gordon Burt, weakened by illness and hunger, died in camp shortly after it had been liberated by Allied troops. His diary and personal effects were sent to his wife in Melbourne in 1945 and have now found a home in the Manuscript Collection.

A new Ellis Rowan watercolour - Blossom Time

The National Library recently purchased an Ellis Rowan bush landscape, Blossom Time, at the Christie's auction in Melbourne. The watercolour depicts a typical outback Australian bush scene complete with flowering wattles, gum trees, native species, ochre earth and blue sky.

The most striking feature of the painting is the colour of the wattle that brings the tranquil bush alive and announces the approach of spring. A curved track leads the viewer through soft grey and green foliage into the warm golden bush. The serene mood created by the painting highlights the artist's familiarity and appreciation of the Australian bush.

Blossom Time complements, Ellis Rowan's Garden at Derriweit, Mount Macedon, which is held in the Pictorial Collection. These two paintings capture both the natural and the man-made beauty of flowering botanica in landscape settings.

The majority of the Ellis Rowan works held in the Pictorial Collection are of individual botanic specimens rather than landscapes, so this purchase provides insight into another aspect of Ellis Rowan's creative talent.

Blossom Time a Watercolour

Ellis Rowan, 1848-1922 Blossom Time Watercolour

Ellis Rowan was an acclaimed artist of her time, winning many exhibition awards, both internationally and in Australia. She was immensely prolific, producing well over 3,000 paintings, the majority of which were watercolours. Joan Kerr states, 'the fact that a colonial woman could make an international reputation from the despised female "hobby" of flower painting...was a considerable achievement'. Ellis Rowan's paintings are of botanical rather than artistic value. She travelled extensively, studying and painting the wildflowers and birds of Northern Australia, Thursday Island and New Guinea. She also spent several years in America illustrating books on flora by Alice Lounsberry. The National Library holds 947 Ellis Rowan paintings and we are pleased to welcome this latest, and quite different, acquisition into the Pictorial Collection.





Paradise Lost from Golden Cockerel Press

The Chairman of the National Library Council, Sir Anthony Mason, has donated to the Library a copy of John Milton's Paradise Lost printed by the Golden Cockerel Press in 1935.

The Golden Cockerel Press was active from 1920-59, and is considered one of the most important and influential private presses in British book production and printing of this century. Most private presses are operated by one or two people and have a policy of producing attractive printed books of limited editions. They are noted for their typography, layout, and fine bindings. Books are usually printed laboriously on a hand-press, printing a page at a time. In keeping with other pre nineteenth-century books, the paper is hand-made. Illustrations are either from wood or metal engravings.

Harold M. Williams started the Golden Cockerel Press as a cooperative in 1920 at Waltham St. Lawrence, England. Its members, with knowledge and enthusiasm for making fine books, worked without payment. The aim of the Press was to publish books in a more commercial style so that they would be within the price range of the general book buying public, while maintaining the integrity of fine book production.

Some of Britain's most notable printers, book designers, illustrators and binders worked for the Golden Cockerel Press. Printers such as Christopher Sandford, Owen Rutter and Francis Newbery lent their highly regarded expertise and skills to the Press. All three men were involved in printing this edition of Paradise Lost. Eric Gill, Robert Gibbings and Osbert Lancaster were amongst the eminent artists who illustrated the books.

This book has been illustrated with 32 elaborate wood engravings by Mary Groom. Eric Gill designed the titling and the type and Robert Gibbings engraved the title on wood. The three printers mentioned above and Anthony Sandford were responsible for the printing of the book. The attractive binding is bound in half leather pig skin by Zaehnsdorf. The cloth sides were hand-marbled by the master bookbinder-designer, Sydney Cockerell. The edition is limited to 200 numbered copies of which this is no. 135.

Today books printed by the Golden Cockerel Press are eagerly sought after by book collectors who recognise the craftsmanship and the historical significance of their place in 20th century book production.

This splendid copy of Paradise Lost is shelved in the Rare Book Collection with the Library's many other Golden Cockerels.

Celebrations to mark 150th anniversary of Petherick's birth

Edward Augustus Petherick
1847-1917

The birth of E A Petherick, 150 years ago, was celebrated at the National Library on 15 May with an afternoon tea for all Petherick Reading Room Readers Ticket holders, followed by a public lecture given by Dr. Tom Griffiths. Dr Griffiths, author of Hunters and Collectors: Antiquarian Imagination in Australia spoke on the 'Culture of Collecting', analysing the reasons why people are willing to give cherished personal artefacts to public institutions - libraries, galleries or museums - and the relationships between the donors and the institutions.

The many people in Canberra who were attracted by the topic were treated to a delightful presentation, full of interest, of fascinating sidelights on the practicalities of collecting, engaging anecdotes of collection trips undertaken by Dr. Griffiths as the collections field officer in his 'cup of tea job' for the State Library of Victoria. The lecture was a fitting tribute to EA Petherick and to his activities.

E A Petherick was born in England, son of a bookseller, an inveterate reader and lover of books. Emigrating to Melbourne in 1853, he joined the staff of George Robertson's bookshop and it was here that his deep and comprehensive knowledge of books and the book trade was developed. Petherick was the manager of Robertson's London office from 1873 -1887 and provided a unique opportunity for him to built a personal collection of books on Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.

Petherick later worked for Francis Edwards the antiquarian bookselling firm and prepared an outstanding series of sale catalogues relating to specific geographic areas including Australasia. Petherick wanted to ensure that his collection stayed together and in 1909 the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library Committee recommended its purchase. That collection was the most significant early acquisition for the Parliamentary Library and for the National Library.

Books from this collection are used regularly, especially by historians. Its a strange feeling to be handling a book with EAP lettered on the spine and to open it and find the distinctive sloping nineteenth century hand of a signature or note from Petherick. He would have much appreciated the sentiments of Dr Tom Griffiths on the nature of collecting and collections.

The Petherick Reading Room serves many of the Library's prime clients, 'those Australians engaged in the formulation and transmission of knowledge, particularly in research, policy development, authorship and creative endeavour- now and in the future.'(NLA Strategic Plan 1993-98). Access is by reader's ticket only to the Library's rare Australian and overseas printed collections and to the Music collections. A higher level of staff support, access to electronic materials, allocated desks are some of the special services provided in this reading room.

The Petherick Collection has strengths on maritime discovery, navigators, travel, Australian literature, religion and missionary work, journals and reports of missionary societies, works in Pacific island languages, original drawings, paintings, manuscripts, prints, maps, atlases, newspapers and periodicals. His superb collection of pamphlets is heavily used by a wide variety of readers and has just been microfilmed in an effort to make them more widely available as well as to preserve them.

ACT property maps acquisition

A rare and exciting purchase of printed and manuscript paddock plans of rural properties in the ACT and surrounding areas was a highlight of recent acquisitions in the Map Section.

The plans, drawn on blue-linen, tracing paper, dyelines or printed maps, show the paddock layouts of major rural properties in the ACT and region.

One particularly valuable set of maps within the collection is a set of six sheets from the Federal Capital 20 Chain Feature map series with manuscript annotations of actual land ownership, date of lease, acreage and land valuation, dating to the 1930's. This set provides a valuable record of the change in land ownership of the ACT from the turn of the century to the era of urban development.

Research Libraries Group 1997 annual meeting

RLG's annual meeting this year was held in windy Chicago May 5-6. Perhaps to celebrate the new format of the meeting Chicago turned on some splendid weather. Lake Michigan looked almost tropical with its white sand and turquoise water. Not that there was much time to enjoy the weather!

The annual meeting is an opportunity for RLG members to get together with the board of directors and RLG staff to share information and set priorities. This year, the business side of the meeting was extremely brief, consisting only of a report of the April board elections, followed by a presentation on 'Membership Values and Futures'.

The primary purpose of the meeting was to address the issue of 'Digital Futures - Ensuring Longterm Access to Digital Information'. Presentations on this topic commenced after morning tea on the first day with a thought provoking talk by David Levy from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) titled 'Heraclitus Meets Hercules - Reflections on the Metaphysical and Pragmatics of Archiving in a Digital Era'. This title certainly aroused our curiosity! David's talk covered the various perceptions of documents throughout the ages and examined what had been considered appropriate to preserve of them. One notable feature of his presentation was the introduction of the concept of an 'heroic document'. The afternoon session consisted of four presentations by invited speakers - Margaret Hedstrom, University of Michigan spoke on 'Digital Preservation as a Collaborative Process'; Seamus Ross, University of Glasgow gave a talk titled '"..decay in all around I see". Technical Obsolescence and Avoidance'; Robert Wolven, Columbia University, spoke on 'Metadata Needs for Coordinated Digital Preservation: Access, Assessment, Authentication'. and Jan Lyall, National Library of Australia, addressed the issue of international cooperation.

On the second and last day of the meeting all 100 RLG members present had an opportunity to express their concerns about how RLG was satisfying their needs in the digital world. The day started with a presentation by Sherry Byrne, convenor of the RLG Digital Archiving Working Group. She gave a preliminary report of the group's findings which included potential roles for RLG. Much of the thinking behind the group's recommendations is based on the 1996 report of the Digital Archiving Taskforce, established by RLG and the Commission on Preservation and Access in 1994, to investigate and recommend means to ensure 'continued access indefinitely into the future of records stored in digital electronic form' (http://www.rlg.org/ArchTF/index.html).

The roles identified for RLG by the Working Group were to:

The meeting then divided into five breakout groups which were asked to examine the recommendations of the Working Group and to report back on their priorities, possible partners and membership values. Not surprisingly not all groups addressed these issues and the reporting back session provided some interesting insights into the perceptions of the various members.

RLG members comprise an ever expanding group of different types of organisations. The original membership was strictly North American research libraries but is now open to any not-for-profit institution with an educational, cultural or scientific mission. The 157 members now include universities and colleges, national libraries, archives, historical societies, museums and independent research collections and public libraries.

The diversity of its membership was reflected in the views expressed in the reporting back session. Most of the recommendations proposed by the Working Group were endorsed with a very strong emphasis on the need to concentrate on the development of guidelines, standards and best practices. This type of activity was seen to be one of the strengths of RLG, as was the ability to bring together diverse groups of people to develop test-bed projects. Most groups also indicated that they wanted the issue to be examined from the perspective of the user. There was strong support for the greater internationalisation of RLG. In spite of the use of the Internet by RLG many members were concerned that communication between the organisation and its members was not as good as they would like.

There were some notable omissions from the concerns and comments of members. There was no mention of cost as a factor in what was digitised, no-one commented on the role of the Federal Government nor of the role of the National Digital Library Federation, no discussion of search engines and surprisingly, no mention of the need to develop strategies for information created in digital form.

At the time of the annual meeting the NLA was not a member of RLG. A decision has subsequently been made to join as there are many RLG activities which are of great interest to the NLA. Membership is likely to benefit both parties. It will enable greater Australian input into the development of guidelines and best practices and will assist in the development of international procedures. An indication that the non-American members are playing an important role in RLG is that the next annual meeting will be held in London, England.

† Heraclitus, Greek philosopher who flourished at about the beginning of the 5th century BC espoused the doctrine that the world of sensible things is a world of things in constant flux; as he put it in the Theaetetus, 'nothing is in this world because everything is in a state of becoming something else.
Hercules was the Roman god known for his great strength, ability to overcome enormous obstacles and to rescue all manner of things from danger.

ASTINFO meeting in Tehran

On 3-8 May 1997 the 11th ASTINFO Consultative Meeting and Regional Seminar was hosted by Irandoc, the Iranian Information and Documentation Center. The meeting brought together delegates from seventeen ASTINFO member countries in the Asia-Pacific region to discuss national information infrastructure development issues and to devise an activity plan for the next two years. The National Library of Australia was represented by Adrian Cunningham of the Library's National Initiatives and Collaboration Branch.

ASTINFO, the UNESCO-supported Regional Network for the Exchange of Information and Experience in Science and Technology in Asia and the Pacific, was established in 1983. Over the years ASTINFO has proved to be a valuable pan-Asian library forum and a number of useful library development projects and seminars have been run under its auspices. ASTINFO has proved to be a particularly useful means of identifying national and regional development needs and finding suitable programs, resources and expertise to help address those needs. In particular the network has given developing countries in the region valuable access to support, expertise, assistance and advice from their more developed regional neighbours.

The Regional Seminar on the Development of National Information Infrastructures took up the baton from the Japanese-funded SISNAP (Research Study on National Information Infrastructures and Services) Project, which to date has coordinated three international workshops and is preparing a major international conference in Tokyo in September 1997.

The Seminar consisted of papers from six Iranian speakers and delegates from India, Bangladesh, China and Malaysia. A key theme of many of these papers was the impetus to library cooperation that is provided by the networking of previously stand-alone bibliographic databases. For example, the 1995 Chinese National Database Survey revealed that China maintains over 1,000 Chinese language databases, 25% of which are greater than 100MB in size. In response to this the Chinese government is funding a project to link many of these databases to the World Wide Web using a common user interface. Finally, a site visit to the Iranian Data Communication Center impressed delegates with the rapid strides being made in the development of a digital data communications infrastructure in that country.

The Consultative Meeting commenced with delegates describing the state of information infrastructure development and library services in their respective countries. Attention was then turned to developing the ASTINFO regional work plan for 1998/99. Six key themes were identified and workshopped: resource sharing and interlibrary loan; copyright; CDS/ISIS database software development; community information services; human resource development; and national information infrastructure.

Out of the discussions emerged a variety of proposals for initiatives and activities to be pursued over the ensuing two years. Common to many of the proposals was a desire to improve the provision of information services to rural and underprivileged areas and a desire to utilise the ASTINFO membership network to foster regional self-reliance and cooperation.

Irandoc is to be congratulated for organising a very friendly and tightly run meeting. Delegates were made to feel extremely welcome and the army of Irandoc support staff went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that the meeting ran smoothly. The commitment of the Iranian government to rapid modernisation and its recognition of the vital role that information plays in this process represents an excellent model for national information infrastructure development.

The final report and work plan of the 11th ASTINFO Consultative Meeting will be published shortly. For more information contact Ms Delia Torrijos, UNESCO/PGI Regional Adviser for Asia and the Pacific, PO Box 967 Prakanong Post, Bangkok 10110, Thailand (fax: 66-2-3910866; email: UHBGK@UNESCO.ORG)

National Library active in international standards meetings

The development of an effective open and distributed library network depends vitally on the implementation of agreed technical standards. Standards are relevant at every level of library system design. They involve character sets, data elements, content rules, data formats and interconnection protocols. Most of the key standards in these areas are the responsibility of Technical Committee 46 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and of the national committees which relate to it, such as the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) in the United States, and Committee IT/19 of Standards Australia.

Every two years, ISO holds a plenary meeting of Technical Committee 46. It is an opportunity for the representatives of its 23 member countries and several other observer countries to meet, exchange ideas, and resolve outstanding issues in the development of library systems standards.

Such a plenary meeting was held in May 1997 in London, and it was attended by two representatives of Standards Australia Committee IT/19: Warwick Cathro from the National Library, and Jan Gatenby from Stowe Computing.

There were a number of pleasing aspects to these meetings, including:

Technical Committee 46 has an Advisory Group which steers the work of the Committee and its Subcommittees between the biennial meetings. Six countries are represented on the Working Group (currently the UK, the USA, Austria, France, Hungary and Sweden) with three of these countries retiring every two years. France, Hungary and Sweden retired from the Advisory Group at this meeting. Five countries nominated for membership of the Advisory Group. The voting was as follows:

Australia - 17 votes
Italy - 15 votes
Germany - 13 votes
Thailand - 10 votes
Russia - 9 votes

The support for Australia reflects the strong commitment which it has given to the international standards process in recent years, not only in ISO but in other related technical working groups such as the Z39.50 Implementors Group (ZIG), the Dublin Core Metadata Group, the ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG), and the Group on Electronic Document Interchange (GEDI). Australia will be represented on the Technical Committee 46 Advisory Group by Jan Gatenby.

A key standard of interest to the delegates is the Information Retrieval Protocol. This has now been formally confirmed as an international standard, cited as ISO 23950, and is essentially identical to the US (NISO) standard Z39.50. There was discussion at the meeting concerning the procedures for ISO 23950 profiles. Instead of being registered by regional groups (European, North American, or Asian) these profiles will now be reviewed by Technical Committee 46 (within Working Group 4 of its Subcommittee 4, to be precise). This change will result in a clearer and more formal status for the Union Catalogue Profile which was drafted by Standards Australia Committee IT/19. It was clear, from discussions at the meetings, that there is considerable international awareness of and support for this Profile.

For several years, work has been progressing within Technical Committee 46 to define and describe the data elements for use in all library automated systems. In effect, this standard (ISO 8459) forms a basic data dictionary for library systems. The meeting discussed and resolved the comments on the Draft International Standard for Circulation Data Elements, which forms Part 4 of ISO 8459. It also discussed how to progress Part 6, Cataloguing Data Elements, and how to consolidate all the parts into a unified data dictionary. The earlier parts, which cover Acquisitions, Information Retrieval and Interlibrary Loan, are in need of revision and consolidation.

Technical Committee 46 has also formed a new group aimed at defining an international system of codes or symbols to identify libraries. These codes could be used in international directories to support important activities such as international interlibrary loan transactions. The meeting discussed an initial working draft, and reached agreement on a system which would use the existing national systems of library codes, and prefix these with the ISO country code.

There was considerable discussion over the scope and consequently the naming of the library code or, more correctly, identifier. It was agreed that only one set of identifiers per country would be standardised and that it would be the responsibility of each country to appoint a maintenance agency for the national identifiers. Such a system should lead to a workable, international, distributed directory of libraries. A World Wide Web Home Page for international library codes could point to the Web pages for the various national authorities. This would require each national authority to mount its national directory on the Web. This process in underway in Australia, as the National Library is currently working on a project to mount the Australian Interlibrary Resource Sharing Directory on its Web server.

More information on some of the bodies mentioned in this article can be found at the following Web sites:

ISO Technical Committee 46: http://www.iso.ch/meme/TC46.html

Standards Australia Committee IT/19: http://www.nla.gov.au/lis/stndrds/grps/it19/it19tor.html

NISO: http://www.niso.org/

A page on Technology Standards and Organizations is maintained by the International Federation of Library Institutions and Organizations (IFLA) at: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ifla/II/standard.htm

Papua New Guinea Internet Project

Tien Dao of the National Library of Australia spent three weeks in Port Moresby in late May/early June during which time he successfully completed the installation and training phase of a project to introduce Internet facilities to the National Library of Papua New Guinea. The project was funded from the National Library of Australia's Regional Cooperation budget.

The Papua New Guinea Office of Libraries and Archives (OLA) now has an operational Local Area Network with email and FTP software, access to the World Wide Web through a commercial Internet Service Provider in Port Moresby and a functional World Wide Web home page. The OLA Web site is not yet available to the rest of the world, but should become available later in the year.

OLA staff have been provided with systems administration and Web administration training together with support documentation. Arrangements have been put in place for local technical support for these systems.

PNG staff training

Papua New Guinea Office of Libraries and Archives staff receiving training by Tien Dao

Whilst in Port Moresby Tien also provided training and worked closely with officers from the PNG University of Technology, the PNG Prime Minister's Department and the PNG Department of Education. This has helped position the PNG Office of Libraries and Archives as an Internet leader in the eyes of some key stakeholders in Papua New Guinea.

The first email message sent out of the Office of Libraries and Archives was sent by PNG National Librarian, Daniel Paraide to Warren Horton, NLA Director-General on 5 June.

The PNG Office of Libraries and Archives can be emailed at email: ola@datec.com.au

Discussions with UnCover

NLA and Uncover Staff

Left to right: Julia Trainor, Kathy Kingery, Warwick Cathro and Charu Sood

Kathy Kingery, Vice-President of UnCover, visited the National Library on 14 May for discussions on the UnCover Australia service.

The visit was an opportunity for Library staff to discuss the needs of Australian users of the popular service. The coverage of Australian journals on UnCover is of vital concern to Australian users, and National Library staff regularly suggest new Australian serials for inclusion by UnCover.

Ms Kingery undertook to improve UnCover's uptake of additional Australian titles. It was also agreed that the National Library will supply documents from all its serial holdings, including its overseas serial titles. Other concerns of Australian users were also discussed, including fax quality, delivery of long faxes, online error messages, and the operation of the UnCover Australia account.

What's new on the National Library's World Wide Web site?

During May and June the National Library added 62 documents to their web site. Some of these are:

Copyright Requirements for users of the Document Supply Service

http://www.nla.gov.au/dss/libadv2.html

Guide to the Papers of Henry Otley Beyer (1883-1966) (MS 4877)

http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/4877.htmll

Guide to the Papers of the Australian National Playwrights Conference (MS 5062)

http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/5062.html

1997 Community Heritage Grants Information

http://www.nla.gov.au/chg/chg97.html

NLA Submission to the Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy

http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/west.html

Performing arts resources-the spotlight falls in the national arena

Australia's performing arts heritage, its collection and preservation, was the focus of deliberations at a two day workshop held in the National Library at the end of April.

Fifteen people from a cross-section of collecting and teaching institutions met under the auspices of the Performing Arts Special Interest Group (PASIG) which is part of Museums Australia Inc.

The workshop represented a turning point for the group of concerned curators, librarians, and archivists which had met occasionally over the past five years. In 1992 a conference entitled 'On with the Show' was held at the Performing Arts Museum in Melbourne.

Apart from being a useful exchange of information on what various institutions were doing, it also marked the establishment of the Special Interest Group under the umbrella of Museums Australia. Subsequent meetings of the group were held in Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney, usually in association with a Museums Australia conference.

From the outset, a notable feature of the group has been the wide cross-sectoral nature of the membership - libraries (state and national), performing arts museums, archives (either general such as Australian Archives or specialist such as the National Film and Sound Archive), and other institutions such as the Powerhouse Museum or the National Gallery of Australia which have small but significant performing arts components their collections.

This range of institutions reflects the diversity of materials involved in documenting the performing arts, including printed materials (particularly ephemera), archives and manuscripts, pictorial materials, designs, as well as artefacts such as costumes, set models, props, and equipment.

The two day workshop, facilitated by professional management expert Vasiliki Nihas, targeted key topics of collection development policies, the development of a performing arts resources data base or directory, the role and place of exhibitions, publicising the need for collecting and preservation of performing arts materials, advancing the profile of exisiting collections, and the future role of PASIG itself.

A spirit of dedication, cooperation and openness pervaded the two days' deliberations.

PASIG Workshop participants

Above: Members of the PASIG Workshop. Left to Right: Alison Richards (Victorian College of the Arts), Janine Barrand (Performing Arts Museum, Melbourne), John Thomson (Research Library, National Gallery of Australia), (front) Vasiliki Nihas (Facilitator), Jo Peoples (Performing Arts Museum of South Australia), Gabrielle Hyslop (Australian Archives), (back) Erica Hart (Library, Queensland Performing Arts Trust), (front) Tony Marshall (State Library of Tasmania), Richard Stone (National Library of Australia), Jerelynn Brown (State Library of New South Wales), Paul Bentley (Sydney Opera House Library), Beryl Davis (Museum, Queensland Performing Arts Centre), Dermot McCaul (State Library of Victoria), (back) Jeff Brownrigg (National Film and Sound Archive), (front) Louise Hyland (National Library of Australia), Christine Roberts (Library, National Institute of Dramatic Art)

The group will meet again in Sydney in November, 1997 when a strategic plan for the group will be addressed as well as the results of investigations into the possibility of a PASIG home page on the Web, and the identification of research trends in the field.

The show goes on !

For further information on PASIG and performing arts collections contact Janine Barrand, Director, Performing Arts Museum, Melbourne, Victorian Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Road Melbourne 3004 (tel. 03 9281 8325), or Richard Stone, Manager, Australian Collection Development, National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT 2600. (tel 06 262 1306), email: rstone@nla.gov.au

South-East Asian collection study visit

During May, a working group from Thailand made a special visit to the National Library to study the renowned Coedes Collection. Professor George Coedes (1886-1969) is regarded as one of the greatest Western scholars of classical South-East Asia. After eleven years as head of the National Library of Thailand he became Director of L'Ecole francaise d'Extreme Orient (EFEO) in Hanoi.

His collection of some 6,000 items, including books, serials, maps and manuscripts was acquired by the Library in 1970. It is particularly strong on the former French territories of Indochina (now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia).

Entries for all the books in the Coedes Collection may be found in the Library's online catalogue.

Silpakorn University in Thailand has recently established a Franco-Thai Studies Documentation Centre which is developing a Coedes Project. The Centre aims to publish documents and organise seminars on Coedes, in cooperation with French institutions including EFEO.

The group from Thailand was led by Dr Pensiri Charoenpote, who chairs the Centre's Executive Board, and included Assistant Professor Oraphin Jatarupamaya, a member of the Board, and Dr Louis Gabaude, the EFEO representative in Thailand. They were especially interested in studying Professor Coedes' correspondence and other papers housed in the Manuscripts Section as well as his published works located in Asian Collections. The group also showed interest in related collections including the Library's extensive Thai language holdings.

The Centre is planning a seminar on Professor Coedes and his work in early 1999, and has asked for the Library's input.

Coedes Project Members

Coedes Project members. Left to right: Assistant Professor Oraphin Jatarupamaya, Dr Pensiri Charoenpote and Dr Louis Gabaude with Mrs Lek McFadden, Thai Librarian, National Library

Network Services Marketing diary

The ABN Marketing staff look forward to meeting you and offering advice about ABN, Ozline and UnCover Australia at the following conferences:

APA Book Fair 1997, Darling Harbour, Sydney, 2-4 August

National Library Technicians Conference, National Convention Centre, Canberra, 24-26 September

Asian Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians' Conference, Perth Concert Hall, 13-16 October

Public Libraries and Reference and Information Services Conference, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, 10-12 November

Keep reading Gateways for details of other ABN promotions during 1997

'I Want To Be a Human Being'

The Struggle for Aboriginal Rights and 1967 Commonwealth Constitutional Referendum

Dramatic and moving original documents from the 1967 referendum are on display at the National Library in Canberra.

The 1967 referendum was the result of more than 40 years of campaigning by indigenous and non-indigenous Australians working together to achieve constitutional equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The history of this important movement is recorded in personal and official letters, papers, newspaper clippings, flyers, policy documents, paintings and photographs, newsletters and campaign material held in the Library's collections.

Key exhibits include a poster calling upon Aboriginal people to attend a day of mourning and protest in Sydney in 1938, poignant personal letters between campaigners Faith Bandler and Jessie Street, and badges and flyers from the 1967 campaign.

The display is just one part of the Library's ongoing efforts to record and provide Aboriginal Australians with access to their historical material.

The Library is currently compiling a guide to original Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander material held in its manuscript, pictorial and oral history collections. Tentatively titled 'White Australia has a Black History', the guide is due for release in 1998. The guide is an example of the important contribution to the reconciliation process that institutions such as the National Library can make. It is intended that the guide will be listed on the Internet so remote and overseas communities can also access the information.

The exhibition is located in the ground floor of the National Library and is open until November 1997.

National Opera Festival in NLA

Libraries and operas may seem like an unlikely combination, but the National Library proved that they go together like conversation and song.

The three-part series In Conversation and Song: Australian Opera Legends was part of the National Festival of Australian opera being held from June - August in Canberra.

Visitors had a rare chance to take afternoon tea in the company of leading Australian opera personalities: 'Two Generations of Opera'-Ronald Maconaghie and his daughter soprano Fiona Maconaghie, 'The Rival Baritones'-John Shaw and Robert Allman, and 'Pioneer of Australian Opera'-Stephen Hall. They entertained and engaged their audiences with wonderful stories, anecdotes and song.

The National Library =
an opera house + chat show +
coffee shop on winter Sunday afternoons

For many theatre and opera lovers this invitation to go behind the scenes into the backstage world was a tantalising prospect and the Library foyer was full to overflowing.

Opera lovers will also have the opportunity to see opera highlights from the Library's remarkable performing arts collection in the display 'Travel, Fame and Fortune: Australian Opera Singers at Home and Abroad', located in the Visitor Centre.

This fascinating display of ephemera includes posters, programs from Britain and Australia, handbills, photographs and other opera memorabilia.

A Passion for Dance

by Michelle Potter

This stunning, beautifully illustrated new National Library publication presents a series of vibrant and diverse encounters with some of Australia's most creative and passionate minds.

A Passion for Dance Cover

ISBN 0 642 10685 1, pb., illus. RRP $34.95

A Passion for Dance introduces ten contemporaries in the Australian dance world-choreographers and artistic directors of dance companies. All were 'captured live', speaking out in interviews gathered by the National Library for its Oral History collection.

As dance scholar Dr Michelle Potter discovered, encountering dancers out of their more familiar theatrical environments is a lively, engaging and sometimes provocative experience.

The artists whose thoughts and recollections appear in A Passion for Dance represent a cross-section of people who have made a distinguished contribution to dance in Australia in the 1990s.

Many are household names, all engage head-on with ideas in a completely forthright and open way. Among the highlights: Maina Gielgud on her separation from the Australian Ballet; Paul Mercurio on what he really feels about ballroom dancing; Meryl Tankard and Gideon Obarzanek on challenges they face as contemporary choreographers with highly individualistic styles in fitting in with the conservative dance establishment. Others sharing their passion and vision for dance are Stephen Baynes, Padma Menon, Graeme Murphy, Stephen Page, Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch.

Across the ten interviews, certain issues emerge as recurrent themes specific to dance. And some are the subject of long-term debate in other art-forms. What is the relative importance of form and content? How important is narrative? Questions concerning the past, the present, the future and the links between them are at the heart of this book. How does dance deal with its heritage? How will this art form move into the 21st century?

This book is being published at a critical time in the evolution of dance in this country. It will earn for itself a significant place in Australian dance history.

A Passion for Dance was launched by Dame Margaret Scott in Melbourne on 30 June in association with the Green Mill Dance Festival.

A must for all dance historians, dancers, choreographers, students and lovers of dance.


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Last updated 15 June 1998