Report on Taxonomy Workshop facilitated by Patrick Lambe

“Taxonomies are powerful instruments for breaking down siloes and fostering collaboration and learning - not just for information accessibility and navigation”.

I was one of the fortunate ones who attend Patrick Lambe’s workshop on taxonomy development on 17-18 October 2013. This  a rare opportunity to come my way and I  enjoyed it . It is also  a pleasure to get together with others who enjoy the discipline of taxonomy. The reasons people had come to the workshop were many, some were constructing or revitalising websites, others were looking into devising the structure of content management system or in my case undertaking a review of an existing thesaurus

The workshop followed a set regime of  theory on day one of what is  a taxonomy and the various forms they can take. Day 2 covered the practical aspects of  taxonomy creation. The workshop approach combines presentation of frameworks and proven methods with interactive exercises and opportunities to relate the content back to participants' own organisations. The exercises and experiential teachings really caught my fancy and encouraged my thinking on methodology  and ways to prompt  stakeholder engagement with the taxonomy.  I think an innovative aspect of  Patrick Lambe’s  approach is to stress that the taxonomy is a living system requiring  strong governance and evaluation.

Karna O'Dea

ALIA National Library & Information Technicians’ Symposium.

Congratulations to the fabulous team that brought us the ALIA National Library & Information Technicians’ Symposium.  The organising committee Colleen Gammage (Convenor), Lucinda Bell, Noellen Newton, Naomi Newton, Anita Godley, Shannon Ross, Leisa Stack, Catherine James, Sharon Doig, and Debra Meany did truly remarkable work, with the assistance of ALIA National Office staff, to deliver a world class event.

It provoked, informed and stimulated networking brilliantly.

The Library tours provided insights into a range of ACT libraries: The library tours were arranged by Michela Laus,

Bluebell Tour

Menzies Library, ANU – Hancock Library, ANU – CSIRO, Black Mountain – The Library and Gardens’ Library, Botanical Gardens – National Film and Sound Archives – AIATSIS

Canberry Tour Gungahlin Public Library – National Film and Sound Archives Warehouse, Mitchell – Australian Catholic University, Watson – Heritage Library, Woden – The Canberra Hospital, Woden – Geoscience Floriade Tour

Chifley Library, ANU – Menzies Library, ANU – Supreme Court, Civic – Legislative Assembly, Civic – CIT Learning Centre, Reid Campus – CIT Training Library, Reid Campus – War Memorial, Campbell

Ginninderra Tour

University of Canberra, Bruce – Lu Rees Archive, UC – Radford College, Bruce (P-12) – Australian Institute of Sport, Bruce – Department of Immigration and Border Control, Belconnen

Burley Griffin Tour

Australian Government Solicitors, Barton – High Court of Australia, Parkes – National Gallery of Australia, Parkes – The National Archives of Australia, Parkes – Museum of Australian Democracy, Parkes – The National Library of Australia.

The first day started with Kel Robertson, an ACT author, giving his perspective on the importance of reading, writing and libraries. He challenged us to think about the new values of libraries based on the needs of society and different communities, particularly those who need support and access to information.  My presentation can be seen at http://www.slideshare.net/roxannemissingham/alianlits-missingham - it proposed thinking like Guerillas.

From the first day I came away with great ideas about smart approaches to assist with copyright (thank you Vanessa Tuckfield), different ways of delivering services – models of self service and extended hours (thank you Christine Potter & Tim Leviston) and the radical contribution of cataloguing.

The afternoon panel focused on issues of demonstrating the value of libraries, our significance, changing economic pressures in Australia and our organisations, the future for library technicians in employment and ideas for changes in education for library technicians.

The Halloween dinner was inspired – such talent and imagination both from the committee and attendees! Do go to the website and follow links to the Twitter stream, photos and the blog - http://alialibtech2013.wordpress.com/

Well done all!

 Roxanne Missingham

Xmas drinks for ALIA URLS, AGLIN and ACTive ALIA members - all welcome!

Yes, the silly season is fast approaching!  Please join us for a drink and some Christmas cheer at our combined end of year social event for all ACT library folk.  Members of ALIA URLS, AGLIN, OPALS and all who work in the library and information sector are welcome.   

Date:                     Wednesday 11 December

Time:                    5.00pm – 7.00pm

Where:               ALIA House Conference Room, 9-11 Napier Close, Deakin ACT  (come and check out the newly renovated conference room!)

For:                        Drinks and nibbles

RSVP:                    Please RSVP by Friday 29 November for catering purposes to Heather Clark, hclark@nla.gov.au

Make a note of the date and plan to come along for a fun evening of socialising and networking with friends and colleagues – all welcome!

Aileen

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Aileen Weir, Convenor
ALIA URLS (Universities and Research Libraries)

The death of the academic book and the path to Open Access

Roxanne Missingham discusses Is publishing academic books a dying trade? And if so, are free e-books from universities likely to deal the final blow?The future of book publishing in general is hotly contested, but particularly so for university presses.
  

Read more at http://theconversation.com/the-death-of-the-academic-book-and-the-path-to-open-access-19153

Gift of The Linnaeus Apostles to the ANU library

The Australian National University Library is delighted to receive the gift of The Linnaeus Apostles.

During the 18th century, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) was to inspire 17 of his scholars to travel to distant corners of the world to document local nature and culture. They travelled on their own or with expeditions across land and sea - their travels covered every continent between the years 1745 and 1799.They were referred to as the Linnaeus Apostles (or disciples).

The publication is a major international series of eight volumes - in all 11 books and over 5,500 pages - which has been in preparation since the late 1990s under the overall title of The Linnaeus Apostles - Global Science & Adventure. All the accounts of the apostles' journeys to every continent have been published for the first time in English; those of the apostles who left no travel journals are described through their correspondence or other sources. In the introductory and concluding volumes world experts in various subject fields will provide accounts of the 18th century, of Linnaeus, of travelling and the hardships of field work, together with biographies and an index covering approximately 5,500 indexed printed pages, resulting in around 150,000 specific search terms and a considerable number of cross references or references to modern biological nomenclature.

Roxanne Missingham

University  Librarian

Australian National Universtiy

URL Seminars and ALIA Events

1)      Impressions from IFLA (Wed Sept 4 – 12:30pm)

As I am sure many of you know, 3500 librarians and other delegates from all around the world congregated in Singapore last week for the International Federation of Library Associations Congress. It was an excellent conference with many high calibre and forward-thinking presentations.  Several of us at the National Library were fortunate to attend and we invite you to come along and hear our impressions of this prestigious event.  Feel free to bring a ‘brown bag’ lunch or visit bookplate to pick up a sandwich/coffee before heading upstairs.

When:              Wednesday Sept 4

12:15pm for 12:30pm start

Where:            National Library of Australia

Ferguson Room (Level 1)

2)      National Advisory Congress – IFLA Trends Report and “Future of the Profession” (Tues Sept 10 – 5:30pm)

Many of you will know that ALIA holds an annual NAC in each State/Territory to help shape the forthcoming agenda for the Association.  This year, the focus of discussion is the future of our profession in a rapidly evolving world – just a minor issue J!  To kick start the discussion, ALIA developed a report available on the ALIA Futures wiki and, as it turns out, IFLA also launched its comprehensive Trends Report at the conference last week.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to read these comprehensive documents to participate.  Just come along, share some refreshments and have a chat.  There are big issues ahead – ebooks, copyright, ‘big data’, open access – and we’d love to hear your thoughts on how we best position ourselves to keep librarians ahead of the game.  It be great if you could RSVP, but also happy if you just turn up on the day.

When:                  Tuesday Sept 10    

                                5pm for 5:30pm start

Where:            National Library of Australia

Ferguson Room (Level 1)

3)      And finally, make sure you sign up for our Social Media workshop on Friday September 20.  We’ve got a great program of speakers lined up so you won’t want to miss this very affordable seminar.

Taxonomy Development and Knowledge Audit workshops with Patrick Lambe

Thursday, 17 October 2013 at 8:30 AM - Tuesday, 22 October 2013 at 4:00 PM (EST)Barton, ACTThe Brassey of Canberra Macquarie Street Barton, ACT 2600

http://www.eventbrite.com.au/event/8049286633/efblike

ACTKM is proud to bring Patrick Lambe to Canberra to present 2 outstanding workshops.  Numbers are capped at 20 to ensure optimal benefit to the particiapnts. Building taxonomies and conducting knowledge audits are two of the most important - and difficult - activities that a knowledge management (KM) team may be responsible for. From one of the most experienced KM consulting teams in the world, we bring two workshops to share step by step methodologies and a set of tools for both activities - based on over a decade of practice and solid research.

Using interactive techniques and practical exercises, you will learn how to plan and conduct taxonomy and knowledge audit initiatives. We use case examples to illustrate the methodologies taught, and you will have an opportunity - both during and after the workshops - to think about how to apply them to your own organisation.

Each workshop stands alone, but you can also take them together, at a discounted package price. For example, one of the most reliable ways to collect evidence for a corporate taxonomy is to conduct a knowledge audit.  

Taxonomy development workshop 17 - 18 October 2013

Taxonomies are powerful instruments for breaking down siloes and fostering collaboration and learning - not just for information accessibility and navigation. This unique two day programme is focused on helping participants to develop and implement a taxonomy to support the knowledge management objectives and programmes in their organisation. It exposes participants to the range of different ways that taxonomies can be used to support organisation effectiveness, and imparts key design principles for a usable, maintainable and effective taxonomy. We teach an approach to taxonomy development that takes into account different stakeholder needs to ensure maximum adoption and it stresses the importance of a taxonomy as a living system with an active governance and evaluation process around it.

The workshop approach combines presentation of frameworks and proven methods with interactive exercises and opportunities to relate the content back to participants' own organisations. A secure online blog is available for up to three months after the workshop to share queries and follow up questions. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and skills to develop and deploy taxonomies effectively in your organisation.

 Knowledge audit workshop 21 - 22 October 2013
Performing a knowledge audit is probably the most important foundational piece of work you can do in Knowledge Management. It forms the basis for identifying what knowledge assets exist and where they are, identifies knowledge flows, knowledge gaps, and improvement opportunities to support the business. This one and a half day workshop is based on ten years of knowledge audit practice around the world, and gives a robust methodology and toolset to help knowledge and information management practitioners focus on practical interventions that will get buy-in and support across the organisation.

The workshop approach introduces the methodology through practical exercises with feedback and analysis, and is accompanied by a set of diagnostic tools. A secure online blog is available for up to three months after the workshop to share queries and follow up questions. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and skills to conduct a knowledge audit in your organisation, and work with the results to design helpful interventions.