Blog Every Day in June day 27: What did a 1920s wedding sound like?

For day 27 of Blog June, we bring you a recent post from the National Library of Australia's blog regarding a special reference question. This post was originally posted under the title "What did a 1920s wedding sound like? by librarian Danelle Edmonson. You can read it on the NLA blog here.


I greatly admire the dedication reference librarians have for providing their clients with detailed answers. The wealth of knowledge and information the NLA holds in both its staff and collection is phenomenal.

Hope you enjoy today's post!


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As a member of the National Library’s Ask a Librarian team, I get to work on the rich variety of questions sent to us from all across Australia.

When was my great-grandfather born?

How can I find out when this book was published?

What page number is this quote on?

Wedding bells [music] / words by P.C. Cole ; music by Harold Lindsay, nla.mus-vn5787936

While they are all interesting, there are some that you know are going to send you delving deep into Australia’s history.

I was recently scrolling through our list of new questions, when the following jumped out at me:


“Hello, I am trying to find out what kind of music would have been played at an Australian wedding in a small regional town in 1920?”

I was hooked. Music has such an influence on emotion and memory, to be able to hear what a wedding sounded like would add a totally different dimension to our understanding of what it was to be there.

Switching into research mode, I was eager to find a search strategy to recommend. I decided on three sources that were likely to contain relevant information:

• Women’s magazines—perhaps these would include articles about wedding fashions of the time.
• Newspapers—for wedding announcements and articles.
• Published music from 1920—to find out what was popular at the time.

I also thought about the social factors that would influence the music choice, such as:

I started by searching the catalogue for the subject “Women’s Periodicals—Australian”(librarian language for women’s magazines). These are always a fun glimpse into days gone by, and they’re especially valuable for finding references to popular pastimes.

I scanned the magazine pages for music and weddings, all the while trying not to get distracted by the fashions and gossip of 1920. Finally, I found something in a classical music column from The Woman's Record—could it be a clue?

• family income—could they afford professional musicians?
• proximity to music stores—would they have access to the latest hits?
• did the family have conservative tastes? Would they prefer modern music?

The woman's Record, 7 December 1920

Ok, so jazz and ragtime were popular at the time. But the article was from metropolitan Adelaide; would this kind of music have been popular in rural areas, or even played at weddings? Maybe not—sometimes the first “clue” doesn’t turn out to be the one you need, but can still help to refine your understanding of the question and your choice of source material.

I moved on to Trove’s digitised newspapers, which ended up being, of course, a wealth of information. Today we can see someone’s choice of wedding dress and flowers on social media; in 1920 you could read about it in the local newspaper.

Starting with a Trove search for ‘wedding AND music’, I used the ‘Narrow search’ options to whittle the results down to articles from 1920 (you could even narrow by state or newspaper title). This brought up an array of wonderful articles about weddings, such as that of Archibald Dearlove and Nellie Pearce from Kooringa, S.A.:

"Miss G. Pearce presided at the organ and rendered the usual music. The service opened with 'The Voice that Breathed o'er Eden... At the close of an impressive service, 'O Perfect Love' was sung and the Wedding March played as the bridal party left the church."

Burra Record (SA: 1878–1954), 18 February 1920, p. 3.

                                           

I did a quick search of the Library’s catalogue—(you could even use our sheet music app Forte)—and found a handwritten copy of O perfect love.

O Perfect Love 1930–1960, wedding anthem / words written by D.F. Blomfield ; the music composed by S.W.R. Jackling, nla.mus-vn318273

With this, I now had a lovely example to send and a proven research strategy to find out more.
Define the details of the wedding, such as location and wealth
Search Trove’s newspaper articles to find wedding. announcements and descriptions from this area, and take note of the music that is played.
Search for this music in the Library’s catalogue.

Helping someone find an answer to a tricky question is the most satisfying part of being a reference librarian … travelling back in time is just an added bonus!

Norah Valentine Knox and Ernest Whistler Street at their wedding, New South Wales, 21 April 1925 [picture], nla.pic-vn6303285

© National Library of Australia

Blog Every Day in June Day 1: National Simultaneous Storytime

Welcome to day one of our thirty day blog fest! We're starting today off with a bang and a review of ALIA's National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS).

This year's National Simultaneous Storytime book was 'Too Many Elephants in this House' by author Ursula Dubosarsky. While the author and illustrator (Andrew Joyner) was reading and drawing with children at Customs House Library, ALIA joined up with Manly Sea-Eagle Brenton Lawrence, NRL One Community, zookeepers, AND elephants at Taronga Zoo to read the book! 

The book was being read to eight schools via video conference and the students attending were able to hear the book read, and talk to both Brenton and elephant keeper Sheryl about books, elephants and footy. 


Seeing the enthusiasm of the children as they listened to the book and learnt all about elephants reminded me of the importance of this program and of reading to and with children in general.

Brenton Lawrence reading

Not being a rugby league fan, I hadn't known about the Rugby League Reads program that the NRL is currently running with Macmillan Publisher. This program encourages school children to further their literacy skills with a series of curriculum based texts and activities. Each of the NRL clubs has a 'Reading Captain' (Brenton Lawrence is the Reading Captain for Manly) who support the program by attending schools and events, which made teaming up with ALIA for NSS a perfect fit. In addition to having Manly's Reading Captain at Taronga Zoo, the Melbourne Storm Reading Captain read to school children at Melbourne Zoo and many other clubs had players attend schools and public libraries all over the country.

Jessica (NRL One Community), Cate (Zookeeper) and Brenton

It was great to see such an important event getting the attention it deserves and has made my first NSS experience one I'll remember for ever. National Simultaneous Storytime can only get bigger, and I can't wait to see what's lined up for next year! 

Cate and Sheryl (Elephant Keeper)

Kirsty Butler

ALIA Sydney Co-Convenor

Twitter: @Bo0k1sH

Here's to a successful Blog Every Day of June!

What an incredible month of blogging! ALIA Sydney’s second Blog Every Day of June project was indeed a wonderful success, due to the plethora of contributions from our incredible guest bloggers, the regular ALIA Sydney Group committee and of course due to you, our readers.

We had posts encompassing a wide ranging list of topics, which I hope you found thought-provoking, inspiring and interesting. We had a huge readership over the past month and you can see that it has spanned across several countries (even when we take into account the bots that are bumping up our stats!) I do want to particularly thank our international guest bloggers for their contributions as they had to deal with time differences and the like, when submitting their blog posts to us! 

It’s indeed a wonderful time to be an information professional- there are so many interesting facets to our work to explore and learn about, so I thank you all for your posts, comments and readership. I do hope that the ALIA Sydney #blogJune effort sparked some new ideas and discussions amongst your colleagues.

In fact, due to the overwhelming support that we’ve had from our guest bloggers, and to celebrate the lead up to the ALIA Biennial conference in the second week of July, we’re pleased to announce that we’ll be extending Blog June into the first few days of July.

So please, keep reading and continue commenting.

Thank you and happy #blogjune!

Crystal

(ALIA Sydney Group Convenor)

Tips for applying for library jobs in the public service

I don’t purport to be any sort of expert when it comes to applying for jobs, but I’ve had some recent experience with this - both as a job seeker and a recruiter. The focus of this post is particularly on permanent Commonwealth public service jobs, although many of these tips will be applicable for state public sector jobs as well as jobs at universities.  That said, not all of the Commonwealth agencies will follow the practices which I’m describing here.

This post looks at the first half of the process: finding jobs to apply for and the written application. There are some things I have to say about the second half of the process: the interview, referees, the order of merit, but that will have to wait for another post.

Monitoring the job market

The first step is finding a suitable position to apply for. I’d really recommend only one place for the Commonwealth public service jobs: http://www.apsjobs.gov.au/ There is no requirement (and usually no budget) for Commonwealth jobs to advertised anywhere else, so if you’re at all serious about considering the public service as a potential place to work, then make a profile and alert on this site as soon as you can. If you don’t want to do that, than at least search the site every Thursday afternoon. The new jobs are advertised then - and that way you have the full two weeks to write your application.

You can often find out about new positions from ALIA or other professional associations. That’s convenient and may be enough for the casual observer, but not all library-type positions from APSjobs end up on the association-related lists and websites. That’s why it’s best to do your own monitoring – if you find a position that has gone under the radar, you may have a real advantage in your application.

If you’re looking for work, you’ve probably signed up with one of the library placement agencies. That’s a wise move, but it would be a mistake to do only that and expect that the agency is going to do the rest of work for you. This is particularly true if you’re looking for a permanent position in the public service. In most Commonwealth departments, there is only one way of applying for a position. It involves using that department’s online recruitment system - completing the various online forms, uploading your resume and statement addressing the selection criteria etc. For permanent positions, there is no shortcut for recruitment agencies. Even if you’re with an agency, the formal application has to be completed by you. This process is often relaxed when it comes to temporary positions and that’s when the placement agencies can be particularly helpful for you.

Be in it to win it

I’m the first to admit that applying for public service jobs is a chore. I’m not exaggerating when I say I could write at least five private sector job applications in the time it takes to write one good public service application. I’ve known some people, really good librarians who would be ideal candidates, who rarely apply for public service positions because they hear about positions too late and never have the time to complete a good application before the deadline.

The difficulty of applying for public service jobs is not all bad news for job seekers. It means that if you can satisfy the requirements and write a credible application, then you are at a comparative advantage because so many other potential candidates did not even reach that point.

Selection criteria

If you don’t have much experience or confidence with responding to selection criteria, this is what you need to do: Stop reading this post and get a hold of one of Ann D. Villiers books on the topic. Sometimes they’re difficult to buy in print, but most public and university libraries should have good holdings.

When a recruitment panel member is wading through a large number of applications, needing to make that crucial (and sometimes mean) first cut, applications which fail to address the selection criteria are a gift - because that’s an automatic fail. Sometimes it’s a bittersweet gift, because the candidate may have had some potential.

All selection criteria need to be addressed. It’s not good enough to address five out of six. The following are not ways of addressing selection criteria: “Refer what I wrote about criteria x”, describing the criteria in a different way, writing an essay about the why the criteria is important, stating that you meet the criteria without providing evidence from your education or work experience.

Selection criteria are the main reason why public service jobs are so difficult to apply for. As a job seeker you will see some criteria again and again. Some of them may be standard for that particular agency. In different agencies you may see a slightly different version of a criteria. Do not fall into the trap of recycling your public service job applications without extensive customisation! There are two reasons for this. First, selection panel members get annoyed if they sense that that the applicant is writing for a different job’s criteria. Those applications go straight to the reject pile. Second, writing the selection criteria is your only opportunity in the written application to state why you’d be good at this job and why you’re interested in working for that particular agency. Responses to criteria which have been copied and pasted from application to application end up sounding generic and passionless.

Selection criteria are the key to public service jobs - and not just for the written application. It’s common for interview questions to correlate directly with one of the selection criteria. You can’t anticipate the specific questions which you may be asked, but if you’re comfortable with expounding on aspects of the selection criteria, you should be able to handle any question.

- Morgan Wilson


Morgan has worked in several law libraries and business libraries in Sydney and Minneapolis - St. Paul in the USA. He is currently working as a librarian for the Australian Public Service in Canberra. He blogs and tweets occasionally at www.explodedlibrary.info and @explodedlibrary

Social media & libraries: keeping an ear to the ground

Recently I’ve been keenly alert to what is happening in social media for professional use. From what I am hearing, I am not alone. Businesses, education, research institutions, to name some, want to find out what their clients want and how they can reach further by using social media. A very good reason behind this interest is that many people worldwide use social media daily. GlobalWebIndex has just released an infographic that visualises the global state of social networking in 2011. In Australia alone, there are 7.5 million active social networkers. According to the statistic, we are mainly a nation of content sharers, and messagers and mailers, but we are less likely to be joiners and creators of groups.

While the number of people using social media is significant, it isn’t always clear how and why online engagement would benefit organisations. Many organisations and their libraries are not sure whether social media is worth the effort at all.

Government & workplace 2.0

Last month the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner released the policy document Principles on open public sector information, which identifies open access to government information as an area of national significance. The second of six principles, Engaging the community, recommends active online engagement with the community and the use of Web 2.0 tools. This policy document is created with an intention to inform and influence information management policies and practices of government agencies. It is not clear at this point how it will be adopted in practice.

Earlier this month, Dr Chen presented a seminar entitled Online engagement or neo-liberal Trojan horse at the Parliamentary Library in Canberra arguing that the Government 2.0 does not serve only the interests of the public. In discussing how to avoid potential pitfalls, Dr Chen emphasises, among other factors, the importance of general information literacy and motivation of government agencies. Libraries clearly have a role to play in identifying and developing critical information skills, which are required for online engagement, but they also may be able to lead the way, as so many times before, in developing motivation of their organisations. However, developing motivation may not be an easy task when government libraries, like many libraries in other sectors, often operate in an environment where openness is not a default position. It is difficult to argue for an online engagement when a librarian cannot access many useful web pages and when Facebook and Twitter are blacklisted with all other social media sites.

Positive examples of online engagement may help in making the use of social media acceptable and even desirable at a workplace. Luckily, libraries provide numerous examples of successful online engagement and ALIA Sydney can certainly point towards some inspiring practices.

Disturbing the dust

Last month I followed the ‘disturb the dust’ campaign, which provided lots of good reading material and an excellent example of online engagement. The University of Sydney Library is planning renovations of its oldest and largest branch, Fisher Library, which houses material in the humanities and social sciences. When it was announced that a large part of the collection will be accessible from a repository rather than in the library, parts of the University community started to express their dissatisfaction, even anger and outrage, protesting against the decision. Funding and staffing cuts also featured prominently in discussions about changes. Since the University Librarian mentioned a ‘dust test’ as a criterion for relocation, the Facebook page Save the books! Disturb the dust! Mass book borrowing & READ IN 18/05 was created.

A week before the event, numerous postings discussing library developments appeared on the page. Witty, angry, emotional and rational posts made for great reading, potential research data for discourse analysis and, most importantly, were a testimony of a committed library community. At the same time, archival library pictures evoked memories and numerous comments were exchanged on related Facebook pages. When the big day of mass dust disturbance came, the library staff greeted users in the foyer, helped them with borrowing and answered their questions. Pictures from the protest were posted on the Flickr by students and further distributed by the Library.

From my online post, it appeared that Facebook exchanges contributed greatly to airing concerns, engaging the community and bringing the cherished library into focus. Rather than hiding from upset customers or trying to have the last word in discussions, the Library did all the right things to engage with its clients and promote open discussion and good will. Informal public exchanges on Facebook gave a new dimension to the event. If the Fisher Library ‘disturb the dust’ case is anything to go by, social media provides powerful tools for libraries to keep an ear to the ground and promote its profile of a responsive and engaged service provider.

By the way, as I was about to finish this blog, I read the following Twitter post: julian0liver Julian Oliver ‘My six month trial of Twitter ends today. Verdict? Perfectly distracting, hopelessly useful, disturbingly interesting. See you tomorrow.’

- Suzana Sukovic

Suzana is Research Associate at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University of Sydney and a peripatetic librarian.

Join her on Twitter (@suzanasukovic) and Facebook

a conferencing we shall go

What do you look for in a conference?

In the course of the average year, there are plenty of conferences and professional gatherings to choose from in our industry. They range in size from a tweetup of half a dozen or so, through to major conferences like VALA, Information Online and LIANZA. Not to mention major international conferences such as IFLA and ALA. Models too, vary depending on the event: the standard model has mostly been to run a conference over 2-3 days with a series of speakers in lecture mode, i.e. out the front with an audience seated in rows.

NLS for example, have varied the basic model by having cabaret seating where folk sit around tables in small groups - the idea being to encourage interaction. At the other end of the spectrum is the unconference whereby everyone has the opportunity to engage with the material and speak up. Plus there have been attempts to combine various forms within a single conference whether through the addition of satellite events or the incorporation of streams within the larger conference structure.

Each model has its strengths and weaknesses, and can appeal to different sorts of audiences. At the core of each, there are perhaps a few items that strike me as common:

• a desire to learn new things
• meet new people
• catch up with old friends
• a chance to engage in conversation with your peers

Different trends come and go, but those basic needs seem constant.

Conference communication is changing too and here I'm not speaking in terms of marketing but rather the way people engage with the conference community both in the run up to, and during. Social tools such as twitter are playing a substantial part in this area particularly. I have a sense, as one who has attended many conferences, that VALA 2010 represented a key moment in communication changes in this region hitting critical mass. There was a strong presence via twitter involving folk physically and virtually present. Sufficiently strong that those not on twitter, experienced a markedly different conference to those that were. This is not an either/or scenario where one is better than the other, and of course there were some overlaps so they weren't necessarily distinct groups. That sense of engagement continued throughout 2010, e.g. we saw it again at ALIA Access several months later, and with Online this year.

Ultimately though, what are conferences about and what do we expect from them? For folk involved in social media, there is occasionally a sense that we are getting information much sooner in the publication cycle. There can be times where the mainstream media is days or weeks behind the twitter feed when it comes to breaking a story. Yet, there is the danger of restricting yourself to the circles of similarly minded people – i.e. it’s easy to lose track of stuff you don’t otherwise stumble across. I see a conference as presenting a range of ideas, some of which I’ve encountered before, but I’d also like to think that I’ll come across items that haven’t crossed my path.

I want to know what I don’t know.

I don’t think the old conference model of individuals lecturing to a group is particularly effective anymore by itself. Even with backchannel conversations via other media occurring, a rigid structure can inhibit rather than encourage. Though the unconference model suits a particular group of people well, it isn’t for everyone either. There continue to be experiments with hybrid conferences and incorporating other media into more formal structures. I am unclear as to what the best model is, particularly for larger scale conferences, and indeed what sorts of models are viable.

What sort of conference model best encourages learning?

- snail

snail is a librarian who currently works for a vendor and has been to far too many conferences. snail was on the organising committee for NLS2006 and co-convened Library Camp at ALIA Acess 2010. Blog:http://snail.ws and tweets @snailx

Mosman Faces – Putting YOU in the Picture

Way back in August 2009 the seed was planted for Mosman Faces.

An application for a Library Council of NSW Library Development Grant followed and in early 2010 success!

Grant received; it was time to put the verboseness of a grant application into action - Local Studies at Mosman Library hit the ground running.

In creating Mosman Faces the plan was to build on our already existing websites Mosman Memories, a place for past and present residents of Mosman to share memories of their street and Mosman Voices, which provides access to our oral history collection.

We wanted to go one step further and bring Mosman’s stories to life on screen through filmed interviews. We wanted the interviews to be online and interactive and we wanted these interviews to be complemented by scanned images of materials from our Local Studies collection. In short, we wanted Mosman’s story out there!

So the fun began. Since I had planted the seed I took on the implementation of the project, but not without the able assistance of staff members Donna Braye, Mosman’s Local Studies Librarian and Bernard de Broglio, Mosman Council’s Internet Coordinator.

Recreating Mosman’s story in a new attractive format requires much activity behind the scenes – choosing the interviewees, gathering information, selecting materials and images, scanning images, setting up the website and of course the interviewing and filming.

How many interviews? Who do we interview?

Ten ‘Faces’ were chosen and all agreed to tell their story. The Mosman Faces included Barry O’Keefe, ten times Mayor who was known to have shed blood for Mosman’s bush land, Paul Delprat, local artist and self proclaimed Prince of Wy and Judy Gibson, who never lived in Mosman but knows many of its inhabitants intimately from her days at Taronga Zoo.

We started off filming ‘on location’ but with the amount of equipment and tight time frame and possibilities of things going wrong the remainder of the interviews were done in the relative calm of our Library meeting rooms.

And what’s a story without images?

Following filming, the interviews were transcribed and they were edited and now it was time to match images to the words.

I won’t go into the detail of selecting and scanning of the images or the tediousness of the paper edit, with one eye on the timer code, one on the transcript and an ear on the interview but every project has its ups and downs and the show must go on!

Whether it was song and dance with the Mosman Musical Society, romance at the classic old cinema, The Kinema, or talking to the animals at Taronga, Mosman was planning to put on its face for a launch in Library Week, 23-29 May 2011.

The website was in Bernard’s capable hands, text was added, snaps were added, a logo was added and waiting, waiting, waiting…the day of the launch the films were added!

The night of nights was not exactly as planned but Mosman’s story was out there!

This week additional images, music and film footage is being edited into the stories and of course these ten interviews are just the beginning – stay tuned to Mosman Faces, another exciting installment from Mosman Library.

- Mary Lou Byrne

Mary Lou Byrne spends most of her work life at Mosman Library in Local Studies but also frequents the Reference Desk. She does not tweet, blogs irregularly, uses Facebook occasionally, emails frequently but does love a good story!

Internet Based Non State Actors And Their Potential Affect Upon Digital Archives

Lately Iʼve been mulling over the significance of Internet Based Non State Actors and
their potential affects upon Internet accessible archives, mostly due to the new star on the
scene, Lulz Security, aka LulzSec. For those of you who havenʼt heard about their recent
exploits theyʼve included disabling, hacking, and obtaining data from a number of high profile
targets due to their sociopolitical stands or just plain fun. These have included corporations,
governments and non-profits such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), InfraGard, the
National Health Service (NHS), Nintendo, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Sony, and the
US Senate to name a few.

What is an Internet Based Non State Actor? In fact there isnʼt really a proper term for
them since some schools of international relations do not account for them at all, since Non
State Actors of any kind do not fit into the Westphalian State Model. On the other hand newer
models that do recognize Non State Actors (NSA) lack a category that really fully describes
internet based groups such as Annonymous, LulzSec, Wikileaks, etcetera, since these groups
shift their focus continually, while simultaneously exerting both soft and hard power upon
multinational corporations, traditional nation states and international relations. These groups can
be at times categorized as Violent Non-State Actors (VNSA) yet simultaneously can carry the
traits of a Nongovernmental Organization (NGO). This issue of taxonomy will likely be further
explored in the coming years as traditional state power continues to erode and droves of
academics delve into archives, libraries, and online databases to come up with a multiplicity of
answers.

However, my original question is more hypothetical in nature; how will these Internet
Based Non State Actors or IBNSAs affect digital archives that are accessible over networks?
Centralized libraries have not always faired well throughout history with the burning of the
Library at Alexandria, the Fourth Crusadeʼs destruction of the Imperial Library of Constantinople,
or the Hanlin Academy Libraryʼs damage during the Boxer Rebellion. Centralized digital
archives really fair no better and possibly worse since physical proximity is no longer required to
destroy, damage, or pillage a collection of servers housing an archive and if anything has also
added an element of surprise in favor of an IBNSA or sole individual that might want to inflict
damage.

Decentralized and distributed models may prove a harder target as they spread risk
around, since not all the data is stored in a central location or if it is, it is replicated and
distributed in a fashion that is geographically decentralized. However, this does not fully isolate
or remove vulnerability, especially since interconnects between the nodes, in decentralized and
distributed networks, can act as gateways of attack once one node is compromised. At the very
least this can disrupt the confidence of a decentralized or distributed digital archive per this
discussion, which may not be that dissimilar to the recent hack and compromise of the Mt. Gox
Bitcoin Exchange, which tanked the value of the distributed peer to peer currency known as
Bitcoin.

With the rise of NSAs and the yet to be categorized IBNSAs, in a post state globalized
and network centric world, we also have an explosion of varying and unpredictable agendas that
can be exercised with a certain amount of impunity. These entities may or may not view the
content of archives and libraries as sacred as they may not hold data, information, or knowledge
to their liking and thus become targets, which is not something uncommon in human history. Of
course they may also just do it for the Lulz. In any case as we continue to bite and scratch over
exactly how archives and libraries should be digitized and made available to the world via the
Internet, remember it might be worth keeping a few of those physical copies around just in case.

Emery Martin is an Artist, Educator, and Techie currently based in LA and teaching at CalArts: School of Film/Video. http://emerymartin.net/

Don't hit me, I'm a Records Manager

I'll start with my confession. You see, I'm not nearly a librarian at all. I am in fact, a records manager. Oh, do I work for Sony, or a minor label? No, I manage corporate evidence. No, not in a legal sense, I never make it into a courtroom. I file.

At parties, this is usually the point where my interlocutor's eyes will glaze over and they'll start looking for another canape, another drink, another friend - anything to get them away from me before I start expanding on how interesting records management "really is".

I'm not here to tell you how records management will set the world on fire. I've looked over the other Blogjune posts - wow. They're all about NewStuff(tm) and how we're going to use the NewStuff(tm) to do EVEN MORE NewStuff(tm). Librarians seem to have successfully shucked prim maiden aunt image and are now bright young things doing more with less in a digital era.

Records isn't like that. "New" doesn't really happen in records. What I do now is what I've been doing for the past 8 years - helping people to get into good habits and helping them to stay in good habits. The people change. The places change. The subject matter and archival quality of the information changes. The struggles rarely change.

I help people to wrangle with the tools provided for them to manage records. Sometimes this is as simple as showing them how to save their documents in 2 mouse clicks rather than 3. Sometimes its as complicated as going into a well-established area of the business and convincing everyone (from the temp admin assistant to the manager) that what you've got to offer is going to make their lives easier, not harder. That can be a tough sell. People have their processes worked out. They know they're going the long way around, but at least they know that it gets them there in the end. Why swap what they know for a heap of new processes with new hurdles to be cleared? People know the problems with their system of handling information and they know how to manage those problems - why would they change to my system with its unknowns?

That's sometimes the issue. Its "us" versus "them". I'm often cast as the villain who wants to replace a perfectly awesome system of information management with something less than perfect. I once worked in a small office which had always relied heavily on its information resources. Once upon a time, that meant employing a large number of clerical staff to manually index and file legal transcripts. When I arrived, there had been a half-hearted transition to electronic records management, which didn't include those most important transcripts. A young lawyer challenged me to a retrieve-off, and of course I lost. After 10 minutes on the card files he had found the volume and page of the transcript and hence his vital precedent. I was still searching the broadest keywords and coming up with nothing.

Why? The company had saved 3 clerical salaries by introducing electronic records management, (and hired the young lawyer as a result). But they didn't invest in transferring their existing information assets to the new system. In theory, everything was 'faster now", but in practice we were still reliant on the index cards.

Good records management is all about continuity as well as doing things the very best way that we can. Records managers want continuity with the past. We bring in the existing information assets where we can. We spend hours and dollars on digitisation projects. We hire people to enter accurate metadata so that last century's records are still as retrievable as today's.

As well as continuity with the past, we also strive for continuity across the business. It is vital that we're all working from the same playbook and contributing to a shared resource. The ultimate aim is to develop a "single source of truth" for an organisation's information assets. In reality we're still searching multiple systems - the index cards, the records management system, the financial system, the data forecasting system, and the intranet page. A search is only as fast as its slowest stream, hence spending the dollars on digitisation.

Even contributing to multiple systems is a "win" in records management terms. One of the biggest hurdles I face is convincing people to contribute at all. When information is stuck in private drawers, in private email systems and on private drives, it isn't contributing to the information asset. I've heard all the excuses, from "but its a draft" to "its not a record, its a document" (that's like saying a manuscript doesn't belong in a library because "its not a book, its a novel"). So I'm not just the person who's saying "your work processes aren't working for the organisation at large", I'm also the person who's saying "you don't own the information you produce at work". That is incredibly challenging for a lot of people to hear, however much they've suspected it in the past.

Records management is about bringing lots of different elements together to form a whole picture. It is exciting to see that picture form differently in different places. Sometimes its as easy as importing data from an old system into the records management system. Sometimes its as difficult as wading through volumes and volumes of handwritten data - coding, classifying, digitising and thereby making it instantly available in the same place as work that is happening right now.

Although "new" doesn't really happen in records management, the same struggles bring new results every time. And hey, that's cool, even if I don't work for Sony.

- Meela Davis

Meela is a TRIM Jockey who works for a Large-ish Organisation. She dreams of global records domination... or at least better participation. You can see her personal tweets at @meeladavis.

What would good online LIS education look like?

This movie is my post to the Australian Library and Information Association's Sydney blog for 17 June 2011.

I talk about what I think online learning would look like if the Spirit of Ranganathan waved his magic wand and made it work. I start with what I think we aim to do when we teach information professionals at university, and then look at what online learning could do to reach those goals. What would good online LIS education look like?


On my wishlist is:

• teachers using online video
• easy to use self-managed online content management systems for those who know how
• more remote involvement by people with international and professional expertise
• more self-marking exercises
• better peer-marking systems
• easier ways for students to share their discoveries with each other
• automatic assessment metrics (like Google analytics for course material usage).

I also wish for more opportunities for face to face contact among online students in ways that promote genuine social learning, rather than fake conversations for assessment purposes.

During the movie, I mention some specific resources.

1. Chris Anderson talking about the revolution in communications brought on by video: http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html
2. Kate Davis using Wordpress in LIS education: http://virtuallyalibrarian.com/2011/06/09/the-social-classroom-presentation-on-teaching-in-social-media-spaces/
3. Michael Stephens and Kenley Neufeld using Wordpress in LIS education: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2011/05/buddypress-libraries-and-higher-education-an-interview-with-kenley-neufeld-and-michael-
4. Australian Teaching and Learning Council "Re-conceptualising and re-positioning Australian library and information science education for the twenty-first century" project site: http://www.liseducation.org.au/

- Kathryn Greenhill

Learn More about Licensing

Earlier this month, Kate Davis posted about the massive leap forward in eBooksover the past 12 months from the perspective of an end-user. The past 12 months have also seen a number of leaps in eBook products available to libraries, new pricing models, and usability for eBook users, but not always in the direction libraries would prefer.

Librarians are working more than ever to understand and meet user expectations, but the products available to libraries don't always provide the best fit to meet these needs whether because the interface lacks in usability, or because licensing is unfavourable. Publisher-initiated changes including the move to restrict eBook download to the library premises in the UK (Overdrive) and limited checkouts per title (HarperCollins)have made headlines not just in the library media, but in mainstream media.

Reaction from librarians has ranged from anger to resignation that the game has changed. The majority in the middle, however, see a role for librarians to to be a partner with vendors rather than merely a customer as models evolves, and to advocate for better licensing terms that benefit both library users, and publishers. 

Librarians at every level can get involved, from learning more about licensing on a practical level, to following broader trends that will impact libraries and the way content is delivered in the future. Licensing of eBooks is not just the domain of eResource librarians, but of every librarian that works with users. Initiatives like Library Renewal in the US will produce research on future content models. Closer to home, monitor intellectual property aspects of draft agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the work of the Australian Digital Alliance and the Australian Libraries' Copyright Committee. On an international level, IFLA has been working to develop a Draft Treaty on Copyright Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives at WIPO.

In many countries, including Australia, local publishers are underrepresented in the eBook market. If a publisher you purchase from does not yet offer eBooks, meet with them. Work with them to develop a business model that would work for you and your users. Purchase materials in a range of languages and in accessible formats. 

I've had a number of conversations with librarians in different countries about eBooks over the last few months. There are very few places where libraries are not already investing in eBooks. Awareness and engagement with content and licensing issues is far higher than I recall it being when I last worked at the reference desk. Now is the time to turn awareness into action and to secure the role of electronic content in libraries. 

 

Fiona Bradley is based in the UK as a Programme Coordinator for IFLA and tweets as @Fiona_Bradley

Sustainable Technology

What is sustainable technology? Sustainable technology can mean two things.

1. Technology (hardware and software) that makes a minimal impact on the environment.

2. Technology that is useful, flexible and designed for long term use.

I’m going to focus on the second definition, identifying technology that just works for libraries.

1. Simplicity

Simplicity is deceptive. Identifying a simple solution in the technology marketplace requires an understanding of how the complex systems work. In libraries we have an advantage. We already use a massively complicated information system daily.

So, when evaluating technology for your library, the first question should be: Does this work seamlessly with our ILS?

If you’re evaluating a new ILS: Does this work seamlessly with our existing hardware/software/procedures?

Here’s a small example: USB Barcode scanners.

When you plug a USB barcode scanner into a computer with a modern operating system, it just works. You can scan barcodes into an Excel spreadsheet. You can scan barcodes into your ILS simply by opening the client program and selecting the appropriate barcode box in the checkout form.

If your library is considering something that would replace a USB barcode scanner (say RFID), does the new system do what the old one did? If it doesn’t, get an exhaustive explanation as to why the new system would be better.

Your existing policies, procedures and technology can also benefit from a hefty dose of simplicity. Ask: Is there a simpler way to do this procedure? If there is, do an experiment. Simple procedures, simple policies and simple technology with clear instructions are always a better choice.

As Librarians, we are the experts in what works for our library. We need to challenge our vendors and our own expectations about ‘the way things work’

2. Standards

Librarians have an advantage when thinking about standards. We have been using and developing standards since the first libraries collected scrolls and clay tablets. Currently, we use MARC as our standard interchange format for library metadata. The rest of the world is catching up to our understanding of standards, and they are doing a lot of things right.

Web standards are one area that libraries and librarians need to pay a lot of attention to when making technology purchases. Web standards define how information is presented on the web. Devices, browsers and screen sizes are proliferating, and a strict adherence to web standards will solve many (but not all) of your compatibility problems with future form factors and browsers.

So, when the rep is demonstrating the new CMS that will drive your website, flip on over to the W3C validator and present them with the list of violations of web standards.

When you are selecting your new ILS, does the OPAC load on a iPad? That was one of my unpleasant experiences as a Systems Librarian. The OPAC in question used a complex session-based architecture that simply would not load on Mobile Safari.

Web standards like HTML, CSS and Javascript provide you with a website that works like a MARC record. The MARC record can display an authority record, a patron record, a bibliographic record or an item record. You can display that record in MARC, Long or Short records in your OPAC.

With a standards-compliant website built on CSS, HTML and Javascript you can change the entire layout, look, and feel of the site quickly and easily. You can even target different versions of the website to different browsers and screen sizes. You can move and display content in the ways that you want to.

A second point to think about standards is in your hardware and OS choices. Many of us choose Microsoft products by default. They offer wide compatibility, a stable platform and our IT departments support them. However, we should keep in mind that running client software is not the only choice for the administration of the ILS.

All of the functions performed by client software can be done using a web-based interface. Koha is the best current example of this.

Think about an entirely web-based, standards-compliant software product. Any browser can be used to access it, on any device, which can perform any function from circulation to self-check to systems administration.

When a new device like the iPad comes out, and your library director sends that dreaded email, “Can we use the new iGizmo 3GS?”, that’s when buying standards-compliant, simple products pays off.

3. Staff

The final key to sustainable technology projects is staff.

Do you have the staff with the right expertise to fix things in-house?

Be aware of your capabilities. If you don’t understand what you are hearing from IT, ask questions until you do understand. If there are limitations to what your organization can support, try to stay within those for on-site software, or go with hosted solutions. Part of being aware of your capabilities means writing them down. A master list of what your organizational IT can support will be invaluable when negotiating services and agreements internally and with external vendors.

Plan to transfer knowledge and record decisions made about technology systems. This starts with getting clear project reference documents from vendors. Policies and planning departments should create documents, on paper, a wiki or a knowledge bank, that record modifications to systems.

Planning and people require policies. These need to be recorded in some way.

People also need time to adjust to new systems. Training and capacity building are needed, but also need to be highly directed. Skills on proprietary ILS systems do transfer to other systems, but training on open standards like HTML, CSS, Javascript and open platforms like the MIT Mobile Web, Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress offer substantially more options for the library and for library staff.

Planning technology purchases that account for simplicity, standards and staff will give you a solid foundation to build library systems that don’t just work at the moment. A standards-based, simple system with enough support will be able to adapt to future needs that we can’t anticipate yet.

- Brett Williams

Brett is the Systems Librarian for the College of the North Atlantic - Qatar. He blogs at http://brettlwilliams.wordpress.com and can be found on Twitter @brettlwilliams

What is a discovery layer?

Storytime. Last year a few of us from UTS Library were invited to go and talk with students and then help to assess their augmented reality (AR) application concepts that could be applied to the UTS campus. They were advanced Visual Communications students working with some pretty clever and inspiring academics, including a visiting lecturer (Dr Keir Winesmith) who is normally the technical lead for SBS Digital Media. From memory, nearly all of the concepts they came up with were influenced in some way by the students’ use of and experience with social media. One of the concepts was tightly focussed on the Library and based on mobile service including mobile search and discovery and mobile check out.

The student library application included many features that they expected to see and use to search and discover our library’s collections: a basic item record; tags; ratings; reviews; comments; AND the item’s history of use. The history was represented graphically to show frequency and periods of use and even whether the item had been the subject of a fine for late return. We have taken their suggestions very seriously and it has confirmed our belief that we needed to add a basic social media layer to our “discovery layer” with new features such as folksonomic tags, ratings and reviews or comments. We are also looking into the feasibility of adding the item’s history of use.

This experience started me thinking about a number of things. Are we really offering true “discovery”, i.e. the chance of uncovering something accidentally or serendipitously that you may not have been specifically searching for in our online search interfaces? I don’t think so, not yet. They are mostly enhanced search, federated search or unified index based searching. Are we offering our clients, or users, or readers (or whatever you want me to call them Kathryn!) the kinds of services they are expecting to find online now based on their use of social media and various online services and applications that enable profile sharing and which deliver a more personal or shared experience online? No again I’m afraid. To do that I think we need to find out what our clients are doing, observe their behaviours and also talk to people from outside the library world to find out how we might leap ahead of what the predictable, slow-moving crowd that sells us library management systems and so-called discovery layers has to offer. In short, we need to stop walking like Egyptians and learn some new dance steps.

Now, in case you still don’t get it, here are some suggestions that might lead to enhanced serendipitous discovery. They are taken from my own experience with social media and other online services that I think are a long way ahead of our offerings. They enhance your ability to discover new things accidentally through your network of contacts or friends or through the “muddy foot prints” of others who have gone before you and altruistically shared their experience. For me I think it all comes from understanding the power of connections and sharing that is now offered by the web.

For a start, we definitely must start offering these features for our catalogues and search layers: comments (e.g. Flickr); folksonomic tagging (Flickr, Twitter); easy to use ratings (iTunes, LibraryThing); virtual browsing using Cover Flow (I know some libraries are already offering this); and reviews (Amazon, Expedia, iTunes Store).

And now a listing of the other features I like to use and would like to see some of us playing with:

• Little icons that quickly allow you to share a link to what you are viewing on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or a blog (Flickr does this very well now). I was also going to suggest little icons to social bookmarking services like Delicious and Diigo, but maybe the toolbar icons that are now added so easily in browsers like Google’s Chrome account for that?

• “Like” icons (Facebook, Tumblr).

• Reblog, retweet or re-post options (Twitter and Tumblr again, and yes Kathryn, I think we have much to learn from the pr0n industry online).

• The optional ability to establish, customise and share online profiles (last.fm) for “your library” that then facilitates the use of favourites (Flickr), “following” (Tumblr, Twitter), asking (Tumblr, Twitter) and things like wishlists (Amazon) which for libraries could mean things like planned reading lists stored for later and shared with friends or colleagues. I see this kind of thing being really useful in facilitating peer-to-peer help or advice that would be helpful to those using our databases or journals.

• Online profiles would also enable features like “scrobbling” your reading, use, borrowing history (last.fm). These profiles allow us to explore through the eyes of others. It works for music because people can easily find music they might like that is well beyond the boring and repetitive play lists of most radio stations.

• A check-in or currently reading/viewing service that might operate something like FourSquare. So, instead of locating yourself geographically, you are sharing where your headspace currently is in the library.

• Randomly exploring what you already know but have forgotten (Apple's Genius) related items (iTunes Store Genius recommendations).

• "Looking within" or sampling from a catalogue entry (Amazon & iTunes: e.g. listening or getting sample of an e-book before you buy).

• Is anyone offering an “I’m Feeling Lucky” button yet (Google)?

• Item use history (UTS students), including the application of late fees!

• Stumbling (StumbleUpon) another opt-in service that tracks your searching, browsing, use or borrowing history and then feeds you other items you might also find interesting or relevant.

I realise that doing all of the above isn’t feasible, nor would it be wise. We do, however, need to try a few of those features and when we set them up we must make them really easy and simple to use. I’ve probably missed a few things, so please let me know what you think.

- Mal Booth

Mal is from UTS Library and is interested in bikes. He's on the twitters @malbooth & blogs here.

Open Access vs. Cultural Protocols: Indigenous Knowledge Management

I think I can speak for most librarians and information professionals in saying that we like open access. By open access, I mean having research (in the form of archives and repositories as well as academic research) available online, at no-cost and with limited copyright restrictions. More often than not, this sort of research is done in collaboration with universities or academic institutions (such as journal articles done by professors and researchers) or in collaboration with cultural institutions (such as online archives provided by libraries and museums); therefore, it makes sense in academia to make it available to as many people as possible at no cost.

For a quick overview of open access principles, see Open Access Overview by Peter Suber, a Berkman Fellow at Harvard University.

For librarians and information professionals, open access is a no-brainer: we WANT to make knowledge—especially if held by public universities, libraries and museums—available to more people at no cost. While it would be great for every university to have a digital repository for research and writing conducted at their institution freely available or to have every museum and special collection digitise their holdings and provide online access, there are many examples of when this is not only impossible (perhaps due to copyright restrictions or ownership) but also not culturally ethical (especially when it comes to indigenous knowledge and cultural items).

While not every librarian and information professional will agree with me, I feel it is necessary to question the assumption that making information “open to the public” is a general public good, especially if it violates the cultural ethics of the indigenous community to which the information relates. For example, American and Australian anthropologists documented the lives of various Native American and Aboriginal & Torres Straight Islander communities since European contact—both with and without permission or complete disclosure. That information—stored as documents, photographs, physical objects, video and audio recordings—eventually made its way into archives, special collections and museums. Many of these cultural institutions are planning, or have already realised, digitisation projects with the goal of providing open access to their collections. However, making this information “open to the public” without input from the traditional communities violates library and information professional ethics. Thankfully, many policies have been authorised to minimise the electronic dissemination of indigenous cultural information that would go against cultural protocols.

Dr Kimberly Christen (assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies at Washington State University), questions this assumption that making information “open to the public” is a general public good, especially regarding indigenous information. And she does a much better job than I ever could. I highly recommend watching the first 20 minutes.

Dr. Kimberly Christen's Presentation from Knowledge River on Vimeo.

So, my stance is that open access is great—librarians and informational professionals should constantly push for and find ways to create more access for more people for a lower cost. However, not all information should be open access—even if that information “belongs” to a public cultural institution—especially if open access would violate the cultural protocols of the community to which the information “traditionally belongs.”

On the flip side, what about indigenous communities that DO want a repository for their cultural knowledge? Or indigenous communities that DO want to provide open access to some of their photographs, documents, and recordings detailing their communities? I HIGHLY recommend every librarian and information professional who works with indigenous communities or materials to take a look at the Mukurtu project, directed by Dr Christen. While the pilot project began with creating an archive/repository for the Warumungu Aboriginal community in Northern Territory , it was also used to develop a gateway to the cultural materials of the Plateau peoples held at Washington State University 

Mukurtu is a free, open source community archive platform designed with the unique needs of indigenous communities, libraries, archives, and museums in mind. Basically, it is a FREE full-package content management system that is geared towards indigenous communities by allowing communities to control access based on cultural protocols.

Mukurtu is different from off-the-shelf or open source content management systems in 2 main ways:

1) It allows different levels of access to multiple types of content based on indigenous protocols.

This means that a member of a tribal group would have a different level of access than a non-member. It also means that age, gender, kinship and group associations that are important in cultural protocols can be maintained online.

2) It allows inclusive metadata fields.

This means that additional metadata—such as traditional knowledge—can be added to standard institutional metadata such as MARC. It provides user-friendly administration tools so that metadata can be added by community members as well as information professionals.

Check out their most recent press release for more info.

Although I have come across several articles on indigenous knowledge management systems, Mukurtu is a unique system that is specifically designed for indigenous communities that doesn’t require an information professional background and is FREE!


-Jeff Cruz

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Jeff Cruz recently moved to Sydney and was formerly an Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Arizona (USA) and a Knowledge River Scholar in Latino and Native American Library and Information Issues at the UA School of Information Resources and Library Science.

Not another eBook post

I am a die-hard eBooks fan. Since I bought my Sony Reader a few years ago, I’ve had a strong preference for reading eBooks rather than print books. I am, however, a frustrated eBook user, like so many other people. In Australia, we have been stuck with a poor content selection because of geographic distribution rights that don’t work in our favour and we’ve suffered through extremely limited availability of dedicated devices. And that’s on top of all the other issues that make eBooks a problematic format internationally: DRM, proprietary formats and vendor lock-in, and half-baked models for the library market place to name just a few.

A couple of weeks back, I was preparing a lecture on online collections for the collections management unit I teach at QUT. When I looked back at my notes from last year, I realised just how far we’ve come in 12 months.

then…

When I gave this lecture last year, Borders had just launched their eBook store and begun selling Kobo and Sony Reader devices. When I heard Sony Readers were coming to Australia, I was more excited by what else Sony might release here – I hoped the launch of Sony devices in Australia would also mean the Sony eBook store would be available here. I was somewhat disappointed to find this wasn’t the case, and even more so when Borders’ promised thousands upon thousands of eBooks included a whole lot of public domain and backlist content. That disappointment turned to dismay when I picked up a brochure from Borders, and, being excited to see some top selling titles emblazoned across it, went back to my desk to give my credit card a bashing… only to discover that a handful of the featured titles were available. I remember tweeting about this at the time and feeling seriously cheated. Nevertheless, I was optimistic about the Borders model and excited to see what it would mean for eBooks in Australia.

At that stage, it remained to be seen how sales of dedicated eReaders would fare in Australia. There was also uncertainty about the iPad – would it herald a whole new era for eBook reading? Similarly, we were yet to see what impact iBooks would have. The Kindle had only been available in Australia for about six months, and at over $300, it was still a fairly hefty investment for a single purpose device. Perhaps most importantly, the range of content available was pretty grim. Availability of new releases was so sporadic that I simply stopped checking and instead, headed straight to my favourite independent bookseller to pick up my latest reads.

As an eBook user, I was still reluctant to read on a small screen device (although I have to confess this was pre-iPhone for me, and I think the iPhone as a device has had a big impact on my willingness to read on a tiny screen). I was also staunchly anti-proprietary formats and wouldn’t dream of buying a Kindle because it was my responsibility as an eBook user to make a stand against DRM, proprietary formats, and all related evils. Plus, I couldn’t justify forking out more than $300 for another (in my mind inferior) eReader, and I wasn’t prepared to take a gamble on a first generation iPad (read: my mortgage won out) to try out the Kindle app there.

… and now

Fast forward 12 months, and things have changed fairly significantly. On the device front, there is a much better range of devices available in Australia and they seem to be selling pretty well. I see eBook readers in the wild fairly regularly, and iPads everyday. Perhaps the most significant change in the device marketplace is that the Kindle has dropped in price to $114 (if you don’t mind ads while you’re not reading; $139 if you’re not so keen). To my way of thinking, this drops the Kindle into a category where people don’t have to think about the purchase a great deal before they make it. It also makes the Kindle a realistic option for a gift. And yes, this staunch advocate of openness bought her mum a Kindle for mothers’ day this year, and is seriously considering getting herself one too. Perhaps this is another big change on the eBook front: our mums now have the eBook readers we covet.

On a personal level, this year, I tried reading on my iPhone and grew to love it. While I much prefer reading on an eInk device, reading on the iPhone is convenient enough to counterbalance the crappy ergonomics.

I’ve also developed an interesting behaviour, and one that I’m sure is common to other eBook fans: I am an eBook scavenger. I move from seller to seller (did I mention the demise of Borders?), library to library, and app to app to get the content I want. And it doesn’t bother me at all. I’m an eBook opportunist! My first port of call is sellers of ePub content (first choice because then I can read on my Sony); if I can’t get what I want there, I head next to my public library’s OverDrive service (and then onto all the libraries I have reciprocal membership at…); and then my next stop is Amazon. While I prefer to buy in ePub, I don’t really care about format or provider as long as I can get the content I want. Sure, I’d prefer a one-stop-shop for all my ePub needs, but I’ve got the routine of scavenging for my content (and remembering which device or app it’s on when I want to read it) pretty sorted.

On a broader level, the biggest change in the marketplace in the last year has probably been the availability of content. When I look back at the books I’ve read in 2011 (21 just-for-fun reads to date), there has been relatively few I’ve been unable to get as an eBook, and every new release I’ve wanted to read has been available within about two weeks of release. I’ve stopped buying print books and I’ve stopped borrowing them from the library. If I can’t get a book in eBook now, I’m more likely to simply set it aside, marked as ‘to-read’ in GoodReads. So far this year, there has only been three books I’ve wanted to read for fun that I haven’t been able to get in eBook format: books four to six in the Phryne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood (although I have to confess I did go out and buy four and five in print at the height of my eBook seeking frustration).

I was pretty sure, twelve months ago, that we were on the cusp of something awesome with eBooks, and now, I feel like we’re almost there. Choosing to read eBooks over print books is now something you can do without completely compromising on the content you read, and the options for devices to read on are exciting. Sure, DRM is still a complete debacle; Australia still gets the raw end when it comes to geographic distribution rights; some Australian publishers have been slow to get on the bandwagon; and the library marketplace is fraught with issues… But as an end user of eBooks, I feel optimistic about what the future might bring.

- Kate Davis

Kate lectures at QUT, blogs at virtuallyalibrarian and tweets at @katiedavis (warning! lifestream!) and @katiedatwork. In her spare time (!) she is a PhD student, eBook lover, and aunty extraordinaire.