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.
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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