National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568
No. 29
September 1997


Contents

Meeting and Conferences

Acquisitions

Special Reports

Reader Services

Services to Libraries Division News

What's New - What's Coming Up

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/2/pubs/gatehome.html


'A vision for the future'

This year's Annual ABN/Ozline Users Meeting devoted less time to reviewing the year which has passed, and spent more time developing ideas for the future business direction of ABN. This was the design of chairperson Tony Ralli, who also ensured that the Network Committee played a prominent role at the meeting (see the report on page 9). Helen Livingston, chair of the Network Committee, shared with users the vision for the future which had emerged from the Network Committee's earlier planning day. Geoff Payne spoke about the future of document delivery, and Marian Bate and Susan Ball were charged with the task of summarising the small group discussions and the plenary sessions of the meeting.

Vision for the future

Helen Livingston highlighted the main outcomes of the Network Committee's planning day, and urged users to consider the reasons why ABN needs a replacement system. Helen stressed ABN's cooperative and collaborative foundation, and the sense of shared ownership which that has engendered. Having our own Australian system will enable Australian libraries to direct the changes and growth of the system for the benefit of the majority, and to ensure that we have an Australian system for Australian users. Helen suggested that if Australian libraries work together, we can afford to fund jointly the development of new services and technology, and to enjoy the competitive purchasing power of one national system.

User concerns

A popular feature of this year's meeting was the opportunity for delegates to discuss business directions in small groups. This was a chance for a large number of individuals to express their views, and a pleasing outcome was a substantial consensus on the preferred future for ABN. Marian Bate and Susan Ball had the task of bringing together the outcomes of the small group discussions and the themes of the meeting as a whole. Although the small discussion groups all worked in different ways, they all arrived at the same conclusions. The main issues of concern were:

· Australia needs a national library system run by Australians for Australians

· Charging needs to be predictable for budgeting purposes, should have 'no surprises', and should have rewards to encourage contribution

· Governance of the network is of interest to all

· Data standards are important and need to be encouraged and improved

· Data migration to the new system is an opportunity for clean-up, for example to delete the old WLN interim records without holdings.

· ABN and Ozline should complement each other for document access and should be available via the World Wide Web

· 1998 will be a year for libraries to address equipment and training requirements

In summary, users want a cost effective, modern system with connectivity, one-stop-shopping and a quality database.

User forum

The popular user forum provided the opportunity for users to raise any issues of interest to them. Over twenty topics for discussion were posted in the suggestion box during the course of the meeting. Subjects included hours of operation for ABN and Ozline, IT communi-cations issues (Internet performance, charges for leased lines, the future of AUSTPAC access and the use of TCP3270), database quality, training courses to address data quality issues, and updating the NBD with records from library suppliers and OCLC. As expected, the Networked Services Project generated discussion on several topics, including hardware requirements, service models, training require-ments, the relationship to local interlibrary document delivery administration, and the degree of Z39.50 compliance of the new system. The discussion and responses to all these topics have been fully minuted.

Interlibrary document supply

With document delivery at the cross roads, Geoff Payne was asked to make a presentation on its future. Geoff described several current projects such as CILLA, LIDDA, JEDDS and IMPRIMATUR, which are all trying to improve the delivery of documents by harnessing new technology. Geoff emphasised the need to match the use of documents under 'fair dealing' provisions in copyright law, with the speed and efficiency of electronic document delivery systems. He also noted the need for sensible arrangements, using modern technology, by which people can make full use of documents with fair provision for payment of rights to copyright owners.

In summary, Geoff admitted that the future of document delivery is not clear, but advised that libraries will be better off working together to achieve a national solution with high levels of interoperability between systems. Geoff Payne's presentation is summarised on the ABN home page.

 

Left. At the keynote address: Joyce Searle and Martin Byrt (State Library of South Australia) with Susanne Moir (State Library of NSW) on the right
Right.Kerrie Talmacs (University of New South Wales Library) had several cataloguing questions during the user forum

The minutes of the meeting, with links to summaries of the major presentations, are on the ABN home page at the following address: http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/97mins.html

Keynote speech by Terry Cutler

Dr Terry Cutler, Chair of the Commonwealth Government's Information Policy Advisory Committee, was this year's keynote speaker at the Annual Users Meeting. As ABN prepares to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing information environment, Dr Cutler's address gave delegates a useful view of the context and wider environment in which ABN will be operating.

Dr Cutler described the features of the new information society-the globalisation of economic activity and its effect on service industries such as universities and libraries. His feeling is that libraries are in a prime position to take on the business of the information revolution, but they need to ensure that they are equipped to survive in a world of global competition and change.

Dr Cutler identified the seven 'pillars' of wisdom for successful electronic interfaces: security; privacy; authentication of users and transactions; warranties & guarantees; quality assurance; product labelling so that the consumer can make informed choices; and reliability. In his opinion, these pillars will determine the success of individual online services.

For those daunted by the constant challenge of change and structural adjustment, Dr Cutler offered the concept of 'punctuated equilibrium', where long periods of relative calm are punctuated by sudden transformation in which radically different forms emerge. This brought a question from the audience about the timing of the next period of equilibrium. Dr Cutler predicted that it might be as close as five years away, but declined to estimate how long it would last.

(This address is summarised on the ABN home page at http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/cutler.html)

Standards Australia's IT/19 Committee at work

More and more, library system vendors and their customers need to be aware of the standards that govern the way libraries do business. Early library systems depended on customisation to meet user needs. Now, the trend is for users to specify conformance with standards at the buying stage, to accept functional limitations of the chosen product and to influence vendor development priorities through user groups. This reduces the cost of upgrades and provides users and vendors with a greater flexibility to mix and match software at different stages. The development of standards is an important part of this process.

Few of us have the time to directly involve ourselves in the standards development process, but there are opportunities to monitor and influence directions through Standards Australia's IT/19 Committee, a body tasked specifically with the 'standardisation of practices relating to libraries, documentation and information centres, indexing and abstracting services, archives, information science and publishing'.

Judith Pearce, from the National Library, had an opportunity to attend an IT/19 meeting last month and was impressed by the scope of work of the committee and what its members were able to achieve as part of their daily agenda.

IT/19 is one of more than 1,500 technical committees administered by Standards Australia. It does have a name (Computer Applications in Information and Documentation) but it is most often referred to by its number. The committee has joint Australian / New Zealand membership and meets three times a year, doing most of its business out-of-session through email. The meeting Judith attended in Sydney was held as a teleconference with members participating in both countries. The next meeting will be held face-to-face in Christchurch.

Neil McLean, Macquarie University Librarian, the independent chair of the committee, kept the agenda moving and held discussion at the appropriate level. The other members are industry-appointed representatives from Australia and New Zealand. This is Standards Australia's strategy for ensuring that standards are established by consensus across a range of sectors. Judith Pearce attended as representative of the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS).

As well as representing particular industry groups, committee members bring to IT/19 an understanding of standards development needs gained from membership of other groups, attendance at international seminars and conferences and specific projects in which they are engaged. A number of agenda items were geared towards the sharing of information between members and the early tabling of issues.

Peter O'Neill, from Standards Australia, acts as committee secretary, and coordinates the administrative work of the committee. His practical approach to the complex and often obstruse material the committee handles and his knowledge of the standards development process are important factors in the success of the body.

It is Peter's role to inform IT/19 members of relevant international standardisation activities; and to coordinate Australian input through participation of members in working committees, ballots, etc. Standards Australia adopts international standards as Australian standards wherever possible. Around half of the current 5,750 or so Australian standards are aligned with inter-national standards.

Judith was able to witness an international standard being 'cloned' while at the meeting. A revision of the Interlibrary Loan Protocol, ISO 10161-2 has just been released containing an important amendment to support electronic document delivery. The original protocol is already an Australian standard (AS 4196-7) and IT/19 members commented and voted on the revised draft when it was submitted as a draft international standard (DIS) last year.

IT/19's workplan is driven primarily by the activities of the International Organisation for Standardisation's Technical Committee 46, Subcommittee 4 (ISO TC 46/ SC 4)-the equivalent international standards body. IT/19 also maintains a watching brief over other areas of the work of TC46-those which relate to computer applications in information and documentation.

Janifer Gatenby, Australian representative on the international TC 46 Advisory Group


A major agenda item for the recent meeting was a report by Janifer Gatenby and Warwick Cathro on their attendance at the TC 46 meeting held in London in the week of 12-16 May. A highlight of their report was the announcement that Australia had won a position on the TC 46 Advisory Group, with Janifer to be the appointed representative. This is a major coup for Australia, as it will put IT/19 in a strong position to influence the TC 46 agenda directly.

As part of their report, Janifer and Warwick raised the issue that the Serial Item Control Identifier or standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.56) had not been on the TC 46 meeting agenda as they had expected. The committee returned to this issue later in the meeting and decided to ask NISO for permission to clone Z39.56 as an Australian standard, rather than waiting until it is adopted as an ISO standard. Risks to this approach were identified, and it was agreed to address these by changing Australia's membership of the TC 46 Subcommittee working on this standard, from observer to participator status, in order to fast-track the ISO process.

The standards process is traditionally a slow one, but this example illustrated that there are key moments where a particular business direction may be in the balance. Identifying these moments, taking an educated guess at what is the right direction and developing strategies to tip the balance is possibly the most important business of the committee.

It is not easy for a library manager to keep up-to-date with standards. However, IT/19 members are in an excellent position to enrich their organisations, industry groups and user communities with a knowledge of standards development issues-in particular those to do with library procurement-gained through their participation on the committee.

Judith Pearce is manager of the National Library of Australia's Integrated Library Management System. With Janifer Gatenby and Lesley Bezear, she has been actively involved in standards work through development of the Z39.50 Union Catalogue Profile.

MetaWeb project

The last year has seen a greatly increased awareness of the word 'metadata' and its application to searching for information resources on the Internet. A piece of metadata describes an information resource, or helps to provide access to an information resource. For example, a record in a library catalogue is a set of metadata, which is associated with the book (or other information resource) in the library collection through the call number. Similarly, the indexing data collected by Web crawlers constitute metadata (though not very good metadata) which is linked to the information resources on the World Wide Web through the Web address, or Uniform Resource Locator or URL.

Web search engines can return a lot of irrelevant information because they have no means (or very few means) of distinguishing between important and incidental words in document texts. If we could target our searches onto words which are used as significant terms, we could achieve an enormous improvement in search precision. If we could target searches onto words or phrases that identify their correct role, we would also improve precision. For example, we could retrieve just those resources where 'Green' is the name of the author, without retrieving resources about green peas or environmental issues.

Metadata can also assist in improving search recall-that is, in retrieving information resources that would otherwise be missed. Relevant information can be missed because sites contain additional resource types to HTML text-such as images, databases, and PDF documents. Also, most harvesting engines do not index every page on a site, but often only the top two or three hierarchical levels. Thus, these engines miss significant documents which, on larger and more complex sites, may be located in lower levels of the hierarchy. A better harvesting process would be to have an engine gather metadata from a repository or database created locally from a complete coverage of the local site.

As the volume of information on the Web grows rapidly, publishers of this information are increasingly recognising the benefits of creating quality metadata and using it to improve the effectiveness of searches. An example of a metadata scheme is the well-known Dublin Core metadata element set (http://www.oclc.org:5046/research/ dublin_core). Dublin Core is being developed as a generic metadata standard for use by libraries, archives, government and other publishers of online information.

It has been recognised that widespread development of metadata will not occur unless tools are available to simplify and streamline the process of metadata creation and maintenance. An important new project in Australia, funded by the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC), aims to develop and disseminate such tools. The MetaWeb project is a joint project of the Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC), the Australian Defence Force Academy, Charles Sturt University, and the National Library of Australia. The Project will develop these tools in the context of the repository model, in which metadata would be stored in a local repository rather than embedded within HTML pages using the META tag. The data in these local repositories would be gathered regularly by the harvesting engines.

More specifically, the MetaWeb project, due to finish in mid 1998 will:

• develop a metadata repository model and associated software;

• develop a number of tools for the creation and maintenance of metadata;

• support the development of standards for metadata, including an examination of any extensions required to the Dublin Core standard; and

• apply these standards to one or more testbed applications.

The project will be supported by a coordinator based at the NLA and a software engineer based at DSTC in Brisbane. The project participants will keep the library community informed of progress in this important initiative through announcements on lists such as the National Library's NIAC-L.

Archives award for Adrian Cunningham

Adrian Cunningham from the National Initiatives and Collaboration Branch was honoured with a Mander Jones Publications Award at the Annual Conference of the Australian Society of Archivists in July.

The award, presented in Adelaide by Lois Mander Jones, was for the best article about archives, written by an Australian and published in a journal not intended primarily for archivists. The article, titled 'Ensuring essential evidence', appeared in the November 1996 issue of NLA News.

The late Phyllis Mander Jones, after whom the award was named, was the founder of the Australian Society of Archivists and a former Mitchell Librarian.

Left: Adrian Cunningham and the current President of the Australian Society of Archivists, Kathryn Dan

 

 

 

 

 

Ian Templeman leaves the National Library

Ian Templeman contemplates a familiar figure jumping into space.

The painting is by Ian's wife, the artist Romola Templeman

After seven years at the head of the National Library's Cultural and Educational Services Division, Ian Templeman has retired to pursue his personal interests in writing, publishing, and the arts. His contributions to the National Library's cultural and public programs have been substantial and frequently acclaimed. In particular, he instigated a major travelling exhibitions program, extended the Library's excellent publication program to reach a greater variety of sectors in the Australian community, and developed a lively calendar of seminars and public events.

The National Library of Australia has been one among several stepping stones in Templeman's career of serving the arts in Australia, for which he was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1989. His accomplishments as founding director of the Fremantle Arts Centre for 17 years are well known and include the establishment of the Fremantle Arts Centre Press. The press achieved a national reputation for discovering, nurturing and publishing Western Australian authors such as Elizabeth Jolley, Nicholas Hasluck, T.A.G. Hungerford, Albert Facey and Sally Morgan.

Ian has contributed his expertise to many public committees. He served as a member of the Australia Council from 1982 to 1987, followed by a three-year term on the National Library's own council before being appointed, in 1990, to the position of Assistant Director-General Cultural & Educational Services. He continues to give his time to the Centre for Australian Cultural Studies and advisory committees at both Charles Sturt and Wollongong universities.

Ian was farewelled by colleagues and his staff at an afternoon tea on Friday 29 August.

Link-up newsletter replaced

The National Library's publication Link-up will be replaced by an electronic mailing list due to receive its first postings around the end of September.

The list is designed to foster networking at the grassroots level among libraries concerned with service provision in the special interest areas of cultural diversity, literacy and disability. As well as creating a forum for discussion, it will host occasional 'news releases' in the form of specifically commissioned articles. And there are plans to develop an archive on the National Library's World Wide Web server for some of the list contributions.

While it is recognised that Internet access is not universal, the gap is closing rapidly.

Joining instructions are uncomplicated. Just send an email message to listserv@nla.gov.au and include the following words as a separate line in the body of the message:

subscribe linkup-l [space] your full name.

A complete list of commands understood by the NLA listserv is available by sending an email with the word 'help' in the body of the message to the same address.

All those who contributed to Link-up, the newsletter, and had a professional interest in the issues it covered, are urged to participate in the discuss-ions generated by its successor.

Katy Bramich, Director of Public Programs, will answer any questions. She can be contacted on +61 2 6262 1537, fax +61 2 6273 4493 or email kbramich@nla.gov.au

Cooperative collecting and access

Photo. From left to right-

Front row: Ian Castles, Prof. Neville Stephens, Chris Foster, Cliff Law, Pam Gatenby, Dr Warwick Cathro, Prof. Angus Martin

Second row: Prof. Paul Weaver, Dr Jan Lyall, Mr Peter Vallee, Prof. Keith Hancock, Prof. Paul Bourke, Warren Horton, Jan Fullerton, Dr David Bennett, Dr Stephen Foster, Prof. Peter Spearritt, Prof. Anthony Low, Dr David Smiles

The collection policies of Australian research libraries went under the microscope at two important consultative meetings hosted by the National Library in July. The National Academies Forum and the National Scholarly Communications Forum were each invited to advise and collaborate with the library on important aspects of information acquisition and provision in today's complex electronic climate.

The National Academies Forum on 8 July offered a second opportunity for the library and members of the Academies to share information and to seek and offer advice on matters of mutual interest. Last year's meeting concentrated on issues related to the National Library's collecting policy; this year the agenda was broader and covered the following additional topics: a proposed roundtable meeting on monograph collecting by Australian libraries, the National Scholarly Communications Forum Roundtable on the DNC (held the following week), library issues arising from the Humanities and Social Sciences reviews underway in the tertiary sector, the West Review and library infrastructure issues, copyright, the role of the National Library in relation to science documentation, and the Networked Services Project.

For the benefit of those who attended Jan Fullerton outlined current collection and access activities at the National Library. Pam Gatenby spoke about some of the Library's new electronic databases under development including IMAGES 1 and the Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM). Pam also reported that the National Library is working towards introducing a wider range of services which provide electronic access to journals not held in the collection. The concept of the distributed national collection was discussed by the group, and Warwick Cathro described the projects currently being undertaken by the National Initiatives and Collaboration Branch (NIAC) in that regard.

The National Library sought the interest and support of the Academies during the review of the Copyright Act to ensure that fair dealing is maintained in the interests of scholarship and research.

Members of the National Academies Forum and staff from the National Library have now agreed to meet on an annual basis in order to encourage an active exchange of views and to promote ongoing cooperation between the two bodies.

The July meeting, the seventh in a series of roundtables held by the National Scholarly Communic-ations Forum, was organised to review the Distributed National Collection (DNC) concept of library cooperation in Australia. The forum was established originally in 1993 following the pivotal conference 'Changes in Scholarly Communication: Australia and the Electronic Library' and to date its diverse membership has tackled topics such as public access to networked information, intellectual property, the future of academic publishing, innovation and scholarly communication and access to government information.

To ensure that the issues and outcomes from this latest roundtable about the DNC would have an impact on research library policy and funding, the meeting was organised to coincide with the first phase of the Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy, chaired by Roderick West.

The key objectives of the meeting were to build a shared understanding of the issues in Australian research library cooperation across the range of stakeholder groups and to make a pertinent submission to the West Review as soon as possible.

Some important points made by speakers at the meeting were:

The National Library has been canvassing the issue of Australian library cooperation in a networked environment, and other sectors, for some time. It is therefore interesting to note that many of the directions put forward in its own submission to the West Review have been taken up by other stakeholders at this latest roundtable of the National Scholarly Communications Forum.

Network Committee meets

Following its business planning day on 25 July, the Australian Bibliographic Network Committee met again on 11 & 13 August, in conjunction with the Annual Users Meeting. At both of these meetings the main topic for discussion was business planning for the new service which will be implemented by the Networked Services Project. The committee received a progress report on the Networked Services Project, and identified charging policy as a significant area for business planning.

Charging policy

The committee asked its Charging Subcommittee (Susan Ball, Maria Cabrera and Tony Mays) to develop options for a future charging policy. At its next meeting on 17 October, the Charging Subcommittee will explore models for subscription based charging, transaction based charging, and a mixture of both, for implementation in the new system. The committee noted that although ABN charges are 37 per cent lower overall than OCLC charges, it will still be necessary to reduce operational costs, contain charges, and provide incentives for libraries to contribute to the cooperative efforts of ABN.

Business planning

The committee reviewed the outcomes of its business planning meeting on 25 July, and identified some major topics which should be included in the plan; for example, the collection of Australian data, support for copyright compliance, support for cataloguing and interlibrary loan activities in a changing environment, and support for end users. A draft plan will be developed by the National Library in time to assist the Charging Subcommittee at its 17 October meeting, and will be considered by the full Network Committee at its November meeting. The contents of the business plan will remain confidential, because ABN is operating as a cooperative of Australian libraries in an environ-ment of increased commercial competition.

Re-use of ABN records and holdings

The committee considered requests for ABN to provide significant files of ABN bibliographic and holdings data to be mounted on external databases, to support services such as document supply and shelf-ready books. The committee's general position was that such requests should be granted only if they are consistent with ABN's role as a cooperative undertaking by Australian libraries, and that there should be a 'two-way flow' of benefits characteristic of a partnership arrangement rather than a simple commercial transaction. The committee resolved to re-consider these requests in the light of the forthcoming business plan for the replacement system.

Using ABN's RLIN account

The committee considered a report on the use of ABN's Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) account, which allows ABN users to search RLIN at an attractive rate, download RLIN records into ABN, and be charged for their RLIN use in their ABN bills. The committee agreed that users of ABN's RLIN account may use the Z39.50 protocol to download RLIN records directly to their local systems, on condition that they make agreed arrangements with the National Library for the timely contribution of these MARC records to the National Bibliographic Database.

Microform collections

The committee heard a report of a grant application for Australian Research Council funding to catalogue microform collections in the humanities in Australian libraries. The National Library would be a generous sponsor of this project through its NBD and DNC activities, and would assist the project to achieve consensus on national priorities for cataloguing individual collections. The committee asked the National Library to provide information on the cost of MARC records for individual microform collections. This information will help Australian libraries to purchase MARC records corresponding to their own microform collections.

Papers from the August meeting of the Network Committee, unless embargoed, are available on the National Library's Web server at the following URL: http:/www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/nc55.html

Australian representation at international cataloguing conference in Toronto

The International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR, organised by the Joint Steering Committee for the Revision of AACR (JSC) will be held in Toronto, Canada, from 23 to 25 October 1997.

As indicated in this year's March issue of NLA Gateways, the committee is seeking advice from the conference on the nature and direction of future rule revisions, taking into account present and future trends in information resources and information management.

Australian representatives at this conference will include Eugenie Greig; Dale Chatwin from the Australian Bureau of Statistics; Jan Fullerton and Andrew Wells from the National Library of Australia; Jan Maslen from La Trobe University and Chris Taylor, from the University of Queensland. Ann Huthwaite will be attending the conference as the Australian representative on the Joint Steering Committee.

Papers to be presented at the conference are currently being added to the conference Web page and can be found at: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/confpap.htm

JSC has established an open electronic discussion list to promote an exchange of ideas on the topics and issues raised in the conference papers. To subscribe to the list, send an email to the following address: listserv@infoserv.nlc-bnc.ca . In the body of the message type: SUBscribe AACRCONF your first name, your last name.

Comments from Australian cataloguers will be welcome, either directly to Ann Huthwaite at the Queensland University of Technology (a.huthwaite@qut.edu.au), through Catlibs, the JSC discussion list-or to any of the Australian delegates.

Feedback from Asian studies meetings

Two major conferences held during July provided the opportunity for discussions of library issues with Asian studies academics, leading to useful feedback from members of this important user group.

The 10th Biennial Conference of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA) at the University of Melbourne was attended by some 300 Australian and overseas participants, including librarians from the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the Australian National University and the National Library.

Prior to the conference, the possible formation of a Japanese library group affiliated with JSAA was discussed. However, a meeting between librarians and members of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia agreed that, given the small number of people involved, it would be better to work within existing structures. It was decided instead that an informal Japanese library group would be set up within the present East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia.

A lunch-time library panel entitled 'Japanese Studies Library Resources: Accessing Japanese Digital and Conventional Resources' attracted over 50 scholars, an excellent turn-out for such a conference. Yumiko Tsuji of the National CJK Service spoke about the CJK system, only to find that most of the academics present were unaware of the service. Toshio Takagi of the ANU Library spoke about Internet resources, and Eiko Sakaguchi spoke about reference and user services at Monash University Library. Chooi-Hon Ho, also of Monash, talked about the challenges of producing more trained Asian studies librarians in Australia.

At its Annual General Meeting, held as part of the conference, possible projects for JSAA funding were discussed. These included library fellowships along the lines of the former Asian Studies Library Awards (ASLA) which brought postgraduates from around the country to the major Asian collections, particularly those in Canberra. The executive agreed to consider this idea further.

The Chinese Studies Association of Australia (CSAA) held its 5th Biennial Conference at the University of Adelaide. Again, librarians from the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the National Library were among the 170 delegates. While knowledge of the National CJK Service appeared to be somewhat higher than at the Japanese Studies conference, and scholars seemed to be aware of the system's availability, few seemed to have actually made use of it. Several scholars expressed concerns about the commitment levels of their universities to Asian library collections.

As at JSAA, the possibility of support for library fellowships similar to the Asian Studies Library Awards was discussed.

Following feedback from these conferences and information shared at the CJK Users Meeting held at the National Library in August, the National CJK Service is now looking at ways of marketing the system to academic and other end-users.

Speakers at the Japanese Studies Association of Australia Conference Library Panel : (left to right) Chooi-Hon Ho and Eiko Sakaguchi (Monash University Library); Toshio Takagi (ANU Library); Yumiko Tsuji (NLA); Michelle Hall (University of Melbourne Library)

 

 

 

 

Korean tales from two cities

Scholars in Adelaide and Melbourne recently expressed their opinions on Korean library collections and services in Australia. Andrew Gosling of the National Library's Asian Collections visited both cities to interview users about their information needs relating to Korea. This was part of the survey described in the January 1997 issue of Gateways.

During the Adelaide visit, Mr Gosling spoke with scholars at the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. Although South Australia is not a major focus for Korean studies, a number of institutions there have developed close links with Korean universities and other organisations.

During the visit to Melbourne-a leading centre for Korean studies in Australia-Mr Gosling carried out interviews at the University of Melbourne, Swinburne University, Monash University, La Trobe University and the National Korean Studies Centre. Ms Jung Sim Kim, Korean Librarian at Monash University Library, greatly assisted in preparations for this visit.

Further interviews are planned for Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney.

Training in Suva, acquisitions in Nouméa

Nominees from the University of the South Pacific's libraries were recently given a week of onsite ABN training in Suva by Tom Ruthven. Tom designed his course to update searching skills, to explore the possibilities of using MARC*LINK to order records for the libraries' local systems, and to prepare staff for the possibilty of adding original cataloguing to ABN.

Seventeen people attended from the Cataloguing, Systems, Interlibrary Loan, and Reference sections of the university's library in Suva and its law library in Vanuatu.

The value of using TCP3270 was proved on the second day. Sending full screens of information from Fiji to Canberra via Hong Kong was a substantial improvement on having each character echoed as it was typed!

From hospitable Suva, Tom travelled on to New Caledonia to identify and purchase, in four short days, as much as possible of the material published there.

Publishing in New Caledonia is relatively prolific with significant output from government, learned societies and commercial firms. The high cost of postage means that most suppliers prefer to send material with an invoice which includes postage, rather than receive a pre-payment and then have to estimate postage rates as a separate step.

A lack of French does not cause any problem as all New Caledonians learn English at school, and many frequently visit Australia, New Zealand and other areas of the Pacific on business or holidays (it is only a two-hour direct flight from Nouméa to Brisbane). Tom visited only one publisher where no English was spoken and he felt he may have misunderstood what the staff were trying to convey. However, that did not stop him from being able to purchase their current and back titles.

For those interested in collecting from this region, let's take a brief look at some of the main publishers and their output.

ITSEE, the Institut Territorial de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, publishes monthly, quarterly and triennial statistics and has an overseas rate. The statistics are current and there should be quite a number of publications drawn from last year's census appearing soon.

Le Centre de Documentation Pédagogique de Nouvelle-Calédonie (CDP formerly CTRDP) publishes a wide range of school and research material, including slides and videorecordings. New publications are announced in the monthly periodical Ad hoc. It also produces an annual list of publications and a catalogue of videorecordings.

Ville de Nouméa, the equivalent to a City Council for Nouméa, produces two serials: the monthly Nouméa notre ville, and the annual Association de la Police municipale magazine.

La Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Nouvelle Calédonie publishes the monthly magazine CCI info, and some other material.

ORSTOM (Institut Français de Recherche Scientifique pour le Développement en Coopération) produces an annual list of publications.

The international body, the South Pacific Commission, has its headquarters in Nouméa. The National Library of Australia, along with a number of other libraries in Australia and elsewhere, is a deposit library for the wide spectrum of material it publishes. This arrangement works smoothly.

For professional associations there is CORAIL, Coordination pour l'Océanie des Recherches sur les Arts, les Idées et la Littérature, which publishes the papers of its annual symposium each November on social issues relevant to New Caledonia. Another association which publishes a few titles a year is the Société d'Études Historiques de Nouvelle-Calédonie, obviously concerned with the history of New Caledonia.

There are a number of commercial publishers. Grain de Sable with around 35 titles in the last two years, publishes a wide range of material. Ile de Lumière also produces a number of titles annually. Two publishers who may be worth looking up but weren't visited by Tom are Editions du Niaouli, and the Association pour l'Edition des Oeuvres Jean Mariotti. Editions l'Harmattan in Paris also produces material about New Caledonia.

Finally, there is the Agence de Développement de la Culture Kanak which publishes at least three new titles a year in addition to the quarterly newsletter La lettre de l'ADCK.

Dunmoochin-not your average home

A recent pictorial acquisition is a series of 43 photographs of Clifton Pugh's house, Dunmoochin, in Victoria. Dunmoochin was the centre of an artist's colony established by Clifton Pugh in the 1950s and featured prominently in his life and work. Many of Australia's best-known artists visited, worked, drank and ate at Dunmoochin, adding their personal touches to the walls or surroundings while they were there.

Dunmoochin-entrance to inner garden and house.

Photograph by Brendon Kelson

The house and property evolved over a period of 40 years. Starting with the 'one room' which was followed by additions, demolitions (one upper room was rebuilt seven times) and new structures, it continued to grow almost until the time of Pugh's death in 1990. Much of the construction is mud brick and timber and many materials were second-hand or recycled. The influence of Alistair Knox, the pioneer mud brick builder is evident in some of the extensions.

This collection of photographs provides a visual insight into Clifton Pugh's artistic flair and shows that the creative spirit never rested. The photographs are a fitting complement to his papers which are held in the Manuscripts section of the library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noel Ferrier on tape

Left: Actor and raconteur Noel Ferrier

Noel Ferrier's career in Australian theatre spans five decades, commencing with his creation of the role of 'Roo' in the original production of Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. He has also appeared in numerous films and television productions; his invitation to compere 'The Late Show', the first live television variety program in Melbourne, marked the beginning of a long and successful career in that medium.

Mr Ferrier was performing locally at the School of Arts Cafe, Queanbeyan, in June, so Mr Bill Stephens-the proprietor, and long-time interviewer of theatrical personalities- took the opportunity to record a conversation with him for the National Library's Oral History Program. The digital audio tapes will be archivally preserved and user copies will be made available for researchers later in the year.

 

 

 

Details of NLA's national collecting priorities

In addition to a wide range of ongoing collecting activities which foster a world class Australiana collection, the following projects and themes have been identified as collection development priorities for the National Library during the 1997-98 financial year.

Australian printed and electronic material

Although the library has established contact with, and is already receiving material from the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and the Paralympic organising committee, a renewed emphasis will be placed on the 2000 Olympics during the coming year. Peak sporting bodies, official sponsors and organisers of cultural events linked to the Olympics will be contacted to ensure that any documentation concerning the Olympics will be deposited with the library. The National Library will discuss the collection of material relating to the 2000 Olympics with the National Film and Sound Archive, the State Library of New South Wales (informal discussion has already taken place) and the Australian Institute of Sport library.

State and Territory government monographs

A survey to identify gaps in the library's holdings of State and Territory government monographs is already underway. The Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory and Western Australian sections have been completed to date. The project involves identifying and claiming missing titles, and liaising with government departments and quasi-governmental bodies to ensure an ongoing supply of material on legal deposit.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander publications

An initiative to improve the National Library's holdings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander publications has been underway for the past 18 months. This involves visits to organisations in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia, attendance at the ATSILRN (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library Resource Network) Annual Conference and surveys of bibliographies and holdings of other libraries, such as that at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). The project will continue throughout 1997 and 1998 and will follow the current pattern of identifying subject areas, like Aboriginal health, and seeking material from relevant Aboriginal groups and organisations. A member of the National Library's staff will attend the next ATSILRN conference to be held in Brisbane.

Electronic online and physical format materials

The library's Electronic Unit will continue to scan the Internet for material which meets guidelines for preservation in the PANDORA (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources in Australia) archive. Renewed emphasis will be placed on the acquisition of a broad range of Australian physical format materials.

Overseas materials

The revised Overseas Collection Development Policy (CDP) will be published during the coming year and an article about the development of the library's Indonesian collection will appear in a future issue of NLA Gateways.

Serials

Serial titles received on both standing order and subscription will be reviewed on an ongoing basis against the new CDP. Particular attention will be paid to the subject areas of accounting/business practice; politics/public management; training/education; psychology; sociology; management/administration; and personal and home computing.

Overseas government publications

A review of the library's collection of Canadian government material will be completed and the collection will be brought into line with a Level 3 collection. Particular attention will be given to the monitoring of Canadian and United States Government publications available on the Internet with a view to assessing the future need to retain print copies of titles which are also available online.

European public affairs and literature

The library has engaged a consultant to select core titles from Europe to enhance the library's public affairs collection. The consultant will also make selections in the field of literature (including literary criticism and literary biography), from the United States, United Kingdom and Europe.

Pacific collecting

Two acquisition trips have been organised for this financial year. Tom Ruthven (ABN Office) completed a trip to New Caledonia in July and Colin Baker (ISA Australia) is undertaking an acquisitions trip to Papua New Guinea on behalf of the National Library in September.

Special materials collection

During 1997-98, the special materials areas (Manuscripts, Pictorial and Oral History) at the National Library will carry out a number of collecting projects to strengthen areas of weakness in the collections. Some will be new and others are already in progress. The projects are carried out in conjunction with routine collecting of in-scope material and, where feasible, they are coordinated across the three formats of material.

Eminent Australian lawyers (ongoing)

The Pictorial section has commissioned a photographer in each State to photograph nominated, eminent lawyers who are resident in that State. Victoria and New South Wales have been completed so far in this project. During 1997-98, lawyers in Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland will be photographed. The endeavour complements the Manuscript and Oral History sections' 'Law in Australian Society' project which aims to record interviews with people eminent in the field of law. The project, which commenced in 1995, has recorded 32 interviews so far with eight more planned for the year.

Positive responses have been received to letters sent to eminent lawyers in the 1995-96 financial year inviting them to consider depositing their papers with the National Library. Follow up continues.

Eminent Australian scientists

A similar project to that outlined above is targeting eminent Australian scientists. Dr Ragbir Bhathal's project to record interviews with prominent women scientists commenced in 1996 and will continue, with 12 interviews planned for the year.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Loui Seselja, from the National Library's photographic team will capture a portrait of the ACT's Ngunnawal tribe, with its permission and cooperation.

Two oral history projects will continue this year. They are 'Emerged/Emerging Aboriginal Leaders' and 'Aboriginal Australians of the Year', the latter a cooperative project with AIATSIS. So far, 25 Aboriginal leaders have been interviewed, with another 10 interviews planned for this year. As yet no Aboriginal Australians of the Year have been interviewed.

The Manuscript Collection will be assessed for material relating to significant Aboriginal leaders or representatives and additional individuals approached for papers if necessary.

Popular Culture

During the past year, the library identified several themes that reflect popular culture in Australia and then assessed its holdings against those areas. Australian food and wine culture and Australian popular music are subject areas which will now receive concentrated attention.

Food and wine culture:

The National Library will commission a photographer to capture portraits of respected participants at the Australian Food and Wine Writers' Festival in Adelaide this coming October. The subjects will also be encouraged to add their papers to the Manuscript Collection.

In addition, the Pictorial Collection's coverage of the social and cultural aspects of food will be assessed to identify any significant gaps that can be filled through contemporary photography. (Many relevant photographs were acquired last year as part of the 'Aspects of Australian Life' photographic project.)

Popular music:

During the year, the library will cooperate with the National Film and Sound Archive to ensure adequate representation of the Australian popular music industry in the two national collections. Ongoing collecting responsibilities of the two institutions in this area will be clarified and specific projects put in place to fill gaps.

A list of key individuals representing all decades of the 20th century will be compiled (possibly with the assistance of an expert in the field) and the holdings of each institution assessed against the list. To commence, the library will approach one or two individuals who have made major contributions to the popular music industry, for oral history interviews and papers.

Olympics

Past Olympic champions and officials are now in the collecting spotlight-especially those associated with the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. A list of 1932 gold medallists as well as other medallists, prominent sports officials and trainers who went on to develop outstanding careers, has been drawn up.

A selection of key individuals will be made from the list and these will be approached for papers, memorabilia, photographs and possibly an oral history interview, depending on what the library already holds.

In addition to the special projects described above, the Oral History section continues to record social history in the following areas:

· Australians of the Year

· South Australian women who have won Australia Day honours (a cooperative project with the State Library of South Australia)

· Left-wing artists and intellectuals

· Chinese-Australians

· Greek-Australians

· Rural Australians (in cooperation with the ABC)

· Maltese Australians

· Folklore

The Manuscript section continues to target environmentalists approached in 1994-95 and Antarctic expeditioners, while developing a policy on the collection of organisational records.

Better access to music and maps

In the last 10 years or so, the National Library has been making a concerted effort to catalogue its special collections onto ABN. In the case of original pictorial works, manuscripts and oral histories, this strategy was a starting point in providing nationwide access to the library's holdings for unique materials of particular importance to Australian research.

A number of the library's special collections also comprise published materials, in particular its printed music and maps collections. These collections are also being progressively catalogued onto ABN, in the first instance as an indication of the library's holdings in these formats, with priority being given once again to materials related to Australian research. Of equal importance, these records provide a valuable source of copy cataloguing data for other Australian libraries wanting to add holdings for these materials to the National Bibliographic Database (NBD). Significant milestones have recently been reached in adding records to the NBD for both music and map materials.

The Music Collection

The Australian printed music collection housed in the National Library contains approximately

90 000 items which are composed, arranged, transcribed or contain lyrics by Australians. This collection also includes Australian imprints of overseas compositions as well as overseas imprints with reference to Australia, its people and performers. Popular, art music, folk and ethnic, national and patriotic, sacred and secular genres are included, with the majority of Australian creators and publishers being represented. The Music Collection also houses a significant collection of overseas printed music, chiefly of European, UK and US imprints.

In 1987 a small team began to catalogue this collection onto ABN, giving priority to its Australian component. Various strategies have been used to bring these collections under control over the years, including use of funding grants to improve access to data for overseas imprints.

In the ten year period from 1987 to 1997 control over the music collections has risen from 7% to 70%, with a 10% increase in the last three years. As a result of this activity, there are now well over

55 000 records for printed music from the National Library's collection on the NBD, with approximately 32 000 of these records being for Australian imprints. In all, there are now more than a quarter-of-a-million records for printed music on the NBD.

The Map Collection

Australian maps form a large component of the library's Map Collection of ca. 534 000 items. Once more priority has been given to bringing Australian maps under control, with Australian maps chiefly catalogued at the individual level. For maps in series, a series record is also added to the NBD, allowing other libraries a choice in the level they choose for control of their Australian maps. Overseas maps are generally catalogued at the series level, unless records for individual maps are found on the database.

In recent years a workplan has been developed to catalogue retrospective Australian maps, with geographic coverage, on a State-by-State basis considered a logical approach.

Maps of the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, and Western Australia have been catalogued in recent years. The South Australian component of the collection, finished in June, has taken almost a year to complete, with 6, 854 maps of the State being brought under control.

In total, 41 526 records for maps from the library's collections have now been added to the NBD, with about 35 000 of these representing Australian maps. Altogether the number of map records available on the NBD is approximately 173 000.

Worry free photocopying

by Paul Livingston, Coordinator Reading Rooms

Wouldn't it be great...?

Wouldn't it be great to have a worry-free and efficient photocopy facility with the latest equipment? The National Library of Australia hopes to achieve this through its recent outsourcing of all public photocopying and microform printing.

Can it be done?

In March the National Library advertised it was seeking tenders for the total facilities management of photocopying and microform reader/printer service throughout its eight reading rooms. To be included in the tender was the supply and regular upgrade of suitable photocopiers and microform reader/printers interfaced with automated control and charging facilities, prompt maintenance of all equipment within specified time limits and the collection of all revenue with an agreed percentage paid back to the library.

The difficult part was that tenders closed on April 11th and the contract for the successful tender was to commence on 1 July-just three months later. This might seem an easy task until the realisation sets in that no one company can provide the full range of services required-photocopiers, reader/printers and control and charging facilities. Prospective tenderers had to form alliances, in some cases with competitors, in order to provide the full range of equipment necessary to meet the conditions of the tender. If that wasn't hard enough, the tendering document was written in very broad terms requiring prospective contractors to propose workable solutions for the handling of the more than 1 000 000 copies made annually. An added complication was that the equipment had to be wired up in separate reading rooms, spread over four floors and at opposite ends of the building.

Who can do it?

The successful bid was won by Office Technology Centre Pty Ltd (OTC) in a joint venture with Mita copiers, BEAR Solutions and Microview Data Storage Specialists. OTC is a Canberra-owned and operated company distributing Mita copiers. BEAR Solutions provided the Copy Card automated access control and charging hardware and software, with Microview providing the microform reader/printers.

What did we get?

The joint venture provided the library with 25 microform reader/printers, one plan printer, one large format photocopier, 13 photocopiers, a change machine, and finally, two copy card cashier vending machines and copy control units with assorted hardware and software. A very unique feature of the 13 photocopiers is the Mita Monitoring Device (MMD) which provides instant remote diagnostics and performance maintenance direct to OTC via telephone lines connected to each copier. With this feature the copier automatically reports faults, making its own service calls. In some cases faults can be rectified by technicians offsite, using the phone connection, before there is interruption to the service. If an onsite technician is required, the diagnostic information provided has pinpointed the problem and necessary spare parts are brought on the service call. MMD definitely minimises machine downtime.

Worry free photocopying?

In addition to the MMD feature, outsourcing has eliminated the need to carry a large store of copy paper, toner and other consumable supplies-not only a saving in space but in capital outlay. Staff no longer make the daily rounds filling copiers with toner and paper or clearing funds from copy card vending machines. OTC has taken over these tasks. Other than liaison with OTC and monitoring the operation to ensure user satisfaction, photo-copying has become a worry-free service.

The winners?

Clearly there are many winners in this arrangement. The library is a winner with new and updated equipment subject to a replacement schedule, reduced expenditure for consumables and maintenance, better use of staff time and a system which provides revenue. Users of the library benefit from state-of-the-art equipment which provides quality copies at reasonable rates, with highly reliable service back-up. The ACT economy wins with the locally-owned and operated OTC growing and providing additional employment.

Dead line met?

The OTC joint venture did manage to have the system operating on 1 July. There were some teething problems as there always are with any new systems. The library had to request minor changes to software and experienced some technical problems and delays in receiving some equipment. However, generally speaking it has been a positive experience with only minor problems.

Bonus

A bonus of the OTC joint venture is that the equipment can and will be converted to smart card technology early in the new year. It is expected that the library will lead the educational and academic field in this region by being the first institution in the ACT to offer facilities which accept smart card technologies. It is predicted that smart cards will rapidly become the norm for small purchases around the country-those conducted through pay telephones, vending machines, parking meters and a host of similar service points.

 

Right: Paul Livingston and Averill Edwards, Principal Librarian Information Services.

Customer Service Charter in the making

In line with other Commonwealth agencies, the National Library is in the process of developing a Customer Service Charter. A charter will enable us to further improve our dialogue and hence relationship, with customers. It will be a simple, short document which sets out the library's key service obligations. In fact given the nature of our responsibilities, we will be preparing two charters-one for individuals and another based on the services we provide to libraries and information providers. We hope to have the first completed charter available in the second quarter of 1998.

An important phase in the creation of the charters will be consultation with key stakeholders and customers. Initial feedback is planned for September and October 1997. If you are interested in participating in this consultation, we welcome your comments and will be providing a draft charter on our home page for this purpose. On the other hand, if you would prefer us to send you a print copy of the charter for comment, please contact Stuart Flavell, Executive Support Branch at National Library of Australia, Parkes, ACT, 2600 or fax (02) 6 257 1703, or email sflavell@nla.gov.au.

The letter of the law

With one of the largest law collections in the country it is not surprising that the National Library receives many requests each day for legal information, not only from its comprehensive Australian materials but also from its extensive overseas collections.

Visitors to the Main Reading Room ask mainly for current texts of legislation, treaties and court decisions as well as commentaries in textbooks and journal articles. Researchers who hold readers tickets to the Petherick Reading Room seek help in tracking down nineteenth-century legal information, such as the early liquor laws of New South Wales and the first divorce legislation in the colonies.

To assist onsite users, a basic reference collection of legal materials is located in the Main Reading Room. It consists of directories, bibliographies, indexes, texts of Commonwealth and Australian Capital Territory Acts, lists of published court decisions since 1825 and introductory books on legal research. Also housed in the Main Reading Room and adjacent to the reference collection, is the looseleaf collection, looseleaf binders being a format in which many legal texts and indexes are traditionally published. These provide answers to legal inquiries through texts of Acts and Regulations, commentaries and summaries of court cases.

In addition, Information Services staff have written guides to legal and parliamentary information. These explain and list the major collections most commonly requested in the library and have all been published on the Internet at http://www.nla.gov.au/1/gencoll/guides/guides.html ; Law Reports ; Australian Statute Law; Overseas Statutes ; Australian Parliamentary Records. Parts 1 and 2; and International Treaties are some of the titles.

For current legal information users are increasingly referred to the Internet where the full text of legislation and court decisions may be found and easily downloaded to disc. To help users locate this information, Information Services staff have compiled a basic list of Internet addresses likely to be of value to onsite users as well as to researchers outside the library, in Australia and overseas. This list, Australian Law on the Internet, is located on the National Library home page at http://www.nla.gov.au/oz/law.html, and includes law sites by jurisdiction and by subject. Maintaining links to these sites can be quite a challenge with new law sites appearing regularly and existing sites changing their addresses without any warning.

While requests received in the Main Reading Room are mainly for Australian information, a wide variety of queries are received by telephone, fax and increasingly by email from law libraries, lawyers, academics and students throughout Australia and from overseas. It is sometimes difficult to establish correct bibliographic information for some of the legislation sought. Samples of the more challenging requests received this year are:

· text of the Takeover Disclosure Act of Pennsylvania (date unknown)

· Tanzania water legislation

· Swiss banking legislation in English

· text of the Cook Islands Development Investment Act

· text of the Nazi Enabling Act 1993

· Fiji (Constitution) Orders in Council

· Ghana Company Code

· Internet sites dealing with admission requirements for the New York Bar

Asian legal information can also be provided, particularly from Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Thai language sources. Visitors are welcome to come to the Asian Collections Reading Room or to make contact by telephone, email or fax.

Overall, responses to the legal reference service fall into three main categories:

· copies from the library's own collection onsite or through the Document Supply Section

· verification of bibliographic details and referrals to other libraries, using such tools as Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World. Housed in the reference collection, this multi-volume work lists titles of compilations of legislation and session laws as well as translations of individual acts and codes for most countries of the world

Roy Jordan, Subject Librarian (Law) and Tieke Atikah, Senior Librarian (Indonesian) with some examples of Asian legal resources

Requests for legal information may be made by email to (http://www.nla.gov.au/1/services/rf_form.html); fax +61 2 6273 5081; letter (addressed to Information Services, National Library of Australia); or telephone

+61 2 6262 1266.

 

 

 

 

 

Latest milestone for the NBD

The National Bibliographic Database (NBD) achieved two milestones in June this year. The holdings records reached a sizeable total of 26 million and the two millionth original cataloguing record was added to the database.

The NBD is a unique source of high quality Australian holdings and cataloguing data and is operated by the National Library on behalf of all Australian libraries. There are now more than 1,300 Australian institutions contributing original or copy cataloguing to the NBD, with retrospective catalogue files from the region and bibliographic file loads from overseas also adding to its growth.

The overseas sources of bibliographic records added to the NBD include Library of Congress, the US Government Printing Office, the US National Library of Medicine, the National Library of Canada, the British Library, and the National Library of New Zealand.

The National Library of Australia would like to thank all participating libraries for their valuable contribution over the years. It looks forward to more momentous milestones.

Some members of your review team.

Left to right: Lenore Kennedy, Lindy Dwyer, Ian Dunn, Papiya Chakravarti, Hsien Wong

CJK's first user group meeting

On Wednesday 13 August, following the ABN Annual Users Meeting, subscribers to the CJK (Chinese Japanese and Korean) system met with staff of the National CJK Service to discuss aspects of the operation and future of the service. The libraries represented included old and new members, academic and public libraries, in both the full and search & holdings membership categories.

Marketing and promotion of the CJK Service were discussed at length. Some promotional opportunities were suggested, and the National Library will be taking on board many of the ideas of the group. The need for easy-to-understand documentation about available software, and publicity for the service among academic users and public libraries were seen as particularly important. Options for improved distribution of user documentation and for the training of new users were also explored.

A significant point of interest was the extent to which the CJK service will be integrated with the new service under development in the Networked Services Project. The CJK Users Group asked the National Library to ensure as much integration of CJK administrative functions as possible.

Users were given an update on data loading, which is proceeding smoothly. Library of Congress and National Diet Library records are now being added regularly, as are RLIN records identified by users. Investigation of the feasibility of loading Korean MARC records is proceeding.

The issue of a policy for record capture was raised. Although this is technically possible, the CJK system did not have in place at the time a policy allowing records to be captured from screen displays. The National Library is now working on this, using the policy as a guide.

Following a suggestion from a user, the library is coordinating information about the extent to which each member library has recorded its holdings on the CJK database. This information will be made available on the library's Web site when data has been collected from all members.

There was some discussion about the need for language expertise in order to use the CJK system. For members with small CJK collections, the cataloguing of CJK material means the employment of part-time specialist staff, or the use of library volunteers. While it is possible to input Romanised records with no script, language knowledge is a significant advantage in correctly identifying the item in hand and locating existing records.

A full report of the meeting is available from the CJK section (email ancjk@nla.gov.au or phone (02) 6262 1682).

Recent MARC*LINK enhancements

Weekend downloads of MARC*LINK files

Files of MARC*LINK records can now be downloaded on Saturday and Sunday. This means that up to five MARC*LINK downloads a day are available every day of the week. This enhancement is of particular interest to libraries which have staff or contractors working at the weekends.

If holdings are added to monographs on Saturday or Sunday, there is no need to wait until Tuesday (after the Monday NITLY ) to collect the MARC*LINK file with holdings statements. If the records are downloaded on the same day as the holdings are added to ABN, holdings statements will be received with the records. If downloads are required on Saturday or Sunday, remember to update your download schedule to include the new download times.

Additional displays

When accessing files, it is now possible to display a transaction report for each file. The report will show the ISNB (LON) of the record, the date and time it was requested, the terminal ID from which the request was made, and the download command (e.g. RMR, HNEW, HMOD, HDEL ) used to request the record. If you have an 'error record' a message indicates the reason for the error. This report has proved to be a most useful diagnostic tool.

It is also possible to display a cumulative list of all downloads, i.e. the date and time of every download request from ABN and the number of records in each of the download files.

Retention period extended

The retention period for your MARC*LINK files has been extended from 10 to 21 days. This improvement is in answer to informal requests received at the Annual Users Meeting. As the list of files now covers 21 days and is larger, its order has been reversed to show the most recent file first.

LAWPLUS now on Ozline

LAWPLUS combines the key law data sources on Ozline into one database allowing information retrieval of all aspects of law, criminal justice and policing, with one search. LAWPLUS combines AGIS (Attorney General's Information Service), CINCH (Australian Criminology) and AFPD (Australian Federal Police Digest) into a single database. Following a search, the records are interfiled on the screen for easy browsing and selection.

LAWPLUS can be searched through both the STAIRS and SOFI interfaces to Ozline.

LAWPLUS is just that. It covers banking; community policing; companies and securities; legal aid; administrative, constitutional, copyright, criminal, family and international law; police management, training and operations; and trade practices.

The normal Ozline connect time charge of $1.00 per minute applies to the use of LAWPLUS, with access to the combined database also included in Ozline subscriptions and site licences.

A fact sheet which contains more information about LAWPLUS, including a sample record and tips for searching is enclosed with this issue of Gateways-or you can see a copy at http://www.nla.gov.au/2/ozline/lawplus.html

More information about the files which have been combined to create LAWPLUS-AGIS, CINCH and AFPD-may be found in the individual fact sheets for these databases or from the National Library's Web server.

Having the EDGE

It is now possible to search EDGE through SOFI. This new database was launched on the Ozline STAIRS service in early July.

EDGE's particular focus is on articles from both Australian and international journals about management, the environment and selected industries such as packaging, glass, and building products.

The management articles are relevant to busy professionals in both the corporate and public sectors. International economics, management techniques, best practice, quality management, information technology, marketing, R & D, human resources, materials handling, and occupational health are just some of the topics covered.

Articles concerned with the environment span litter, re-use, waste management and environmental management.

There are currently 58 000 records of articles-from 1972 to date and new contributions are added monthly.

A fact sheet was sent out with the July issue of Gateways and can also be seen online at: http://www.nla.gov.au/2/ozline/EDGE.html

As well, take a look at Information EDGE's site at: http://www.information-EDGE.com/~infoEDGE

SOFI is the friendly searching system for all Ozline databases and the ABN database. It allows a step-by-step approach to searching, with easily understood instructions given on the screen. And Supersearch or Ozline passwords for SOFI can be used for the search.

Watch that time!

If you are currently accessing ABN through an Internet connection, or are planning to move from a leased line across to an Internet connection, you need to be aware of the following.

If your Internet connection to ABN is left idle for a long period-that is, no transaction has taken place-the system will time you out, and your connection to ABN will be lost.

The timeout mostly affects clients who are accessing the database on the NLA 3270 gateways via WinQvt. The idle time period before your connection lapses is 240 minutes.

If accessing ABN via a telnet gateway, you are timed out after 30 minutes when no transaction has taken place.

So if you are cataloguing a difficult item and need to consult other cataloguing reference tools, or need a coffee break during your busy day-keep these time frames in mind. If you know that you will be away from your terminal for a while, it is best to save your work and logout.

For further information, please contact the ABN Help Desk toll free no. 1800 026 155, or

fax: (02) 6273 1180 or

email: networks@nla.gov.au

What's new on the NLA's World Wide Web site ?

ABN Data Preparation Manual, Part 1: Headings . http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/head_a.html

ABN/Ozline Annual Users Meeting 1977: Draft minutes. http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/97mins.html

Beneficial alliances. Paper by Adrian Cunningham, NIAC Section, given at the Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference, July 1997 http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/acunning6.html

Collecting archives in the next millenium. Paper by Adrian Cunningham, NIAC Section, given at the Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference, Adelaide, July 1997 http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/acunning7.html

Enhancing discovery: The role of standards in describing Internet resources / Andrew Wells http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/enhancin.html 42nd ABN Standards Committee papers. 42nd meeting. http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/abnsc42.html

Guide to the records of Professor Graeme Clark focusing on his development of the 'bionic ear'. http://www.nla.gov.au/1/ms/find_aids/8696list.html

PANDORA Project (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources in Australia). List of titles being preserved. http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/plan/distlist.html

Papers of Bernard Smith (MS 8680) http://www.nla.gov.au/1/ms/find_aids/8680.html

Physical format electronic publications in the National Library of Australia: report on a preservation survey. Paper by Colin Webb, Manager, Information Preservation. http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/cwebb6.html

'Preserving oral history recordings.' NLA staff paper by Colin Webb and Kevin Bradley. Also published in Ariadne magazine. http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/cwebb4.html

'Safeguarding the oral heritage in Australia.' NLA staff paper / Colin Webb, Manager, Information Preservation. Published in IFLA's International Preservation News, no. 14 in May 1997. http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/cwebb5.html

The Dublin Core: simplicity or complexity? Paper given by Dr. Warwick Cathro, Assistant Director-General, Services to Libraries Division at the ALIA Seminar on Metadata, Sydney, 30 July 1997 http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/cathro2.html

A weekend of storytelling

Storytelling is an age-old art, and many have feared for its future. Now there appears to be a resurgence and a reinvigoration of traditional storytelling, perhaps due to a greater appreciation of the role of narrative in our lives. The National Library of Australia holds hundreds of volumes on storytelling from every continent, and in its Oral History Program actively seeks to capture insights into Australian life and culture through the words and personal stories of individuals.

On Saturday 11 October and Sunday 12 October 1997 the National Library of Australia and the Danish-Australian Cultural Exchange will devote an exciting weekend to storytelling and its traditions. From Dreamtime to Hans Christian Andersen and Karen Blixen, there will be something fascinating for everyone who attends.

On Saturday, the storytellers and storytelling experts taking part in 'Telling Tales: Australian Storytelling Traditions' will explore the state of storytelling and why it is important by considering some of the following questions:

What is the place of storytelling in indigenous and ethnic cultures?

How do stories differ from other historical 'documents'?

What is the future of storytelling?

What role can libraries play in preserving storytelling traditions?

'Telling Tales' includes academic and practitioner perspectives, as well as performances. There will be opportunities for discussion with renowned personalities in this field. Program information and registration is available at http://www.nla.gov.au/events/storyreg.html

'Out of Denmark: A Tradition of Storytelling' fills the Sunday slot.

This free public program will include performances of Karen Blixen and Hans Christian Andersen stories with puppets and actors, talks by prominent Danish authors, a display on Karen Blixen and a writers' workshop. It is presented in association with the Danish-Australian Cultural Exchange.

For information and bookings contact the bookings officer on (02) 6262 1271.

New publications in October

Guidelines for Preservation Microfilming in Australia & New Zealand

These guidelines have been developed by the Information Preservation section of the National Library of Australia as a result of the National Preservation Office's 1994 conference in Adelaide entitled 'Preservation Microfilming: Does It Have a Future?'. The information included is based on authoritative sources from overseas and practical experience from all sectors of the microfilming industry in Australia today.

The publication is written in simple, clear language and covers topics crucial to the establishment of a preservation microfilming project; for instance, selection and preparation of material for microfilming, preparation of target sequences, selecting microformats, preparation of technical specifications, quality control inspections, bibliographic control and storage. A number of supporting appendices display sample forms and lists of useful information.

Guidelines for Preservation Microfilming in Australia & New Zealand is available this month from the Sales & Distribution Section of the National Library. The ISBN is 0 642 10691 6 and the price is $30.

Faces of Mandurama

Introduced by John Thompson

ISBN 0 642 10686 X, A4 RRP $29.95

The faces of Mandurama are those of the inhabitants of a scattering of small communities in New South Wales at the turn of the century. Drawn from a collection of 3,500 glass-plate negatives now held in the National Library, the images in Faces of Mandurama are the work of commercial photographer

E.A.J. Lumme and were recovered from the property at Burnt Yards where Lumme and his family lived for many years. Most of the subjects are anonymous.

These beguiling photographs, placed in context by the thoughtful, evocative commentary of John Thompson, document aspects of Australian rural life that have long vanished but should not be forgotten. They capture perennial human themes: the cycle of life from birth to old age, with compelling images of childhood, youth and maturity; glimpses of human emotions, including love, longing, joy and disappointment; and aspects of community life ranging from work to leisure.

 

 

Backroom Briefings: John Curtin's War

Edited by Clem Lloyd and Richard Hall

ISBN 0 642 10688 6, A4, pb. RRP $24.95

Read Backroom Briefings and gain a first hand account of wartime Australia-the news that could not be printed at the time.

This book shows Prime Minister Curtin as an acute analyst, vigorous in language and confident of his decisions. As a former journalist, Curtin understood the importance of gaining the respect of his old professional colleagues in the Press Gallery, and of news management. In daily off-the-record press conferences, he withheld very little of the then secret exchanges between the Australian Government and Allied governments, reading telegrams and communiques in their entirety and discussing the advice and views of world leaders with uninhibited openness.

To order these publications:

Tel. 1800 800 100; fax (02) 6273 1084;
email nlasales@nla.gov.au


Return to NLA Gateways Home Page

Last updated 14 October 1997