It has been more than 10 years since the Libraries Australia Forum was convened in Tasmania. We invite you to join us at the Hobart Function and Convention Centre on Friday 6 November for an exciting programme. Ms. Janifer Gatenby, Head of Research Integration and Standards at OCLC in Leiden, The Netherlands will provide an update on the CBS system which underpins Libraries Australia bibliographic services. Mr. Jim Michalko , Vice President of RLG Programs Development at OCLC in Ohio will provide an environmental scan of the current social, policy and technology influences on university libraries and their relevance. Ms. Margaret Allen, CEO and State Librarian of the State Library of Western Australia, will provide an environmental scan of state libraries; and  Dr. Warwick Cathro , Assistant Director-General, Resource Sharing and Innovation at the National Library of Australia will deliver the 2009 Libraries Australia Report.

We encourage you to consider arriving early for the annual Charles Sturt University's School of Information Studies seminar on Thursday 5 November at the same venue. Register now at www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/aum/laf09/index.html.

Other associated events

• The Libraries Australia Trainers Meeting on Wednesday 4 November at the Hobart Function and Convention Centre.
• The Libraries Australia ISO-ILL Partners Meeting on Wednesday 4 November at the University of Tasmania.

The recent UK report Creating catalogues: bibliographic records in a networked world describes the interesting problems which individual academic libraries have to tackle, and suggests that a national aggregation is part of the solution in the UK. Australia already has a national aggregation of bibliographic data in Libraries Australia. But how can an aggregator help? I spoke with Rob Walls, Director of Libraries Australia's Database Services, about the opportunities for Australian libraries foreshadowed in the report.

Q: Current holdings for [electronic] journal titles are not routinely loaded into local catalogues because they require a significant human resource. How does the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) help libraries keep up with the cataloguing of e-journals?

A: I think it is highly desirable to reduce the number of places that library users need to look in order to discover resources. Ideally, they should be able find everything with a search of just one system. Certainly there was a tendency for libraries to provide separate discovery pathways for electronic resources however I think this is changing. Going back a couple of years, Libraries Australia surveys indicated that library managers did not see Libraries Australia as a tool for the discovery of electronic resources and therefore didn't give priority to including these resources in their NBD contributions. We have been trying to change that perception.

We encourage libraries to include e-resources in their NBD contributions so that they can be shared with other libraries, and so that library users can discover all resources through Libraries Australia. Where data licences permit, we also supply these records and holdings to WorldCat. There are a number of electronic resource management (ERM) services and we do not see it as our role to compete with them however we have attempted to fill a gap in the market by providing bibliographic record sets for a dozen Australian electronic collection products. We also have an agreement with Serials Solutions that allows copies of records that they supply to Australian libraries to be added to Libraries Australia and aim to implement similar arrangements with other ERM services.

Q: Rob, you also look after the Electronic Resources Australia service, known as ERA. Could Libraries Australia load metadata for the journal titles included in the ERA products to Libraries Australia?

A: Libraries Australia has already started this process. Our contracts include the provision of title level metadata for Libraries Australia.

Q: The emphasis during the development of institutional repositories has been to facilitate metadata creation for articles, yet it doesn't appear in the NBD. Will this change?

A: The National Library plans to add article level metadata to the new Single Business Discovery Service (SBDS). Metadata from the Australian Research Online service will be included in the SBDS. We are currently in discussions with a number of vendors with the aim of obtaining significant files of article metadata.

Q: Table Of Contents (TOC) data is seen to improve the lack of article-level description. Does the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) include TOC data?

A: Yes, and it's going to get better. Approximately 1.3 million NBD records include TOC data. Libraries Australia has subscribed to the Blackwell's TOC service for many years and adds about 50,000 TOC Blackwell's TOC enhanced records to the NBD each year. We also have over 450,000 TOC records supplied by Library of Congress (LC). We are currently harvesting Library of Congress TOC data for 180,000 records that LC stores separately from the bibliographic records. We plan to convert this data and insert it into the respective NBD records thus allowing them to be indexed and included in records supplied to Libraries Australia member libraries.

Q: Given the declining utility of local catalogues (according to the report), what can be done to meet library managers' needs while at the same time increasing the value of local catalogues for research and information gathering?

A: Isn't it really about meeting library users' needs? Make the catalogues a one-stop shop for discovery of relevant resources - both those "held" by the library and others that available from other sources. Ensure that the discovery of resources is backed up by excellent access options. Libraries Australia can aggregate and syndicate records into the spaces where users are, and bring them back to local catalogues. Libraries Australia syndicates to Google and WorldCat. To specifically meet managers' needs, Libraries Australia provides services which support flexible workflows for acquisition and exchange of metadata.

Q: Does the NBD attract records for ebooks? Ebooks are defined here as those monographic-like works which are born digital. What strategies are in place to source these records?

A: A number of libraries now include Ebook titles in their NBD contribution. We strongly encourage libraries to share their eBook records via Libraries Australia and many of those records are made available for further reuse. Libraries Australia members also have the option of sourcing records from WorldCat online or by using WorldCat's Cataloguing Partners program. Several eBook vendors are partners in the program.

Q: Is there a future for institution-specific data, also known as ISD? It is already present in the NBD in the form of deep links to digitised items, and we know it could be used to support community-tailored results, but is further work feasible?

A: In 2008 a Libraries Australia Expert Advisory Group made a number of recommendations regarding the support for ISD? Libraries Australia plans to extend support for ISD when the Libraries Australia subscription service is migrated to the SBDS platform.

Announcing the copyright status button

The Libraries Australia search service has a great new feature developed by the National Library. It is a copyright button presented in the search results for a single item which, when activated, describes the copyright status of the item in question. The information is taken direct from the MARC record.

Worldcat Cataloging Partners Program (WCPP) - Basic records service free to Libraries Australia members

Use of the OCLC WorldCat Cataloguing Partners (WCP) “Basic” service is available free to Libraries Australia members. Several Australian libraries now use this service. The service provides MARC records for materials purchased through participating vendors. Libraries Australia bibliographic records are included in WorldCat and are available to libraries that use the WCP service. Libraries Australia members that use the WCP service have the option of receiving their records directly from OCLC or as a Libraries Australia product. They also have the option of having their WCP records sent to the ANBD directly from OCLC or adding them via their Record Import Service files. 

Did you know?  How to influence the duplicate detection algorithm

Any library can influence the effectiveness of the duplicate detection algorithm with one or two new cataloguing practices.  Duplicates clutter and create noise confusing end users. Some are necessary because they represent different formats, for example, microform or electronic collections. Current cataloguing rules allow records for different versions. When looking at records in Libraries Australia that have ‘encoding level K “ be careful with editing, as these records are to be reviewed.

When doing original cataloguing ensure minimum standards are achieved. Records need to be complete and consistent and they need to be uploaded quickly. Some useful tips:

• provide staff with adequate and systematic training • when cloning records, be very careful that the new record is accurate including its numbers such as ISBN, Library of Congress number, local system numbers. If you use a record for an older edition, remove any numbers that are incorrect.
• aim to provide complete dates such as 2007 not 20xx • check for typing mistakes e.g. Quantum not Quatum.

Data management tips:

• Keep holdings up-to-date • keep global refreshes to a minimum as they can introduce variability.

Manage local data: 

• retain significant numbers • retain 008 data • use a spell checker.

Bemal Rajapatirana, Manager of the National Bibliographic Database team, explains more in a presentation available in the ning space.

NING

Ning is the social networking tool with which we are building our own informal Libraries Australia space. We hope you will use the Libraries Australia ning space to strengthen our community, ask questions, make a comment about Libraries Australia or simply connect with colleagues facing the same issues. While Libraries Australia will view the content in order to respond to questions, we will not moderate the discussion unless the guidelines for use are breached.

If you would like to join our space in ning, just email us at librariesaustralia@nla.gov.au and we will send you an invitation. We look forward to your participation and future stimulating discussion.

The new Resource Sharing and Innovation Division Strategic Plan July  2009 - June 2011 featuring Libraries Australia.

Uncovering Hidden Resources : progress in extending the coverage of online catalogues. Key findings and recommendations of a study undertaken for the Research Information Network, November 2007. This report discusses how to determine the importance of material for research: "prioritise primarily on the basis of material unique to the institution, with an interesting provenance history, which marks it out from copies held elsewhere. In addition, focus on subjects not readily available elsewhere in [the University].” (p.56) and the views of researchers: “To some extent, my research is led by what is available online, so I am less likely to be aware of libraries without an online presence.” (p.69).

The Future of Libraries

In this documentary the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) interviews Sarah Thomas,  the Bodley's Librarian and Director of Oxford University Library and Sarah Porter, JISC's Head of Innovation.

A guide to Picture Australia for your Creative Arts students

The research value of Picture Australia is described in this video and includes an interview with Catherine Martin from Bazmark, who explains how she used the service to source appropriate images of work, dress and furnishings for the costume and set design in the film Australia.

The previous issue of the newsletter is still available.

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