National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 67 | February 2004


Peak Bodies Forum

The Peak Bodies Forum, which brings together representatives of various library sectors to discuss issues of broad interest, was held at the National Library on 17 November last year.

The organisations represented at the Forum included the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL), Public Libraries Australia, Health Libraries Australia, the Australian School Library Association, the Federal Libraries Information Network (now AGLIN), the Australian Law Librarians’ Group and the ALIA TAFE national group.

The following series of Action Items has come out of the meeting:

  1. that the National Library and CAUL ensure that communication about the DEST projects in which they are involved reaches the wider library community, to assist in the integration of results into other library sectors
  2. that the National Library will convene a Round Table on the issue of national site licensing in the second half of 2004 (this will be held on 5 November)
  3. that the National Library, CAUL and CASL will undertake research into current licensing principles and practices, and into the feasibility of determining a basic set of national electronic resources
  4. that the National Library and CAUL will examine the issues around evaluation of e-resources, and particularly the use of COUNTER to measure the use of such resources
  5. that ALIA will host a Round Table on government publications during 2004, with assistance from the National Library if required
  6. that the National Library will distribute a scoping paper on newspaper digitisation
  7. that the National Library will prepare a simple information package on the management of publications for long-term access
  8. that the National Library, CAUL and CASL should seek to be involved in the National Scholarly Communications Forum meeting to be held in early 2004
  9. that all Peak Bodies representatives are to urge their organisations and members to contact state and federal parliamentary members to express support for the recommendations of the recent Senate report on the Role of Libraries in the Online Environment, and to urge a timely response from the Federal Government
  10. that Public Libraries Australia members should promote the recommendations of the Senate report to local and state governments
  11. that ALIA will convene cross-sectoral discussions on the Senate report in each state
  12. that ALIA will produce an information sheet on the possible copyright implications of the current Free Trade Agreement negotiations
  13. that the National Library will liaise with the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee to define what information should be compiled to support future reviews
  14. that the National Library will make available on its website information about its collection valuation procedures and policies
  15. that the National Library will write to the Independent Scholars Association of Australia, recommending that they liaise with CAUL about the issues relating to access to research resources
  16. that the National Library will ensure that the issue of access to electronic resources by independent scholars is on the agenda for the site licensing Round Table
  17. that the National Library will invite a representative of library educators to Peak Bodies meetings in the future
  18. that Professor Kirk will report back to the library educators about the Peak Bodies meetings, and
  19. that the National Library will convene annual meetings of the Peak Bodies Forum

 A report on progress with these recommendations will be provided through Gateways in the mid-year.
—Sandra Henderson, Manager, Research, Coordination Support Branch

For more information, contact shenders@nla.gov.au

| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |