Australian arts libraries, archives and
museums
Three associations concerned with managing arts information resources are
gearing up for their next conferences. The Performing Arts Special Interest
Group of Museums Australia (PASIG) will hold its next conference at the
State Library of Tasmania and Theatre Royal, Hobart from 29 April to 1 May
2006. Further details: Richard Stone, Chairman, PASIG randj@webone.com.au.
The Arts Libraries Society / Australia and New Zealand (ARLIS/ANZ) will hold
its next conference at Canberra in September 2006 (http://arlisanz.anu.edu.au).
And the Australian Branch of the International Association of Music
Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) will host the
association’s 2007 international conference in Sydney (http://www.iamlaust.org).
Australian research
Australian humanities researchers, according to Australian Research Council
head Peter Hoj, need to communicate their ideas more effectively if they
want public money. ARC Discovery grants in the creative arts and humanities,
not counting inflation, rose from 14.5% in 2002 to 17.8% in 2006 and Linkage
grants rose from 7.2% to 11.9% over the same period. The Council for the
Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences supports the call. In a recent
newsletter, it urged its constituents to stop railing against unfair
treatment and avoid “arcane, pretentious, indeed pajero-like language…which
lays us open to not entirely unmerited ridicule."
Efforts by CHASS to address the predicament
are outlined in its policy framework, which aims to promote the disciplines
as contributors to “a prosperous, innovative, creative and inclusive
Australia” through efforts on education, training and scholarship, research
and practice, connections within and between disciplines, and sector
infrastructure. Its interests include preservation of and access to
collections held in museums and libraries.
In its latest report, Measures of Quality
and Impact of Publicly Funded Research in the Humanities, Arts and Social
Sciences (November 2005), CHASS puts forward a proposal to evaluate
research by focussing on the quality and impact of the diverse HASS research
outputs, such as books, performances, reports to governments, films,
libretti and professional advice. The model meets five widely acknowledged
research evaluation criteria - simplicity, familiarity, reliability,
flexibility and universality. It identifies three factors that may be
adjusted to suit the disciplinary balance - research quality, research
impact and research capability - all evaluated by peer, expert or
beneficiary review panels. Indicators of research quality include knowledge
generation, manifestation, acceptance and expertise. Indicators of research
impact include knowledge diffusion, production, relationships and
engagement. Indicators of research capability include knowledge
infrastructure, culture, training and strategy. Web:
http://www.chass.org.au
British performing arts collections
Backstage is a portal for performing arts collections in the UK. The
project, funded by the Research Support Libraries Program, has partners from
18 institutions, led by the University of Kent at Canterbury and the
University of Bristol. Its databases include both collection level
descriptions of the performing arts collections covered (one record per
collection based on the RSLP Collection Level Description Schema) and an
item level catalogue for selected higher education collections, with
descriptions of each of the items (posters, playbills, costumes etc.). The
item level catalogue is based on the ISAD(G) archival standard. The project
has involved: converting catalogues of existing specialist performing arts
collections into a suitable electronic format, working with the Theatre
Museum to create a national database of collection level descriptions for
all performing arts collections in the UK; working with the Theatre Museum
and the Society of Theatre Research to produce an online version of the
Directory of Performing Arts Resources; developing a Web to Z39.50 gateway
as a single point of entry for searching both item and collection databases;
and developing a national structure using recognised standards to form the
basis of future work. In December 2005, there were 418 records in its
directory of institutions, 900 collection level descriptions, and over
60,000 item level records Web:
http://www.backstage.ac.uk.
Certification of digital repositories
The Research Libraries Group and National Archives and Records
Administration have produced for public comment An Audit Checklist for
the Certification of Trusted Digital Repositories (August 2005) to
provide criteria for evaluating digital warehouses. Criteria are grouped
under four main headings: (1) organisation; (2) repository functions,
processes and procedures; (3) designated community and usability of
information; and (4) technologies and technical infrastructure. Web:
http://www.rlg.org/en/.
Coalition for Networked Information
CNI’s admirable intentions are built around three broad themes: developing
and managing networked institutional content; transforming organisations,
professions and individuals; and building technology, standards and
infrastructure. Activities in its Program Plan 2005-2006, include: building
collaborations with the museum community; exploring issues at the juncture
of records management, archival practice and digital preservation (such as
supporting the Arizona State University Electronic College and University
Records conferences and tracking developments on the US National Archives
and Records Administration’s Electronic Records Archive project); helping
institutions understand the needs of ‘Net Gen’ students and new modes of
learning; rejuvenating dialogue between the “i-Schools” (information schools
in various guises) and higher education institutions; and undertaking
research on risk management of digital content. Web:
http://www.cni.org,
Cyberinfrastructure for education and
learning
The Computing Research Association’s Cyberinfrastructure for Education
and Learning for the Future: A Vision and Research Agenda, looks at the
relationships between cyberinfrastructure services and teaching and
learning, as opposed to research. It considers opportunities and risks under
four broad themes: (1) blending formal and informal learning, (2) lifelong
learning, (3) teaching through the cyberinfrastructure, and (4) communities
of learners. Each requires major technological innovation and cannot be
realised without transforming wider societal and policy contexts. Web:
http://www.cra.org/reports/cyberinfrastructure.pdf.
European digitisation coordination
To make Europe's cultural and scientific resources more accessible to a
broader public, the UK Presidency of the European Union has released Dynamic
Action Plan for the EU Co-ordination of Digitisation of Cultural and
Scientific Content, with all the predictable objectives - promoting
leadership, strengthening co-ordination, reducing fragmentation and
duplication of digitisation activities, finding policy and funding models to
sustain efforts, and promoting cultural and linguistic diversity. Web:
http://www.minervaeurope.org/publications/dap.htm
Institutional stewardship
Gary S. Lawrence and others, in Assessing the Dimensions of Institutional
Stewardship of Scholarly Digital Assets, gave a presentation at the CNI
December 2005 meeting on a research project to develop a planning framework
for the University of California to clarify the roles and responsibilities
of authors/compilers, users, and stewards of content at various life-cycle
stages. Web: http://www.cni.org
New Zealand digital strategy
New Zealand’s Digital Strategy: Creating Our Digital Future, promoted
as a core element of the country’s Growth and Innovation Framework and
knowledge society agenda, will involved expenditure of up to NZ$400 million
over the next five years. The six-pronged strategy includes the predictable
planks: (1) content - unlocking New Zealand's stock of content and provide
all New Zealanders with seamless, easy access to the information that is
important to their lives, businesses, and cultural identity; (2) confidence
- providing all New Zealanders with the digital skills and confidence to
find and use the information they need; and to ensure that
telecommunications and the Internet in New Zealand are reliable and secure;
(3) connection – placing New Zealand in the top quarter of the OECD for
broadband uptake by 2010; (4) unlocking the potential of communities -
enabling communities to use technology to realise their social, cultural,
and economic aspirations; (5) promoting innovation in business - enhancing
the contribution ICT makes to New Zealand’s overall business productivity;
and (6) transforming government - ensuring delivery of government
information, services and processes are integrated, accessible and
customised. Web:
http://www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz
Sustainable digital Collections
Stephen Chapman’s Techniques for Creating Sustainable Digital Collections
(Library Technology Reports (September-October 2004) covers the topic under
6 broad headings: (1) institutional readiness; (2) managing digitisation;
(3) levels of service for image digitisation; (4) levels of service for text
digitisation; (5) managing costs; and (6) commitment to change. Web:
http://www.techsource.ala.org
Australian creativity and the innovation
economy
The Australian Government’s interest in an innovation-based and
knowledge-based economy is being developed through three key mechanisms: a
Digital Content Strategy to accelerate the production, distribution and
marketing of digital content and applications domestically and
internationally; the National Broadband Strategy and Implementation Group;
and the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC)
Working Group.
The PMSEIC report, Imagine Australia, on
creativity in the innovation economy (December 2005), begins with the
following premise. “The creative imagination knows no divide between science
and art. It seeks the unknown and invents the future. Australia has deep
wells of imagination, and they’re distributed right across the population.
This imagination is a human resource whose creative potential has yet to be
fully tapped and transformed into economic and social value for Australia.
The timing has never been better for a major government initiative to help
make us a creative and innovative nation”.
The report recommends that the Australian
government: (1) realise the competitive potential of the Australian nation
by adopting new innovation policies that recognise the central role of
creativity and the creative industries; (2) realise Australia's full
creative and innovation potential by undertaking measures to promote broader
cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral teaching and research; and (3)
introduce a Creative Innovation Fund to provide new competitive programs and
support initiatives for commercial innovation and collaboration between HASS
and SET sectors. Web:
http://www.dest.gov.au/
Creative innovation by the arts sector
The Australia Council is seeking to play a role in Australia’s innovation
economy through its Creative Innovation Strategy. This highlights its
activities for enhancing Australian creativity and building “pathways to
successful innovation, spanning creative skills, enterprise and leadership
across government portfolios, industry and research sectors”. The strategy
sets out to: (1) nourish a climate of creativity through direct and indirect
support for artists, creative practitioners and organisations; (2) establish
and grow new partnerships and pathways between artists and creative
practitioners and organisations, government, cultural agencies and industry,
both nationally and internationally; and (3) add value to the Australian
Government’s investment in skills and education, digital content and
technology innovation, regional sustainability, trade and industry
development. It comprises four key components built on an ‘innovation value
chain’: (1) creative schools - promoting arts education in schools; (2)
synapse research - a cross-disciplinary research framework; (3) creative
leadership - developing creative leaders and international exchange; and (4)
create + accelerate – supporting creative enterprise and innovation. Web:
http://www.ozco.gov.au
Creativity in business
Focusing on the role of small to medium enterprises, the Cox Review of
Creativity in Business, commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
in 2005, looks at ways to enhance UK business productivity. It says that
government initiatives have looked at areas like technology and enterprise
in the past, but the connecting thread of creativity has not received the
attention it warrants. Technology that is not carried through into improved
systems or successful products is opportunity wasted; enterprise that fails
to be sufficiently creative is simply pouring more energy into prolonging
yesterday’s ideas.
A parallel study by the UK Department of
Trade and Industry, Creativity, Design and Business Performance (Economics
Paper No.15), provided compelling evidence of the impact that creativity can
have on business performance. The findings are particularly relevant to SMEs,
which account for 50 per cent of UK GDP and provide much of its
entrepreneurial base. It is common for those in business to see creativity
and the related area of design as largely concerned with aesthetic
considerations such as style and appearance. But creative businesses are
creative at a deeper level. The main obstacles to creating a new mindset
are: (1) lack of awareness and experience; (2) lack of belief in the value
of, or confidence in, the outcome; (3) not knowing where to turn for
specialised help; (4) limited ambition or appetite for risk; and (5) too
many other pressures on the business.
The report recommends: (1) tackling the issue
of awareness and understanding by making government funds widely available
to SMEs; (2) improving the effectiveness of government support and incentive
schemes, including the R&D Tax Credits system; (3) broadening the
understanding and skills of tomorrow’s business leaders, creative
specialists, engineers and technologists; (4) taking steps to use the
massive power of public procurement, both centrally and locally, to
encourage more imaginative solutions from suppliers; (3) raising the profile
of the UK’s creative capabilities by way of a network of centres of
creativity and innovation across the UK, with a national hub in London.
These recommendations, it says, cannot be implemented in isolation through
centrally-driven programs of a ‘creativity czar’, but most involve a broad
range of stakeholders. Web:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/
Digital-based information management
practice
Avra S. Michelson and Michael Olson, in Toward a Digital-Based Information
Management Practice, presented at the CNI December 2005 meeting, outlined
work by the MITRE Corporation's Information Technology Center to explore
aspects of the information management challenge in the digital world. A
coherent digital information management practice has yet to emerge, they
say, as enterprise information management dimensions expanding across
boundaries and personal spaces become increasingly important. Their working
hypotheses are based on the following notions. Resources will be
distributed, but access centralised: the goal will be unification of views,
not centralisation of repositories. The game will be managing heterogeneity
rather than striving for common standards: there will be reliance on
technology to perform integration and transformations rather than common
vocabularies. There will be automated methods for finding digital objects:
topical metadata will be diminishing value. The user will be placed at the
centre of the system rather than the data repository. There will need to be
emphasis on managing mission-critical information than retention of records
that meet compliance requirements. Web:
http://www.cni.org
On the wrong platform, waiting for the
wrong train?
Paul B Gandel, in Libraries: Standing at the Wrong Platform, Waiting for the
Wrong Train? (EDUCAUSE, November/December 2005), examines the impact of the
Web on managing collections, preservation and reference. “As the Web
continues to develop and expand…the question to be asked is: Will libraries
be key nodes on this information network? If history is a guide, the answer
is ‘maybe.’ Yes, libraries have adapted and have incorporated new
technologies and media in the past while also managing to remain, to a large
extent, loyal to centuries-old practices and approaches. This may no longer
be possible in an information world dominated by the Web. Libraries could
someday find themselves in the same situation as daily train commuters. Just
because the train schedule remains the same for thirty years doesn’t mean
that hapless commuters might not one day find themselves standing on the
wrong platform, waiting for the wrong train, unaware that there was a
schedule shift in their world order.” Web: (http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm05610.pdf).
Perceptions about libraries
OCLC has published another major report, Perceptions of Libraries and
Information Resources. This concludes that information consumers view
libraries as places to borrow print books, rather than electronic resources,
but they continue to trust libraries as reliable sources of information.
Search engines are the favourite place to begin a search. In the minds of
users, search engines deliver better quality and quantity of information
than librarian-assisted searching and at greater speed. Both the quantity
and quality of information available via search engines is likely to
increase, fueling increased confidence and self-reliance. Information
consumers feel that information should be free and say that they will pay
for information less frequently in the future. The majority are not aware
that free electronic information is available via their library They do not
believe that higher priced information equals higher quality information. OCLC
concludes that the library has not been successful in leveraging its brand
to incorporate growing investments in electronic resources and library
Web-based services. But there is potential for stretching the library brand
beyond books. The universal notion of the library provides a solid base from
which to leverage value, and create change on a large scale.
Libraries must take this advantage and work
collectively to rejuvenate the brand. It is not simply about educating the
information consumer about the current library. Trying to educate consumers
whose habits and lifestyles are changing and have changed seldom works. It
doesn’t work for companies and it probably won’t work for libraries.
Rejuvenating the library brand depends on the abilities of the members of
the broad library community to redesign library services so that their rich
resources—print and digital—are available, accessible and used. While the
need for localised points of distribution for content that is no longer
available in just physical form is likely to become less relevant, the need
for libraries to be gathering places within the community or university has
not decreased. Libraries will continue to share an expanding infosphere with
an increasing number of content producers, providers and consumers.
Information consumers will continue to serve themselves from a growing
information smorgasbord. The challenge for libraries is to clearly define
and market their relevant place in that infosphere. Web:
http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm
Portals
The Journal of Library Administration, volume 43, no 1-2, 2005, on the
theme, portals and libraries, includes: Sandy Hurd’s The Portal World and
the ILS: A Commentary (p57-70); Ann Marie Breznay and Leslie M. Haas’s
If You Build It Will They Come? Services Will Make the Difference in a
Portal (p71-86); Krisellen Maloney’s Library Portal Technologies
(p87-112); John D. Byrum’s Online Catalogs and Library Portals in Today's
Information Environment (p135-154); and Mary E. Jackson’s Looking
Ahead: The Future of Portals (p205-220). Web: http://www.haworthpressinc.com.
[Source: New Technologies in Libraries].
Australian Museum of Motion Picture
Technology
AMMPT has organised a series of inaugural regional meetings to bring
together people interested in preserving the heritage of the Australian
moving image industries with the aim of establishing a national network..
Contact details: Daryl Binning, National Coordinator, 20 Norton Ridge,
Winthrop, WA 6150 Ph: 08 9310 3377 Fax: 08 9310 5833 Email: dbinning@iinet.net.au.
[Source Aus-archivists]
Australian Web archiving strategy
The National Library has adjusted its Web archiving strategy after
completing the first whole Australian domain harvest in June and July 2005.
Undertaken by the Internet Archive <http://www.archive.org/> on behalf of
the Library, the harvest crawled about 185 million unique documents from
811,000 hosts, and provided ideas for development of the library’s role in
preserving Australia’s documentary heritage. Web:
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/
Grant for innovation in archives
Interested in money for research on innovation in archives? The National
Archives of Australia is seeking Australian and overseas applications for
its 2006 Ian Maclean Award before 10 March 2006. A $15,000 stipend will be
offered to individuals interested in conducting research that will benefit
the archival profession and promote the contribution archives make to
society. The award is open to people qualified in the areas of archives,
history, technology, anthropology and museum studies. Partnerships assisting
cross-discipline research on important archival issues are also eligible.
Prospective applicants should contact Derina McLaughlin before lodging their
application to discuss the scope of their research project (phone + 61 2
6212 3986, email derina.mclaughlin@naa.gov.au). Further details: http://www.naa.gov.au,
then take the grant link from the home page.
CDWA Lite / OAI–PMH Project
Murtha Baca and others, in Creating a Standards-Based Model for Sharing
Cultural Heritage Collections Online: the CDWA Lite / OAI PMH Project (CNI
December 2005 meeting), outlined progress on a collaborative project by the
J. Paul Getty Trust and ARTstor to develop a new descriptive metadata XML
schema, CDWA Lite, for works of art and material culture based on the
Categories for the Description of Works of Art and Cataloging Cultural
Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images. A list of
draft CDWA Lite elements, tags, description and examples can be downloaded
from http://www.getty.edu/
Controlled vocabularies
NISO has published the final version of ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 Guidelines
for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled
Vocabularies (equivalent to the international standard: ISO 2788). The
standard presents guidelines and conventions for the contents, display,
construction, testing, maintenance, and management of monolingual controlled
vocabularies, focusing on controlled vocabularies such as lists, synonym
rings, taxonomies and thesauri. Web:
http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-19-2005.pdf
FRBR
Jennifer Bowen, in FRBR - Coming soon to your library? (Library
Resources & Technical Services, volume 49 no 3, 2005, p175-188),.looks at
the work of the Joint Steering Committee Format Variation Working Group and
system vendors to explore ways for adding FRBR-based rules and functionality
into the next edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules and library
systems. “The FRBR model holds create potential for improving user access to
library resources, but may not affect all libraries in the same way.” Web:
http://www.ala.org/alcts/lrts. [Source New Technologies in Libraries]
Light weight protocols and open sources
tools
Xiaorong Xiang and Eric Lease Morgan, in Exploiting 'Light-weight'
Protocols and Open Source Tools to Implement Digital Library Collections and
Services (D-Lib Magazine, volume 11, no 10, October 2005) look at new
ways of using existing protocols and technologies such as OAI-PMH and SRU,
as well as tools like Perl and Swish-e. Web: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october05/morgan/10morgan.html.
[Source: Current Cites]
Metadata
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly volume 40 no 3-4 2005, on the theme,
metadata, includes: Metadata Standards for Archival Control: An Introduction
to EAD and EAC by Alexander C. Thurman (p183-212), Introduction to XML by
Patrick Yott (p213-235); METS: The Metadata Encoding and Transmission
Standard by Linda Cantara (p237-253); and Planning and Implementing a
Metadata-Driven Digital Repository by Michael A. Chopey (p255-287). Web via.
http://www.haworthpressinc.com. [Source: New Technologies in Libraries]
Metadata for digitised newspapers
Ray L. Murray, in Toward a Metadata Standard for Digitized Historical
Newspapers (Microform & Imaging Review, volume 34, no 3 2005, p148-150),
reports on metadata development for the National Digital Newspaper Program.
Web via: http://www.saur.de [Source: New Technologies in Libraries]
Photographic collections
Michelle Dalmau and others, in Integrating Thesaurus Relationships into
Search and Browse in an Online Photograph Collection (Library Hi Tech
volume 23 no 3, 2005, p425-452), explore the development process of an
online image collection that integrates the syndetic structure of a
controlled vocabulary to improve search and browse functionality. They
affirm that structured forms of browsing and searching can be successfully
integrated into digital collections to significantly improve the user's
discovery experience. And they set out ways in which the technologies used
in implementing enhanced search and browse functionality work in other
digital collection environments. Web: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/lht.htm
[Source: New Technologies in Libraries]
Preservation metadata
The PREMIS Working Group, sponsored by OCLC and RLG, has published its Data
Dictionary for Preservation Metadata. The data model consists of objects,
intellectual entities, events, agents, rights and relationships. Special
topics include format information, environment, object characteristics,
fixity, integrity and authenticity, digital signatures, non-core metadata
and implementation considerations. Web:
http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/premis-final.pdf
This issue of Cross Currents compiled by Paul
Bentley
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The
Wolanski Foundation would be grateful for feedback
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