National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568
No. 37
February 1999


CONTENTS

Kinetica roll out dates announced

Kinetica news
OCLC access for Kinetica
Kinetica and ILANET cooperation
RLIN database offered
Kinetica charges
Incentives for Kinetica
Kinetica training
Kinetica presentations
Your questions about Kinetica
Annual Users Meeting

NLA at work
NLA restructure
25 Years of Cataloguing-in-Publication
Readers give NLA a vote of approval
Preservation of Donald Friend’s diaries
Commonwealth Government deposit material comes to the National Library
NLA regional officer visits Surabaya and Bandung
Indonesian newspapers
Erratum
Digitising rare maps: the results
Readers guides updated
National Library of Australia Copyright Guidelines

The collections
Recent rare map acquisitions
The Menzies Christmas cards
Collecting agreement for Chinese statistical publications
Telling the stories to the nation: the ‘Bringing them Home’ Oral History Pilot Project
U Thaw Kaung: 1999 Harold White Fellow
That painting arrives in the National Library

NLA out and about
Information manager reports on trips to the UK and Japan
AZLIC Metadata Working Group Annual Meeting 1998
RLG's Digital Imaging Workshop, Canberra, 2–4 December 1998
Pacific Collections: developing libraries for the twenty-first century

Milestones
Dr Jan Lyall retires & Maggie Jones returns to the UK

Exhibitions and publications
Travelling exhibitions in 1999
A ‘National Treasure’ on CD-ROM

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
Publications Branch
Public Programs Division
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. Subscriptions are free.


Kinetica roll out dates announced

[Kinetica logo]

The Director-General of the National Library of Australia, Warren Horton, announced at Online On Disc ’99 in January that the new Kinetica service will commence operations in March. Kinetica will now be launched in three stages: Database access will start on Wednesday 17 March; cataloguing services will commence Monday 29 March; and the Document Delivery Service will go ‘live’ on 27 April after an extended interim period as a training system.

The heart of Kinetica is Australia’s national union catalogue, containing information about the location of nearly 30 million items held in over 1000 Australian libraries. Kinetica will provide a new system enabling libraries to electronically request interlibrary loans from each other using the location information held in the national union catalogue.

Australian libraries will have access to other databases through Kinetica, including the National Chinese Japanese and Korean Service and an American database, the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN). The RLIN database contains over 30 million records, and will complement the rich Australian databases on offer. Libraries will also be able to use an online cataloguing service to create local library catalogues.

Kinetica replaces and enhances services delivered by its highly successful predecessor, the Australian Bibliographic Network. The new service will be available through the Internet and will feature World Wide Web interfaces.

Kinetica news
OCLC access for Kinetica

OCLC and the National Library of Australia are pleased to announce that agreement has been reached on arrangements to enable Kinetica’s customers to have access to OCLC’s cataloguing and resource-sharing services. Under the terms of the agreement, OCLC will reduce the one-time profiling fee from $US350 to $US100. Australian libraries that are members of Kinetica will have the option to join OCLC as a full or partial member. This offer will remain open until 1 July 1999. Further details will be announced shortly.

This agreement signals the intention of both organisations to develop a close working relationship. The National Library and OCLC have agreed to work together to ensure that Kinetica’s National Bibliographic Database is updated with contributions to OCLC’s WorldCat database from Kinetica libraries. Both organisations intend to examine further opportunities for collaboration in resource-sharing services. ‘We are excited about the potential benefits this relationship will bring to users of OCLC and Kinetica’, said Warren Horton, the Director-General of the National Library of Australia. ‘Developments in information technology are enabling resource sharing on a global scale, and cooperation between OCLC and Kinetica will bring substantial benefits to Australian libraries.’

‘OCLC is pleased to establish this important agreement with the National Library of Australia. OCLC member libraries around the world will benefit from this enhanced connection to the Australian library community’ said Phyllis Spies, OCLC Vice-President, Worldwide Sales.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organisation whose computer network and services link more than 33 000 libraries in 65 countries and territories. Visit http://www.oclc.org

Kinetica, the National Library of Australia’s new resource sharing service, will provide access to national and international databases, interlibrary loan and cataloguing services for more than 1300 Australian libraries. See http://www.nla.gov.au/kinetica

RLIN database offered

In November, the National Library reached an agreement with the Research Libraries Group (RLG) in the United States that will provide a number of benefits for Kinetica customers. The agreement will allow Kinetica customers to search the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) database and copy bibliographic records. The RLIN database contains over 30 million bibliographic records; it has wide coverage of materials in all formats and many languages.

The RLIN database will provide continued access to records from bibliographic sources that will not be loaded to Kinetica such as USGPO, National Library of Medicine and the National Library of Canada. Searching of RLIN will be through the Kinetica Web interface. Database searching and supply of MARC records from RLIN is included as a core Kinetica service.

Kinetica and ILANET cooperation

Together the National Library of Australia and the State Library of New South Wales are forging a new relationship to benefit all Australian libraries.

Their aim is to make the Kinetica databases accessible to all organisations that subscribe to ILANET, regardless of size. This includes public libraries, corporate libraries, government department libraries, information brokers, researchers, journalists, and anyone with a range of information needs.

This exciting innovation will enable ILANET, through its new service, ilanetweb, to extend the range of services it provides to its customers and will enable the National Library to ensure that libraries everywhere in Australia can benefit from the new generation of resource sharing. Libraries and their customers will be able to get the information they need when and where they need it.

ILANET is a business enterprise of the State Library of NSW. Through its secure ilanetweb site, ILANET members have access to a wide range of electronic information services, from resource discovery to document delivery. Ilanetweb integrates interlibrary loan facilities based on international standards with access to major bibliographic utilities and document suppliers throughout the world.

Kinetica charges

For core services there will be a charge of $0.85 per search transaction AND/OR $600.00 per concurrent session a month.

Libraries can have all their passwords charged either by search transaction or concurrent session. Alternatively, libraries can have some of their passwords charged by search transaction, and other passwords belonging to a concurrent session limit charged at the concurrent session rate.

The three core services are: searching of the National Bibliographic Database; searching of any other database through a Kinetica gateway such as RLIN and the National Chinese, Japanese and Korean databases; and delivery of MARC records where there are less than 2000 records in a file, or the delivery is not by CD-ROM.

The separate charges for these products and services are described more fully in two articles elsewhere in this issue, ‘Incentives for Kinetica’ (page 4) and ‘Your questions about Kinetica’ (page 6).

Incentives for Kinetica

Low prices and handsome incentives such as free training, free cataloguing clients, and substantial discounts will reward users who contribute cataloguing data to the National Bibliographic Database via the new Kinetica system.

Discounts for contributing data

Libraries that contribute data will be entitled to a discount on the core service charges of $0.85 per search transaction and/or $600.00 per concurrent session per month.

a. Full contributors

Full contributors will receive a discount of 30% on the core service charges. To be eligible for the discount, libraries will agree to contribute the following data online for their current intake within two weeks of an item’s arrival in the library:

b. Partial contributors

Partial contributors will receive a discount of 15% on the core service charges. These libraries will agree to contribute holdings and/or cataloguing for 20%–80% of their intake, either online within two weeks of an item’s arrival in the library or offline to an agreed schedule. Libraries will select their level of contribution in the new Kinetica User Agreement.

Free Kinetica cataloguing clients

All libraries agreeing to catalogue online to Kinetica will be entitled to receive one FREE cataloguing client for every 300 cataloguing records they contribute each year. Libraries contributing less than 300 cataloguing records online per year will receive one free client.

For libraries currently contributing to ABN the number of free clients will be based on the cataloguing records added online during 1998. Libraries will be advised of their allocation of free clients in writing.

Access to support and software upgrades are included in the licencing arrangements. Other terms and conditions for use of the software will be specified in the Kinetica User Agreement.

Additional copies can be purchased for $120.00 per year.

Training for Kinetica

[Tom Ruthven]

The following recommended charges will apply to training courses for Kinetica. Courses will be conducted primarily by training agents in each capital city and major regional centres.

Kinetica Web, half-day, $50.00

Kinetica Cataloguing Client, two days, $340.00

Kinetica Document Delivery, one day, $195.00

Each library currently contributing cataloguing online to ABN will be entitled to one FREE place on the Kinetica cataloguing course for every five cataloguing clients it receives as part of the free client offer. In addition, each library that is currently using the ABN ILL system will be entitled to one FREE place on a Kinetica document delivery course conducted by the NLA or a training agent.

Enquiries to Tom Ruthven (pictured), Manager Kinetica Implementation, National Library of Australia, Canberra ACT 2600. Tel: 02 6262 1514, fax: 02 6273 1180, email: truthven@nla.gov.au

Kinetica training

[Training agents]The first Kinetica training agents’ course was held at the National Library throughout the week 1–5 February. Further train-the-trainer courses were held each week in February and will continue into early March.

In all, 48 training agents from 25 different organisation will learn how to conduct Kinetica courses so that customer training can begin in March. The following customer courses will be offered:

Kinetica Web (half-day)
Kinetica Client (two days)
Kinetica Document Delivery (one day)

Training agents from an area near you. Back row (l. to r.): Sharon Howells (Newcastle), Anna Skurowski & Ruth Wilson (NLA, Canberra), Glenys Burnett & Glenis Sellwood (Sydney), Marion Wilson (Newcastle), Leonie Atkins (Hobart), Robyn Sanders (Melbourne), Mary Gosling (Canberra), Anne Just (Brisbane City Council). Front row: Margaret Brookes (Canberra), Lea Nelson (NLA, Canberra), Glenda Henderson ( Sydney), Judith Purser (Melbourne), Christine Richardson (Perth).

Kinetica presentations[Moreno]

More than 2000 people from the Australian library community attended one of the Kinetica presentations held throughout Australia during November and December.

The presentations included demonstrations of the Kinetica Web and Kinetica Cataloguing Client interfaces and information about workflow implications, training requirements and charges.

The National Library was delighted with the excellent response to these 'roadshows', held in all capital cities, Newcastle and regional Queensland. A video of the presentation was recorded in Rockhampton and has been made available to libraries in remote areas.

Right. Margarita Moreno at the Kinetica presentation in Rockhampton. This went 'live' via video link to audiences in Emerald, Bundaberg, Gladstone and Mackay and was recorded for library staff in remote areas.

Your questions about Kinetica

Kinetica Web

Will Kinetica Web be able to run on Netscape version 3, or anything less than version 4?
To access Kinetica Web you will need at least Netscape version 4.0 or Internet Explorer v.4.0.

Are saved searches available?
You are able to save searches in Kinetica Web. This function is called ‘stored queries’. Saved search is not yet available in the Kinetica client.

Can it be optional to view holdings?
When we launch the system, the brief display in Kinetica Web will not include holdings.

Do I need to use WinMass to access the CJK database using Kinetica Web?
You can search the CJK database through Kinetica Web and see the results in Romanised form without any additional software. If you wish to see the CJK script characters in displayed records you need specialised software which can read the EACC-coded characters. WinMASS is a software product that does this.

Are GMDs indexed?
GMD’s are indexed as part of the title field. It is also possible to limit a search to a particular type of material using the material type index. The codes in this index are extracted from the leader character position 6.

Will there be access to the MeSH authority file via RLIN?
MeSH authority files cannot be searched via the Kinetica Web link to RLIN.

The Kinetica client

Will there be a way to clone records?
Yes, this is called the copy function in the Kinetica cataloguing client.

Inputting records: do you have to delete unused tags from the input record, or will unused fields simply drop from records on saving to the database? The cataloguer will need to delete unused fields from the record. This is similar to the ABN clone function. However, the cataloguer could use a brief record or template, and build up the fields as required.

Is there any possibility of going to RLIN directly when inputting a record?
If no suitable MARC record is found on the NBD, the cataloguer may search the RLIN database via Kinetica Web. Technically it will be possible to search the RLIN database without searching the NBD first, but this would not be an appropriate use of the RLIN gateway service. The workflow for using the RLIN gateway will be explained in more detail when it has been exercised in our test environment.

Will all templates, even local ones be stored on the server in Canberra? If so, how will libraries find their own?
Yes, all templates will be stored on the server in Canberra. The Expert Advisory Group on Cataloguing Workflows will be asked to develop guidelines for the use of templates for network-wide use. Each user may set a default template that comes up automatically when a new record is started. We expect that many users will find it more efficient to copy an existing record as the basis for making a new record.

What will be the gap between the close of ABN and the start of Kinetica?
Ideally we would like to have no down time between the close of ABN and the start of Kinetica. However, we will probably require up to two working days to complete the data migration from ABN to Kinetica. The ABN interlibrary loan system will continue to be available for at least one month after ABN closes, to enable the completion of the life cycle of ILL requests.

Will it be possible to copy a complete MARC record from an ILMS into Kinetica online?
MARC records from local systems will need to be reported to the NBD by batch load. Online uploading of MARC records would require both the local system and AMICUS to support the Z39.50 union cataloguing profile.

Authority control

Are the authority files searchable in Kinetica?
The authority files will be searchable using the Kinetica client. This is known as the SCAN function. Access via Kinetica Web to the Kinetica authority file will depend on the development Z39.50 Scan being enabled in AMICUS. This is expected during 1999.

Where does the creation of authority records occur?
Each access point is indexed when it is input into the bibliographic record. Authority records are created in the Kinetica client.

Can authority records be downloaded?
No, however we will continue to provide the Authority MARC Output Service.

Will it be possible to import from LC authority files either into Kinetica, or into one’s local system?
In the first instance, access to the LC authority files will be via RLIN. The cataloguer may copy and paste from the LC authority files into the MARC record. Libraries with Z39.50-compliant local systems will be able to have their own account with RLIN and import LC authority data into their local systems.

Is the entire USMARC authority format supported, in particular the 040 field and the 670 and 675 fields?
Yes, the USMARC authority format is supported. The 040 field is present, but it is not automatically populated with your library symbol. The 670 and 675 fields are indexed as notes.

Will the system require parts of headings to be established if they are required by LC practice and are not already established in Kinetica?
Examples of these are:
· the name part of a name-title heading
· the main part of a subject heading with a subdivision
· a heading given in a 5XX field in an authority record
· a place name used as a qualifier in a corporate or meeting name heading.

A new name/title heading will require the name and the title to be already present in the indexes, but this is not required for name/title authority records. A subject heading may be set up with subdivisions, without requiring the basic heading to be established. If the cataloguer enters a 5XX field in an authority record, Kinetica will prompt the cataloguer to set up the 5XX form as a heading, but not necessarily as an authority record. A place name need not be established as a heading in its own right before it is used as a qualifier in a corporate or meeting name heading.

Kinetica MARC records

It was mentioned that an 850 tag instead of the 984 would be used for holdings. Could you explain please?
The 850 field will be used within the Kinetica database to store library holdings. However, MARC records output from the Kinetica Downline Loading Service and MARC records in batch products will continue to have their holdings in field 984 so that libraries should experience no differences between ABN and Kinetica MARC records. Z39.50 users will receive MARC records without customisation.

What will be the control number in Kinetica authority MARC records?
The control number in Kinetica authority MARC records will be the AMICUS number. It will have 12 numeric characters, with leading zero fill.

Kinetica charges

How many free copies of the cataloguing client will we receive?
All libraries agreeing to catalogue online to Kinetica will be entitled to receive one free cataloguing client for every 300 cataloguing records they contribute each year. Libraries contributing less than 300 cataloguing records online per year will receive one free client.

What are the levels of rebate, and how will they be calculated?
Libraries that contribute data will be entitled to a discount on the core service charges of $0.85 per search transaction and/or $600.00 per concurrent session per month.

Full contributors will receive a discount of 30% on the core service charges. To be eligible for the discount, libraries will agree to contribute the following data online for their current intake within two weeks of an item’s arrival in the library:

Holdings: over 80%, and cataloguing records for over 80% of those items not found on the National Bibliographic Database.

Partial contributors will receive a discount of 15% on the core service charges. These libraries will agree to contribute holdings and/or cataloguing for 20%–80% of their intake, either online within two weeks of an item’s arrival in the library or offline to an agreed schedule.

Libraries will select their level of contribution in the new Kinetica User Agreement.

Will Kinetica charge for any transactions other than searching?
Only search transactions will be charged. All activity on the hit list retrieved by any search will be free of charge. This means you can look at individual records or groups of records, email records to any email address, save records to a local file, downline load MARC records, all as part of the cost of the initial search.

If you are looking at the transaction charge, then only the equivalent of the ABN find command will be charged. To make an estimate, you could consider the number of ABN inquiries which appears on your ABN statement. ABN inquiries also cover the term, select, and hold commands (amongst others), and the equivalent Kinetica transactions won’t be charged. For most customers the number of ‘finds’ is between 45–55% of the total number of inquiries.

Will there be a charge for searching LCSH on RLIN?
Access to RLIN is one of the Kinetica core services, so searching charges will be the same as for searching Kinetica. A Kinetica subscription allows you to search RLIN via Kinetica Web with no extra charge. If you have elected to pay on a per search basis, the charge for an RLIN search will be 85 cents per transaction.

Cataloguing agencies sometimes catalogue under their own signon, sometimes under the signons of their customers. How will they be charged?
When cataloguing agencies are operating as an agent of a library, they will be able to have a password attached to their customer’s Kinetica user account. So if the Kinetica customer is paying by subscription, then that will cover the cataloguing agency. In this case, the Kinetica customer library will have to ensure that their subscription covers enough concurrent sessions to include the cataloguing agency’s activity. If the Kinetica customer is paying by transaction, then the cataloguing agency’s use will be billed to the Kinetica customer. When the arrangement between a cataloguing agency and a Kinetica customer is set up this way, the Kinetica customer will receive the incentive rebate for contribution to Kinetica. We will provide activity reports at the sub-account level, so that cataloguing agencies and libraries will be able to monitor their activity.

When cataloguing agencies operate on their own accounts, they may elect either concurrent session subscriptions or transaction payments. If they plan to develop a private database as a source of MARC records for on selling to their customers, then they will need to negotiate a commercial agreement with Kinetica.

Will customers have to pay $1000 per vendor for batch loading registration?
No, the registration charge for the BATCH*Link service is a once only charge for each organisation.

Can we keep ILL/document delivery charges separate from cataloguing?
Yes, Kinetica will provide separate sub-accounts that can provide management reports for different activities to assist you in managing your budget. In Kinetica you won’t need to have separate customer numbers to manage the activities of separate areas.

Kinetica Document Delivery

Will there be a transaction charge for searching the Kinetica database via the Document Delivery Service?Will there be a transaction charge for searching the Kinetica database via the Document Delivery Service?
The charges for searching the Kinetica database via the Kinetica Document Delivery Service are the same as searching via Kinetica Web or the Kinetica client. Customers who have a Kinetica subscription may use this for searching. Alternatively, you may pay per search at a cost of $0.85 each.

If a library user sends us a document delivery request via email, will it be possible to cut and paste data from an email into a Kinetica Document Delivery Service request?
Yes, it is possible to cut and paste from an email into the Kinetica Document Delivery System. Library staff or users will also be able to initiate ILL requests in Kinetica Web and these requests will then be sent to the Kinetica Document Delivery Service for further processing by ILL staff.

Will it be possible to change the filing element in ILL reports supplied from the Document Delivery Service? In reports supplied from ABN, transactions are sorted by NUC symbol.
The Kinetica Document Delivery System will provide a range of standard report formats that should meet the needs of most libraries. We will consider carefully the choice of filing elements when we are designing these reports.

The full list of questions and answers may be found at http://www.nla.gov.au/kinetica/questions.html

Annual Users Meeting

The Kinetica Annual Users Meeting is only five months away.

This year it will be held at the Wesley Conference Centre, Sydney on Monday and Tuesday 19–20 July, with a cocktail reception on the first evening.

NLA at work
NLA restructure

The National Library has undergone a restructure into these six divisions.

Division 1: Collections Management

Including Technical Services, Preservation Services and Asian Collections, Division 1 is largely responsible for building the collection and maintaining it. Collection development, acquisitions, cataloguing and indexing activities fall within Division 1 as do a number of preservation activities including the maintenance of the PADI Web site. Jasmine Cameron is currently the division head on an acting basis until the job is filled permanently.

Division 2: Australian Collections and Reader Services

This division includes Information Services, the Australiana Collections (Pictorial, Manuscripts, Maps and Oral History) and Stack Services. Division 2 activities concentrate on collection use and the provision of services to users. Pam Gatenby is the division head.

Division 3: Kinetica

Division 3 contains the Kinetica and National Chinese, Japanese and Korean Services and the Library’s Document Supply Service. Andrew Wells is the division head on an acting basis pending this position being filled permanently.

Division 4: Information Technology

This division includes the National Library’s Information Technology Services, its Web Server team and the Digital Services Project. Warwick Cathro is the division head.

Division 5: Public Programs

Division 5 encompasses the Library’s exhibitions, publishing outreach and marketing activities. Paul Hetherington is the acting division head pending the permanent filling of the position.

Division 6: Corporate Services

The Corporate Services Division has responsibility for financial and human resources management, building services and records management. David Toll heads Division 6.

Announcing the restructure, the Director-General, Warren Horton said, ‘The present four program structure has been in place for some years. There have been significant changes in our strategic priorities, resources, technology and our relationships to other libraries and cultural institutions in that time…

the main reason for considering change is to maximise our opportunities to be effective in meeting the exciting challenges and opportunities ahead.’

25 Years of Cataloguing-in-Publication

A full scale Cataloguing-in-Publication (CiP) program began in early 1974, following a pilot project conducted by the National Library with Butterworth (Australia) during 1973. CiP aims at getting cataloguing data to the user market in a convenient form, by printing an entry in the book. Additionally, from the introduction of the program until 1996, this advance data was also used to provide a listing in the Australian National Bibliography (ANB). It is now included in monthly FTP files entitled Recent Australian Publications. A MARC record was initially available through the Australian MARC Record Service, and now through the National Bibliographic Database.

Australia was the fourth country to launch a CiP program—after the U.S.A., U.S.S.R. and Brazil; the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany were at the planning stages.

Initially 40 publishers participated in the Australian program and by the next year, this number had increased to 96. The first year of operation saw CiP entries provided for 1224 titles. In 1997–98, 5705 entries were provided to over 500 publishers (large and small).

An important part of this cooperation has been the developing relationship between publishers and the National Library—our advance listing of forthcoming publications is seen as an advantage to publishers, while the library community is provided with early notice of new publications for selection and ordering. CiP entries also provide cataloguing data, either in machine-readable form via ABN, or from the printed record in the book.

To assist publishers, the Library gives an undertaking that CiP requests will be responded to in a timely manner, so that tight publishing schedules can be met. It is therefore interesting to note the impact technological changes have made on streamlining the Library’s operations and on providing prompt cataloguing information to publishers.

When the program commenced, cataloguing information was manually typed up at least twice—first a catalogue entry as it was to appear in the book was typed onto a card and sent to the publisher together with a letter. Then a MARC record was also typed from a work sheet. This, along with other entries for the Australian National Bibliography, was batch loaded into the ANB production system. Even with the advent of ABN, this procedure continued for some years, as the national bibliography was still produced from a separate system.

The introduction of a new production system for ANB, in which records were directly input to ABN, enabled the Library to greatly improve efficiency in providing cataloguing information to publishers. However, because ABN is also a batch update system, having to wait overnight for the final formatted record to become available still imposed an unwanted time delay.

The ideal was to be able to produce a catalogue entry from the MARC record while it was still in the ABN working file. This would eliminate both retyping the entry and a critical time delay. To this end, an in-house system was developed which, once a MARC record is copied, converts the data to the required CiP format. This can then be copied again into the letter to be sent to the publisher.

[Jovanovic]Additionally, facilities for communication between publishers and the Library have greatly improved. While once the Library was dependent on sending letters by priority mail to ensure speedy delivery, the fax machine has almost entirely replaced communication by mail, and the introduction of faxing from PCs for CiP has greatly enhanced our operations. Requests can also be submitted through the Internet from the Library’s home page.

A further development has been the establishment of a database to manage CiP correspondence. This database contains publishers’ addresses and individual editor names, which eliminates the need for each cataloguer to store this information in their personal glossary. A pro-forma letter can now be automatically produced, into which both publisher details and the catalogue entry is imported. The letter is then faxed through the PC. No waiting for ABN to be updated; the data only input once; no queuing to use the fax machine and, more importantly, no delays in mail delivery!

Photo: Elizabeth Jovanovic, senior librarian Cataloguing-in-Publication, with a publisher’s request

Readers give NLA a vote of approval

[RR staff]Friendly staff members from the Main Reading Room, the Petherick Reading Room, the Map, Pictorial, Asian Collections, Manuscripts, Oral History and the Newspaper/Microform reading rooms line up behind the Main Reading Room issuing desk

In late 1998, the Library commissioned a major survey of reader satisfaction with the reference services it offers. At the same time, Professor Mairéad Browne chaired a committee conducting a strategic review of the Library’s reference services.

Piazza Consulting carried out the survey during October 1998. Self-completion survey forms were returned by a random sample of clients using the reading rooms, and from those who wrote in to the letter reference service during the survey period. The findings were supplemented with data from focus groups and from interviews with telephone customers.

The survey findings, some of which follow, indicated that the Library’s readers are experienced library users who have a high level of satisfaction with the staff and services available to them through the NLA.

Seventy-nine per cent of readers reported that they have post-secondary educational qualifications, 97% have used other libraries within the last 12 months and 25% are conducting research for publication.

Eighty-six per cent of users indicated that they found the catalogue easy or very easy to use and 90% were satisfied or highly satisfied with the availability of information in their subject area.

Services used :

A problem identified was that 57% of respondents indicated that they needed to know more about the range of reference services available at the National Library. Pam Gatenby, Assistant Director-General, Australian Collections and Reader Services said ‘This highlights the need for more effective promotion of services to users, especially as the issue was re-enforced by participants in the focus groups. We will be doing more work on this during 1999’.

Supplying books

When asked about time taken to deliver materials from the stacks to the reader

When queried about particular aspects of staff performance

Readers in the Library’s special reading rooms were particularly positive in their responses to the level of service offered.

The Library was also interested in clients’ views on other information technology or reference services which they felt that the Library should offer in the future. The most popular responses to this question were: improved Internet access, increased newspaper holdings, word processing facilities, improved catalogue and a ground floor coffee shop.

For further information contact Pam Gatenby, tel. 02 6262 1301 or email pgatenby@nla.gov.au

Preservation of Donald Friend’s diaries

The Donald Friend diaries (44 volumes) date from 1930 to 1988, with some gaps. The last diary entries were written when Friend was close to death. All the diaries are holograph in ink or ballpoint or both, with some watercolour illustrations. Small portions of the wartime diaries are in lead pencil. There are many adhered and loose insertions, including letters, photographs, press clippings and exhibition catalogues. The diaries range from small exercise books with a few sketches to handsome, leatherbound volumes with elaborate artwork.

The diaries are amongst the Library’s ‘treasures’ and, whilst generally in good condition, there was an initial problem with deteriorating adhesive tape on some of the insertions, which left a sticky adhesive mess and stained the paper. The diaries have now been stabilised, with the removal of all adhesive tape and residue and as much staining as possible. All insertions have also been appropriately tipped in for increased security, minor paper repairs have been made, and pages with offsetting or contamination problems have been interleaved with buffered tissue. All the diaries are housed in tailor-made clamshell boxes as a preventive measure against further physical and environmental deterioration.

It is also planned to colour microfilm the diaries for preservation and access. This will be undertaken in early 1999. Filming will be undertaken in Sydney using Cibachrome colour microfilm, which is also suitable for publication. A microfilm master, a printing master and a working copy will be produced, with the microfilm and printing masters housed in the Library’s climate-controlled cold store.

Preservation of hand-illustrated library materials requires a composite approach of hands-on conservation treatment and preventative measures for the future. These measures include preservation housing and reformatting for access, to limit wear and tear on the original material. An added bonus is that the colour microfilm is also suitable for publication, which will provide even wider public access.

Commonwealth government deposit material comes to the National Library

For many years the Australian Government Publishing Service maintained a deposit collection of Commonwealth government publications. This collection was passed to the successor body of AGPS, AusInfo, when it was established in February 1998. Both AGPS and AusInfo staff have used the collection for researching copyright queries related to Commonwealth government material.

Space constraints and the difficulty of taking the collection to new premises prompted discussions with the National Library on using the Library's considerable holdings of Commonwealth government publications instead of maintaining a separate collection. The Library was receptive to the idea, and AusInfo invited the National Library to take material from its 60 000 strong collection to supplement the national collection.

Time was short, so catalogue records from AusInfo were matched against the Library's computer-based catalogue to determine whether they were held by the Library, not held by the Library, or held by the Library but in one copy only. In the latter case, the Library was keen to obtain an extra copy so that a lending copy might be made available. In all 7000 titles were selected, with an under-standing that cooperation would continue, to ensure that the national collection's holdings of Commonwealth government material are as comprehensive as possible.

NLA regional officer visits Surabaya and Bandung

Oliver Mann, the National Library’s regional officer based in Jakarta, made a field trip to Surabaya (the provincial capital of East Java) and Bandung (the provincial capital of West Java) during the last week of November, 1998. Surabaya, a large port which played a major role in the Indonesian Revolution, was selected because it is the second largest city in Indonesia and had not been visited by a representative from the Library for 10 years; Bandung because it is a centre of learning and publishing.

Apart from representing the Library, Oliver also wanted to see first-hand how the provincial publishing industry was coping under the strain of the economic crisis in Indonesia.

Representational visits were made to the provincial branches of the National Library of Indonesia in both cities, acquiring their respective annual bibliographies for the provinces of East and West Java. These visits afford a valuable opportunity for the National Library to continue building links with its Indonesian counterpart at the local level.

The provincial library in Surabaya has an unusual display in its forecourt—the wreck of a mobile library van that was in a serious accident some years ago, displayed at the top of a four-metre pole. The Chief Librarian explained that the provincial library has 23 mobile libraries for outreach purposes, and their drivers are required to assemble at this monument each year to be reminded of the consequences of reckless driving!

In Surabaya, Oliver visited the Airlangga University Press, and in Bandung the Press of the Institute of Technology. Both institutions are feeling the impact of the economic crisis, and are particularly hampered by the high cost of paper, but they continue to prepare and store publications on disc, waiting for the situation to improve.

Oliver went to the main bookshops in both cities and acquired a range of commercial titles not available in Jakarta, for the Library and the participants in the Indonesian Acquisitions Program. In their entirety, these publications will constitute a landmark research tool for the current phase in Indonesia’s political evolution. In Bandung, Oliver also visited Akatiga, a non-government organisation dedicated to researching social conditions in Indonesia. While there he purchased a number of recent titles in that subject area.

Visits were made to the museums in both cities as provincial museums in Indonesia are usually a good source of government cultural publications. Of particular interest on this field trip was the Museum Prabu Geusan Ulun in the small town of Sumedang, an hour from Bandung. It is one of the finest museums in Java, housed in the former residence of Sumedang’s bupati (regent). Although there was no publication officially for sale, Oliver was able to acquire a useful monograph on the museum and the Sumedang area.

The final visit in Bandung was a representational call to the library of Prof. Dr. Doddy A. Tisna Amidjaja, which focuses on research into the Sundanese culture of West Java. It is a well-formed and organised private library with an active clientele. Oliver was presented with a bibliography of the library’s holdings.

Indonesian newspapers

The Library’s regional office in Jakarta has completed the consultation process that followed its review of the range of Indonesian newspapers acquired for the National Library as part of its Indonesian Acquisitions Program.

The regional office is now implementing the recommendations of the review and will rationalise to 27 the number of daily newspaper titles acquired from across the archipelago. The Library will continue to acquire the main Jakarta newspapers in hardcopy and microfilm, and key provincial city newspapers on microfilm only.

Enquiries regarding the Library’s Indonesian newspapers and collections can be directed to Tieke Atikah (tatikah@nla.gov.au), tel. 02 6262 1647, fax 02 6273 4327.

Oliver Mann can be contacted at oliver.mann@dfat.gov.au, fax +62 21 522 7229.

Erratum

An incorrect URL was published in the print (not the online) version of NLA Gateways no. 36, December 1998. It relates to the article on page 15 about the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. The correct address of the online schema for part one of AACR is http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/aacrdel.htm

Digitising rare maps: the results

The National Library’s rare map trial digitisation project, described in Gatewaysno. 35, was completed in November 1998 with the following results recorded for the various specified tasks:

Determine the most effective means of creating high-quality digital scans of rare maps
Results of scans from transparencies and the direct electronic image clearly indicated a more effective result for the latter. A crisper image, unaffected by the size of the original map, was achieved, although with very large items several non-overlapping images were required (up to four sections), to ensure that legibility was maintained.

Of the two electronic scanning cameras used during the trial, the camera with a higher resolution level provided the most satisfactory result. Used with an appropriate resolution level (300 dpi) and supporting imaging software to give the computer the capacity to maintain colour quality and speed of image management, this camera performed well.

Determine appropriate resolution levels for satisfactory viewing
From the results obtained, it would appear that a resolution level of 300 dpi or above is required to provide the most effective image for viewing. Lower resolution levels are not satisfactory. Increasing the resolution levels on the transparency scans did not improve the quality of the image, inferring that transparency scans of graphic images do not produce a suitable result.

Link digital scans to bibliographic records and mount a test run on the Internet
Initial problems involving the compatibility of the Mr SID server software and the Library’s AIX/UNIX platform were resolved, but not in time to allow the running of test images over the Internet and links to bibliographic records. It is now felt that this is possible and no further testing is required, particularly as internal test links were conducted successfully.

Approval is now being sought to conduct a pilot project which will confirm the need for the 300 dpi resolution level, finalise technical requirements and mount a demonstration set of 25 maps on the Web for public comment. Costings and procedures for the full scale project also need to be determined.

The National Library’s Map Curator, Maura O’Connor, will provide further details. She can be contacted by email at moconnor@nla.gov.au.

Readers guides updated

The National Library has recently updated several brochures in its Guides to the Collections series: Treaties and International Agreements (no. 15), British Parliamentary Publications and Information (no. 6) and Australian Censuses, Musters and Population Counts (no. 7).

These guides cover not only what is held by the Library, but now have relevant links to Web sites, especially to assist users outside the National Library’s building.

These guides are available in paper format and are available on the web from the Guides to the Collections page at http://www.nla.gov.au/guides/. There are more than 30 titles in this series.

For further information contact Rod Stroud on (02) 6262 1602 or email: rstroud@nla.gov.au

National Library of Australia Copyright Guidelines

Due to unprecedented demand, the National Library of Australia has reprinted the Copyright Guidelines. Here is an invaluable tool for librarians and library users which outlines the National Library of Australia’s own approach to the often difficult issue of copyright law. These guidelines, based on expert legal advice:

  • present the National Librarys policy on copyright issues
  • give an overview of the Copyright Act 1968
  • explain the significance of parts of the Act relating to libraries
  • contain useful tables summarising what users can and cannot reproduce under the Act
  • set out the obligations and rights of the National Library
  • as a user and owner of copyright materials
  • outline procedures for use in applying the National Library's copyright policy.

ISBN 0 642 26852 5; pb; price: $15.00. Email: nlasales@nla.gov.au

The collections
Recent rare map acquisitions

The last couple of years have seen a resurgence in the rare map market around the world, with a number of significant and unusual items becoming available. Australian dealers have been active and the library has been successful in acquiring a number of interesting and significant items for its collections.

Three items of particular interest were purchased recently:

PETRINI, Paolo. L’America dedicata al illustris’mo…. Naples : Stamperia di San Biagio, c. 1700 (bottom left)

South-west sheet from the four-sheet wall map, showing Tasman’s interpretation of the New Zealand coast. There is a title cartouche with extensive panel illustrations on the left and lower side of the map.

Paolo Petrini was a Neapolitan mapmaker who reached his peak at the beginning of the eighteenth century. While he produced a number of small, atlas-sized maps of the world, his most notable achievements were his highly decorative wall maps of the world and the four continents known at the time. The maps are rare and not well represented in major collections around the world.

EVANGELISCHE MISSION. Welt-Karte der Mission. Basle, c. 1850

An unusual and decorative double-hemisphere world map with representations of the continents in the four corners. The map shows the spread of Christian missionary work around the world. Unshaded areas represent Christian civilisation, light shading indicates Islamic regions and heavy shading, applied to Australia among other places, identifies heathen areas. Sailing routes, taken by missionaries are also shown.

THE DAILY MAIL. Bird’s-eye view map of the Front, sections 1 & 2. (bottom right). The map has a scale one inch to one mile.

These are two colourful, wall-map sized ‘bird-eye view’ maps of the British Front during World War 1 in Europe, from Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium, south to Albert in France. Undated, the maps were issued to assist the Daily Mail’s readers in following the path of the conflict as it moved across Europe.

The maps will enhance the Library’s already significant collection of material relating to the Great War.

[Petrini] [Wipers]

The Menzies’ Christmas cards

The annual exchange of Christmas cards is an important way of maintaining often-distant family ties, friendships and connections.

[Royal Family, 1939]In 1939 when Sir Robert Menzies became Prime Minister, an exchange of Christmas cards with members of the British royal family began. What started as a formality grew to express more than courtesy over the years. It is particularly interesting to note the varying photographic presentations of the royal group during the 1960s and the early 1970s.

From the same period, Christmas cards were sent to the Menzies by each of Britain’s Prime ministers, from Sir Winston Churchill to John Major. Cards from other prime ministers and heads of state from around the world document Robert Menzies’ national and international personal contacts.

Dame Pattie treasured these cards—sent to her and her husband between 1939 and 1977 and to Dame Pattie from 1978 to 1994—for the memories they contained. Her daughter, Heather (Mrs Peter Henderson), donated the collect-ion to the National Library, hoping to preserve both the memories and the historical significance of the cards.

Now as part of the extensive papers of Sir Robert Menzies held in the Manuscript Collection, these cards provide an interesting insight into a more personal aspect of international relations and diplomacy. A selection of the cards was mounted in the Visitor Centre over the summer holiday period.

The Windsors’ Christmas card, 1939

Collecting agreement for Chinese statistical publications

The National Library and the Australian National University Library have been developing research collections on Asia since the 1950s. Between them they account for more than two-thirds of total Asian language holdings in Australian libraries. The two organisations have been cooperating for many years to avoid duplication of Asian resources and as part of that cooperat-ion they regularly consult on major purchases of Asia-related materials.

An agreement on Japanese language materials has operated effectively since the mid-1950s; more recently, a Korean collecting and access agreement was completed in August 1996; and now the two libraries have signed a collecting agreement for an increasingly significant area of Chinese publishing. This agreement covers statistical yearbooks for three levels of administration in the People’s Republic of China: provinces, provincial level cities (such as Beijing and Shanghai) and provincial capital cities. Subject to availability, the two libraries intend that between them they will collect exhaustively in these categories.

The collecting responsibility has been divided geographically, as indicated on the attached map. The university will collect from northern and western China, while the National Library will acquire provincial statistical yearbooks from central and southern provinces. The division broadly follows the Yangtze River.

Under the agreement, each library will create or amend records of its statistical yearbook holdings for the National Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) Service, and will provide access to the materials.

The full text of the agreement is to be found on the Library’s server at http://www.nla.gov.au/niac/libs/chinaanunla.html

Telling the stories to the nation: the ‘Bringing Them Home’ Oral History Pilot Project

In December 1997 the Federal Government announced its formal response to a report, Bringing Them Home, that was the end product of an inquiry into the past practice of forcibly separating Aboriginal children from their families. As part of a $63 million package of initiatives, the National Library received $1.6 million for an oral history project, of which $0.2 million is tagged for a feasibility or ‘pilot’ study. Dr. Gwenda Davey is the manager of the pilot project and she reports here on the administrative measures which underpin it.

The Advisory Committee for this project had its first meeting on Tuesday 1 December at the National Library. It was a meeting characterised by a spirit of goodwill and cooperation, with all members willing to assist the Government’s request for a rounded project. A number of discussion papers were put to the committee targeting matters such as the nature of the advisory group, the draft plan, the timeline and budget, and the project’s draft objectives and principles. A larger issues and options paper was also distributed in advance of the meeting, and raised questions concerning the budget, the partnerships between the National Library and other relevant organisations, interviewees and interviewers, counselling, access, photography, copyright, training and evaluation.

This issues paper was the major focus of the Advisory Committee meeting, and crucial matters such as ‘who shall be interviewed?’ were considered at length. In the case of Indigenous interviewees it was agreed that location was a less important criterion than type of experience, and that interviews should attempt to cover the wide range of experiences undergone by separated persons.

Nevertheless place was considered carefully, and it was decided that for the pilot project, Indigenous interviewees should be sought from the extreme east and west of the continent, in New South Wales and Western Australia. It is likely that most NSW interviewees will be clients of NSW Link-Up, which has agreed to provide any counselling and other support needed. NSW Link-Up’s clients are located all through the State.

[OHP Adv Cttee]A decision has been taken not to restrict interviews with administrators such as public servants, missionaries, police and health workers to the west and the east, as we are particularly keen to document a wide range of experiences. At present there are eight people falling into this category; two from Victoria, three from the Northern Territory and one each from South Australia, the ACT and NSW. It is expected that some will be added from Western Australia, the aim being to document as many perspectives as possible within the limits of the pilot.

It was decided that the ‘Bringing Them Home’ Oral History Pilot Project would work with a small panel of experienced interviewers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Interviewees will be given a choice of interviewer, whether Indigenous, non-Indigenous, male or female, and will be invited to bring a support person with them for the interview if they wish. Additional training will be provided for interviewers by the National Library with assistance from Advisory Committee members, and will deal with practical, theoretical, technical and cultural matters.

Considerable time was spent at the first Advisory Committee meeting discussing possible content of interviews, particularly for administrators. It was agreed that, at the second meeting of the Advisory Committee on 19 February, the project manager would report to committee members on legal advice, training and interview content, at which time evaluation would also be discussed. It is planned that all interviews will be completed by the end of March 1999, with a third and final meeting of the advisory group planned for 31 May. The final report on the pilot project and the feasibility of the larger, four-year project will be presented to the Government on 30 June 1999.

Photo: Advisory Committee members, left to right. Mark Cranfield, Oral History Section, NLA; Rev Bernie Clarke, Adelaide SA, Uniting Church in Australia; Mr Barry Duroux Link-Up NSW; Ms Rosie Baird, Darwin NT, National Secretariat for Aboriginal and Islander Child Care; Ms Pam Gatenby, Assistant Director-General, Australian Collections and Reader Services, National Library; Ms Carol Kendall, Chairperson, formerly Link-Up NSW; Dr Gwenda Davey, Project Manager, Bringing Them Home Oral History Pilot Project, NLA;.Ms Jackie Huggins, Brisbane Qld, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation; Dr Peter Read, Australian National University, Canberra ACT; Mr Russell Taylor, Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra ACT; Mr Philip Jackson, NLA (minutes)

U Thaw Kaung: 1999 Harold White Fellow

[Luces]The announcement of the award of five Harold White Fellowships for 1999 appeared in the December 1998 issue of Gateways. A sixth Fellowship was awarded but, due to ongoing diplomatic negotiations, it could not be announced until now.

The distinguished Burmese librarian U Thaw Kaung has accepted the offer of a Fellowship and will spend a few months in the Library compiling a guide to the manuscripts and papers of GH Luce. U Thaw Kaung was originally on the staff of the University of Rangoon Library and from 1969 to 1997 was chief librarian of the Universities Central Library. He was also head of the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rangoon, secretary of the Myanmar Language Commission and a member of the Myanmar History Commission. He has been a visiting librarian at the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore and the British Library.

The Luce Collection, comprising over 2000 books and 46 boxes of papers and manuscripts, was purchased by the Library in 1980. Luce was an English academic who lived in Rangoon from 1912 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1963. He wrote extensively on Burmese language, literature and art and antiquities and assembled a rich collection of materials in this subject field. It includes manuscripts, word lists, dialect charts, notebooks, articles and reprints, as well as correspond-ence with other scholars and friends. There is a rudimentary listing, but it requires a Burmese scholar to identify, describe and publicise the sources used by Luce and the associated research material within his collection.

Photo: Gordon Hannington Luce (1889–1979) with his wife, Daw Tee Tee Luce, in the 1960s

That painting arrives in the National Library

[Burke & Wills]

Henricus Leonardus van den Houten (1801–79)
The Exploring Party Coming upon an Encampment of Natives 1861?
Oil on canvas
Pictorial Collection, National Library of Australia

As reported in the December issue of Gateways, this historical painting was acquired by the National Library in Melbourne in November 1998. It depicts an imaginary encounter with a group of Aborigines on the ill-fated Burke and Wills’ expedition of 1860–61. One of the great epic adventures in Australian history, the expedition was an attempt to make the first crossing of Australia from south to north. The leaders of the expedition can be identified as: George Landells—the second in command—on the foremost camel and, next to him, John Wills, who died on the journey and whose final diary is held by the National Library. Robert Burke, who also died, rides on a grey horse. One of several contemporary views of the Burke and Wills expedition, this painting is infused with the promise of national glory and legend that neither Burke nor Wills lived to enjoy. It is likely that the painting was completed by 1861, before the tragic outcome of the expedition was known.

Van den Houten’s work complements the manuscripts, maps and numerous other pictorial items relating to Burke and Wills’ ill-fated expedition already held by the National Library.

NLA out and about
Information preservation manager reports on visits to the UK and Japan

In 1998, Colin Webb, manager of the National Library’s Information Preservation Section, represented the National Library at two important overseas conferences on digital imaging and the preservation of digital information. His report follows.

In September I was a member of an international reaction panel at the end of a three day conference at the University of Warwick in the UK. The conference, jointly organised by the Research Libraries Group (RLG)—of which NLA is a member—and the UK National Preservation Office, brought together experts, principally from the UK and North America, to discuss preservation guidelines for the digital imaging of documentary heritage materials.

This conference grew out of a belief that digital imaging offers significant preservation benefits that can be achieved by developing authoritative standard procedures. In the 1980s and 1990s a number of standards, manuals and guidelines on preservation microfilming appeared (including Guidelines for Preservation Microfilming in Australia and New Zealand, published by NLA in 1998). These have had a very positive impact on industry practices, helping libraries to exploit the preservation potential of microfilm.

Since the early 1990s libraries and other organisations have experimented with digital imaging, looking for similar preservation benefits. The conference organisers felt it was time to bring the learning from these projects together to find out if some definitive guidelines could be agreed on. Many leaders involved in ground-breaking digitisation projects were there, including Anne Kenney of Cornell University (who recently presented a series of digitisation workshops in Australia), Stephen Chapman of Harvard, John McIntyre of the National Library of Scotland, and Karen Turko of Canada’s largest library, located in the University of Toronto. Australian experience in the Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project 1840–1845 was also considered an important contribution.

It became clear as early as Anne Kenney’s keynote address that developing definitive guidelines for digital imaging would be a much more complex exercise than for microfilming. As the 96 participants worked their way through the conference agenda looking for areas of agreement and gaps still needing to be filled, the gaps seemed to grow while the apparent areas of agreement shrank. This had much to do with the fact that digital imaging is such a powerful access tool that most projects do not have a primary preservation focus. Recognising this, much of the conference discussion came down to a question of the preservation benefits of digital imaging, while a major underlying concern was how best to minimise the preservation threats involved.

The variables in each project are so diverse that it may be impossible to provide definitive guidelines. Realistic guidance, empowering project managers to think through the decisions they should be making, seemed a much more useful approach, although even that will be hard to provide. The conference concluded that there needs to be preservation involvement in all projects, to allow participation in the situation-specific decisions that need to be made.

The Warwick conference was very much a working event with a tightly focussed program, a lot of preparatory work by small working parties, group discussions, and a commitment to follow-up work. Participants worked through sessions on the selection of material for digitisation, preparation of originals, image capture, metadata (with well-known metadata expert Michael Day of the UK Office of Library Networking), and digital archiving (with prominent US archiving and information academic Margaret Hedstrom).

One impression confirmed by the conference was that digitisation can have a significant preservation value, but only if someone puts in the work to give it that value. Of itself it has little preservation benefit, especially when one considers that most projects create a new preservation problem by creating digital files that have to be managed, protected, maintained and preserved. This is also true of microfilm—a fact often forgotten—but it certainly appears to be more difficult and expensive to achieve with digital imaging.

The work required to achieve a preservation benefit is identified in all of the areas discussed at the conference—good project design, including clearly articulated, understood and agreed objectives; wise selection of material; well-specified and vigilant preparation of originals; image capture that minimises the threat to the originals while creating images worthy of access and preservation; delivery mechanisms that remove some of the pressure of use from the originals; attention to file formats, metadata, and database design to minimise the difficulties associated with maintaining long-term accessibility; and all the commitments and actions—as yet unclear—that will be needed to preserve accessibility.

On the other hand, to say that an imaging project is purely for access with no preservation implications is a nonsense, because access will not be maintained unless preservation action is taken with the digital files. To achieve this we need to put in place a framework for managing digital files—without that we are spending money for the moment, not for the future. In this context I was able to report on the development of the NLA’s infrastructure through its PANDORA and Digital Services Projects, as well as the Library’s initiatives in setting a digital preservation research agenda and in establishing an international consultation group on digital archiving issues. The Library has considered these a higher priority than producing digital content.

The conference papers and reports are being mounted on the RLG Web site at: http://www.rlg.org/preserv/joint, and will be mirrored on the NLA’s PADI Web site, a subject gateway devoted to the preservation of digital information http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/.

Following the conference I visited a number of contacts in England who are working on digital and non-digital preservation projects. These included digitisation projects such as the Internet Library of Early Journals (at Oxford and Leeds); digital archiving programs at the British Library, the Arts and Humanities Data Service, the Oxford Text Archive and the Archaeology Data Service in York; digital library research programs at the British Library and at DeMontfort University; and cooperative preservation programs such as NEWSPLAN, and those at the National Preservation Office and the University of Loughborough.

[Webb]

Photo: Colin Webb presents the keynote address at a symposium in Tokyo entitled ‘Preservation of Electronic Information: What Should We Be Thinking about Now?’

In November I was invited to present the keynote address on behalf of the National Library of Australia at a preservation symposium in Tokyo. The symposium, entitled Preservation of Electronic Information: What Should We Be Thinking about Now?’ was organised by the IFLA Preservation and Conservation Program Regional Centre at the National Diet Library of Japan. An audience of around 135 delegates heard seven speakers discuss electronic library developments and the preservation of digital information.

Other speakers came from the faculties of library science and information technology at three Japanese universities, from a major Japanese publishing house, and from the National Diet Library.

In my presentation, I discussed the ways digital archiving and preservation are developing in Australia and elsewhere in the Western world. Progress had been made from a general sense of difficulties to a much sharper and more positive, action-oriented focus on specific problems. In describing what this has meant in Australia, I expanded on some of the themes from my presentation at the Warwick conference in September, emphasising integration of digital and non-digital information resources, infrastructure building, information sharing, and preservation research.

I also expressed the view that many digital management issues have been ‘solved’, at least conceptually, and that some years of experience back up the central role of deposit libraries in managing digital information. The ‘solutions’ need more work to make them widely-used, cost-effective realities, but the opportunity exists for libraries to build on the conceptual framework that is being put into place.

On the other hand, the problems yet to be solved are likely to be genuine preservation ones: how to ensure access can be provided across generations of software dependencies?

Other speakers at the symposium surveyed the experience in Japan, which to date has mainly focused on digital imaging programs. However, the National Diet Library set up a committee in May 1998 to look at preservation of digital publications. The committee set priorities for consideration, looking first at the questions of what should be preserved and at what level, at what is workable today, and at mechanisms for managing copyright and for exploring migration and metadata needs. Longer term, the Diet Library will seek to promote research and development projects, develop policy and preservation strategies, and establish cooperative arrangements with other partners. The Kansai-kan, a major new library being developed by the Diet Library and due to open in 2002, will be a focus for electronic library functions.

I also presented a paper to National Diet Library staff on the subject of the challenges ahead for preservation management in Australia, in which I describe the NLA’s preservation programs and the issues likely to be a priority over the next few years. Many of these are management issues, rather than technical ones, as preservation departments need to ramp up their ability to deal with deteriorating collections across an increasingly diverse range of formats, while playing an increasingly integrated role in the management of their institutions.

The trip to Japan also included visits to the Preservation and Rare Books and Old Materials departments of the National Diet Library, discussions regarding the Kansai-kan project and digitisation at the NDL, and a visit to the University of Kyoto to discuss its digital library program.

ANZLIC Metadata Working Group Annual Meeting 1998

The annual meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Land Information Council Metadata Working Group was held in conjunction with the Australasian Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (AURISA) 98 Conference, at the Burswood Convention Centre, Perth on the 23 November 1998. Map librarian Maura O’Connor represented the National Library.

This year the meeting took the form of a workshop and was concerned with issues relating to the implementation of the Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD) launched in Canberra the previous week.

Each State, Territory, and Commonwealth Government jurisdiction representative, along with those from industry, presented a roundup of their area. Issues covered included : the composition of a dataset and the need for resolution of metadata detail. Doug Nebert, Manager, USA Federal Geographic Data Center (FGDC) Clearinghouse, gave a summary of international developments including the various consortia and standards involved in metadata activities overseas.

An ISO standard for spatial data metadata is currently being developed and will become the international standard with others, such as the ANZLIC standard, being incorporated in it. It is expected to be available in August 1999. XML is emerging as the language standard for encoding and marking up metadata entries.

David Crossley, representing industry interests, and Tony Boston from the Earth Resources Information Network (ERIN), reported on the ASDD implementation kit currently being developed. A consultancy has been established to develop this ASDD implementation kit and review the search interface.

Following further discussion on issues such as linking jurisdictional and thematic directories, registration of ASDD nodes and the review of ANZLIC guidelines, an open forum followed. Among the issues identified were:

RLG’s Digital Imaging Workshop, Canberra, 2–4 December 1998

‘Managing Digital Imaging Projects: An RLG Workshop’ was presented in Canberra from the 2nd to the 4th of December 1998. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the Research Libraries Group (RLG), AIMA and the National Library of Australia.

Jan Fullerton, Deputy Director General (acting), National Library of Australia, introduced the workshop and the two key presenters, Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger (both from Cornell University).

There were 36 attendees from libraries, archives, museums and universities, and while most were from Canberra or New South Wales, some were from as far afield as Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania and New Zealand.

Presentations on day one of the workshop focussed on digitisation processes and the presentation of digital images. A session entitled Review of Digital Imaging Vocabulary introduced participants to much of the terminology used in the digitisation process, ranging from scanning devices and bit-depth to file formats, compression, dithering and colour spaces. Determining Conversion and Presentation Requirements looked at the issues to be considered when selecting material for digitisation and the techniques that might be appropriate for different types of material. The selection and application of metadata for digital images and the process of selecting or developing an appropriate image database were discussed in Metadata and Image Databases.

On day two, the advantages and disadvantages of contracting out digitisation projects (including the development of requests for quotes and contracts) versus in-house scanning were covered in a presentation on Outsourcing vs. In-House Scanning, and RFP Development. Quality control and standards and the handling of these requirements in an outsourced project were discussed briefly in a presentation on post processing; while the broader aspects of managing digital imaging projects were also covered in the presentation on project management.

On day three, Robin Dale from RLG, gave an overview of some RLG digital activities in her presentation, RLG’s Digital Preservation Initiatives. This included a summary of the results of RLG’s survey on Digital Preservation Needs and Requirements in RLG Member Institutions. (A summary of the results of this survey has been published in the 15 December issue of RLG DigiNews at: http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews2-6.html).

[RLG visitors]During the first two days, the presentations were interspersed with practical group sessions based on a selection of digital imaging project case studies. On the final day of the workshop each group presented a report on the project it had selected from the case studies. Each of the groups included in its presentation costings for the project they had chosen (based on data provided during the workshop); justifications for an outsourced vs. an in-house approach; and a project timeline.

The combination of presentations and practical group work provided a balanced approach to the difficult issue of digitisation for libraries and cultural institutions. In addition, the resources provided in the workshop workbook and the many other resources referred to in the presentations provided participants with a sound framework for assessing and managing a future digital imaging project, whether it is to be handled via a contract or undertaken by an institution in-house.

Photo (left to right): Acting Deputy Director-General Jan Fullerton with Anne Kenney, Oya Rieger (Cornell University) and Robin Dale (Research Libraries Group) after the RLG Digital Imaging Workshop held at the National Library in December 1998

Pacific collections: developing libraries for the twenty-first century

The 23rd Annual Pacific Islands Studies Conference was held at the East–West Center, Honolulu, November 5–7 1998 and for the first time, the entire conference was devoted to library issues.

Dr Karen Peacock, Pacific Curator at the University of Hawaii, assembled librarians from within the Pacific region to speak about their collections, the issues faced in attempting to build comprehensive collections and cooperative efforts to collect and provide access to Pacific resources.

Panel discussions focused on collecting activities—cooperative efforts and the bibliographic control of material to promote effective access. Panel members included Jayshree Mamtora, Pacific Information Centre, University of the South Pacific Library; Mataina Te’o, Nelson Memorial Public Library (Samoa); Joseph Naguwean, Michael Somare Library, University of Papua New Guinea; Kathy Creely, University of California, San Diego; Stephen Innes, University of Auckland Library; Ewan Maidment, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau; Togi Aifa’i Tunupopo, National University of Samoa; Max Broadbent, University of Canterbury; Nicholas J Goetzfridt, University of Guam; and Chieko Tachihata, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Other speakers presented papers recording the researcher’s experience in libraries and archives, the creation of Pacific Islands-related Web sites, and historical research of Hawaii and Guam. Joan Hori from the Hawaiian Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii, treated the conference participants to a teaching demon-stration. Ms Hori provided an edited version of a course in library research which students in Hawaiian studies undertake as part of their studies. The course emphasises topics of relevance to the students and flags potential sources of information for the types of research the students will be undertaking.

Chris Foster, the NLA’s manager, Overseas Collection Development, found the conference to be an effective forum for exchanging information about Pacific collecting activities. The National Library has a rich Pacific collection and its formal acquisition channels are enhanced by these opportunities to establish new contacts and working relationships in the region.

An exciting outcome from the project was the agreement to establish a Pacific newsgroup, with Robyn Paynter (Southeast Asian and Pacific Studies, Knight Library, University of Oregon) as its voluntary organiser.

[Waikiki sunset]

Photo: No conference in Honolulu would be complete without that added end-of-day bonus—a sunset over Waikiki. Photo courtesy of Chris Foster

Milestones
Dr Jan Lyall retires and Maggie Jones returns to the UK

[Lyall]Dr Jan Lyall, Assistant Director-General of the Library’s Cultural and Educational Services Division, and internationally recognised for her outstanding contribution to library preservation, retired in November 1998.

In the mid 1960s Dr Lyall completed her doctorate in medical chemistry at the Australian National University, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in Canada, and held a number of research positions in Australia. She was an inaugural student in the Masters Program in Conservation of Cultural Materials at the University of Canberra in 1978 and joined the National Library as a paper conservator in 1980, rising to become the Director of the Preservation Services section in 1985. Always keenly interested in international cooperation, Dr Lyall became Director of the IFLA Preservation and Conservation Regional Centre for Southeast Asia and the Pacific in 1989.

In 1992 she was named the foundation director of the National Preservation Office. Among its many successful initiatives, were the National Preservation conferences. The first, on preservation microfilming and the second, on multimedia preservation, stand out as helping to raise the profile of library preservation within Australia. Other successful programs with which Dr Lyall was associated, are the Community Heritage Grants Program, UNESCO’s Memory of the World Project, for which she conducted an international survey on library preservation activities and co-authored general guidelines for safeguarding documentary heritage, and a campaign promoting the use of permanent paper.

[Jones]In 1997 Dr Lyall was the recipient of the Public Service Medal in recognition of her leadership role in establishing a national preservation strategy across the Australian library community, and for her international contributions in helping to preserve the world’s documentary heritage.

I wanted to get the books in order—and I did’

Maggie Jones, Director of the Collection Management and Retrieval Service since 1992 left the Library at the end of 1998. At a farewell function, she said that she had achieved her greatest ambition with the setting up of the new Annexe in the outer Canberra suburb of Hume, and the consequent reorganisation in the physical housing of the collections. ‘When I started in the Library as a clerical assistant in the Document Supply section in 1981, I wondered why the books were in such a complicated order in the stacks. I thought that it would make it a lot easier if they were in a more straight-forward arrangement.’

The appointment of Maggie Jones as head of both the stack storage areas and preservation services was a significant innovation for the Library, bringing these areas together for the first time. An interest in digital publications and the issues involved in their preservation resulted in her membership of the Australian Libraries/Publishers Preservation of Digital Objects Working Group as the National Library’s representative.

With her partner Gordon Bower, Maggie (right) has returned to England to be with her family after many years in Australia.

Exhibitions & publications
Travelling exhibitions in 1999

Two of the Library’s recent exhibitions that have aroused considerable interest will continue to tour Australia this year.

Captive Lives tells the story of how, at the end of the last century, two groups of young North Queensland Aboriginals were enticed away from their land to cities in Europe and America, where they were studied and measured by anthropologists and displayed with other indigenous peoples in side shows and dime museums. Along the way each one died.

Text panels tell their story, alongside photographs, documents and other images from the period.

After it leaves the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, on 19 May, the National Library has offered ongoing funding to tour the exhibition into the year 2000 at the following venues:

Western Australian Museum, Perth 28 May to 1 August 1999
Australian Museum, Sydney 14 August to 28 November 1999
Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, Qld 8 January to 20 February 2000
Armidale Aboriginal Cultural Centre, NSW 4 March to 25 April 2000
Warnambool Art Gallery 6 May to 18 June 2000

[Yugen costumes]Dance People Dance traces the history of dance in Australia from early corroborees to the latest contemporary forms of dance. Anna Pavlova’s visit to Australia and performances of the Borovansky Ballet Company are included. The establishment of the Australian Ballet Company is recorded and so are the performances of smaller dance companies.

Dramatic costumes from Australian Ballet productions are displayed and recorded interviews with choreographers, along with photographs of dancers and dance productions from the National Library’s collections, are also featured. The touring schedule for Dance People Dance appears below.

Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs 13 February–14 March 1999
Perc Tucker Gallery, Townsville, Qld 1 April–9 May 1999
Queensland Performing Arts Museum, Brisbane 20 May–8 August 1999
Westpac Gallery, Melbourne 5 November–5 December 1999

Photo: Costumes for Robert Helpmann’s ballet Yugen, 1965

A ‘National Treasure’ on CD-ROM

‘This disc is our first national digital treasure. Buy it. You’ll be surprised at how absorbing it is, and you will come away with an enhanced perspective on the circumstances and the world view that led to this country called Australia’—Mark Butler, ‘Computers–The Cutting Edge’, Australian, 2 February 1999.

The National Library of Australia and the National Maritime Museum are proud to present the first ever CD-ROM publication of one of the nation’s most precious manuscripts. The CD-ROM Endeavour: Captain Cook’s Journal 1768–71 takes you with James Cook on his extraordinary voyage of discovery around the world on board Endeavour. At its heart is a digital facsimile of the full text of Cook’s Endeavour journal, accompanied by JC Beaglehole’s classic 1955 annotated transcript. The journal is in Cook’s own hand, and his corrections, additions and amendments can be seen.

‘This is the first time that Cook’s journal and a transcript have been published together,’ Director-General of the National Library, Warren Horton said. ‘It utilises the full potential of multimedia technology, as the Endeavour CD-ROM puts you on board and inside the Endeavour replica with amazing 3-D virtual reality tours, video clips, sound segments, hundreds of still images—and an encyclopaedic 100 000-word text exploring every facet of the famous voyage that put Australia’s east coast on the map.’

‘The Commonwealth Government purchased the journal at a London auction in 1923 for the sum of 5000 pounds. The 231-year-old manuscript is normally locked away for safe-keeping in the National Library in Canberra. Today it is available to the world,’ Mr Horton said.

Endeavour: Captain Cook’s Journal 1768–71 offers direct access to one of the most vital documents in our history, and is also a rollicking good read that can be enjoyed by students, researchers, maritime and history enthusiasts, and armchair voyagers alike. The CD-ROM is Windows 95- and Macintosh-compatible and retails for $89.95 from the National Library Shop or Sales & Distribution, email: nlasales@nla.gov.au

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Links updated 23 March 1999