Open Access - What Now?

Last week (21 - 27 October) was international Open Access Week. So what is Open Access and what are a few things we, as library and information professionals, can do to support it for the other 51 weeks of the year?

What's Open Access again?

If you'd like a quick refresher on Open Access, or are looking for a great resource to which you can direct others, check out this video created by PHD Comics.



Or try this overview by Peter Suber, an authority on the Open Access movement.

What about Open Access in Australia?

The Australian Open Access Support Group (AOASG) is a great starting point for resources about OA - specific to Australia.

Free information!

Who doesn't like free information? If you're looking for Open Access journals, your first stop would have to be the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which celebrated its tenth birthday this year.

If you've got time on your hands, browse the 141 Library and Information Science journals currently listed in the DOAJ.

And don't forget institutional repositories, where institutions collect and showcase their scholarly output. To browse or search repositories around the world, explore the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR).

What can we do?

Check out a recent AOASG post by Dr Danny Kingsley outlining four issues restricting widespread green OA in Australia, along with her suggested solutions. Is there something here that you or your organisation could address?

See Peter Suber's extensive list of things that Librarians can do to support OA for many more ideas - this is specific to academic libraries.

Contribute to WikiProject Open - this project aims to improve Wikimedia content through the use of open materials, and to improve Wikipedia articles on openness. If, like me, you've never contributed to Wikipedia before, start with the section welcoming new Wikipedians.

Share in the comments - what are you going to do before next year's Open Access Week?

Amy Croft
Convenor, ALIA Sydney
@amyecroft

National Advisory Congress (NAC) is almost here

There are still spaces available for the upcoming Sydney NAC on Monday 28 October.
Free registration and more details at Eventbrite.

ALIA’s annual National Advisory Congresses are held in each state and territory in order to provide ample opportunity for members to participate in discussion on policy, planning and topical issues relevant to the Association.

Join the ALIA Board of Directors' Alyson Dalby, and your New South Wales colleagues, to discuss ALIA’s Future of the Profession project. NSW’s State Manager, Julia Garnett, will be recording notes. You can follow us on Twitter and participate via the #aliafutures hashtag.

We'll be meeting at Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, one level above Surry Hills Library at 405 Crown St. The NAC will get underway at 6pm and run until about 7:45.

Afterward you are welcome to continue the conversation. Join us for dinner or a drink at The Clock Hotel, across the road at 470 Crown St.

ALIA Sydney Meetup Tomorrow!

ALIA Sydney will be having an informal meetup at the Lindt Cafe at Cockle Bay Wharf tomorrow (Friday 25 October) from 7pm.

This is a great chance to:

• network with fellow awesome library and information people, including Julia Garnett, the ALIA State Manager for NSW
• let us know what kind of events you'd like to see ALIA Sydney provide in 2014

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No RSVP necessary - just show up!

If you can't make it, please feel free to share your event wishlist via the comments below or email us at aliasydneygroup@gmail.com.

Hope to see you there,
Amy Croft
Convenor, ALIA Sydney
@amyecroft

Library 2.013 Worldwide Virtual Conference One Week Away

The Library 2.013 Worldwide Virtual Conference will be held October 18 - 19 (Friday and Saturday). 

The conference is online, in multiple time zones over the course of two days, and free to attend! The School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University is the founding conference sponsor. For those of us in Sydney or surrounds, the first presentation will be at the unfriendly time of 2:00am on Tuesday October 15th, being Connected Librarian Day (hashtag #cld13), with the Conference proper beginning at 1:00am, Saturday October 19th, and running continuously until 2:00pm on Sunday 20th October.

But don't despair! If you are keen to hear the presentations, but also need your sleep, all presentations are recorded and will be posted fairly quickly on the Library 2.0 website. On the other hand, with more than 144 presentations to choose from, there are bound to be some you would like to join and participate in. A list of keynote speakers can be found here.

Last year I thoroughly enjoyed the Conference, mainly lurking around and not joining in much, and most likely I will do the same this year. I enjoyed hearing from presenters all over the world, and later in the year, I was easily able to return to recordings of those sessions as something cropped up that made me want to refresh my memory.

Register through the website if you like, but you don't need to register to enjoy the presentations.

Lauren Castan

How do you feel about working in a dying industry?

Great actually!

If libraries are what people consider a dying industry, please let me share with you a few statistics that were compiled by the State Library of NSW.

There are 376 public libraries in NSW, 142 in metropolitan NSW and 234 in country areas.

The key indicators of public library use show that public libraries are highly valued by their communities. 2012 figures show:

• almost 35 million visits to NSW public libraries (up 30% since 2000)
• almost 48 million loans
• over 3 million internet hours used by the public
• almost 3.2 million library members (44% of the NSW population)
• more than 52,000 public programs and events
• more than 1.2 million people attended public programs (up 38% since 2008)

Now I don't know about you, but I would consider that a growing industry, if anything. We are currently in an era that could shape how people view and use libraries in the future.

What an opportunity and a privilege!

- Gabby

Hallowed Ground Panel Confirmed

Hallowed Ground is almost upon us and we can now share with you our panelists on the Future of the Storybook.

Don't forget to register HERE to join us next Monday night, 6pm at Customs House Library!!!

Panel:

Chris Cheng is the award winning author of more than 40 children’s books in print and digital formats including the picture books One child, andSounds Spooky, the historical fiction titles New Gold Mountain and the Melting Pot and the non fiction titles 30 Amazing Australian Animals and Australia’s Greatest Inventions and Innovations. In addition to his books, Christopher writes articles for online ezines and blogs and he wrote the libretto for a children’s musical. He is co-chair of the International Advisory Board for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), an International Advisory Board Member for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) and a recipient of the Lady Cutler Award for Children’s Literature. He is also the director of the digital publishing company Sparklight. He presents in schools, conferences and festivals around the world and he established the international peer voted SCBWI Crystal Kite Awards.

Heather Curdie is a Senior Editor for Penguin Books and is part of a small Sydney contingent of the Penguin Young Readers, a division of Penguin Australia. She works on a wide range of children's books that includes picture books, middle fiction and young adult. While at Penguin, she has been fortunate to be editor to Oliver Phommavanh, Tohby Riddle, Aaron Blabey, Jane Godwin, Anna Walker, Andrew Joyner, Judy Horacek, Nicole Pluss, Michael Wagner, Ursula Dubosarsky, Robert Newton, and Morris Gleitzman. Heather love her family, music, swimming, chocolate (hence the swimming), and is a sucker for a good waterfall or spectacular sunset.

Alex McDonald is the Studio Manager of We are Wheelbarrow, a digital interactive studio that develops children's books into creative, innovative and entertaining apps. We are Wheelbarrow was founded in 2011 by Tim Kendly, Nick Bland, Adrian Shapiro, and Matt Tanner. Wheelbarrow works to translate pages to screens, providing a digital platform coupled with art direction and design, as well as cutting edge design. Wheelbarrow's latest project, to be released on the 8th October is a digital app of Shaun Tans' brand new book 'Rules of Summer'. Alex is also a Production Assistant and project Manager at the company. She is also Studio Manager of Wheelbarrow's sister companies XYZ Studios and Crayon.

Judith Ridge is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s leading experts on writing for children and young adults. Judith has worked as an editor, teacher, writer and critic. Her experience as an editor encompasses more than six years at the NSW School Magazine, in-house at ABC Children’s Books and as a freelancer for Random House, Penguin, Walker Books Australia and O’Brien Publishers Ireland. She has taught children’s literature at Macquarie University and established the Writing for Children and Young Adults course in the MA of Creative Writing program at the University of Sydney. For the past 8 years she has taught a short course in writing children’s books at the Australian Writers’ Centre. Judith is an Honorary Associate in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Judith has written about children’s and youth literature for journals such as Viewpoint and Magpies, Australian Book Review,Publishers Weekly (US), AustralianBookseller and Publisher, The Horn Book(US) and The Melbourne Age. She has spoken at numerous conferences, festivals and seminars in around the world. 

Currently, she acts as a consultant to the Sydney Writers’ Festival on their children’s and youth program, including coordinating the Festival’s School Days programs for the 2013 and 2014 Festivals. Judith has been a judge four times on the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, is a Churchill Fellow and has an MA in children’s literature. Since 2007, she has been Project Officer on WestWords: the Western Sydney Young People’s Literature Project.

Thursday Night TweetUp

Looking for something other than late night shopping to do this Thursday (19th September) night?

Come on down to The Barber Shop for a Tweetup with Jason Griffey, the creator of LibraryBox!  

Jason will be bringing LibraryBox along for everyone to check out! 

So come on down to 89 York St for a few cocktails and tech talk with Jason!

When: 6pm, Thursday 19 September 2013

Where: The Barber Shop