ALIA Access 2010: are you going?

The next ALIA conference is looming fast – ALIA Access 2010 September 1-3 in Brisbane. Re-imagining Libraries is featured in the conference program, so don’t miss:

• Re-imagining Libraries: Using a Collective Wealth of Resources and Knowledge, Wendy Quihampton, Program Manager Re-imagining Libraries
• Working Towards Seamless Access - Discover to Delivery, Vicky Carlyon, Outreach Team, State Library of Western Australia
• Unmediated Delivery: a helicopter view, Helen Thurlow, Manager of Collection Access State Library of Queensland
• Trove: More than a Treasure? How Finding Information Just Became Easier, Rose Holley, Manager Trove Discovery Services, National Library of Australia

Some other related papers, from Project Group members:

• Streamlining Workflows Using Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN): How Does it Work, Margarita Moreno, Manager Document Supply Service, National Library of Australia
• A Tale of Two Libraries and their Development of a User Focused Requesting Service, Aspasia Nikas, Direct Delivery Project, State Library of Victoria and Margarita Moreno, Manager Document Supply Service, National Library of Australia.

See you there!

How to deal with copyright communications in our libraries…

The Project Group for Do it Now! has been exceptionally busy! With full endorsement by NSLA, see the fabulous work from the project that will shape copyright communications in NSLA Libraries:

• Public Domain materials in NSLA libraries
• Deeds of Gift – Guidelines for Libraries
• Staff and Volunteers copyright report

Delivery face to face

The Direct Delivery Project Group met at the State Library of Victoria in May 2010, with seven NSLA libraries in attendance and an eighth joining via teleconference.  The tasks discussed on the day are flowing into work on:

•  Standardisation of content in electronic and print request forms
•  Consistencies in copying standards
•  Retention mechanisms of digitisation of out-of-copyright material for repurposing
•  Automation and NCIP
•  E-Commerce models

The Project Group is also working towards reciprocal lending between NSLA libraries, with the details of a formal agreement currently in development. Work has similarly commenced on identifying an aspirational model for delivery services across NSLA libraries. The Project group has undertaken a SWOT analysis of potential models, with project group members to discuss the implications of the models within their libraries.

All that attended found the day to be invaluable for a review of the progress in the project and to ascertain the work still to be completed. For more information on the project, please contact Vicky Carlyon.

Information and Research Services – the NSLA position

Representatives from all ten NSLA libraries gathered at the State Library of Victoria this May, for a face-to-face Virtual Reference Project Group meeting. Proving once again the value of meeting in person, the day included results such as:

• Development of Information and Research Services Principles for NSLA Libraries
• Development of Service Guidelines for Information and Research Services at NSLA libraries
• Development of Creation Guidelines for Research Guides in NSLA libraries

The Project Group had also been working on a set of questions, for attachment to research enquiry responses in NSLA Libraries. All libraries are now attaching the same survey when responding to deferred enquiries via RefTracker. Libraries without Reftracker are looking to use SurveyMonkey to the same result. Combined with the agreed annual quantitative survey of on-site enquiries, this will provide ground-breaking primary data for future benchmarking and analysis.

Via a phone link-up, Alison Delitt from the National Library of Australia also provided the meeting with an improved understanding of Trove and the planned developments for Trove with potential impacts on reference services.

The work on Principles and Service Guidelines for Information and Research Services, and Creation guidelines for Research Guides were submitted to NSLA at the July meeting, and have been endorsed. They will be available soon on the Re-imagining Libraries website. For more information on the project, please contact Leneve Jamieson.

Heritage Collections Workshop

(Image: NSLA Staff working at the Heritage Collections Forum)

Twenty-eight representatives from NSLA libraries met in Brisbane on July 19-20, to discuss Heritage Collections in our libraries. The forum presented the opportunity for heritage collection specialists to discuss issues and to do informal benchmarking. Many themes emerged during the forum, including the discoverability of heritage collections, legacy practices, collecting for the future, digitisation priorities, process improvement, and a lack of common terminology or measures for success. Close links were identified with the Re-imagining Libraries Program (and with RLG Collaborative Projects) and further integration will be investigated.

A set of priorities were identified and these will be fleshed out by the group in the next weeks. These may result in additional work packages for RL Projects or for the Heritage Collections Group. The group will formalise the sharing of knowledge through the development of a wiki, and closely integration with the RL Projects. NSLA recognized the value of bring the heritage collection specialists together, and have endorsed the meeting as an annual event.

Thank you to Anna Raunik, Louise Denoon and Katherine Winlaw, of the State Library of Queensland, for convening the forum.

Digital Preservation Workshop

NSLA members and representatives from their libraries met in Brisbane in July 2010.  Their goal was to explore NSLA libraries' common interests in a cost-effective and sustainable way forward for digital preservation and collections management.

NSLA has recognised that the work required is larger than digital preservation, and so the following work will be undertaken under the title of Digital Collections Management and Preservation. The State Library of South Australia, on behalf of NSLA, will develop a statement of the digital preservation problem which is confronting NSLA members, and recommend a process for engagement with other stakeholders (such as the archives sector).

Alongside this work, each NSLA library will develop guidelines for digital collecting and preservation, with Project 7 overseeing the process. The guidelines coming from each library will be synthesised for a report to the NSLA Meeting in March 2011, with the aim of developing a shared statement.

Thank you to Colin Webb (National Library of Australia), Steve Knight (National Library of New Zealand) and Grant Collins (State Library of Queensland) for coordinating the day.

Statement of Intent for the NSLA Workforce

In late 2009, Fiona McAllister of fmconsulting presented a report to NSLA on the scope of Project 6, Changing Capability and Culture. This work was an excellent catalyst for NSLA to reassess the options for this project. As the other projects of the Re-imagining Libraries Program get well underway, it has become clear that they are driving cultural and skill changes and there is no need to double our efforts.

The decision was taken to develop a Statement of Intent for the NSLA Workforce.  This articulated the workforce capability required for NSLA libraries to ensure the future needs of our customers are met.  The project was then closed. The statement was released on 9 August 2010 and is available for all who are interested.

Each project within the Re-imagining Libraries Program will now report on the changes to capability and culture achieved within NSLA libraries, to ensure the ongoing commitment of NSLA libraries to ‘transform our culture’.

Meet Leneve Jamieson, Project Manager for Virtual Reference

The truth is I never imagined being a librarian . . . but with the diplomatic corps dream fading after marrying while still at university, and definitely not wanting to be a teacher, what did one do with an arts degree? But it has been a good profession. I've had many and varied opportunities.

I started working at the State Library of Victoria in 1998 as Customer Services Manager after having cut my change management teeth at Port Phillip Library Service through local government amalgamation and the competitive tendering process. The in-house team’s bid secured the tender on a platform of technological innovation and after sleepless nights and a few “system downs”, Port Phillip embraced reference services via the Web and created the first public library website in Victoria. Ever since this time, I’ve been a keen explorer of changing technologies in libraries and have a strong interest in supporting people through the white water environments we inhabit.

>My professional life has now come full circle from my first library job at SLQ, where new graduates became ‘conveyor belt’ cataloguers following the huge collection replacement after the Brisbane floods in the 1970s. (Dewey numbers are etched in my brain). Moving states and sectors, I experienced reference work in special and academic libraries in South Australia before finding a happy niche in public libraries in Victoria, juggling family responsibilities with part-time work as a reference librarian/cataloguer, then Information Services Manager at Eastern Regional Libraries.

It is a pleasure working with colleagues from NSLA Libraries. Project 3 Virtual Reference has brought together a committed group of information service managers to fathom reference futures for our libraries. To date, we’ve been a hardworking bunch who have discussed, deliberated and reviewed the past and the present, investigated the future and challenged each other.