ACT Heritage Library Tour 7 October 2015

On the 7 October we had the Active ALIA tour of the  ACT Heritage Library with a small interested group turning up to  experience the delights of the Heritage Library. Antoinette Buchanan the  Heritage Librarian gave us an expose of  current challenges facing the library  and  how much progress the  small team have made on processing their manuscript  collection . The purpose behind the Heritage Library  is to  “help tell the stories of Canberra and its people. We collect, preserve, promote and provide access to the documents that record the lives of Canberrans at home and in the wider community.” This was very evident in Antoinette's discussion of  the library team's current work and their  collection emphasis.

I was very interested in  the increasing web presence of the  Heritage Library  and how they intend to move this forward in the future with  digitising their  collection.  Antoinette explained the focus of the archives and manuscripts collections in the ACT Heritage Library is on local groups and individuals who have made notable contributions to the ACT community. Their book collection focuses on publications produced here  in the ACT, by ACT residents, or about the ACT. The heritage  library  uses the  library system of the  wider Libraries ACT so the  catalogue is  easily accessible to all Canberra residents . I envied the  climate control stacks for their special  collections. 

The library is  housed in the   Woden town centre library and is  open to all ACT  people. It is  a treasure not to be missed so if you  can go on  a future tour do so or just go and visit.

Midwinter Dinner 27 August 2015

The annual Librarians Midwinter Dinner was held on 27 August at the CIT restaurant. We had a good turnout of about 28 library professionals from all sectors with a strong contingent from the CIT library. 

Stuart Ferguson who retired from the University of Canberra as the principal lecturer of the Master of Information  Studies spoke at the dinner. Stuart developed the two strands of this degree in librarianship and records management. Stuart reflected on his long career over 30 year in Great Britain, then South Africa and then onto Australia. He outlined the changes in the profession he has seen in that period.

  Kym Holden a long-time volunteer on many library committees and activities for ALIA and other library bodies was awarded her silver pin for her voluntary efforts at the Midwinter dinner.

How researchers can protect themselves from publishing and conference scams

August 5, 2015

Roxanne Missingham, University Librarian at ANU and AOASG’s Deputy Chair, provides practical advice to researchers on how to prevent exploitation through being published in a journal, or participating in a conference, that could be considered “predatory” or “vanity”.
With the evolution of open access, enterprises have emerged that run conferences and journals with low or no peer review or other quality mechanisms. They approach academics, particularly early career academics, soliciting contributions for reputable sounding journals and conferences.
On 2 August, the ABC’s Background briefing highlighted the operation of this industry, Predatory publishers criticised for ‘unethical, unprincipled’ tactics” focusing in particular on one organisation, OMICS. There is little doubt that the industry has burgeoned.  The standard of review in such unethical journals can best be described by the example of the article written by David Mazières and Eddie Kohler which contains basically the words of the title repeated over and over. The article was accepted by the International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology and the review process included a peer review report that described it as “excellent”. You can see the documentation here. Not only will these publishers take your publications, they will charge you for the pleasure (or lack of).
Jeffrey Beall, librarian at Auraria Library, University of Colorado, Denver, coined the term “predatory publisher” after noticing a large number of emails requesting he submit articles to or join editorial boards of journals he had not heard of.  His research has resulted in lists – “Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers” and “Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access journals”.
While Beall’s lists have been the subject of some debate, acknowledging publishers that are low quality is important to assist researchers. The debate on predatory publishing does not mean that open access publishing is poor per se. There are many high quality open access publishers, including well established university presses at the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University and University of Technology, Sydney.
Ensuring the quality of the journals you submit to and conference you propose papers for is important to assist you in developing your research profile and building your career.
And don’t forget, traditional publishers can also have problems of quality. For example, in early 2014 Springer and IEEE removed more than 120 papers after Cyril Labbé of Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, discovered  computer-generated papers published in their journals.
How can you prevent this happening to you?
Three major tips are:

• If you haven’t heard of the journal or conference check Beall’s list or ask your local librarian
• Don’t believe the web site – ask your colleagues and look at indicators of journal impact. A library’s guide to Increasing your research impact with information on Journal measures and tools can help you
• Don’t respond to unsolicited emails – choose the journals you wish to submit to.

If in doubt contact your local Library or Research Office.
The Australasian Open Access Support Group is committed to supporting quality open access publishing and will continue to provide information through this web site and in our twitter, newsletters and discussion list.
Roxanne Missingham, University Librarian (Chief Scholarly Information Services), The Australian National University, Canberra.

Celebrating Gillian Currie’s 3 decades at the NGA Research Library

Celebrating Gillian Currie’s 3 decades at the NGA Research Library

After working at the National Gallery of Australia’s Research Library for well over 3 decades, Gillian Currie (Acquisitions Librarian) retired on 11 March 2015 to enjoy some much-deserved relaxation (and some library volunteering!).  J. Margaret Shaw, former Chief Librarian from 1978 - 2004, reflects on Gillian’s time at the Gallery.

In February 1979 a newly qualified and very young Gillian Currie joined a small team located in a warehouse at Fyshwick.  In Gillian’s words we were

“…in the round spaceship building in Fyshwick that had as its neighbours various sex shops and other salubrious businesses.  For a 22 year old straight out of library school it was quite an experience”. 

The task facing this group was to create a research library for the National Gallery of Australia, then known as the Australian National Gallery.    Initially and officially, Gillian’s appointment was as a cataloguer/reference librarian but of course in the early days, no-one was strictly limited to their defined duties whether in the Research Library or beyond.  Panic stations could cover anything from filing ephemera, re-shelving or moving the entire library or helping to mount works for an exhibition.  It was not unheard of for the Chief Librarian to find her entire staff missing when an emergency arose.  With the move to the new building in Parkes things became more formal but those with Fyshwick memories felt very privileged.   Between 1979 and 11 March 2015, Gillian went on to hold virtually all senior positions in the Research Library at one time or another.   In particular, her contribution to collection development, particularly to the rare books collection, greatly enriched the holdings of the Research library.

In addition to showing signs of becoming a notably talented librarian, Gillian brought with her considerable political experience and knowledge of work-place relations and related matters gleaned from her role as National Secretary of Australian Young Labor. This proved to be a great benefit both to the staff and the management of the Gallery as her emphasis on negotiation for the good of all parties rather than confrontation worked to everyone’s benefit.  Nevertheless, the sight of Gillian and colleagues demonstrating outside the building did awaken the awareness of some managers. 

For me these skills had particular appeal as, again in her words:

“[T]he then union delegate of the Professional Officers’ Association (which covered Librarians, Curators and Conservators in the Public Service), dumped the role of union delegate on me.  As she was my boss, I could hardly say no…. ”.

Outside the Gallery, her participation on behalf of all government librarians was to prove of great benefit.  Gillian was immediately drawn into the initial moves by the Librarians’ Group of the POA to increase wages and conditions for government librarians.   This developed into a full scale and successful Librarians Work Value case, the first of a number of moves to improve the position of librarians during the 1980s with Gillian at the helm as President of the Canberra Branch of the POA and later CEO and Federal President over-seeing the amalgamation of the POA with the CPSU to form the PSU.

As well as her professional and political skills, Gillian brought to the job personal qualities which made her a pleasure to work with.  The most noticeable of these were loyalty, both to her colleagues and to the Gallery, sympathy for her fellow staff members throughout the organisation and willingness to take time to assist those with problems. 

Above all, I doubt if any of her colleagues will fail to miss her sense of humour and the infectious laughter which could help make a tough day better.  This last quality helped her to deal with some of the more outrageous queries which do, at times, face an art reference librarian or the demands made on staff in a new building with a few teething problems such as mushrooms in the reading room which she crawled under a bench to remove.

She leaves behind many friends all over the building – some of whom have shared picnics at which frustrations could be taken out on a piñata (really meant for the children in the party but enjoyed by all).

Gillian’s professional reputation is not just known to her colleagues.  She has been admired, respected and sought out by those external users of the Research Library as a most knowledgeable, skilled and determined reference librarian whose in depth familiarity with the Research Library’s collections will make her sorely missed – although the National Gallery’s loss is the National Portrait Gallery’s gain as she has joined the voluntary team of librarians, including me, working to create a focussed library for this institution.   She has already started to expand my cataloguing skills by passing on her experience!

J. Margaret Shaw, Volunteer Librarian, National Portrait Gallery

Bibliography

(2011, May 5). Shows cut as gallery faces age of minimalism. The Canberra Times. p. 6.

Fulltext available via EBSCOhost.

Currie, G. (2010). Art exhibition teams. Incite, 31(8), 27.

Fulltext available via EBSCOhost.

Currie, G., & Shaw, M. (2002). What price art librarianship in the twenty-first century?. Art Documentation: Bulletin of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 21(2), 32-34.

Fulltext available via EBSCOhost.

Switzer, M.A., Jakimow, R., Currie, G., Beasley, L. & Roost, K. (1996). Why benchmarking?: benchmarking and Commonwealth cultural/heritage agencies. [Canberra], Joint Middle Management Development Project.

Currie, G. (February 1992). Merger set, now the real work begins. The Professional: the federal industrial news of the POA.

(1991, April 11). ANG to review salary blowout. The Canberra Times. p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122356144

(1985, July 2). Social workers lift bans for office space investigation. The Canberra Times. p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127205941

Currie, G. Demonstrating the Library’s value at the National Gallery of Australia Research Library, in Abid, A.B. (2007). Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship.

Currie, G. (1992). A nice job for a lady: industrial issues for librarians in the 90s. Australian Library and Information Association Conference Proceedings, no. 2. pp 80-86.

Currie, G. (23 August 2006). Integration of bibliographic and research information into museum objects collection management system: web based bibliography on photographic resources relevant to the Asia/Pacific region. In Art libraries: Bonding past and future. Ancient cultural heritage and information technology, World Library and Information Congress: 72^nd IFLA General Conference and Council, Seoul, Korea.

Currie, G. (2007). Paris Salons catalogues. http://www.nga.gov.au/research/Salons.cfm

ALIA Active Midwinter Dinner 6:30pm, Thursday 27 August 2015

ALIA Active   Midwinter Dinner

6.30pm, Thursday 27 August 2015

Event details

When:                  Thursday 27 August 2015

Time:                    6:30pm start

Guest Speaker:    Dr Stuart Ferguson

http://proactiveblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/stuart-ferguson-career-highlights.html

Where:                 CIT REID Restaurant

http://cit.edu.au/hospitality_tourism_events/cit_restaurant

Location:              K Block First Floor

                            Constitution Avenue, Reid

Bookings:             karna.o’dea@naa.gov.au

Cost:                    $30 per head for a 3 course meal

The Descendant project exhibition: a must see Exhibition at the UNSW Canberra Academy Library 1 June - 30 August 2015

On Wednesday 17^th June on a dark, wet, wintery Canberra night a fabulous exhibition opened at the University of New South Wales Canberra Academy Library to warm our hearts and minds.

The Descendant project exhibition contains 20 beautiful portraits by Mertim Gokalp and related material designed to ignite the curiosity about who we are in relation to our past.

The Descendants Project was designed to create a personal identity journey, commemorating Anzac History, honouring the past and celebrating our future by exploring reflections of a 100 year old war on the generations of the present. It reflects the intertwined relationship of Turkey and Australia connected almost a century ago, by a war. Through the Gallipoli War both nations suffered enormous change, one uniting around the loss and destruction while the other was falling apart, yet to be born as a new nation from its ashes.

The Project website, http://www.descendantsproject.com.au/#!home/mainPage, reflects on the documented history of the experiences on individuals, from the Anzac letters the soldiers wrote to their loved ones, to exploring the reflections of a war on the generation of the present.

Descendants is a personal identity journey, creating a very personal insight into Anzac History, honouring the past and celebrating our future.

Portraits of descendants from both Turkish and Anzac sides have been created for the project. The website notes that “descendants, selected to be a part of the project, were asked to either wear or hold on to a representative in order to build the bridge between today and the past. These representatives may be their Grandfather’s uniforms (or part of the uniform), medals, watches, boots, etc., an object to represent their connection to the past.”

Emir Ali Emirlioglu, great grandson of Gunnery Officer Mustafa Niyazi is the subject of one of the beautiful portraits. He is shown with a gas lamp which is a family heirloom. The website quotes his voice”100 years after the Dardanelles War, in which my great grandfather served as a gunnery officer, The Descendants Project has been a moving project for me as it traces the friendship forged during the war between the two nations and reveals the undiscovered documents, veterans, and martyrs…I was proud to be part of this project”

 Photo of Ali in front of his portrait by Mertim Gokalp – you can see the portrait at http://www.descendantsproject.com.au/#!Emir-Ali-Emirlioglu-by-Mertim-Gokalp/c3nf/55587a380cf23d01649f1ae9

It was lovely to see Ali and his family at the launch sharing thoughts and memories. I am very pleased to work with Ali at the Australian National University where his IT skills, passion and humour are much appreciated.

The artist Mertim Gokalp will be returning to the UNSW Canberra Academy Library on July 2 for an Artist’s Talk – RSVP details can be found at: http://lib.unsw.adfa.edu.au/exhib/descendants/index.html

Roxanne Missingham

University Librarian

The Australian National University

Libraries in the semantic web Professor Marcia Lei Zeng

Professor Marcia Lei Zeng Professor, School of Library and Information Science, Kent State University (http://marciazeng.slis.kent.edu) gave a fascinating presentation on Libraries in the semantic web at ANU Library this week.. She challenged us with questions include:

    

• How can we do more with what we have? 
• How can we do more with less? [We do not want to buy another system.] 
• How can we use these LOD data?

In looking at projects she had led focused on turning metadata into linked data she took us through a project on AGRIS that uses controlled vocabulary to link with resources – a brilliant combination of data and text. She suggested that the library catalogue was no longer the central access point and described a flipped model which allowed exploration of external data sources such as DBPedia-Wikipedia, statistical collections and more. She described how hidden access points in the catalogue can bring in much richer information and knowledge through library data, with the example of 5xx fields.

Positing “big text” as the library “bid data” source, she looked at oral history integration through www.unmulitmedia.org which could include hyperlinking automatically in the transcript – an example she used to describe the difference between findability and accessibility. In exploring the concept of the “Internet of things” she used the COGNITO intelligence API as an example of contextual linking of data and opening up of finding aids to connect rich data. She described the work of the Linked Open Data-- Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAM) Research Group http://lodlam.slis.kent.edu/.

Recent research projects included:

• Connecting LAMs to the unfamiliar data and metadata resources in the Linked Open Data (LOD) Universe
•   fact mining, where the team has use automatic semantic analysis tools, testing and compared 3 tools using of 45 archival finding aids drawn from 16 repositories and build the workflow into a tool
•  Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) with deliverables including creating local KOS by creating micro-thesaurus, handling special cultural heritage situations (e.g., unknown artists, unidentified creators, un-named objects) for LOD data and Guidelines for creating local name authorities for archival finding aids
•  Smart big data – with innovation and LCI (Liquid Crystal Institute) researcher-related datasets

She illustrated her big text data use scenarios with the brilliant Nature Video. (2014, July 31). Charting culture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gIhRkCcD4U – do have a look at it.

In summarising her talk she said that we need to embrace the new and changing concepts of the Semantic Web in LAMs – to move:

•         from "Web of Documents" to "Web of Data”
•         from linking strings to linking things
•          from "On the Web" to "Of the Web”
•          from machine-readable to machine understandable/processable

Professor Marcia Zeng, Ying-Hsang Liu, Charles Sturt University and me

Roxanne Missingham

Australian National University  Librarian

Stuart Ferguson Career highlights because he is soon to retire

Stuart worked for the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga from 1990 until 2008 when he moved to the University of Canberra.   During this time he completed his PhD, was author or editor of a number of books (including Computers for Librarians which went to three editions and Libraries in 21^st Century, a foundation text book still in use), and was the long-time director of the Centre for Information Studies at CSU.  As coordinator of the Master’s program Stuart laid the foundations for what later became the Information and Knowledge Management specialisation now offered as part of the MIS program at CSU.  Stuart became Associate Head of School in 2007 and acted as head in 2008 before his move to the University of Canberra.

Stuart brought a strong IT focus to the School and in later years championed the place of information and knowledge management in the LIS curriculum.  His contribution to a generation of students, and the profession, was considerable

Stuart has been a wonderful supporter of the LIS profession – his commitment to developing the professionals of the future is clearly evident in his career – and as someone who participated in advisory and review committees for courses at CSU and the University of Canberra I was always inspired by his commitment to making sure that education was closely tied to the needs of the contemporary library sector.  He has been a passionate support of all his students, a truly kind and caring educator.

I would like to recognise Stuart for his great commitment to connecting to the profession – he never turned down an invitation from ALIA to speak and we were very fortunate to have him attend nearly every ALIA ACT event in the past six years.

We wish him the very best – and encourage him to keep participating in professional activities.  Stuart it is wonderful to be able to celebrate your contribution!

Robert Pymm and Roxanne Missingham

Active ALIA War Memorial Research Centre tour November 2014

As a kid growing up in Canberra my poor dad use to take me and my 3 older brothers to the War Memorial during the holidays. It was free entertainment and free needed to be considered when you had 7 kids to provide for. At the time my focus was very narrow and I had three-four ports of call during my visit. I had to see Sandy the only light horse that had returned to Australia, the horse that a light horse trooper was mounted on in the long glass cases of World War 1 uniforms and the camel also ridden by a mounted trooper, The other was two dogs, one a terrier how had been someone’s pet in the trenches in France and a German shepherd who had been a messenger dog. My dad use to take me around these animal exhibits probably to ensure I kept quiet when he viewed the things he wished to see. So my child hood memories of the War Memorial are as you can see very intense and very narrow.

To my shame I must admit that my last trip to the War Memorial is also about 3 years ago when I went with my mother to see the War brides exhibition. The impetus for going was to view a wedding dress made out of a parachute silk someone she knew from Queanbeyan had worn. So I really only knew that the research centre existed in that this good in the mythical sense rather than as a user of the collection. However this mythical sense at least meant I was aware of the importance of the War Memorial research collections

Most librarians understand that the research collections at the Australian War Memorial are a key resource for researching Australia's involvement in the First World War and subsequent wars. The Research Centre holds a variety of materials to support this research, including official records, private records including diaries and letters, manuscripts, books, serials, maps, leaflets, music and more.

The library tour that was guided by Jennifer Milward is my second one for Active ALIA in about 5 years. Jennifer and Jenny another librarian took us, a group of about 15 very keen librarians around the back scenes of the research centre. We were guided through the hard copy collection of field diaries kept by military units and allowed to view several. However what was of most interest for many of us were the personal artefacts of soldiers from oversees. Several discussed the silk postcards that were sent home form the front in France to relatives back in Australia. Two on the tour said that their grandmother and mother treasured similar because they had them as personal mementos of grandfathers, great uncles who had fought in the trenches.  We also had a view of artefacts such as the Changi prison entertainment programs.  The putting a very brave face on  horrific  living conditions in a crowded prison brought home to  me the stoicism of many intimates. What I found very poignant was an autograph book of autographs collected by an Australian nurse amongst her colleagues and other medical staff in World War 1. What was pointed out was that a number of those who had signed her book had died on overseas services and several of these had died on the way home of the Spanish influenza. I found it moving and also ironic that those who had served with dedication and survived the war, then died on the way home.

What came across form Jennifer and Jenny was their enthusiasm and  enjoyment in working at the  War Memorial with the diverse collections and their sense of  heritage value. Other tour goers echoed these sentiments:

·         The Resource Centre is a lot bigger than I expected. I had no idea that it consisted of so many interlinked rooms. I also had no idea there were around 35 staff including volunteers.

·         The treasures that were shown to us were very interesting. I loved the Thai-Burma railway engineering diagram and the story around this. I also loved the Changi Prison theatre programs.

·         The staff is obviously very proud of their collection and the work they do, which is very inspiring.

·         The tour of the physical items in the special collections was really interesting and I am sure it touched the heart of everyone there. The librarians are passionate and sensitive to their material and what a wonderful job it would be to be part of the preservation team – very rewarding.

My suggestion then is if you get the opportunity go on a tour of the  War memorial research centre go and have your eyes open to history and the passion of the  staff who shepherd such collections.

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