Libraries Australia Forum 2007
Delegates reflecting on
future directions
Photo: Leif Ekstrom, State Library of Queensland
(L-R) Tony Boston,
Pam Gatenby and Jan Fullerton (National Library), Karen Calhoun (OCLC),
Warwick Cathro (National Library) and Lloyd Sokvitne (State Library
of Tasmania)
Photo: Leif Ekstrom, State Library of Queensland
Libraries Australia
Forum 2007 break-out time
Photo: Leif Ekstrom, State Library of Queensland
On 5 September 2007 the State Library of Queensland hosted the second annual Libraries Australia Forum. Eager attendees made a breezy start by joining tours of the newly redeveloped library, as well as the Queensland College of Art Library, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music Library and the new Brisbane City Council Library. These highly enjoyable tours were followed by the Welcome Reception on the Riverside Deck of the State Library of Queensland, where there was an opportunity to register for the forum and to meet up with friends and acquaintances from past forums in a relaxing and enjoyable evening.
Guest Speakers
The following day presented a warm welcome from Lea Giles-Peters, the Queensland State Librarian, and an agenda full of thought-provoking ideas and discussion. Karen Calhoun, Vice President, OCLC WorldCat and Metadata Services, and Lloyd Sokvitne, Senior Manager of Digital Strategies, State Library of Tasmania, were the guest speakers invited to join presenters from Libraries Australia and the National Library of Australia.
Karen Calhoun spoke on the challenges to libraries in the digital age. In the past, researchers developed their workflows around library services. Now libraries need to develop their services according to researchers’ workflows, to ‘put the library in the user space’. Libraries need to become part of the online community in which researchers are active, so that researchers do not need to consciously include libraries in their search routines. Among the solutions to these challenges are the collaboration between Libraries Australia and WorldCat, and the exposure of library catalogues and services through OpenSearch functionality.
Lloyd Sokvitne gave an inspirational session on the project to implement the new State Library of Tasmania catalogue. TALISPlus features a simple user-focused search, with results being displayed in faceted browse arrangements that can be easily refined according to the client’s needs. This inclusion of relevance ranking and indexing of the rich MARC record data enabled the creation of this simple yet powerful end user interface. Lloyd emphasised the importance of standard and accurate data to facilitate this, and how lack of data can inhibit good search results. He was especially pleased that the valuable work done by cataloguers over the years can finally be exposed in such an effective interface.
National Library Presentations
National Library speakers Judith Pearce and Warwick Cathro presented a ‘big picture’ view of the National Library’s directions for the future, including focus on a national discovery service comprising different collections views and the continued challenges of maintaining the Library’s relevance in a changing world. Robyn Holmes showcased the revamped Music Australia service, including a demonstration of how to access contemporary music via the Web. Deirdre Kiorgaard spoke on new directions in cataloguing with the development of Resource Description and Access, which is due to replace the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules after 2009. Rob Walls presented an informative session highlighting the increasing numbers of electronic resources in the Australian National Bibliographic Database.
The Libraries Australia staff presentations focused on the successes of the year and the directions that the service is heading (see Libraries Australia Annual Report 2006–2007). Speakers highlighted a number of Libraries Australia services and the ways that libraries can take advantage of these services to enhance user experiences, improve their own workflows and gain cost savings. During break-out times, Library staff welcomed the opportunity to hear about issues and experiences first-hand from the library community.
For detailed information on presentations (including sound files), go to www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/aum/laf07/agenda.html.
Karen Mackney
Customer Services Coordinator of Marketing, Libraries Australia