IN THIS ISSUE

Is it in copyright?(Project 1)

Use our stuff to make your stuff (Project 5)

Getting the data together (Project 8)

Project Manager Profile: Janice van de Velde

CURRENT PROJECTS

P1 - Do it Now

P2 - Open Borders

P3 - Virtual Reference

P4 - Delivery

P5 - Community Created Content

P6 - Changing Capability and Culture

P7 - Collaborative Collections

P8 - Flexible Cataloguing

P9 - Scaling up Digitisation

P10 - Connecting and Discovering Content

National & State
Libraries of Australasia

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Issue 2, September 2009

Hello and welcome to our second newsletter! We received a great response to our first issue and look forward to making the newsletter interesting to all who subscribe. If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know at nsla@slv.vic.gov.au.

Is it in copyright? Just click the button (Project 1, Do It Now)

In June, the NLA added a 'Copyright Status' button to its online catalogue. This functionality has now been added to Libraries Australia. Behind the scenes an algorithm determines whether the item is in copyright or out of copyright using data from the bibliographic record. If there is insufficient bibliographic data, it returns the message 'Copyright uncertain'.

The implementation in Libraries Australia is a major contribution to the "Do It Now" task of providing clearer copyright information.

Information about how the algorithm works is publicly available via NLA's wiki and the NLA also intends to make the source code available. For more information, please contact Linda Groom, Curator of Pictures at the National Library of Australia.

Use our stuff to make your stuff (Project 5, Community Created Content)

Project 5 is investigating the options for developing a framework and set of tools so everyone who uses NSLA libraries can add to, create and transform our online content.

A major research report has recently been released, produced by Paul Reynolds, Adjunct Director, National Library of New Zealand, and Director of McGovern Online. Paul is one of New Zealand's most respected commentators and thinkers on the topics of information access and technological change. Paul will be talking about this research and Project 5 at Charles Sturt University's Empowering Users Conference to be held in Hobart on November 5, 2009.

Picture via 'Moments in Time', Re-Picture Australia Project.

Getting the data together (Project 8, Description and Cataloguing)

Over 20 NSLA staff with cataloguing, description and archiving expertise met for two days in July to make progress on Project 8, Description and Cataloguing.

After sharing information about the methods and tools libraries are implementing to streamline the creation of bibliographic records and metadata, the group identified key outcomes for the project. These action areas include:
- cataloguing all Australian and New Zealand newspapers online by mid-2011;
- testing and converting different finding aids and collection lists for inclusion in Trove;
- identifying streamlined ways of describing picture collections;
- prioritising manuscript processing; and
- agreeing on metadata standards.

An underlying principle of Project 8 is to have all resources catalogued online. For more information, please contact Pam Gatenby, Project Manager for Description and Cataloguing.

Virtual Reference: what's happening? (Project 3, Virtual Reference)

This project is investigating, and will implement, the next generation of virtual reference services. In June, many representatives from NSLA libraries met in Melbourne for a two-day meeting to workshop the opportunities for collaboration in reference services.

Firstly, they analysed the key findings from over seven months of research and analysis. Then on the second day, the meeting concentrated on identifying and agreeing on distinct collaborative areas for NSLA libraries. All representatives agreed there will be clear wins in developing common policies, standards and ways of measuring what we do in reference services.

There is also great interest in sharing development of online training materials, and in looking further at common enquiry management systems and services to particular user groups. The project is now starting to shape possible business models for the future. For more information, contact Leneve Jamieson, Project Manager for Project 3 Virtual Reference.

Profile: Janice van de Velde, Project Manager for Do it Now!

I started working at the State Library of Victoria as a member of the 'Monograph bar-coding team', donning white gloves to protect (my skin) from the dust that had settled on the many, many amazing tomes then housed in the Dome annulus. Many years later, I would don another pair of white gloves for the laser scanning of Ned Kelly's armour.

Librarianship has provided me with some great international adventures, too. These include a postgraduate field work scholarship to Oxford UK (my first solo trip), volunteer work for the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala India, and as the SLV representative a visit to National Library Board of Singapore to assist with the development of an Memorandum of Understanding between the two libraries. Visiting libraries during recreational travel time is now a most pleasant addiction (and I know I'm not the only one so afflicted).

In other lives, I've worked in retail (soft furnishings), research (for university departments, state and federal politicians) but have not (yet) fulfilled early aspirations to become a jeweller or journalist. On the other hand I think I have found my niche in my current position of policy development. It is a position that ensures a changing and eclectic mix of intellectual challenges crosses my desk, but it also makes the most of my undergraduate studies in politics and economics and is responsible for my involvement in Project 1 - a deceivingly simple project which we hope will produce some big changes and make life easier for our users.