Mount Lawley Subway (with tram) prior to widening in 1939.   From the Stirling History Collection at the City of Stirling Libraries.

The Libraries Australia challenge! 

An enthusiastic group of WA Public Libraries are on a mission to promote their unique collections in the national arena and to raise the profile of Western Australia in Libraries Australia.

The following WA public libraries have been working with staff at the National Library and the State Library of Western Australia to ensure their unique local holdings are recorded on to the Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD): 

Geraldton-Greenough Public Library
Albany Public Library
South Hedland
Broome Public Library
Stirling Libraries
Victoria Park Library
Subiaco Public Library
Cottesloe - Peppermint Grove - Mosman Park Library
Nedlands Library
City of Perth Library
Joondalup Library.

The aim of the project is to enhance the Western Australian content on Libraries Australia by adding unique WA local history collections to the ANBD. This project benefits researchers by increasing the number of resources that will be available on the ANBD, and will also benefit participating public libraries through the improved national (and international) exposure their local collections will receive in this arena. 

To date the libraries have gathered files of their local holdings, sent test files to the Libraries Australia Record Import Service (RIS), and several have successfully loaded their local holdings to the ANBD. City of Stirling libraries have loaded 624 of their photographic records (along with a link to the full image), and Joondalup library has already received its first ILL request from the University of Tasmania for one of its unique items. The Geraldton-Greenough Library is proud to say they have uploaded 18 records as a trial – which goes to show that when it comes to declaring our unique holdings to the world, every single record counts.  The record for the image above from the City of Stirling photographic collection now available on Libraries Australia.

The Libraries Australia Challenge! (as it has been dubbed) is an example of one way in which libraries can participate in the broader goals of NSLA's Reimagining Libraries: Project 10 – Connecting and Discovering Content. By contributing to the ‘national metadata store’ we’re building a rich resource that helps Australians to discover and connect with information.  

The State Library of WA supports all WA public libraries with a subscription to the enhanced version of Libraries Australia. As a member of Libraries Australia, The State Library of Western Australia supports cooperation and resource sharing within the library community.  

This article was contributed by Monika Szunejko, Manager, Access at the State Library of Western Australia.

Riverina Public Libraries blitz Libraries Australia Document Delivery

What do Henty, Culcairn, Junee, Coolamon, Temora, Tumut, Cootamundra and Gundagai all have in common? On 30 September, as Branch libraries of the Riverina, they joined the LADD service to take advantage of the national inter-library loan and document delivery system. Any library's policy and procedures can be accommodated in LADD, providing cost efficiencies from requesting, to the payment for supply, regardless of the volume of activity. The Libraries Australia roadshow visited the Riverina in August, and the interesting and informative event resulted in further streamlining of workflows for these public libraries. Welcome to the service!

Serials Solutions supports e-books in MARC records updating service

A number of university and state & territory libraries are now contributing their Serials Solutions' records to Libraries Australia. The records, which describe e-journals or e-books, are automatically copied onto the ANBD by Serials Solutions. This time-saving arrangement is available to any library using Serials Solutions’ services and can be arranged direct with them or via the Libraries Australia for any library who sources records from this and other vendors. Find out how to manage frequent changes to holdings without manual intervention - contact our Libraries Australia Help Desk for more information.

Introducing RefTracker

Since 6 October, the Libraries Australia Help Desk has been using different software to capture and respond to all enquiries. The software, known as RefTracker, is quite widely used in Australia by state and other libraries for the management of reference enquries. It has allowed the Help Desk to reduce the unwieldy number of separate forms used for reporting issues, or for asking those curly questions we relish.  We thank you for your patience during the introduction of this new service.

In November 2009, the free Libraries Australia search service will be replaced by Trove. Trove is a new discovery experience focused on Australia and Australians. It supplements what search engines provide with reliable information from Australia’s memory institutions. Trove provides a single point of access to resources currently discoverable via the National Library of Australia's multiple discovery services, and to selected digitised material freely available online anywhere in the world.

Changes to the free Libraries Australia search service

Currently, both the Libraries Australia free service and the enhanced (subscription) service share the same web address - http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/. After the release of Trove, this web address will provide access to the enhanced (subscription) service only. Non-subscribers who arrive at this page will be able to search Trove directly, either by clicking on a hyperlink or entering their search terms in the Trove search box. The URL for Trove will be http://trove.nla.gov.au.

Records in Trove are a copy of the records in the Australian National Bibliographic Database (including the Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts, and Music Australia), Picture Australia, Australian Research Online, Australian Newspapers 1803-1954 and PANDORA. Some external data sources will also be available.

Libraries Australia Free Service – after Trove

• the Libraries Australia link from the National Library of Australia’s home page will direct users to the Trove home screen to commence their search.
• a new Trove embedded search box will be made available to replace the Libraries Australia search box. Searches executed from this search box will present users with search results from Trove. If you currently have the Libraries Australia search box appearing on your website you won’t need to make any changes. This box is placed on your organisational or personal website to help your visitors find and get items from Trove.

Libraries Australia Enhanced (Subscription) Service – after Trove

Unchanged workflows
• member libraries which currently have access to Libraries Australia enhanced (subscription) service via a login and password will be presented with the Login to Libraries Australia screen.
• if your library uses IP authentication or a scripted login, you will still be taken directly to the enhanced service search screen.
• Z39.50 gateway will continue to operate for enhanced (subscription) users (using existing authentication).

Changes to your workflows
• member libraries will be presented with the Login to Libraries Australia screen before being able to view their search results. Supplying URLs search strings which were constructed of URLs to perform a search in Libraries Australia will only be accessible to subscribers.
• permalinks in records will be renamed to “Cite This” and will link to the same record in Trove, jumping straight to the record within the work.
• staff who currently search Libraries Australia on behalf of their patrons and send them a list of links to records in Libraries Australia will need to search and cite Trove instead.
• no permalinks will be provided for external data sources.

Automatic changes
• constructed URLs (for freenbd) will be re-directed to the results screen in Trove.
• OpenSearch results using Firefox as the default browser will be re-directed to the results screen in Trove.
• OpenSearch results using Internet Explorer will be presented in a styled XML page with Permalinks to individual items in Trove from within the results display.
• items retrieved from a Google Web or Scholar search will have a Permalink to the item in Trove.

All decommissioning of the free Libraries Australia search service is expected to be completed by the end of November 2009.

Time to Change Our Thinking: Dismantling the Silo Model of Digital Scholarship, Stephen Nichols, January 2009.

Infomation Idol - how Google is making us stupid, Gideon Haigh, February 2006.

Shifting gears: Gearing Up to Get Into The Flow, Ricky Erway and Jennifer Schaffner, October 2007. They write: “Vast quantities of digitized primary materials will trump a few superbly crafted special collections. Minimal description will not restrict use as much as limiting access to those who can show up in person. We must stop our slavish devotion to detail; the perfect has become the enemy of the possible.” [p.6]

If you are unable to attend the Libraries Australia Forum in Hobart, just follow the presentations on the National Library's blog. Tune in on 6 November.