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4 May 2001 Australian section

 

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Cross Currents No 1 May 2001 

A digest of cross sectoral information management events, issues and ideas in organisations, libraries, archives and museums, with special emphasis on the arts and humanities. 


AUSTRALIA 

ARCHIVING WEB RESOURCES

The National Archives of Australia has published Archiving Web Resources: Guidelines for Keeping Records of Web-based Activity in the Commonwealth Government. The guidelines, a companion publication to the Archives' Archiving Web Resources: A Policy for Keeping Records of Web-based Activity in the Commonwealth Government, are available at:http://www.naa.gov.au/ [Source: aus-archivists].

ARTS & HUMANITIES THINK LINK

The Australian Library and Information Association’s Information Specialists Division has created an Arts and Humanities Round Table (ARTHUR) a Round Table on the Information Economy (ROTIE) and other special interest forums. For further details see Arts and Industry Talk Spaces at http://www.twf.org.au/research/rtables or contact Paul Bentley at pbentley@idx.com.au. 

ARTS E BUSINESS

A National Ozeculture Conference will be held in Melbourne on 12-14 June 2001. Topics: the value of local culture in the digital marketplace, selling your cultural product on-line, virtual exhibitions, direct access to audiences, building partnerships and relationships, creativity at the frontiers of technology, intellectual property issues, and ground-breaking technologies.http://www.acn.net.au/conference/.  [Source: Australia's Cultural Network Newsletter March, 2001]:

ARTS LIBRARIES SOCIETY AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

The minutes of the 2000 annual general meeting of ARLISANZ are available on its website. Action 2001 includes further development of print and electronic publication mechanisms, a submission to the Australian Government on copyright in photographs tools, and contributions to an international listing of sources for images on works of art. [Website: http://anulib.anu.edu.au/clusters/ita/artlis_anz/].

ARTS STRATEGY

The Australia Council has released a discussion paper Planning for the Future: Issues, Trends and Opportunities for the Arts in Australia. The paper aims to stimulate discussion on the needs of the arts industry and the future direction of the Council. Looks at the current situation. drivers of change, future needs and predictions under 5 challenges and opportunities: artistic, knowledge, financial, societal and infrastructure. Presents strategic proposals under the headings macro-panning strategy, supply strategy, demand strategies, infrastructure strategies and hotspots. Details:. www.ozco.gov.au/issues/pff/.

AUSSTAGE NATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS DATABASE

Flinders University, the lead organisation for a group of eight Australian universities, is developing the AusStage national performing arts database with funding from the Australian Research Council.  A NSW Hub aims to create or capture information on Sydney and NSW regional professional and amateur performing arts productions and performances from 1789 onwards. The University of NSW School of Theatre, Film and Dance will manage ongoing data entry for current events (January 2001 onwards) with the assistance of a network of voluntary organisations and individuals. The project team would like to hear from organisations and individuals in NSW who may be interested in providing data on events in particular organisations, venues, locations, periods and art forms. To obtain more information or register your interest regarding NSW events, please visit http://www.twf.org.au/whatsnew/ausstage or contact Paul Bentley at pbentley@idx.com.au. For enquiries about other states, please contact the national project manager Joh Hartog at drjh@flinders.edu.au

DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR RESEARCH IN THE HUMANITIES

A conference called Computing Arts: Digital Resources for Research in the Humanities will be held in Sydney, 26-28 September 2001, with the intention of bringing together scholars, academic researchers, publishers, librarians and archivists to exchange of ideas and extend the use of digital resources and tools in the humanities. Web: http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/drrh/2001

DRAMATIC ONLINE

A website and commercial information service for the Australian cultural industry was launched in October 2000. For a low subscription rate, the service offers a website and regular email news and job bulletins to the Australian cultural industry.. Web: http://www.dramaticonline.com. 

ELECTRONIC CULTURAL ATLAS INITIATIVE

The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative Conference will be held at the University of Sydney, June 12-16 2001. The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative is a collaborative project which will combine global mapping, imagery and texts to provide scholars and other users with a research resource based on digital technology to present complex combinations of data from multiple disciplines visually. Topics: electronic publishing of data-rich humanities resources, with a particular emphasis on spatial and temporal data; capturing and delivering historic maps, historical data and historic images on the Internet; building links between large online humanities data collections through cross-collection search protocols and metadata. An extensive network of thematic and regional teams will assist in shaping the program its and presentation. Conference website: http://www.archaeology.usyd.edu.au/ecai_2001/  ECAI website http://www.ecai.org/ [Source: NINCH-Announce]

INFORMATION ORIENTEERING

A facilitated cross sectoral forum initiated by Robine Polach and presented in Canberra to review information management issues using networked laptops and groupware. Topics: Smashing the Silos (led by Warwick Cathro): technology is not the real issue; cultural and organisational issues are the main obstacles to overcome; convergence was not happening because of boundaries and restrictions from differing institutions; Where is Your Information? (Joy Siller): how inefficiencies of fragmented information collections and unshared information could be overcome within organisations through more effective cooperation between information technology and information management entities; Working to Build a Cooperative Knowledge Base (Cathy Nelson-Smith): disparities between people who want to find information easily and information professionals who want information to be managed uniformly; approaches for organisational collaboration and gaining support. Balancing Technology with Cultural Imperatives (Bob Pymm and Paul Dowling): demonstrated the difficulty in achieving collaboration in knowledge management. Case Study (Dale Chatwin) outlined how the ABS was knowledge enabled with over 7,000 databases in a Lotus environment, but emphasised the need for human activity to support the technology.  The outcomes of the forum will be developed into a thought leadership paper for distribution to  participating delegates. Consideration is being given to interstate versions of the seminar. Webstie:  www.bigfoot.com/~InformationOrienteering. E-mail: robinep@orac.net.au

INTEGRATION OF UNIVERSITY INFORMATION SERVICES

The University of Melbourne has restructured its information services, bringing  together of six former departments, including IT, teaching support and information resources into a single ‘meta-department’ called the Information Division. According to Helen Hayes: librarians are now information professionals working alongside IT professionals, all aiming a delivering one thing information at the fingertips of students and staff  [Source: Incite March 2001].

MUSIC LIBRARY ADVISORY GROUP

The International Association of Music Libraries Archives and Documentation Centres Australian Branch has created an Advisory Group on Access Issues mainly concerned with improvements to Kinetica. Web: http://www.iamlaust.org. [Source: Intermezzo Feb 2001].

MUSIC AT THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA

Important steps in the management of music resources nationally and at the National Library have been taken since the appointment of Robyn Holmes as Curator of Music in 2000. Current priorities include improving the state of music in Kinetica, industry consultations and agreements on a national collection, development of a national infrastructure for music, exploring the feasibility of a model for seamless access to music resources and increasing visibility, use and understanding of the music collection at the National Library. [Source: Intermezzo Feb 2001]

NEW TECHNOLOGY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Museum Australia’s New Technology Special Interest Group held a meeting in Canberra on 23 April. Topics: digital imaging and information management; beyond the museums' walls: a critical analysis of emerging approaches to museum web-based education and Picture Australia. [Source: Basil Dewhurst, Acting Secretary, NTSIG via AMOL]

PERFORMING ARTS MUSEUM, PERTH

His Majesty’s Theatre officially opened Western Australia's first dedicated showbiz museum in February 2001. Situated adjacent to Downstairs at the Maj, the Museum of Performing Arts houses an extensive collection of photographs, programs, posters, press clippings scrapbooks, scripts, sheet music, sound tapes, designs and an array of magnificent costumes. For enquiries and tour bookings, contact curator Ivan King (08) 9265 0918. Web: http://www.hismajestystheatre.com.au  [Source: PGB]

PERFORMING ARTS MUSEUM, BRISBANE

A new gallery for the Queensland Performing Arts Museum in Brisbane was launched in March, the culmination of efforts by Museum Manager Beryl Davis. The Museum was established in 1995, using foyers of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre as its main exhibiting spaces, and collections have been assembled at the centre since it opened 1985. The current Centenary of Federation exhibition, Defining Acts: Australia on Stage will be on show until September, and will be followed by an exhibition from the museum’s ballet collection. Website: http://www.qpat.com.au/museum. [Source: PASIG conference]

PERFORMING ARTS RESOURCE CENTRE AND THINK TANK

Katherine Brisbane and Currency Press have established Currency House, a non-profit association designed to provide a resource centre for the performing arts and encourage practitioners and supporters of the performing arts to become involved in public affairs through the provision of event and publication activities. Email house@currency.com.au [Source: PGB]

PERFORMING ARTS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Museums Australia’s Performing Arts Special Interest Group held  a national conference on 23-24 April 2001. Topics: major online projects (AusStage, Keep Dancing and MusicAustralia), performing arts collections in the USA, Europe and Japan, research perspectives. For a report on the conference see www.twf.org.au/research/pasig2001. See also PASIG’s site Website: http://www.amol.org.au/pasig.

PHILOSOPHY SITE

The Anderson Lecture Notes, electronic editions of the lectures of Professor John Anderson, 1927-1955, have been published as a collaboration between University of Sydney's Department of Philosophy, SETIS, the Library's Scholarly Electronic Text and Image Service, and University Archives. The site provides a fully searchable electronic corpus of Anderson's lectures, associated works, commentaries, reminiscences and legacies. [Source: Ross Coleman via Ozlib]. Website: http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/anderson/.

QUALIFICATIONS

The Australian Society of Archivist’s submission to the Australian Qualifications Framework Advisory Board on the AQFAB’s Discussion Paper on the review of Guidelines for Qualifications is available at http://www.aqf.edu.au/review.htm  A joint ASA/RMAA committee has been formed to further examine issues arising from the focus. in competency standards, not on qualifications and courses, but on workplace skills, processes and experience, the introduction of full fees for post-graduate courses, the drop in enrolments at many of the Archives and Records courses in the higher education sector and closure of some courses. The ASA gives in-principle support to the suggestion of dual sector qualifications for both Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate courses. If the recommendation is implemented,  ASA will consider extending its course recognition activities to encompass Graduate Diploma courses in the VET sector. In future it may look at recognising Graduate Certificate courses, possibly in the context of some future intermediate level of recognition of the competencies of ASA members. As a general principle, the ASA supports the concept of maximum pathway flexibility. [Source: Aus-Archivists]

VISUAL ARTS GATEWAY

The National Association of Visual Artists is currently developing the Visual Arts Net gateway that will enable artists to upload images of their work, link to their own website, and offer discussion forums and events listings. Web: http://www.culture.com.au/nava. [Source NAVA News Bulletin March 2001]. 


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This issue of Cross Currents compiled by Paul Bentley.

 

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