National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568
No. 31
February 1998


CONTENTS

NLA and the library community

The collections

NLA services

Exhibitions and new publications

National Library of Australia Gateways was edited and designed by Leora Kirwan-Judge. Please address any comments, enquiries or requests for extra copies to:

The Editor, Gateways
Network Services Marketing
National Library of Australia

CANBERRA A.C.T. 2600

email: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

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

National Library of Australia Gateways is issued bimonthly and prepared by the Services to Libraries Division of the National Library of Australia. Subscriptions are free.


New national system-AMICUS comes in first

[AMICUS agreement signed]

Members of the National Library's Networked Services Project team and executives from IBM were at the signing of the agreement by George Bell (for IBM ) and the NLA's Director-General, Warren Horton. NSP team leader Andrew Wells (second from the right) and Assistant Director-General , Corporate Services David Toll (far right) are in the back row.

On 19 January, the National Library affirmed its commitment to the national sharing of library resources with the announcement that it has awarded the contract for the nation's new bibliographic system to IBM Australia and IBM Global Services Australia (IBM GSA).

Based on AMICUS software, the new system will provide significant benefits to nearly 1400 libraries and all who use them.

Large, dynamic and flexible, the AMICUS integrated library management system is in use in the National Library of Canada and has just been purchased by the British Library and the National Library of Hungary. At this stage, the National Library of Australia is concentrating on the bibliographic capabilities of AMICUS rather than its ability to provide an ILMS.

The key subcontractors are ELiaS of Belgium and CGI of Canada, who together share marketing and development rights for AMICUS software.

IBM GSA will supply hardware, software, data migration and IT support services to the library to ensure the successful implement-ation and operation of the new system. The $13.8m contract is for six years and the system is expected to be in operation throughout Australia in the first quarter of 1999.

The new networked library service will succeed the highly successful Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) service, developed in the 1970s and now due for replacement because of 'Year 2000' problems and other shortcomings assessed as technologically impossible to resolve. As with ABN, the new system will be funded by service charges ( see the Network Committee report).

Announcing the agreement, the National Library Director-General, Warren Horton, said:

'Australian libraries operate in a highly cooperative resource-sharing environment. The [National] Library's establishment of ABN in 1981 saw a ground-breaking cooperative computer network which gave the library community a new model for accomplishing national tasks. The new system, as its successor, will become the backbone of our capacity to provide immediate access to the knowledge stored in our libraries, well into the 21st century. We are delighted to have IBM as partners in this venture.'

AMICUS will provide modern interfaces to the national database, and a wide range of options to customer libraries who wish to use and contribute to the national system. Because the new system is based on international standards, it will facilitate the transition to an open and distributed library system in the future.

When fully implemented the system will offer:

The AMICUS automated library package was developed jointly by the National Library of Canada and CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Inc. The system, which incorporates 100 person years of development, has been especially tailored to meet the needs of national libraries. It is robust enough to handle very large amounts of bibliographic data and manage extensive union catalogues. New releases, to increase the functionality of the system, are planned through 2000; the National Library's agreement with IBM allows the uptake of these new releases if necessary.

The Networked Services Project leader, Andrew Wells, spoke at the VALA conference, soon after the announcement of the agreement, about the strategic issues underpinning the library's thinking about the new service. His main paper can be found on the Internet at http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/awells2.html . Detailed technical information, in the form of questions and answers, was posted to the National Library Web site on 23 January at http://www.nla.gov.au/nsp/ .

The library will regularly publish information as it becomes available. There will also be an announcement, in the near future, about the inter-library lending and document delivery solutions that will complement AMICUS.

 

New appointments to NLA Council

On 8 December 1997 the Minister for Communications, the Information Economy and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, announced the appointment of three new members to the National Library Council, the terms of Professor Stuart McIntyre, Mrs Julia King and Dr Ann Ghisalberti having expired during 1996 and 1997. The reappointment of Mr Neville Stevens to the council was announced at the same time.

The new members are Ms Vanessa Fanning, Ms Meg Paul and Professor Alan Robson.

Ms Fanning was the Foundation Chair of the Friends of the National Library and is currently a strategic analysis and public policy consultant. She has held a range of senior public and private sector positions, and was Group Manager, Public Policy for TNT Ltd from 1995 to 1997. Prior to that she held the position of First Assistant Secretary, Aviation Policy and Telecommunications Policy Divisions of the Federal Department of Transport and Communications.

Ms Meg Paul is well known to the Victorian library community as the Director of Freelance Library and Information Services Pty Ltd. and is an active member of the profession. She is a member of the Library Board of Victoria and has served as president of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Library and Information Association.

Professor Robson is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia and a highly respected agricultural scientist. He is a long standing member of the Library Board at the University of Western Australia and is the author of numerous scientific publications.

Other members of the council are the chairman, the Hon. Sir Anthony Mason AC KBE, the deputy chair Geraldine Paton, Professor Mairead Browne, Rodney Cavalier, Graham Freudenberg AM, Barry Jones AO MP, Senator John Tierney and the Director-General of the National Library of Australia, Warren Horton AM.

 

1998 Harold White Fellows announced

[John Shortis] Five new recipients of fellowships under the National Library's Harold White Fellowship Scheme have been announced.

The scheme, set up in 1984 to help established scholars and writers make full use of the collections, is named after Sir Harold White, a former National Librarian. Fellows spend from three to six months working with the books, newspapers, manuscripts, personal papers, sheet music collections and sound recordings housed in the library.

Geoffrey Bolton will be working on a biography of Sir Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of Australia, whose personal papers are held in the library. Professor Bolton, who lives in Perth, is one of Australia's most distinguished historians. His writings are unusually diverse, ranging over many aspects of political, social, economic, regional and environmental history.

Margaret Harris, Professor of English at Sydney University, will be studying the manuscripts and papers of Christina Stead. Professor Harris has written extensively on both English and Australian literature. As a Harold White Fellow, she is planning to edit a volume of Stead's unpublished travel writings, examine the author's personal and autobiographical writings and prepare an edition of correspondence between Stead and her husband William Blake.

John Shortis is a composer, arranger, accompanist, researcher and musical director whose revues and cabaret productions have been compared with those of Tom Lehrer and Noel Coward. 'Sheet Dip' is the title of his project which will see him delving into the library's collection of popular twentieth-century music. His selection of songs will form the basis of a performance at the library with composers, the stories behind the songs and the musical 'fads' of the time providing the backdrop.

David Tothill will be remembered as a former South African Ambassador to Australia, with a long scholarly interest in the history of South African foreign policy. He will return to Canberra to pursue research on South Africa, Australia and the United Nations in the period 1945-61. He intends making use of books, newspapers and the personal papers of Sir Robert Menzies and Lord Casey.

Finally, John Warhurst, Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University, is interested in the early impact of the conservation movement on Australian politics. He has identified 1963-73 as the Green Decade and will be looking, in particular, at the Australian Conservation Foundation and its response to the rise of the grassroots environmental push. Professor Warhurst, who has written and edited several books on Australian elections, government and public policy will be using printed sources, oral history recordings and the papers of the conservationists.

At the conclusion of their fellowships each scholar gives a public lecture in the National Library. The topics and times of these lectures are available through the National Library's Web pages, beginning at http://www.nla.gov.au .

Two of the 1998 Harold White Fellows,
John Shortis (above), David Tothill (below)
[David Tothill]

 

'Bringing Them Home': new NLA oral history project

[Lois O'Donohue]

On 16 December, the Federal Government announced its formal response to the 'Bringing Them Home' report which was the result of an inquiry into the past practice of forcible separation of Aboriginal children from their families-the stolen children.

As part of the $63 million package of initiatives, the National Library is to receive $1.6 million for an oral history project 'in recognition of the importance of indigenous people and others telling their stories of family separation'.

The oral history funding consists of $0.2M for a feasibility study, $1.3M for the programme (on the assumption that the study says go ahead) and $0.1M for a publication.

In a submission to the Prime Minister's Department, the library suggested the project should have a heavily indigenous component, with an indigenous consultant and committees, and estimated that it would take about four years to complete. The Library believes it is vital to achieve a permanent record of this significant part of Australian history. Not only will it enrich the nation's current social historial records, it will form the basis for learning for all future Australian generations.

When announcing the study and the conditional funding for the program to follow, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Herron said:

'The National Library is uniquely placed to under-take this role through its established, professional and highly regarded oral history program. We have therefore asked the National Library to investigate the feasibility of a comprehensive oral history project to collect the stories of indigenous people and others involved in the process of child removals.'

Photo. Past chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission
Lois O'Donohue who, as a child, was removed from her own mother.
Photo: Loui Seselja, NLA Photographics.


NLA and the library community

Metaweb project update

The MetaWeb project commenced in September 1997 with the Australian Defence Force Academy, Charles Sturt University, the Distributed Systems Technology Centre, and the National Library of Australia as the project partners. The project, which will continue until June 1998, has been partially funded from the National Priority (Reserve) Fund allocation for improved library infrastructure administered by the AV-CC Standing Committee on Information Resources.

The project team expects to complete the development and promulgation of a number of tools to help create and maintain metadata, including a generic Australian metadata repository model and associated software. The repository model and standards will be applied to a range of testbeds. In addition, the use of digital signatures, for the authentication of networked electronic information, will be investigated.

One of the first activities of the project is to develop software for gathering and indexing Dublin Core standard* metadata from designated sites. The metadata is embedded in the <META> tag of HTML formatted documents. Some prototype software is available for perusal at: http://www.dstc.edu.au/RDU/MetaWeb/

Those working on the MetaWeb project are keen for all metadata creators to participate in the continued refinement of the Dublin Core standard in the Australian context by contributing ideas and feedback to the Australian metadata discussion list. To subscribe, send an email message to majordomo@dstc.edu.au with the single line: subscribe metadata.

In February 1998, the project team will commence full scale testing of the software at several sites. More about this in the next issue of Gateways.

For further information, contact Debbie Campbell, MetaWeb Project Coordinator, on (02) 6262 1637 or dcampbel@nla.gov.au .

*The Dublin Core is a 15-unit metadata element set intended to help in searches for electronic resources. Originally conceived for author-generated descriptions of Web resources, it has also attracted the attention of formal resource description communities such as museums and libraries. The Dublin Core is intended for use by non-cataloguers as well as by those with experience of formal resource description models; most of the 15 elements have a commonly understood semantics that represents what might be described as roughly equivalent to a catalogue card for electronic resources.

 

IT meeting and seminar, Christchurch

IT/19 is a joint Australian/New Zealand committee that deals with the 'standardisation of practices relating to libraries, documentation and information centres, indexing and abstracting services, archives, information science and publishing'. It is administered by Standards Australia.

The committee meets three times a year, with the Australian and New Zealand venues usually linked by teleconference phone. However, for its last meeting in November 1997, members met face-to-face in Christchurch. On the day before the meeting, 54 New Zealanders attended a one-day seminar on 'Matching Discovery and Recovery: The Way Ahead for Libraries'. This was a repetition of the IT/19 seminar delivered in Sydney and Melbourne earlier in the year.

At the meeting, a number of changes were announced to the membership of IT/19.

Jan Gatenby and Judith Pearce reported on the Z39.50 Implementors' Group (ZIG) meeting in Copenhagen. They also described progress in finalising the Z39.50 Union Catalogue Profile, a standard which is fully supported by the National Library of Australia. Warwick Cathro assured the meeting that the NLA would be responsible for making the National Bibliographic Database conformant and for raising awareness of the profile with suppliers and major bibliographic utilities and union catalogues. The committee saw its own role as optimising the potential of the profile while encouraging its development. Members will prepare a checklist for libraries to use when specifiying system requirements. This will be distributed to IT/19 constituencies under the auspices of the committee.

Jan and Judith further reported on the important issue of holdings and Z39.50. Agreement was reached at the ZIG meeting on a generic mechanism for presenting holdings information within the protocol but work is still progressing on the ZIG list to finalise the schema and syntax.

Warwick gave a brief presentation to the committee on a range of projects currently underway to link library catalogues by using the Z39.50 protocol. These include:

Other important developments noted were:

For more information on IT/19, see http://www.nla.gov.au/lis/stndrds/grps/it19/ . You can also access this page from the new NLA standards page at http://www.nla.gov.au/niac/standards.html. [now at http://www.nla.gov.au/services/stndard3.html]

 

Southeast Asian academic library cooperation

[Oliver Mann] A Colloquium on Academic Library Information Resources for Southeast Asian Scholarship was organised by the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur from 3 to 5 November 1997. The National Library was represented by its regional officer, Oliver Mann, who reports that the major points to emerge were:
  • there is world-wide interest in information about Southeast Asia, and if the region does not want to be 'colonised' by the information super-providers, then countries in the Southeast Asian region must be responsible for their own knowledge databases. Southeast Asian universities have the technical ability to create these knowledge databases
  • there is an awareness in university libraries of the need to develop collections beyond their own national boundaries, and to contribute to the systematic development of Southeast Asian collections
  • an opportunity exists for a new era of cooperation following the signing, in 1996, of a Memorandum of Under-standing between five universities in the region. The signatories are: the University of Malaya, Thammasat University (Thailand), University of the Philippines, University of Indonesia, and Gadjah Mada University (also Indonesia)
  • the problems of language and availability will need to be addressed.
NLA regional officer, Oliver Mann

There were 125 participants at the colloquium, 10 of whom came from Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The relative brevity of the meeting ensured that the proceedings were well-focussed while the presence of academics among participants leant substance to the Memorandum of Agreement.

The main sessions were devoted to scholarly publishing and university presses, academics' research strategies, resource sharing and the documentation of current research in universities, and national and regional knowledge databases.

Dr Matthew Ciolek from the Australian National University presented a significant paper entitled 'Taming the Internet wilderness: collaborative strategies for Southeast Asian scholarly networks' which can be found at http://www.ciolek.com/PAPERS/SEAsianCyberspace-97.html

The three main practical resolutions generated by the colloquium were:

  • a depository system will be established by the five Memorandum of Agreement signatories to ensure that copies of publications produced by their presses will be available in all the university libraries
  • there will be better resource sharing of unique collections and records, to promote better utilisation of resources. To this end, a document supply system will be established between the Memorandum of Agreement partners for requests for Southeast Asian materials; librarian staff exchange programs for the attachment of junior and senior professionals between libraries will be introduced and a database of staff competencies will be created to assist with the sharing of staff resources
  • a workshop on bibliographical standards will be organised.

Despite the economic troubles which currently beset the member countries in the region, the colloquium was characterised by a firm sense of optimism and cooperation between academic libraries and a recognition of the need to share technical and staff expertise.

 

AACR action plan

The International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR was held from 23-25 October, 1997 in Toronto, Canada. A number of recommendations resulted from the conference and the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSC) is now charged with the establishment of an action plan to be implemented in conjunction with the Committee of Principals for AACR. The results of the conference were discussed immediately after its conclusion at the annual general meeting of the joint steering committee. The conference proceedings will be published jointly by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association and the Library Association under the editorship of Jean Weihs.

The action items listed below have been identified for immediate implementation by the JSC:

This action plan, together with the AACR Discussion List archive, will be available at the following URL: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/index.htm

 

On the light side...

GMD realia: one motorcycle, black and blue

The cataloguing department at the University of South Australia's main library has risen to an unusual challenge and created an NBD record for a motorbike, 'as owned by Bob Hawke'. Bob got about on a dashing Panther-born in 1947 or thereabouts at Cleckheaton, England-as a student. One day, when his customary pillion passenger and future wife Hazel was absent, it threw him off, giving him a near-death experience that sharpened his belief in a 'special' destiny.

Now, with a few holes in the carburettor, the star of rid number abn 97-400614 enjoys celebrity retirement at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre Library, University of South Australia.


The collections

Manuscripts: recent additions

Manuscript acquisitions continue to range across a variety of subjects and time periods. Among significant early items are the letters of naval officer Robert Walpole-a midshipman on HMS Blanche and HMS Pearl during a tour of duty for the suppression of the labour trade, in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. A number of letters, written to his parents between 1870 and 1874, describe his experiences, among them a search for the notorious kidnapper and pirate William Henry 'Bully' Hayes.

Another seafarer, John Lawrie, was an officer in the East India Company in the nineteenth century. The library has acquired his commonplace book. Such notebooks, in which people transcribed favourite quotations and poems, flourished in the centuries before modern reproductive technology made them quaint. They were often the cherished possessions of voyagers separated from their books. This specimen is particularly notable for its splendid binding and original passages. The voyages described in Lawrie's narratives and poems include a visit to Pitcairn Island in 1822, where he met the surviving Bounty mutineer, John Adams, and the son of Fletcher Christian.

[George V]

Two original, signed letters by Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York, (later King George V) record impressions of Australia from a royal perspective. Written to Sir Francis de Winton, the Duke's comptroller during his visit of 1901, the letters refer to the royal reception in Australia, the voyage, the ongoing Boer War and the Duke's finances and domestic arrangements.

Modern resources for the study of art and artists have been strengthened with the acquisition of the papers of Robert Ingpen and Noris Ioannou. An illustrator, designer, writer and consultant, Ingpen is well known for his children's books. The art historian and critic Dr Ioannou is a recognised expert in folk art and craft glass.

The distinguished university librarian and bibliographer, D H Borchardt, has bequeathed to the library a rich collection of papers including unpublished reminiscences.

Lastly, Papua New Guinea and East Timor feature in two very different and substantial collections of personal papers. Edwin Tscharke was once described as the 'Albert Schweitzer' of New Guinea, an area with which he was associated for over 40 years. Drawing on his missionary, military and medical background, he developed considerable expertise in primary health care and published guides on the subject. The political activist and journalist, Denis Freney, accumulated papers on topics such as the campaign for an independent East Timor, Nazism, the National Civic Council and Trotskyism in Australia.

 

Photo: Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York
(later King George V) during his visit to Australia in 1901

 

 

Cook's tours

The recent exhibition of Captain James Cook's Endeavour journal provided an opportunity to display maps relevant to Cook's discovery and exploration of the east coast of Australia.

During most of the sixteenth century, Spanish and Portuguese dominance of the seas, (demarcated by the Tordesillas line and its anti-meridian running roughly along the longitude comprising the eastern border of Western Australia), resulted in significant discoveries by the Spanish in the Pacific Ocean. Of these, one of great interest to Australia's subsequent exploration was that made by Luis Vaez de Torres who, in 1606, discovered the strait between New Guinea and Australia which now bears his name.

By the seventeenth century, the Dutch had taken command of maritime exploration and suveying. Much of the early knowledge of Australia's coastline dates to this period. From Carpentaria west to the middle of the Great Australian Bight, detailed surveys by Carstensz (1623), Jacobscz (1618), Hartog (1616), Houtman (1619), Thyssen (1627) and Vlamingh (1697) have survived. Typical of these surveys is the 1701 two-sheet manuscript map, held in the library's rare map collection, which depicts Vlamingh's survey of the west coast of Australia from Shark Bay to Rottnest Island. Tasman's exploration and discovery, from 1642 to 1644, of the southern extremity of Tasmania and the coastline of New Zealand at the corresponding latitude completed knowledge of the northern and southern extent of the Australian continent although this was not known at the time.

In 1663 the Frenchman, Melchissedec Thevenot, published in his Relations an interesting map of Australia summarising the Spanish and Dutch knowledge of Australia to that date. The map is unusual in that it does not attempt to anticipate the probable shape of Australia but leaves that open to further exploration and discovery. Some 80 years later, the map was replicated by the English engraver and map seller, Emmanuel Bowen, who added the interesting if not prophetic comment, after assessing the wealth of countries in the same latitude: '...this Continent enjoys the benefit of the same position [as Brazil and Chile] and therefore whoever perfectly discovers & settles it will become infalliably possessed of Territories as Rich as fruitful, & as capable of Improvement, as any that have been hither to found out, either in the East Indies, or the West'.

While Cook may have known of this map, he certainly knew of Robert Gilles de Vaugondy's map, Carte réduite de L'Australasie ..., published in 1756, for it was included in his extensive library on board the Endeavour. Clearly showing a strait between New Guinea and the Australian mainland, the map also documents both Spanish and Dutch knowledge of the Australian coastline with the usual conjecture lines of an eastern and extended southern boundary to the known limit of Tasmania. Quiros' discoveries are displaced westward, giving a curious lump in the eastern edge. The map may well have given hope to both Cook and the British Admiralty for a passage north of Australia.

[Early map of Australia]Cook's charting of both New Zealand and the east coast of Australia were conducted as running surveys, given the short time he was in Australian waters and the distance travelled-2,000 miles in four months. This also fulfilled, in part, the secret order: '...employ youself diligently in exploring as great an Extent of the Coast as you can; carefully observing the true situation thereof both in latitude and longitude, the variation of the Needle, bearings of Head Lands, Height, direction and Course of the Tides and Currents, Depths and sounding of the Sea, Shoals, Rocks, & etc and also surveying and making charts and taking views of such bays, harbours and parts of the coast as may be useful to Navigation.'

Whitchurch's map, Chart of Part of the South Seas..., published in the Hawkesworth Voyages of 1773, clearly shows, even at a small scale, the effect of this instruction, for the finer detail of the coastline is missing, left to Flinders and Bass to complete around 30 years later. Nevertheless, sufficient detail was taken to determine the nature of the eastern boundary of Australia and establish the general shape of the previously unknown continent.

Map: Carte réduite de L'Australasie ... by Robert Gilles de Vaugondy, published in 1756

 

 

 

[Woolloomoo Bay]

Woolloomooloo Bay in 1855: an early view

As part of the library's intention to collect documentary images which depict the appearance of the natural and man-made landscape, the Pictorial Section has recently acquired an early view of Woolloomooloo Bay. Painted by Thomas Wingate (1807-1869), a renowned sketcher and water colourist who settled in Sydney in the 1840s, the watercolour depicts Woolloomooloo Bay shortly after the first subdivision of land in 1842.

The head of the bay was a large mud flat until it was reclaimed in the early 1860s, at which time a circular wooden wharf was built. The painting documents the area prior to the construction of the wharf and the subsequent development of the port as one of national significance.

 

Music and the Myall Creek massacre

A rare piece of early vocal music dealing with the massacre of Aboriginal Australians at Myall Creek in 1838 has been added to the library's large Australian music collection.

The music for 'An Aboriginal Mother' was written by Isaac Nathan, generally credited to be the 'father' of Australian music. As well as composing music (including the first locally written opera 'Don John of Austria'), Nathan was a conductor, teacher and the first person to seriously study Aboriginal music.

The words of the song are by Mrs Eliza H. Dunlop, an associate of Nathan's. It is a lullaby sung by an aboriginal mother to her baby, lamenting the death of the father in the Myall Creek massacre, a terrible event in which 70 Aboriginals were killed by stockmen and farmers. Such was the effect of the piece at its first performance in Sydney in October 1841, that the Sydney Gazette critic piously expressed surprise that 'blacks' should be deemed to have human feelings. The critic was obviously moved by poignant and powerful lyrics such as '...could'st thou know thy father lies struck down by English steel...the spirit of my perish'd tribe would vanish from the land...he's gone oe'r the golden fields that lie beyond the rolling cloud to bring thy people's murder cry before the Christians' God'.

The song joins the large collection of music by Isaac Nathan held by the library. 'An Aboriginal Mother' was previously unrecorded on the national database. It forms a companion piece to another song 'The Aboriginal Father: A Native Song of the Maneroo Tribe' published about 1844. With words also by Mrs Dunlop, it echoes the sense of threat and violence embodied in the mother's lament. Both songs add to the record of Nathan's work and provide evocative documentation of relations between the indigenous population and the colonists.

 

Newspapers from North Korea

The National Library has recently strengthened its collections on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). While the National Library has been collecting publications about Korea since the 1950s, and has built up by far the largest Korean research collection in Australia, most of the Korean language items acquired have been from the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

The major source of North Korean publications has been an exchange relationship with the Grand People's Study House of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (formerly the State Central Library) in Pyongyang. This exchange has been in operation since 1973 and has been valuable in providing the library with a number of North Korean monograph, periodical and newspaper titles. However, with the worsening economic situation in North Korea, the exchange agreement has lapsed and alternative sources of material have been sought.

The library has now greatly increased its holdings of two major North Korean newspapers. These are

Nodong Sinmun [Labour News] and Minju Choson [Democratic Korea]. After acquiring microfilm of Nodong Sinmun from the Library of Congress in the United States and from a supplier in Japan, the library has a complete set of this newspaper from 1952 to 1996. Previously the library had partial holdings in hard-copy. In addition, microfilm of Minju Choson, covering January 1955 to December 1996, has just been ordered from Japan. The only existing Australian holdings are a few issues from the 1960s held by the National Library. More recent issues of both newspapers will also be acquired.

[Mrs Jung-ok Park]

The survey of users of Korean materials, which was described in the January and September 1997 issues of Gateways, and which is now being finalised, has revealed strong interest in North Korea by Australian scholars, although it is acknowledged that titles from the region are not easy to obtain.

The National Library continues to emphasise the development of its Korean collections, with the acquisition of materials from and about both the North and South. This is part of the 1996 cooperative agreement with the Australian National University Library on collecting and providing access to Korean vernacular materials. The National Library is also collaborating, through a Korean working group, with other Australian libraries interested in Korean collections.

 

Photo: Korean member of staff, Mrs Jung-ok Park checks the North Korean newspaper, Nodong Sinmun

 

Preserving access to fragile collections

The National Library recently formed a small working group to define a new policy for access to fragile materials in danger of deterioration through constant use. It is a common dilemma facing libraries today: unrestricted access to paper based materials will accelerate the time when they will be 'out of bounds' because of their deteriorating condition, yet providing access to collections is arguably a library's major raison d'etre.

As microfilming is a key means of preserving access to valuable information, the working group decided that a first task would be to revise the library's preservation microfilming policy. The policy aims to balance the needs of the library's current users with the need to protect the library's investment in its collections, both overseas and Australian, and also the needs of future users. Attempting to achieve this balance led the group to adopt more liberal guidelines for the microfilming of overseas material, where the earlier policy had focussed almost exclusively on Australian material. In addition, the group recognised that it would be neither feasible nor desirable to impose a blanket ban on access to original materials and formulated a series of statements, designed to assist both staff and users, which explain the circumstances in which access to original collections (already microfilmed) will be granted. These are:

Supporting documents have been designed to assist staff and users in understanding and interpreting the policy. An online version is available at http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/micro.html . Please direct any comments to Maggie Jones, email: mjones@nla.gov.au .

 

Some of what's new on the NLA Web site

ABN
1997/98 ABN Networked Services Charging Schedule. http://www.nla.gov.au/abn/charge.html

Acquisitions
Acquisition Guidelines for Australian Physical Format Electronic Publications To Be Purchased by the National Library. http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/acqguide.html

Digital Library Issues
National Consultative Meeting on the Management of Australian Physical-Format Digital Publications held in October 1997-presentations. http://www.nla.gov.au/niac/meetings/physical.html
Z39.50 Search and Retrieve Protocol-an update paper given by Andrew Wells, NSP Project, at the Standards Australia Seminar, 'Matching Discovery and Recovery' August 1997. http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/awells1.html

Exhibitions and Events
Australian Observer: The Photographs of Harold Cazneaux 1878-1953-an online exhibition drawn from a travelling exhibition, Harold Cazneaux Photographs 1995-1996. http://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/caz/

Internet Information Sources
Internet resources-the upgraded National Library guide. http://www.nla.gov.au/lis/inet/guides.html
The republic debate and the Constitutional Convention. http://www.nla.gov.au/oz/gov/conscon.html

International Cooperation
'We are all in the same boat so let's row together'-paper by Jan Lyall, Director, National Initiatives and Collaboration, National Library of Australia, presented at RLG 1997 Annual Membership Meeting, Chicago 5-6 May. 'Digital Futures: Ensuring Long-term Access to Digital Information'. http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/lyall2.html

Manuscript Collection Guides
Australian National Word Festival records. http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/8055.html
Pugh, Clifton -papers. http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/9096.html

Networked Services Project (NSP)
AMICUS questions & answers. http://www.nla.gov.au/nsp/amicqar.html

Subject guides
Subject Guide to CD-ROMS in the National Library. Readers Guide no. 3, revised Nov. 1997. http://www.nla.gov.au/guides/cd.html

Other
NLA 1996/97 Annual Report. http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/annrep97/
NLA HRM Strategic Plan 1997-99. http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/hrm.html#stratplan

 

Housing the collections: the big move

The November 1996 issue of Gateways reported on the National Library's plans to acquire a second offsite facility for storage of part of its print collections. Now, more than a year later, the library is 'gearing up' to move material into a new warehouse.

More than 20 shelf kilometres of material will be moved out of the Parkes building, followed by a re-arrangement of many parts of the collections remaining inside. This bookmoving project will be the biggest in the library's history.

Due to its very nature as a National Library with statutory obligations to collect and preserve Australia's documentary material, the National Library's collections continue to grow. Since occupation of the existing library building in 1968 the collections have increased by approximately 134 kilometres and are currently expanding at an annual rate of approximately 5,000 linear metres (or 5 kilometres).

Available space has been maximised within the library building by installing, wherever feasible, motorised compactus shelving. Standard collection management and storage techniques, such as splitting runs by size, have also been used to improve storage capacity.

In spite of the measures outlined above, the demand for space within the existing building for collections and the many other activities undertaken by the library, has become increasingly difficult to meet and since 1986 some collection material has been housed in an offsite facility at Hume in the ACT. In recent years offsite storage has been supplemented further by the library's use of a commercial records storage company.

[New warehouse]Due to the size of the library's overseas journal collection and because use of journals tends to reduce rapidly as the information becomes outdated, it is appropriate to store this material offsite. The National Library transferred most of its pre-1980 overseas journals offsite in 1986 and will shortly transfer the remaining pre-1980 journals as well as all its 1980-1989 overseas journals to the new offsite facility.

The new facility itself will be located close to the library's existing warehouse. Material will be stored on industrial shelving 7.2 metres high. Library staff will retrieve material using motorised 'stockpicking' equipment which allows them to drive along the aisles and travel up and down the shelving from ground level to the top shelf. Although this type of storage system is common in the general storage industry we believe it is a 'first' for a library in Australia.

The warehouse will be staffed fulltime by Stack staff and Document Supply Service staff will operate from there as well. A small reading room will be available for library staff and readers who need to use large runs of material. A courier service will deliver requested material to the library's main reading rooms regularly throughout each day.

Photo: The new warehouse under contruction, December 1997

Completion of the building is scheduled for the end of February 1998 with the transfer of material due to commence in March 1998. It is anticipated that transfer of material will take about three months, with the facility being fully operational by June. Library staff are currently developing procedures to keep readers and staff up to date with progress during the move and to advise them when particular material is temporarily unavailable.

Once the new warehouse is filled, the library will to need to re-arrange much of the material remaining within the Parkes building and to welcome back Australian material currently being housed in commercial storage facilities. It is expected that this major re-arrangement of collections will take many more months to complete. At its conclusion the library will look forward confidently to providing an improved service from its onsite collections.


NLA services

National Library joins the Research Libraries Group (RLG)

The National Library's entrance into the Research Libraries Group affiliates it with 157 prestigious research libraries around the world.

RLG is a not-for-profit membership corporation devoted to improving access to information that supports research and learning. Membership is open to any not-for-profit institution with a cultural, educational or scientific mission and a stake in sharing the responsibility of supporting research in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Almost 20% of the current RLG membership is outside the United States.

RLG places emphasis on developing co-operative solutions to the problems faced by the managers and users of research collections. Through the consortium, members focus on identifying and resolving issues of library service that cannot be addressed successfully by a single institution.

By joining RLG, the National Library will gain access to a range of existing services as well as being able to participate in the RLG research agenda through membership of various taskforces. RLG is currently active in the areas of resource sharing, preservation and archiving of digital materials, the development of metadata standards-particularly for preservation-and in developing training events which foster technology transfer. Strength resides in the group's capacity to involve a diverse group of people in the development of guidelines, standards and best practice.

According to Dr Warwick Cathro 'Membership of RLG will give the National Library of Australia an institutional means of strengthening relations with overseas libraries and institutions'.

In addition, the library will have access to a range of value-added services and information including discounted rates for RLG products. It has already taken advantage of significantly reduced rates (negotiated by RLG on behalf of its members) to subscribe to the DIALOG @CARL Service.

Following a one month free trial of DIALOG@CARL, from 17 November to 12 December 1997, the National Library has decided to extend the service into 1998. This means that the DIALOG@CARL databases will be available in several of the reading rooms until next August.

DIALOG@CARL is a service which offers access to approximately 300 DIALOGâ databases through a user friendly Web-based search interface. The service also includes the RLINâ bibliographic database, a union catalogue describing 27 million titles-books, journals, manuscripts and personal papers, music, maps and drawings. The Research Libraries Group CitaDelâ files are also available through DIALOG@CARL. The CitaDel databases index and provide abstracts of journal articles, conference proceedings, books and dissertations in a number of research subjects. With full text or a summary of articles from nearly 3,000 journals and 100 newspapers, DIALOG@CARL has given readers access to a large range of international material which was previously either unavailable to them or difficult to access.

A user of the DIALOG@CARL system can search up to six databases concurrently. To assist users in the selection of relevant databases, DIALOG@CARL provides a subject hierarchy of 17 topic groupings in addition to a full alphabetical listing of database names. The topics allow the reader to go directly to a subgroup of databases in a subject area of interest. Topics covered include: business and industry, education, health and medicine, humanities and the arts, news and reference. Many of the topics have further subdivisions. For example, within company information, you can select 'worldwide company news', a selection of 13 databases including Standard and Poor's Daily News, IAC Industry Express and the online version of the London Times/Sunday Times. Descriptions of each database, setting out coverage, size, date range and structure, can be reached with a single click on the database title.

Searching is possible at either a basic or an advanced level. The searchable fields in the advanced option vary slightly with each database; the search screen layout remains the same, however, so that the user can construct a search with a familiar interface.

Searching DIALOG@CARL is free to National Library users. Many of the articles cited in the bibliographic databases can then be obtained from CARL Uncover at the usual fees. DIALOG@CARL allows users to download, print or email search results to a specified address. Email is not available at the National Library but readers are able to download and print results. Although the system has been in place for only a short time, feedback from readers has been very positive.

Note: The DIALOG@CARL service is available to the public from five computers in the library. Two are located in the Main Reading Room, one in the Petherick Reading Room, one in the Newspaper/Microform Reading Room and one in the Asian Collections Reading Room.

 

PANDORA's progress

Gateways no. 28, July 1997 included a report about the PANDORA Project (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia) which has been established by the National Library. The aims of the project are to develop policy and procedures for access to and preservation of Australian online publications; set up an archive of selected publications; establish an archive management facility; quantify the resources required for implementation of medium to long term preservation strategies; and develop a proposal for a national approach to the long term preservation of these publications.

The July article outlined some of the principles underlying the scope of the project. Since then much detailed work has been done and a number of practical outcomes have been the result. A document specifying business requirements was prepared to itemise all of the policies and procedures that an automated archive management facility would have to address. A logical data model was then developed detailing the management information to be collated for access to and long term preservation of the online publications in the archive. This translated the business requirements into a framework that computer analysts and programmers will understand and be able to utilise. Subsequently, a technical infrastructure document has been formulated to describe the requirements for the hardware and software platform necessary to support the archive.

Concurrently, the National Library's Electronic Unit has been developing a 'proof of concept' archive, to test the capability of available software for gathering selected publications from the Internet. Access to the archive is via a World Wide Web interface to the library's online public access catalogue, where author, title and subject searches will discover electronic titles together with print items.

To see some examples of publications that the library has already archived, please refer to the following:

Ausflag

http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/pandora/ausflag.html

Australian Humanities Review

http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/pandora/ahr.html

Firebreak

http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/pandora/firebrea.html

Further information on the project can be obtained by visiting the PANDORA page on the National Library's server at http://pandora.nla.gov.au or by contacting Margaret Phillips tel.: 61 2 6262 1140, email: mphillips@nla.gov.au

 

Attention other libraries!

Did you know that when you have exhausted your own information resources, you can phone the National Library's Telephone Information Service for reference assistance? The best times to call are Monday to Friday 11 am-5 pm, when reference librarians are rostered specifically to take phone enquiries. Some assistance is also available on Monday-Thursday evenings, on Saturdays, and on Sunday afternoons, when overtime staff are on duty to assist both onsite users and those with telephone enquiries.

You can telephone us on:

(02) 6262 1266, or (02) 6262 1434.

If an answering machine asks you to leave a message, please do, and we will get back to you as soon as we can-usually within an hour during the Monday-Friday 9 am-5 pm period.

Most enquiries can be answered on the spot, but more complex ones may take a day or two.

 

TDK awards in 1997

[TDK winners]Photo. Left to right: Bernadette Neubecker (ABC Enterprises), Bob Bennett (Christian Blind Mission International) Michelle Torres (Narkaling), James Wright (Trish Trinick Prize winner), author Elizabeth Jolley (awards presenter), Richard Nettleton (TDK (Australia)) and Rebecca Walshe (Bolinda Audio Books)

One of Australia's foremost writers, Elizabeth Jolley, presented last year's TDK Audio Book Awards and the Trish Trinick Prize for best narrator. The National Library is proud of its association with the awards which promote high standards in the production of audio books.

The Christian Blind Mission International won the award for the best unabridged fiction for its production of Steve Lawhead's charming children's book Brown Ears at Sea, narrated by Robert Grubb.

The Abridged Fiction Award was won by ABC Enterprises for Eating Out and Other Stories by Natalie Scott, narrated by Ruth Cracknell. ABC Enterprises also took out the Abridged Non-Fiction Award for its production of Jan Ruff-O'Hernes moving autobiography Fifty Years of Silence, poignantly narrated by the author.

Bolinda Audio Books picked up the Unabridged Non-Fiction Award for its production of Mary Durack's famous family biography Kings in Grass Castles, narrated by Jenny Seedsman.

Finally, the Trish Trinick Prize for the best narrator was scooped by James Wright for his part in the Louis Braille Books' production of The Fiftieth Gate. Through his narration, Wright conveys brilliantly the ironies, psychological subtleties and distinctive attitudes of the various characters in Mark Raphael Baker's journey through the Second World War memories, and beyond, of his Jewish parents.

Entries are now being invited for the 1998 TDK Australian Audio Book Awards. Audio books eligible for awards must be produced between 1 June 1997 and 31 May 1998 and the Trish Trinick Prize for best narrator will be chosen from among them. For further information and entry forms contact the TDK Awards Coordinator at the National Library tel. (02) 6262 1289 or fax (02) 6273 4493.

 

National Library's PURL Service is here

[PURL logo]The National Library of Australia launched the new Australian PURL Resolver Service, on Thursday 29 January 1998 at the VALA Biennial Conference held in the Melbourne Convention Centre.

PURLs provide a simple and convenient way for Internet content providers to ensure that their most important documents will always be found by searchers even when the document is moved to a new location or server.

PURL stands for Persistent Uniform Resource Locator. A PURL is a special kind of URL which, instead of pointing directly to an Internet document, points to an intermediate resolver service. This service then redirects the search to the current URL for the document. Once a PURL is allocated to an Internet document it remains constant even if the document is moved to another location or another server (i.e. even if the URL for the document changes). It is similar to a 'see' reference in a library catalogue.

The PURL Resolver Service saves Internet content providers the effort of creating redirect pages on their own server, although when a document is relocated they do need to update the PURL record on the National Library's server.

For searchers it makes finding documents on the Web easier and more reliable. As long as they know the PURL for a document they will find it. PURLs can be bookmarked confidently with the knowledge that they will not change.

The Australian PURL Resolver Service uses software developed by the OCLC Online Computer Library Centre in the USA. The Australian service is one of the first implementations of the software outside the USA. It is available to any Australian organization which adds content to the Internet.

More information? Contact the National Library of Australia Help Desk on 1800 026 155, email: networks@nla.gov.au or visit our home page: http://purl.nla.gov.au/ .

 

Outsourcing copy cataloguing with ABN

As Australian libraries outsource their cataloguing, ABN is seeking new ways to maintain the coverage and currency of the union catalogue while providing these libraries with the efficiencies of shared cataloguing.

In cooperation with major library suppliers, ABN is developing a service which delivers MARC records automatically to libraries, without requiring a search of ABN. Whether a library orders books title by title, or by blanket order, the service delivers MARC records from ABN to the local system before the books arrive in the library.

Benefits for libraries

The main benefit for libraries is that they may purchase books from a variety of suppliers, knowing that all their MARC records will be delivered from ABN in a familiar format and a single delivery stream. There is no need to 'lock in' to one supplier to enjoy the benefits of receiving MARC records with books. By the time the books arrive in the library, the MARC records have been delivered and loaded to the local system and the holding statement for each book has been reported automatically to the National Bibliographic Database.

Which suppliers?

Blackwell has participated successfully in the ABN trial for several months. DA Information Services completed testing with ABN during 1997, and commenced a 'live' trial in January. Askews Library Services, which is a UK-based company, has commenced testing with ABN and is making good progress. Other library suppliers have expressed interest in the service, and most are willing to participate if their customers are interested.

Which libraries?

The University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne are participating in the trial with Blackwell. Queensland University of Technology has also expressed interest in joining the trial with Blackwell.

The University of Melbourne and Monash University are participating in the trial with DA Information Services. Participants in the Askews trial have not yet been selected, but will probably include public libraries. If you are interested in participating in the trials, or would like to trial the service with other library suppliers, please contact ABN. At the conclusion of each trial with a new library supplier, participants will be consulted by teleconference about the outcomes, to help refine and improve the service.

How does it work?

To use the service, a library needs to be a member of ABN. The membership level should be 'Full Service' or 'Search & Products'. The ABN/Blackwell service operates in the following way: Blackwell send boxes of books to their customer libraries. Simultaneously, Blackwell informs ABN (via FTP) which books have been sent to which libraries, and what holdings statement should be added to the NBD. ABN adds the libraries' holdings statements to the database, and makes the MARC records available for down loading to the libraries via FTP. The MARC records are loaded into the library computer system before the box of books is received from Blackwell. When the library receives its books from the supplier, the local system is searched for the MARC record. ABN provides a report of which books could not be matched with MARC records on the NBD. If there is no MARC record, the library creates an original catalogue record, or places a brief record on ABN and waits for an upgrade record.

Will the service suit all libraries?

The service is ideally suited to approval plans and blanket orders, where libraries may not be aware of individual titles which will be delivered to them. The service also suits libraries which order individual titles from their suppliers.

However, some libraries search ABN to verify a title before ordering it, and download the MARC record before placing the order. This is a very efficient way to work, and the new service may not offer any improvement. Nevertheless, all libraries are most welcome to trial the new service and compare its merits with their current work flows.

What charges are there?

The normal ABN charges apply to the use of this service; for example, the charges for supply of MARC records. However, financial credits do not apply to contributions of holdings in batch mode.

Once the service is operational, and we have had the opportunity to shape it more accurately to the needs of libraries, the issue of charges will be re-considered. This will probably take place in the context of the charging policy for the new networked services which replace the current ABN system.

Future developments

Future development of the service will depend on user needs. Some suggestions which have been made so far include supply of MARC records via downline loading, incorporation of item-specific data in fields other than 035, the provision of original cataloguing for items not found on ABN, improved management reports to monitor hit rates, and the option to load the supplier's brief record to ABN if no other record is available.

Information on the service will be made available on the ABN home page, together with a list of participating library suppliers.

 

Network Committee report

The Network Committee met on 25-26 November, in conjunction with the Annual Users Meeting.

The major item of business was the draft business plan for the new service resulting from the Networked Services Project. The business plan (to be confidential) addresses the strategic fit between the new system and the business environment. It includes an implemention strategy and financial projections for the operation of the new services.

Charging policy

The Network Committee adopted a set of principles which will underpin the charging policy for the NSP services. The principles reflect the preferences expressed at the Annual Users Meeting last August. Subscription charging will be the basis of the new policy, with subscribers entitled to a standard set of services and products. Calculating the subscription charge will be complex. In the first year, 1998-99, all users will be offered subscriptions based on their recent use of ABN services. In the following year, 1999-2000, the subscription price will be based on the number of concurrent sessions, and on the use made of the system in the first several months of operation. Different subscription rates may apply to different segments of the market.

There will be some exceptions to the subscription formula-for example, copyright royalties or interlibrary loan charges where a third party requires reimbursement. Casual users may be charged by connect time.

CJK and ABN

The users of the National CJK Service, who met in conjunction with the Annual Users Meeting in August, recommended the closer integration of the ABN and CJK services. The Network Committee noted the separate governance arrangements applying to the National CJK Service, and asked the National Library to explore the impact of accepting all responsibility for the operation of the CJK service, including budget, governance, and opportunities to extend the market for the system.

Quality assurance for NBD

The committee considered detailed recommendations for a quality assurance scheme to cover cataloguing contributions to the National Bibliographic Database. Three levels of contribution will be recognised, with credits applied to cataloguing which meets quality assurance standards. The committee will consider the implementation plan for the scheme at its next meeting. An outline of the NBD Quality Assurance Scheme (or Program) appears in the next article.

Commercial use of ABN

Following approaches from library suppliers and others to make ABN records available as part of a commercial service, the committee resolved that library suppliers' use of ABN should be based on the standard Memorandum of Agreement. While the Network Committee is willing to consider additional agreements with library suppliers, they will be required to pay the full MARC record fee for the redistribution of records, and there will need to be agreed methods for verifying redistribution of those records. Contribution of holdings to ABN will be a condition of any reuse agreement.

All the resolutions from the November meeting of the Network Committee, with selected agenda papers, are available on the National Library's Web server at the following URL: http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/nc57.html

The next meeting of the Network Committee will be held on 25-26 March.

 

Quality assured for the NBD

At its November 1997 meeting, the ABN Network Committee endorsed the Standards Committee's recommendations regarding the quality assurance of cataloguing data contributed to the National Bibliographic Database (NBD).

The NBD Quality Assurance Program will focus on the linking of original cataloguing credits to key data quality standards established by the Standards Committee. At present, ABN review centres and contributors generally adhere to these standards and receive original cataloguing credits. When the new program commences, new contributors will be entitled to receive credits and existing contributors will retain their current contribution status and credit eligibility. However, all ABN contributors will undergo an assessment of their data and those who require further training in order to comply with the program's key data standards will temporarily be deemed provisional contributors and will be ineligible for original cataloguing credits until they are reassessed.

To assist those libraries that are outsourcing their cataloguing and to ensure that the network receives the best value for the credits paid, commercial operators, institutions without review centre status and high-volume contributors of bibliographic and authority data will be assessed first. To protect small and infrequent contributors, no library will be assessed on a sample of less than 100 records.

There are some components of the quality assurance system still to be finalised. A reference document that focusses on critical quality problems and outlines the specific performance standards needed to attain contributor and review centre status is required.

The NBD & Standards Section is investigating the potential of ISO 9000 series accreditation for the NBD Quality Assurance Program. This series of standards sets out to measure the objectives of an organisation, the quality of its products and services, and its customer service. Certification of the quality assurance program may be of interest to the growing number of libraries tendering for cataloguing services.

Finally, the National Library, in conjunction with the Standards Committee, must submit an implementation plan, including mechanisms for appeal, a commencement date and reassessment cycles, to the Network Committee at its next meeting on 25-26 March 1998. The NBD Quality Assurance Program should commence in earnest soon after this date.

The detailed resolutions on quality assurance are available on the National Library's Web server at http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/res97nc.html . Background reading on the development of the NBD Quality Assurance System is available in the Network Committee paper 'Impact of outsourced cataloguing on the NBD' (available on the National Library's Web server at http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/971cat.html) and the Standards Committee paper 'Proposal for an ABN accreditation system' (available on the National Library's Web server at http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/committees/9721.html).

 

Wanted: your OCLC records

In 1997 university libraries were offered a free trial of OCLC's Online Cataloguing Service as part of the centre's promotion of services to the Aust-ralian academic library sector. If your library acquired bibliographic records during either this 'free trial' or through subsequent use of OCLC, and you've not yet had a chance to update the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) with the new records and your holdings information, then the NBD Section would like to hear from you.

Over the next few months the section will identify, capture and load this data to the NBD. The section will first do a stocktake of the number of libraries that have data to contribute, and how much data is involved. There will also have to be an analysis of the MARC data output from various local systems. After this staff will be able to advise libraries on the final output specifications and options for delivering the data to the NBD section via FTP or email. Re-use fees will be paid for all records in accordance with the National Library's agreement with OCLC.

The contact officers for this project are Papiya Chakravarti and Ian Dunn. Phone the ABN Help Desk on 1800 026 155, or email them at these addresses: idunn@nla.gov.au, pchakrav@nla.gov.au.

 

UnCover enhances document delivery service

In January, the UnCover Company announced a new service, UnCover Desktop Delivery, from nearly 300 scholarly, academic and trade publishers representing 3,000 publications.

In addition to facsimile delivery, UnCover now offers users an alternative method of receiving full-text articles-a method that delivers graphics, photographs, and charts directly to the desktop, simply by downloading multi-page TIFF images.

The ordering process for UnCover Desktop Image Delivery is streamlined to parallel the former procedures for ordering articles from the UnCoverWeb, with no extra fees for this method of delivery. After receiving an email notification that the article is ready to view, users are given an article number and instructions to log back on to the UnCoverWeb site to download the image. Before viewing, users need to download the viewer, created jointly by CARL and UnCover. The viewer only needs to be downloaded once and allows users to read UnCover articles ordered in the future. Users are unable to view an article prior to paying and publishers are guaranteed royalties for every article delivered.


Exhibitions and publications

Pulp fiction in Australia

[Curse of the mummy]Wild westerns, rapturous romances, dashing detectives and sensational space operas!

An exhibition featuring Australian pulp ficition has opened in the National Library's Visitor Centre. Incorporating Carter Brown, Mills and Boon and other examples of popular paperback fiction, the exhibition is drawn largely from the collection of Gordon Clive Bleeck, an author who wrote pulp fiction over three decades-from the 1940s to the 1960s.

The exhibition features a fan letter and extracts from the journals and diaries of Bleeck, surrounded by his vividly covered paperbacks. These revealing personal documents record the discipline and hard work necessary to become a successful pulp fiction writer while meeting a publisher's demands. At the height of his career, Bleeck was turning out four 22 000-word novelettes every two months under one or more of his 22 pseudonyms!

The processing of the published works in the Bleeck collection is now complete and a comprehensive listing of the novels, novelettes and short stories can be found on the Internet at http://www.nla.gov.au/1/collect/bleeck.html .

The exhibition will be on display until June 1998.

 

New directory of libraries and archives in the Pacific Islands

[Book cover]The Directory of Libraries and Archives in the Pacific Islands was launched by Professor Donald Denoon, Department of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU at the 'Pacific Islands History in the 21st Century' workshop, on 5 December.

The publication is a joint effort by the Asian and Pacific Special Interest Group (APSIG), its parent body the Australian Library and Information Assocaition (ALIA), and the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries and Archives (PIALA). Adrian Cunningham, from the National Initiatives and Collaboration Branch at the National Library, compiled the directory with support from other areas of the National Library, AusAid's Pacific Regional Program, James Bennett Pty Ltd and Queensland's Library Supplies Pty Ltd.

 

 

Containing over 400 entries, the directory fills an information gap about libraries and archives in the southwest Pacific. It is available from the Australian Library and Information Association, PO Box E442, KINGSTON ACT 2604 at a cost of $12 for members and $15 for non members.

 

Seminars online

[NLA Seminars]The National Library of Australia's seminar program explores a range of themes, usually drawing on the rich resource of the library's collections-manuscripts, maps, music scores, publications in a variety of languages, ephemera, an oral history collection and a major pictorial collection. The program aims to encourage imaginative use of the library's resources by scholars, researchers, creative writers and first-time visitors curious about how the collections relate to their interests.

To promote these seminars to a wider audience, the National Library's online seminar site has been developed. This publishes papers from the program and provides links to other areas on the National Library Web server where source materials are described or listed.

Since 1996 a number of seminars have been published online. The first of these was 'Views and Prospects: Women Writing 1975-1995', held on 18 November 1995 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of International Women's Year. The seminar highlights the National Library's role as a custodian of the papers of women writers and can be located at http://www.nla.gov.au/events/ww.html .

One of the most popular seminars to date, 'Private Lives Revealed: Letters, Diaries, History',was held in March 1996. The seminar explored the ethical and practical considerations of using private or personal papers in researching history and biography and is located at http://www.nla.gov.au/events/private/ .

'Documenting a Life', held in October 1996 and with papers available at http://www.nla.gov.au/events/doclife/ , looked at the triangular relationship between author, subject and audience that informs biography, examining approaches to the documentary 'evidence' of a life, to biography as narrative and to the balancing act that is the lot of the biographer.

The March 1997 seminar 'Voices and Memory: Australian Oral History' was the first seminar at the National Library devoted entirely to oral history. As such, the seminar showcased many of the library's current oral history projects, and focussed on primary themes and the future directions of oral history. The seminar papers can be found at http://www.nla.gov.au/events/oralhist/ . Research fellow Barry York describes the contents of the site as showing 'top level expertise and experience, good plain-language theorising, and a range of viewpoints. Quite a rarity these days.' He went on to say, 'I would think the seminar Web site would be a useful source for students. Basically, I think of it as an edited book, only this one is in electronic form making it easier to access, and also cheaper, from a university student's point of view!'

A summary of information about the National Library's past seminars, can be found at http://www.nla.gov.au/events/past.html . Papers from some of these seminars were published in the journal Voices. Most seminars are recorded on audio tape and the tapes are housed in the Oral History Section of the National Library of Australia

For more information on the National Library's 'Seminars Online' project, please visit http://www.nla.gov.au/events/seminars.html . And stay tuned for the next instalment of papers from the recent storytelling seminar 'Telling Tales: Australian Storytelling Traditions'.

 

Backroom briefings [Backroom briefings]

edited by Clem Lloyd & Richard Hall

ISBN 0 642 10688 6, B5, pb. $24.95

In his speech at the launch of the latest National Library publication, Backroom Briefings, political commentator Laurie Oakes acknowledged, with wonder, the rapport Prime Minister John Curtin enjoyed with newspaper editors and members of the Press Gallery in the critical years of World War 2. The reporting notes by Fred Smith (bureau chief of Australia United Press) on which this book is based, reveal a phenomenon far removed from the reality of current political practice. Curtin knew how to get his message out. As Laurie Oakes said 'By sharing confidential information, showing documents and so on, he built up a relationship of trust which enabled him to suggest how papers should approach particular issues, to float ideas for editorials...Also, by keeping the upper echelons of the press "in the know" about the strategy and conduct of the war on a not-for-publication basis, Curtin actually reduced the risk of disclosure of material which could jeopardise the safety of troop movements and military operations.' The fact that the then prime minister was himself a former journalist could also have had something to do with his influence over the fourth estate.

Some biographical studies of prominent politicians are strangely one-dimensional. This is no such work. Together, Clem Lloyd and Richard Hall have taken Fred Smith's notes from the National Library's Manuscript Collection and edited them to convey a remarkable and animated impression of Australia's great wartime leader.

To order, please make cheques payable to the National Library of Australia and send to: Sales and Distribution, NLA CANBERRA ACT 2600. Tel. 1800 800 100, fax (02) 6273 1084, email: nlasales@nla.gov.au

 

 


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Hyperlinks last updated 23 March 1998