Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade -New H V Evatt Library space

On 6 November, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Michael L’Estrange AO, officially opened the new H V Evatt Library space in the R G Casey Building in Canberra. For the past two years, library services were temporarily relocated to a smaller facility within the Department and the emphasis of library services adjusted to highlight on-line resources.

The library’s services and functions were also reviewed during this time and the library’s role in the future operations of the Department given careful consideration. A review of client needs indicated that, even in the digital age, there was a need for a physical library space, where officers could browse for information, access it in the most appropriate format, be it print, digital or audiovisual and read into issues in more depth when required, away from the immediate demands of their desk environment. The new library space meets these needs.

When opening the new library space, the Secretary emphasised the continuing relevance of the library to the goals and operations of the Department.

Mr L’Estrange noted that the specialist knowledge of the Department’s library staff ensured that the library would continue to deliver a service which would serve the specific needs of the Department in the digital age. The new library, he said, would be an important attribute for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in years to come. It would offer DFAT officers services to meet their working needs in the twenty first century.
The new space is the start of the revitalisation of the library. Our newly created brand is used in the new space and also features on our new borrowers cards and promotional coasters in use throughout the Department and at overseas posts. In addition the intranet site is being totally revamped. We are exited about the library’s evolution and look forward to a positive future.

ALIAActive Midwinter dinner

This years Midwinter dinner actually occurred in early spring at the Canberra Institute of Technology restaurant on 19 September. We had a good turnout of about 50-60 librarians gathered to celebrate the years achievements and to enjoy congenial fellowship with their colleagues from all sectors. The food was good and the company pleasant.

Our keynote speaker was Stuart Ferguson who has recently taken up the post of Senior Lecturer in Librarianship at the University of Canberra. Stuart spoke of his experiences as professional librarian across three countries, Scotland, South Africa and Australia working in a variety of libraries from public to academic. Stuart moved on to speak about the structure of the new postgraduate course in librarianship. He said that the purpose of the course is to nurture future librarian managers and related professionals so they can best serve their career needs and those of their parent organisations.

Review of Masters in Library and Information Course at Charles Sturt University : Progress report

I was very fortunate to be a member of the Course Advisory Committee of the Masters in Library and Information Course at Charles Sturt University (CSU) last year. I am delighted to advise that while the committee challenged CSU to not just have timely quality courses for students , but also to evolve course content very quickly, particularly to ensure that students were au fait with Web 2.0, CSU have responded to these challenges very positively.

Dr Philip Hider has recently advised the Course committee that:

"We did have a meeting last July to discuss the recommendations made in last year's report on the MASLIM course, but the inception of the School Review shortly afterwards meant that we had to defer the broader plan of action, as it was likely that the Review's outcomes would have overarching implications for the course. Whilst these outcomes have yet to be finalised, it does look as though this will indeed be the case.

Nevertheless, some of the more detailed recommendations provided in the report have been implemented. For instance, regarding 'information infrastructure' and IT elements, a thorough revision to the subject INF413, IT in Libraries, has been undertaken (it has also been moved online), and also a major revision of INF439, Online Information Environment, in which new IT elements have been introduced (such as Web 2.0 type software)."

In INF410, Information Seeking in Context, there is now greater emphasis on user-centred services and on use of virtual reference services. The treatment of user education more directly, however, is likely to be reserved for a dedicated Information Literacy subject, either in terms of a revised ETL412 or a new subject.

The management subjects underwent an extensive overhaul last year, with the three subjects INF415 (stage 1), INF514 (stage 2) and INF515 (stage 2), now covering the topics proposed both under 'contemporary workplace issues' and in the 'intensive business focussed' area.

The subject INF429, Introduction to Information Society, has also undergone a major revision, and been moved online. Addressing a specific recommendation, there is now a segment on user-generated content, the re-use of digital content and the idea of ‘free culture’ (i.e. more flexible usage around copyright).

I would like to congratulate CSU on both providing excellent graduates for the Canberra region and also for their great engagement with employers in many sectors including public, university, tafe and special, to ensure that their course meet our needs.

If anyone would like to discuss the course review with me please do not hesitate to contact me.

Roxanne Missingham
Parliamentarian Librarian

What's new on the ABS website?

Catch up with recent changes to the ABS website:

You can now ask for help or submit questions to the Australian Bureau of Statistics via an online form.

(Or call our free information service for assistance on 1300 135 070).

Every page on the ABS website now includes a Bookmark button .You can automatically bookmark a page to your Favourites/Bookmarks on your browser or your preferred service. There are over 30 options including Delicious, Facebook, Twitter and Furl. Find local area data via the National Regional Profile. These have been updated with a new look, extra help and more data. Use these profiles to find data not elsewhere available on the ABS website.

An online tutorial for accessing Basic Community Profile data is now available. This is the first in a series of tutorials designed to assist in navigating and understanding Census data and information. The 2008 edition of Australian Social Trends has been released. This publication provides information on a wide range of current social issues. Also included are sets of summary tables of key social indicators providing an overview of social change over the past decade.

Nicola Cross
Information Skills Program
Australian Bureau of Statistics

Information Awareness Month (IAM) - Gala Dinner

Information Awareness Month (IAM), Gala Dinner was held on the 29 May 2008.

This year's events for IAM saw a record number of ACT events for Information Awareness Month. A Gala Dinner hosted by the ACT IAM Committee was held at the Canberra Club on 29 May to close IAM 2008.

IAM is a collaborative event between like bodies within the records, archives, library and information management community and this commonality of purpose reflects the fact that the various bodies are recognised as some of the most widely respected professional bodies in the information management community.

The Guest Speaker was Brand Hoff the founder of Tower Software who spoke of his experiences during many years in the Information management community. A number of companies such as Iron Mountain, Recall, Oraicle and Icognition sponsored tables and Tower Software provided drinks for the dinner. Organisations such as ALIA, NAA, AGLIN and ASA also hosted tables at the dinner.

The dinner provided an opportunity to network with colleagues, clients and be part of the closing event for another successful Information Awareness Month. A good time was had by all and the
event is sure to be on the ACT IAM calendar for 2009.

Kym Holden
DEEWR Library Manager

ACT ALIA and AGLIN groups information event - CSU: Developments in learning commons

Learning commons-developments at Charles Sturt University

Shirley Oake, University Librarian at Charles Sturt University gave a marvellous presentation to the ACT ALIA and AGLIN groups onWednesday 28 May.

She covered the many issues involved in establishing physical and online learning commons which are spaces that enable students to interact with each other and the learning spaces using technology to provide support. It evolved from "Information commons" which started out more likeextensions of computer laboratories and responds to:* Changes in the way students behave* Changes in the way they learn* Changes in the way they are taughtA very interesting concept paper can be found online at http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/about/commons/ and the implementations in Bathurst and Albury (Thurgoona) have led to significantly increased use of the spaces and online resources.

Roxanne Missingham
Parliamentarian Librarian

Information Awareness Month Opening Night 2008

As the ALIAActive Convener I was invited to attend the opening night of 2008 Information Awareness Month (IAM) at the National Archives of Australia (NAA). Ross Gibbs the National Archivist opened the month for IAM. I felt privileged to be there as I had only participated in the committee that organised IAM in a very desultory way. The overall opening night was illuminating because of the diverse range of information management groups attending such as ALIA, AGLIN, the Records Management Association of Australasia (RMAA), the Institute of Information Management (IIM), the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) and actKM.

Each convener was called upon to give a brief summary of what their group is about, how it helps and promotes information professionals and what they were offering as their contributions to IAM. All such group events were listed on the IAM calender. I was interested to see the wide range of seminars and workshops offered such as the AGLIN/ALIA Information Sharing Forum on the Learning Commons presented by Shirley Oakley the University Librarian of Charles Stuart University and the actKM world cafe event.

We were pleased to learn that the NAA has become housed as one of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) portfolio agencies, a better placement for its government recordkeeping focus and heritage function along with other public accountability agencies such as the National Audit Office. Treasury and the like. The opening session was followed by supper and a change to network with others interested in promoting information management. I wish to thank the NAA and in particular Mathew Eggins for all his efforts in organising opening night.