Where is the Grey literature- it’s a grey grey world

On 10^th October a community from across the nation will come together to look at the issue of grey literature under the theme of enhancing the transparency and accessibility of informally published research and information.  I encourage you to attend to discuss the demise of government publications and the effect of this on transparency of government policy and decision making, amongst other issues.

There will be many presentations on a range of grey literature issues.

  My presentation will focus on government publications.

So what is happening with government publishing? A few key points:

·         Government publications have reduced by approximately 50% in the past decade

·         90% of government publications are online, around 10% are not (Australian National Audit Office on online availability of government documents tabled in the Parliament)

·         Analysing the online publications of an agency produced in 2001 reveals that approximately a third are “digital dust”

·         Dynamic data, which used to be published permanently in print, is now overwritten and historic material is no longer available

·         Finding publications is onerous and exhausting.

·         Rights management is complex and confusing for anyone seeking to reuse materials. The gamut of Creative commons licences and Crown Copyright are used – we do not yet have truly open access.

All in all there is much to discuss and seek change in to delivery on the government’s promise of open and transparent policy and decision making. Do come along for a challenging and stimulating conversation!

http://eidos.org.au/v2/documents/grey_lit/GreyLiterature_NCS_2012_Brochure.pdf

Roxanne Missingham
ANU

International council of archives congress 2012

Most of us are aware of how librarianship and records management along with strategic information management is converging in this digital age.

I was thrilled to discover the full range of full textpapers of the recent International council on Archives Congress held on Brisbane on 20-24 August 2012. I recommend you all have a good look as many of the trends, issues and opportunities are the same in this sector as they are in ours especially in electronic librarianship and the use of social media. The US chief archivist, David Ferriero gave the keynote address and advertised the conference on Radio national when he was interviewed by Fran Kelly.

Karna O'Dea

Active ALIA Convenor

Recordings of Valuing libraries symposium on YouTube

Many of you were fortunate enough to attend  the Valuing libraries symposium at University House on  31 May 2012.

Now the sessions are now available for you and others who missed out  to view

The recordings are now available for you to view

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tlh06j5Ono

Opening keynote Professor Ian Chubb, Chief Scientist

Value in Australia's Group of 8 University Libraries: an external study 
Roxanne Missingham and Helena Zobec, Library, Australian National University

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5g_lo1TSig

NSW Public Library studies 
Mylee Joseph, State Library of New South Wales 

Victorian public libraries
John Murrell, West Gippsland Regional Library

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOiUvHUQGcU

Creating a truly community value oriented service
Vanessa Little, Director, Libraries ACT 

Libraries in a knowledge workplace
Ms Rozanne Frost, First Assistant Secretary, Chief Information Officer Division, Department of Finance and Deregulation 

Surviving in time of ambiguity
Ms Kym Holden, Library Director, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTRObq_8IEQ

Advocacy and library values: presenting your best case
Keynote: 
Former Senator Dr John Tierney AM

Karna O’Dea

Active ALIA convenor

Active ALIA Winter Dinner 2012

About twenty two librarians gathered at the Scholar restaurant in Dickson for our Winter dinner on Thursday 28 June 2012. The restaurant is aptly named as we had some intellectual conversation and librarians are suppose to be the guardians of scholarship. What I enjoy about the annual dinner is catching with range of librarians from a variety of library sectors. By coming together we get to focus on common issues and challenges. The function room at the Scholar restaurant was small enough to make the meal an intimate occasion and the Chinese banquet covered all tastes

At mid dinner, Vanessa Little, Director of Libraries ACT rose to tell us of her vision and direction for ALIS during her term as president. Vanessa spoke of the challenges that are facing the Association and the need of members to advocate both for their libraries sand their profession. She thanked Sue Hutley for leaving the association in a good financial position under her stewardship as the former CEO. I was interested to hear of Vanessa’ changing and expanding roles in the ACT government as one of the manager of the new arboretum and how she has encouraged her staff to learn about and become involved in the needs of the Canberra community. Libraries ACT can been seen to be making a positive difference in the life of the Canberra community. The talk capped off for me an interesting evening



 I also want to thank Gaik Khong who organised the dinner very ably and ensured the rest of us had a good evening in a pleasant venue.

 Karna O’Dea Active ALIA convener

Ingrid Parent, (President of IFLA) lecture on Libraries at the digital crossroads in a global context

I

Ingrid Parent, President of IFLA, gave a very stimulating address on 5 July night to a packed audience of over 80 librarians, students and ACT community members. She emphasized that libraries play many roles that benefit individuals, communities and society in general. As an advocate in her role at IFLA,  she urges us that to realize our full potential, libraries must provide inclusive and transformative services, innovate and forge new collaborative alliances.  Her four themes are inclusion, transformation, innovation and convergence. A recording of her talk will shortly be available on ANU news http://news.anu.edu.au/

Valuing Libraries - Additional Resources - Blog of Links (US)

Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog – My Postings on the Value of Libraries

From the blog … “Here are the links to the value and impact of libraries postings that I wrote this week all in one place. Please feel free to share.” [April 7^th, 2010]

Our thoughts … This contains links to lists (divided by subject) of additional reports and resources which includes sections on Public Libraries, School Libraries, Academic and College Libraries, and Special Libraries.  All of them are have a strong North American focus.  For those with patience and a fair amount of spare time.

Valuing Libraries - Additional Resources - Report (UK)

The Value of Libraries for Research and Researchers – report from Research Libraries UK and the Research Information Network.

From the Executive Summary ... “This report presents the findings of a systematic study of the value of the services that libraries in the UK provide to researchers, and of the contributions that libraries from a wide range of institutions make to institutional research performance. The aim was to identify the key characteristics of library provision to support research in successful UK universities and departments.

The approach comprised two main elements: quantitative analysis of statistics – from SCONUL, HESA, and the RAE, along with bibliometric data - to investigate correlations between the characteristics and behaviours of libraries in 67 UK HE institutions, and the research performance of those institutions; and gathering and analysing a large tranche of qualitative information from nine institutions with a range of characteristics.”

Our thoughts ...The most interesting thing about this report is the in the visual diagram (map) that clearly shows how libraries can and do positively impact on Higher Education Institutions.  This diagram is used to as a basis to demonstrate how ten major library behaviours and characteristics affect and/or benefit Institutions.  It is also interesting that the focus is on qualitative responses backed up by quantative data.  This is a thought provoking report with ideas that can be transposed to other library environments as well as an excellent demonstration to show the value of libraries.