Search

Outlines the results of a survey of the post-graduate experiences of library technicians enrolled in a Bachelor of Science in Library Technology in Australia. Aim and structure of the course; Factors motivating students for enrolling in the course; Contribution of the course to the change of employment status.

The article presents a conference paper about "Next Generation" libraries. It cites changes that impacted library design such as developments in active collaborative and discursive learning and the transformation brought about by information technology. It discusses the Workshop Process utilized by the Iahznummo architects in building consensus for innovation in library design that involves all stakeholders, citing processes involved in libraries in Australia.

Examines the wholesale destruction of priceless and irreplaceable historical records in Australia during World War II. Impact of Australia's involvement in the war on the policy on waste materials; Features of the plan for the salvage of waste materials; Results of salvage collection in the country; Four types of salvage activities; Historical records destroyed during the campaign.

The story of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science is fundamental to the story of the eScholarship Research Centre (ESRC) and its predecessors. Published online in 2010, there are data in this public knowledge web resource that can be traced back to the early days of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, and earlier to the beginnings of the Australian Science Archives Project (ASAP) in March 1985. ASAP was created to help meet the needs of the history of Australian science research community by locating, documenting and finding an archival home for collections of records and creating a register of where collections relating to the history of science were held in Australia. This paper provides a perspective on the events that led to the web publication of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science in 2010 and its continuing role as a key activity of the ESRC. There is a focus on the reasons why this work was required in the first instance and the lessons learned along the way. The paper reflects on the initial drivers that continue to challenge, indeed frustrate, the development of cohesive national information infrastructure to support research and societal self-awareness, despite the developments in digital and communications technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike many archival organisations, the University of Melbourne's eScholarship Research Centre (ESRC) is not a custodial repository or a teaching facility. This allows the centre to collaborate with a wide range of organisations and individuals, bringing archival thinking and practice to a variety of sectors, many of which are not traditionally associated with information professionals. Central to all the ESRC's work is the importance of effectively documenting things and their context. This paper draws on project examples, the author's PhD research and key concepts from archival and knowledge management theory to explore the idea that effective documentation requires more than a focus on items and collections. Instead, it requires working with individuals, organisations and documentary resources (published and unpublished) to reveal explicit connections and capture implicit knowledge in ways which more accurately reflect the complexity of collections and the entities needed to understand them. These ideas are introduced using two examples: a series of projects carried out over many years with the Victorian Government's Department of Primary Industries and its successors and The Australian Ballet. The paper then uses key concepts from this work to explore the nature of museum documentation and some of the limitations of current practice in museums, including the specific example of the Nordström mining models held by Museum Victoria. Thinking about these issues in the digital world, and applying archival thinking, the author argues for better connections between collection materials, not through convergence but by expanding our concept of collection documentation to include the relationships between things as things in their own right. Arguing for the practical benefits of such a change, the paper concludes by suggesting that testing these ideas in a museum context has the potential to further develop the ideas of the ESRC in ways which will benefit society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preserving and providing access to local archives is one of the roles performed by public libraries in New South Wales. This role is not mandated, nor is it a stated priority for public libraries. Local government records are regulated by legislation, but what of the other records documenting the lives of rural and city communities? In many cases the library’s local studies collection becomes the default home of the archives of local community organisations and of individuals whose personal papers are acquired by libraries. In some cases, the library shares the role of maintaining local archives with historical societies, museums and universities. The result is a functioning example of distributed custody, where public libraries and other local institutions take responsibility for local archives. This paper is a case study that draws on two major surveys of local studies collections undertaken by the State Library of NSW, the first in 1984 and the second in 2013–2014. It concludes that public libraries have been critical for over 50 years in ensuring that local archives have been acquired and managed, despite there being no explicit regulatory or policy frameworks for doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the pop-up concept, a world-wide trend which has been employed in various commercial and community settings, with a particular interest in how it has been applied to literary environments, using both physical and digital resources. The report examines six Australian public libraries, investigating why and how they established a pop-up library, and reflecting on their successes, challenges and what they have learnt from the process. The paper provides a definition of pop-up libraries and outlines how to create a pop-up library for a public library service, exploring the risks, benefits and issues to consider when planning for a successful pop-up library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kay Poustie OAM Travel Scholarship is an initiative of the State Library of Western Australia Foundation. It provides Western Australian librarians with the opportunity to travel, visiting international library services and learning from their experiences. In 2012, the author was the inaugural winner of the scholarship, travelling to Europe to visit 10 renowned and innovative library services: Amsterdam Public Library, the DOK Library Concept Centre in Delft, Copenhagen Main Library, Copenhagen University and Royal Library, Malmö Library, The London Borough of Tower Hamlets' Idea Stores, The British Library, Cardiff Central Library, Manchester Central Library and Liverpool Central Library. The activities, buildings and programmes of these libraries were examined and several common features were identified as contributing to the success of these libraries. This paper discusses the features which these libraries thought were important to the success of their library services, and describes programmes, events and services which these libraries have implemented. This paper identifies goals for public libraries wishing to emulate the success of these international libraries in the areas of the library building, opening hours, events programmes and customer engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the challenging formative years of a new librarian’s career and presents some typical career trajectories, particularly in Australian libraries. Its focus primarily relates to common misconceptions and struggles that new librarians might encounter, as they may not realise that these experiences are commonplace. Key topics include library qualifications, entering the workforce, job application processes and common work experience pitfalls. This paper suggests that challenging experiences are better shared, considered and expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This opinion piece reflects on some critical questions being asked today about Australian library and information science (LIS). It explores some of the foundations of such questions to provide an historical perspective on contemporary Australian LIS practice. This paper contends that lack of historical perspectives amongst recent graduates contributes to a sense of professional isolation, and there is a need to place contemporary concerns within a broader and deeper professional landscape if the profession is to successfully address contemporary concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of contemporary information literacy research and practice. While the content is highly selective, the intention has been to highlight international and Australian developments which have achieved significant recognition, which are representative of similar trends in other places, or which are unique in some way. There are three main foci in the paper. Firstly, an exploration of ways of interpreting the idea of information literacy. Secondly, a synthesis of various efforts to seek new directions in educational, community and workplace contexts, beginning with the major initiatives being undertaken in the United States. Thirdly, an introduction to some recent research, concluding with a summary of my own investigation into different ways of experiencing information literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes a recent review of Library and Information Management courses offered by the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University, and the resulting program of curriculum renewal and expansion. This program aimed to address concerns over the long-term sustainability of the courses and respond to an increasingly converging professional landscape. The courses were redesigned in a way that allowed them to maintain their relevance to the School's established librarianship market, while at the same time develop a significant application to other information fields. This was achieved by essentially turning the curriculum on its head. Instead of a library focussed core with electives in other information areas, the new curriculum offers core subjects that cover the information-people-technology nexus in generic fashion and provides a foundation for a wide range of specialisations. This transformation represents what could be described as a move from a traditional Library and Information Studies (LIS) approach to a broader Information Studies (IS) orientation, accommodating advanced areas of study in specific fields, including Librarianship (L). The paper goes on to discuss key issues concerning the implementation of the course redesigns, and the results of their implementation to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent international library historiography has demonstrated the need to move away from isolated narrative accounts of individual philanthropic acts, and instead evaluate how public library development fitted into a normative social culture of philanthropy. This paper employs this paradigm to contextualise the philanthropy of William Walker to the Tasmanian Public Library (now the State Library of Tasmania) in the early twentieth century. It explores Walker's donation of Australiana in the context of Tasmanian social philanthropy and influential examples of library benefaction. Walker's ideological and moral motivations, arising from received notions of `duty' and idealist philosophy, are also considered. The paper describes ways in which the Tasmanian Public Library used Walker's donation to encourage further acts of philanthropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway — the world's first major FRBR implementation — was developed as a co-operative service involving eight universities and the National Library of Australia in 2000-2001. This paper traces the reasons for adopting the FRBR information model, implementation experiences, and user responses to the service. The paper also considers the ways in which AustLit's nature as an academically oriented, value-adding service produced by a tightly knit group of contributors facilitated the adoption of the model, and how this might differ from a more standard bibliographic production and exchange economy. In particular, the paper raises issues about re-purposing existing MARC records for FRBR storage and display in the context of the MusicAustralia project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores library evaluation in Australia and proposes a return to research fundamentals in which evaluators are asked to consider the centrality of philosophical issues and the role of different research methods. A critique of current evaluation examples demonstrates a system-centred, quantitative, input/output focus which fails to engage with users' experiences or to address service objectives, and provides insufficient information upon which to make decisions about service improvements. This reliance on traditional evaluation is juxtaposed with the emphasis library and information studies places on alternative methodologies. The paper asks why a perspective that has become mainstream in academic research remains peripheral to practice-based evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the approaches taken by the Digital Agenda Bill on the issue of royalty-free copying of digital materials in Australia. Revision of copyright laws in the digital environment; Publication of the Australian Government's Discussion Paper, `Copyright Reform and the Digital Agenda'; Drafts from the consultative process initiated by the Discussion Paper.

Since the publication of Australia’s first crime novel in 1830, Australians have read crime fiction for entertainment, for the reassurance that wrongdoers will be punished, and to test their deductive skills against those of their favourite sleuth. The novels, short stories and plays within the crime fiction genre that have been produced in Australia between colonial times and the present day also offer opportunities to investigate a particular place or a particular time. Indeed, many crime fiction writers have mastered the art of recreating settings in both rural and metropolitan landscapes. The details provided within these works ultimately reveal a culprit (usually a murderer), yet they also outline the availability of certain products, bus and train timetables, the floor plans of local hotels or world-famous buildings and numerous other particulars, thus providing a rich, if surprising, source of material for the merely curious and the professional researcher. Crime fiction stories set within libraries present a history of the information services profession. This paper demonstrates how crime fiction can provide an important supplement to more traditional historical sources, with a focus on how the genre has documented some of the major changes within libraries over the last 75 years, since 1939. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology, new demands from consumers and changing social needs – all the uncontrollable, incredibly fast forces of modern Australia – mean that public libraries need to keep up to avoid going the way of the movie rental store, travel agents, catalogues or even the computer. Can ‘The Library’ be saved or do we need a reinvention that truly reflects their full value in 2015? This paper discusses how Australia's public libraries can continue their tradition of education and community development, retaining their relevance by embracing change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The semantic web and linked data technologies show great promise for organising and integrating information on the Web. As custodians of bibliographic information, libraries are ideally placed to play a leading role by providing authoritative information in this domain. The semantic web and linked data have been hyped as the solution for everything from integrating legacy data-sets and improving search through to working with big data problems. However, the vision of the semantic web is a long way from being realised. This paper explores how linked data is being used in libraries and related institutions in Australia and globally. Examples are given of linked data in practice and what makes some projects more successful than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romance fiction, romance authors and readers have been routinely marginalised, in spite of their significant role in contemporary popular culture. Sales figures for the book trade indicate that romance fiction is the most popular of all genres with ebook technologies being led by romance and erotica publishers. Yet, many public libraries have not collected romance fiction or collect only token examples of this genre. Drawing from data in the Australian Romance Readers Association annual survey on reader usage, this paper will discuss how the romance reader accesses their reading choices, impediments to the romance reader accessing reading materials, and the role of the public library and how library practitioners, through Readers' Advisory practices, can meet the romance reader's needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2012, the National Year of Reading (NYR), was celebrated in libraries, schools and community centres throughout Australia. At the University of Adelaide, we celebrated our academic culture of literary teaching and research with a range of programmes and initiatives based in the humanities faculty. The Barr Smith Library played an integral part in supporting the University's literary culture with our collections, services and expertise. This paper describes my role as an embedded librarian in the humanities, and the different areas of professional practice that I employed for NYR in 2012: collection development and promotion; teaching; collaboration with academic colleagues; the use of new educational technologies and social media. It provides an insight into some of the current trends and future opportunities that are shaping the role of the subject librarian in academic libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a conference paper on research on the Group of 8 (Go8) University libraries in Australia. It cites a report commissioned by Go8 to Outsell led by Vic Eliot, then University of the Australian National University. It offers a history of studies on the value of library services using activity-based costing methodology and benchmarking for process models. It presents research on economic value of libraries using the Return on Investment and Contingent valuation methodologies.

A conference paper about advocacy on the role of libraries and the information community in the online environment is presented. It explores the author's personal experience as the Senate Representative on the Council of the National Library of Australia (NLA) from 1992-2005 to highlight the tactics and strategies employed by interest groups, including libraries. It suggests the use of parliamentary inquiry by libraries and the information community to get the attention of politicians.

In recent years there has been considerable discussion afforded to the challenges facing the future of library and information science (LIS) education in Australia. This paper outlines a twelve-month project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council that was undertaken by eleven institutions representing university and vocational LIS education in Australia. The project established a Framework for the Education of the Information Professions in Australia that provides a set of strategic recommendations that will inform future directions of Australian LIS education. This national project represented a bold move within Australian LIS education, and provided a unique opportunity for LIS educators across Australia to collectively unite in order to 'future-proof' education for future generations of LIS professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replicated across the globe, the Learning 2.0 programme - also known as '23 Things' - has been touted as a means to not only educate staff about emerging social and mobile technologies but as a means of moving the participating library forward as a learning organisation. This paper explores the results of a multi-faceted research project launched in Australia in 2009 as part of the CAVAL Visiting Scholar program, focusing on CityLibraries Townsville as a case study site. Methodology for the study included pre- and post-programme web surveys and focus groups with staff during the programme. Focus groups took place at all locations of CityLibraries Townsville. Findings from the surveys and focus groups include the following: for those who participated in a Learning 2.0 style programme there was an emphasis on perceived personal change, openness to emerging technologies and a willingness to explore. Library staff reported they were comfortable with emerging technologies and incorporated the tools into their work. Implications for exemplary practice for the programme were pulled from the overall data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media networks have emerged as a powerful tool in allowing collaboration and sharing of information during times of crisis (Axel Bruns, The Centre for Creative Industries Blog, comment posted January 19, 2011). The 2011 Queensland floods provided a unique opportunity to explore social media use during an emergency. This paper presents the findings of a pilot study that explored the information experiences of people using social media during the flooding of the Brisbane River. Analysis of data from four interviews supported the emergence of four categories of information experience. Examination of the categories revealed the way in which individuals experienced social media and the point of the flooding at which each category of experience occurred. Information regarding individuals' use of social media has the potential to inform the development of social media platforms that can provide relevant and accessible information for the general public in the event of a natural disaster. Category 1: Monitoring information Category 2: Community and communication Category 3: Affirmation Category 4: Awareness [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2005, Better Beginnings, an early intervention, statewide family literacy programme developed by The State Library of Western Australia, has provided thousands of families with strategies and resources to promote and support book-sharing from birth. This paper reports on the key findings of an independent longitudinal evaluation of the programme's impact on parents / carers approximately one year after they were introduced to the Better Beginnings programme. Parents/carers were asked about their book sharing practices, beliefs about the importance of sharing books, and library membership and participation in related library activities. Responses from the participants strongly indicated that the programme was well received and had a significantly positive impact on the child, other family members and the participants. The evaluation also raised a number of issues, which have implications for further development of the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries have found themselves overtaken by commercial entities providing open, unmediated information services, causing debate about the future of libraries. It has been argued that in order to stay relevant, libraries must undertake a fundamental shift towards a new focus on engaging with clients. At University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) Library we have commenced a number of activities aimed at engaging our clients, but currently only have anecdotal evidence of their effectiveness. This is a conceptual paper which seeks to define engagement and consider how practitioner researchers can provide research-based evidence of the effectiveness of engaging with clients and taking a user-centric approach to service design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on a thesis presented in partial fulfillment for the requirements for the Degree of Master of Information Management at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia in November 2009. The author is currently on leave from her position as Reference Librarian (Deputy Parliamentary Librarian) at the Western Australian Parliamentary Library. The paper represents the personal views of the author and does not reflect the views of the Parliament of Western Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been substantial changes in the labour market over the past few years and survey results indicate 60% of staff will leave public library service over the next decade. While this creates opportunities for library staff, limited training budgets and a focus on compliance and specific library skills training have led to a gap in the formal development of leadership skills, This paper explores the impetus for action and describes the strategies implemented to develop and support leaders for the future at the State Library of Victoria and within Victorian public libraries. It also considers the impact of these initiatives and the learnings. More specifically, it details the establishment of the Shared Leadership Program in 2006 by the State Library. The library recognised that leadership, at all levels of the organisation, was essential to successfully deliver a new extensive program of work and to prepare the workforce to adapt to changing roles and expectations. Learning Forums were also implemented to provide further opportunities to grow individual and collective leadership capabilities. In 2009, the Shared Leadership Program was extended to tile Victorian public library network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital preservation is a major concern for libraries and organisations internationally. This paper will examine the barriers faced by web archiving programmes in national libraries, such as the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in the Netherlands and the National Library of Australia's PANDORA. The report will analyse how these programmes deal with the difficulties and limitations inherent in such programmes by examining how they approach issues of selection, access and copyright, while drawing comparisons between the programmes of the two institutions and the legal frameworks in which they function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australians are getting older, faster. This paper presents the statistical picture and describes the implications and opportunities for public library services. The author argues that federal funding for high speed broadband, Internet training, health information services, and for fostering partnerships with other community service agencies would make a major difference to quality of life for ageing Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given identified synergies between information use and health status greater understanding is needed about how people use information to learn about their health. This paper presents the findings of preliminary research into health information literacy, Analysis of data from semi-structured interviews revealed six different ways ageing Australians experience using information to learn about their health. Health information literacy is new terrain for information literacy research endeavours and one which warrants further attention by the profession to foster and promote within the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a practical and personal perspective on the challenges faced by special collections in an increasingly digital environment, and the strategies employed to promote their unique resources to the academic and wider communities, including the value of promoting heritage through reconstructing collections and the place of expertise in the provision of a high level of service to users. Special collections within research institutions provide enduring value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a general perception that as librarians, we know what constitutes and defines a rare book, that our heritage book collections are well-documented and their future survival is planned for and secure. This discussion paper asks whether our definitions of heritage material might be too narrow and whether they reflect the reality across all library sectors. While planning for our digital future is a priority at both state and national levels, there is less evidence that the heritage value of many of our book collections has been properly identified, let alone managed. Current practices, policy approaches and the influence of the academy are explored and suggestions for how we could identify and manage this important cultural heritage are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most Australian libraries with important collections of rare books, or special collections, have many of their treasures derived from 'legacy' collections, the accumulation of decades of collection building. This paper describes the collection development approach of a relatively young institution with a special interest in the history of house and garden design and interior furnishing. In doing so it outlines some of the ways in which the lens of special interest illuminates areas for collecting that have traditionally fallen outside the scope of larger general institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the customer service and library staff benefits of using Vocera badges (www.vocera.com), a portable wireless technology (WiFi), to facilitate roving reference service. Use of portable voice communication devices allows help to be taken to the people and away from service desks. These communication technologies allow library staff to easily access the expertise of other staff. There is now an Australian library using this technology. The State Library of Victoria, after trialling Vocera in 2008, went live with a system for all reading rooms in January 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parliamentary libraries provide access to information and analysis and advice to members of parliament and their staff. The need for high quality, impartial and timely information is critical in the parliamentary environment, and it is a challenge to balance these requirements in information delivery. This paper summarises from audio transcripts stakeholder perspectives on the Australian Parliamentary Library from the Joint Chairs of the Joint Standing Committee on the Parliamentary Library, Leader of the Australian Democrats and Clerks of the Senate and House of Representatives. Feedback from a recent client survey and focus groups is included, together with reflections on how strategic planning in the Australian Parliamentary Library should address the issues identified. These are the same issues faced by all research libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an analysis of the results of a survey of Australian employers of Library and Information Studies (LIS) graduates, this paper explores the current demand and future need for undergraduate LIS education in Australia. In the context of recent calls for adopting a purely postgraduate level of entry to the profession, the overwhelming majority of respondents to the survey clearly believe that the education provided in LIS programs in Australia does equip graduates with the attributes required of professional librarians in their organisation, and that this does not depend on the level of the qualification. Some further discussion of graduate attributes and curriculum issues indicates that there is a need for reform of LIS education--as well as a requirement to build the number of available graduates as the profession seeks to renew itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author, who edited The Australian library journal for twenty-five years until 2006, reflects on some of the divisive issues which have appeared in the journal since its first publication in 1951. He also identifies reasons, logistical as well as legal, why some controversies were never aired in the publication, and comments approvingly on the freedom given to, but not always exercised by, successive editors: John Metcalfe, Harrison Bryan, Jean Whyte, Ronald McGreal, Laurie Brown, C. V. Datar, Adrian Read, Michael Talbot, John Levett himself and Ian McCaIIum. This paper is adapted from a dinner address presented for John by Dr Neil Radford at the Forum on Australian Library History, State Library of New South Wales, 28 September 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the National Library of Australia's extension library service to the Territories of Papua, New Guinea, Norfolk Island and the Northern Territory over three decades from 1938. Known as the Carnegie Library Service because it had been assisted by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and later renamed the Territories Library Service, it was the brainchild of the National Library chief Kenneth Binns. The author describes the philosophy of the service, the sourcing of its books and the many practical difficulties it experienced in remote and tropical areas. The impact of World War II, with some libraries bombed and others pillaged, and subsequent efforts to revitalise the service are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalism as a force in shaping and understanding historical events, long recognised by historians, has emerged as a rich field of historiological study. Awareness of nationalism has spilled into cultural studies, where the role and history of museums has been investigated in the light of nationalistic influences. Favoured images of a nation's history, culture and people may impact on collecting and curatorial decisions. Library historians have been slower to recognise the impact of nationalism on library collections, although national and state libraries are prone to nationalistic influences. As they purport to collect the documentary heritage of a nation and its people, they engage with questions of national identity, history and geography. This paper maps some of the intersections between nationalism and libraries by considering how changing concepts of nationhood and Australian identity have influenced the formation and development of the National Library of Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mitchell Library at the State Library of New South Wales in Macquarie Street, Sydney, is one of the pre-eminent repositories of Australian and Pacific material in the world. This paper traces the author's involvement with the Mitchell Library Reading Room from the 1960s, when she was a student, to the 1980s, when she was Mitchell Librarian. During those decades the Mitchell Library, once a quiet place of scholarship, became extremely busy and crowded with the exponential interest in studying and researching Australian history and issues, placing great strains on a collection which had never been adequately funded, staffed or resourced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Museum, Sydney, is Australia's oldest museum, internationally recognised for its longstanding scientific contributions. Less well-known is the Museum's fine collection of monographs and journals relating to natural history and anthropology, which has been used to support the work of Museum staff and external enquirers since the late 1840s. This paper discusses the library's collection up to 1883, the date of its first published catalogue. The author urges library history researchers to make those who are responsible for Australia's book heritage in similar institutions aware of the significance of their collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toowoomba-based businessman and benefactor William (Bill) Bolton MBE (1905-1973) collected printed materials, manuscripts and artworks with assistance from Sir Lionel and Sir Daryl Lindsay. Prime Minister Robert Menzies opened Bolton's collection - The Lionel Lindsay Art Gallery and Library - in Toowoomba on 4 April 1959. Sir Lionel hoped that public access to this Gallery and Library would help restore white Australian nationalism and cultural homogeneity. Bolton himself wished his collections to whet patriotic traditions. This paper outlines Bolton's life and `the romantic combination of entrepreneurship and mateship' that shaped his benefactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Library history has constituted a significant portion of the research articles published in the Australian Library Journal and in Australian Academic & Research Libraries. By contrast, archives history has attracted much less interest from researchers publishing in Archives and Manuscripts. The author uses these articles together with papers delivered at the seven Australian Library History Forums convened between 1984 and 1996 to provide snapshots of library and archives history producers and production in an attempt to explain this disparity. He demonstrates that research higher degrees have strongly driven the production of library (and, to a lesser extent, archives) history but suggests that archives and records professionals have been more ambivalent towards history and historical studies than their library counterparts. The roots of this ambivalence may lie in debates over library control of archives and the professional identity of archivists in the 1950s and 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emerged from an earlier survey of developments in knowledge management within the Australian Public Service (APS). The earlier study pointed to future research possibilities in an emerging relationship between knowledge management and archives and records. The resultant case-based research reported here shows that this relationship operates most strongly in the context of key drivers of knowledge management within government agencies and departments, and in linkages between the work of the National Archives of Australia (NAA) and that of other Commonwealth organisations. Knowledge management also emerges as an important strategic issue for the National Archives of Australia. Eleven issues emerging as common in the previous study were discussed at the NAA: Perceptions, Approaches, Drivers, Links to core business, Obstacles, Enablers, Structures, Frameworks, Metrics, Champions and inter-agency networks. In overall terms the NAA emerged as an organisation that was at the development stage for knowledge management and one that was taking conscious strides in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comments on a recent Code of Ethics project conducted on behalf of the Australian Computer Society, and proposes a similar project for the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). It reviews the scope and methodology of the project, which developed a comprehensive set of case studies and related them to the ACS Code of Ethics and to specific standards of conduct in the Code. It discusses a small selection of the case studies and suggests that a similar series for ALIA could assist in the provision of useful context for ALIA's Statement on Professional Conduct, material for the profession's continuing professional development (CPD) programs and a stimulus to further ethical debate in the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Memory of the World (MOTW) Program identifies and protects significant documentary heritage. Part of the Australian MOTW program seeks significant Australian documentary heritage that can no longer be located. The Australian Lost and Missing project, based at Charles Sturt University, is the first in the world to attempt a register of lost and missing documentary heritage. This paper describes the activities of the project during 2003-04, building on the article by Harvey in the Australian Library Journal in May 2003. It notes the evolution of methodological approaches to identify material that no longer exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Library collections are, increasingly, hybrids of print and digital materials. This paper considers whether library collection development policies, whose `golden age' in Australia was in the 1980s and 1990s, are still required for today's hybrid collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]