NSW.net eResources seminar 25/10/11

Hi,
Tuesday last week, I attended the NSW.net eResources seminar at the State Library of NSW. Ross Balharrie had put together a great programme; it's a pity he wasn't able to be there to hear all the great talks!

I was particularly struck by the following common thread between speakers: the expectation by library clients that all library staff will have an understanding of social networking and eBooks, and the growing expectation by clients that they should be able to get loads of free content from their local public library. The importance of getting web design right was also stressed by multiple presenters.

My complete notes can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bNBV0Y2lrwvRX6zs-C-om0NTtlKGk_LghtubxIPukyw/edit.

Speaker highlights for me were:
Sue Hutley (ALIA) - I've been waiting to hear Sue speak for ages, and she didn't disappoint! Sue provided a fantastic overview of where Australia is at with eBooks, and how ALIA is lobbying on behalf of libraries with government and business. As a smartphone reader, I was intrigued by Sue's comments about the lack of recognition by the BISG of mobile devices. I also liked Sue's comment that telling our clients' stories is a "powerful" part of the advocacy process. What stories / experiences can we share with our councils to help them understand public libraries and our clients better?

Jeremy McPherson (Canterbury) - community expectations about how they wanted to access resources influenced Canterbury's decision to move away from print reference to eReference.

Carol Yuen (Warringah) and Laurence McDonnell (Auburn) - this discussion about discovery layers got a bit technical for me, but Carol's comment that "people come to libraries to find, not to search", was a pithy reminder that no matter how technical we get, we need to have our clients' search behaviours at the forefront of decision-making.

Martin Mantle (Armidale) and Tim Atkinson (Kiama) - Wow, fantastic insight into what it's like being a National Broadband Network location. I'm sure the experiences Martin and Tim shared will come in handy for the rest of us one day.

Sean Finlay (Randwick) - Federated searching for online databases is getting some good results, but we can't let the principles slip (good website design, promotion, vigilance). The importance of an evidence-based approach also came through in Joan Ruthven's (Woollhara) presentation.

Martin Boyce (Sutherland) - Martin's clear and concise presentation stressed the importance of thinking strategically when approaching website design. Lots of meaty things to think about.

Philip Edney (Canada Bay) - Canada Bay's extremely high rates of internet and smartphone usage might be difficult to relate to for rural / regional libraries (I'm just jealous!), but the principles of targeting projects to client groups and basing decisions on client consultation are relevant for us all.

Joanna Lee (Hornsby) - Online databases and other electronic resources have to provide value for money, just like our print subscriptions. Thanks Joanna, for challenging me to "lift my game" in terms of rigorously applying collection development selection criteria to online databases.

Alexander Sussman (State Library of NSW) - it's great to hear what's happening at the State Library of NSW, especially the driving forces behind decisions and policy. I think it helps the rest of the public libraries in NSW better align themselves with both the state library and each other, and present a unified presence before government.

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Digital Practice Update seminar 15/02/2011

I just realised I had not yet posted my notes from the "Digital Practice Update: digitisation and digital preservation" seminar at the State Library of NSW on 15th Feb 2011.
I really enjoyed the seminar, and came away with lots of little things buzzing around my brain. I've got too many notes for a single blog post, but I uploaded them to Google Docs instead, here.
Enjoy!

I've been very busy this week, attempting to write a Local Studies policy. Here's my rough draft:

Feedback welcome - for the next three days only, that is!

Local Studies Librarians meeting 16/11/10

Yesterday, I attended the Local Studies Librarians meeting at Cabramatta Library. It was a worthwhile day, with interesting speakers and good discussion.
Lyn Bonomini from Southern Tablelands Regional Library (Goulburn) gave her "mug's-eye view" of running a Local Studies blog, www.strlhistorymatters.blogspot.com.

• Lyn mostly uses excerpts copied from existing local studies resources, and matches them with interesting photos of the region. Sources are always acknowledged.
• She doesn't have a set schedule of topics, but just uses what looks interesting. Also, Lyn tries to 'move' it around the region, so all towns are included.
• Only spends about an hour a week on the blog
• Site visits have been steadily increasing, with 1 comment a month on average
• Lyn doesn't respond to people's comments online, as she's uncomfortable with the idea of being an 'editorial voice'. She would rather have people contact their local branch library for follow-up queries.
• Lyn's council doesn't have a social media policy, and her blog was created before her council started blocking access to web 2.0 tools. Blogger remains open.
• Her motto: be simple, be wide-ranging, acknowledge sources, don't editorialise.

John MacRitchie from Manly library also spoke about his experiences running a Local Studies blog

• It's important to use every means possible to publicise the library, but you might have to be 'performing' for a while before people start taking notice.
• Local Studies blogs tend to run out of steam
• Watch your topics and your tone, as local people and families have long memories!
• John only spends about a hour a week on the blog, and manages a couple of posts a week.
• Post about odd topics, you never know who might be reading (eg, Sherlock Holmes society, train boffins).
• Watch your Copyright - photos you post show up in a Google Images search pretty quickly, so make sure you get permissions right beforehand.
• There are awards to be won (motivation perhaps?). The Australian War Memorial blog has won awards.
• Be prepared for community members to bring donations in as a result of reading your blog

Michael Bennett from NTSCORP spoke about the genealogical resources available to Aborigines in NSW.

• NTSCORP is a small organisation that assists NSW Aboriginal communities with Native Title claims, undertaking historical and anthropological research on their behalf, and funded by the Federal Government.
• Native Title claims have to prove continuity of connection to the land, identify who the claim group is, and identify all the traditional families from an area.
• The research focuses on People, Places, and Events. Genealogies are an important part of this.
• NTSCORP holds a large database of genealogical information collected as part of Native Title research. Usually the research goes back 7 or 8 generations, but has gone as far 30 generations. Members of these communities are able to request copies of their personal genealogy free of charge.
• As part of the personal genealogy provided, NTSCORP provides copies of original documents along with the family tree.
• Although respectful of the confidentiality required when handling genealogical information, NTSCORP is attempting to improve access to the information via related agencies, such as LinkUp.

The meeting:

• There was some discussion around dealing with disasters, and setting up a network of volunteer Local Studies librarians who are prepared to help other libraries out in an emergency. It was agreed that the RISG wiki would be used to compile practical information on dealing with a disaster.
• Australian Newspapers Digitisation Plan - everyone loves it, and would love to have their papers digitised. Cost was a prohibitive factor, with only one library in attendence saying they were going ahead with digitising their papers.
• The themes for 2011's upcoming History Week ("eat history") and Heritage Festival ("amazing stories") were considered to be excellent. There was much discussion over the possibility of a joint project between libraries. For example, a virtual photo exhibition for History Week around food, perhaps hosted by the State Library. Most people also liked the idea of the State Library's mini exhibitions on concertina boards, available for loan to libraries.
• The State Library of NSWs Digital Practice Guidelines are being updated, and will be published online in January. There is a seminar 15th February 2011 on Digitisation and digital preservation.
• There is an Auslib conference "A sense of place" planned for 4-6 May 2011 focusing on local studies. Cost is $660
• The next meeting will be on Tuesday 11th October 2011, possibly at Goulburn.

Skype

I'm rather excited at the mo, because my brother informed me the other day (while he was re-installing Windows on my laptop) that I have a microphone built into my laptop. Yay, this means I can start learning to use Skype straight away, instead of waiting until I get around to buying a plug-in headset mike!

PS, free wi-fi internet at motels / hotels is terrific.

Learning 2.1: All done!

Thanks to the pls@slnsw team for putting together another web 2.0 course for NSW public libraries. We really appreciate the hard work that goes into pulling something like this together.
I'm very glad I stuck this one out (not that I had much choice, it's on my Annual Assessment for work!). It was really good to re-visit some of these web 2.0 tools again. The Learning 2.1 course is also great motivation to get back into using some of the web 2.0 tools on a regular basis (eg, blogging, rss feeds).

I think I'd like to investigate more about:

• online meeting / training sites - there are quite a few vendors we deal with that are now offering online training (eg, via WebEx), but I'm reluctant to go ahead with them unless I know they will slip in under Council IT's radar (no software downloads required), and be easy for all library staff to use.
• Mashups - I'd really like to be able to get stuck in to creating mashups, rather than just skating around the edges, but my lack of IT knowledge stops me.

Thanks!

Learning 2.1 - Week 24: The dark side of the web

Have you ever been the target of a phishing scam?
Yep!

Did you recognize it as a scam right away?
I think there was one I had to think about for a few seconds. 

What tipped you off?
Mostly they're pretty obvious, I find. They usually come from people I don't know, or companies I don't do business with.
I've always turned my nose up at all those Reader's Digest, chain letter, miracle-cure things. So, I'm not the sort of person who falls for the "I'm a poor deprived African prince just trying to help my people throw off the shackles of slavery" line. Africans aren't stupid, you know - they don't need my help to launder their money!
The scams that are hardest to spot are the ones that look and sound just like your bank. That was the one I nearly clicked on! But fortunately, I remembered to go direct to my bank's website and check their known scams info.

My parents surprise me, though. They're both really smart, and computer-literate (considering they're in their mid-60s), but they are also surprisingly susceptible to email scams and hoaxes. One the one hand, they're too scared to use Facebook or YouTube, and on the other they're forwarding the most bizarre hoax emails to me without prior fact-checking. Something that screams 'Scam!' to me slips right by them. What's with that? Perhaps they just aren't fluent in the 'language' yet.