Cross
Currents No 5 Nov 2001
A
digest of cross sectoral information management events, issues and ideas in
organisations, libraries, archives and museums, with special emphasis on
arts and the humanities.
Recordkeeping
The
National Archives of Australia has released DIRKS: A Strategic Approach to
Managing Business Information, a practical guide complying with
methodology recommended in Australian Standard AS4390–1996, Records
Management and in the technical report accompanying the International
Standard ISO 15489 Records Management. Available
from the National Archives of Australia website http://www.naa.gov.au, the
manual consists of the following elements:
-
Part
One:
the DIRKS methodology – a users guide.
-
Part
Two:
step by step through the DIRKS methodology: preliminary investigation;
analysis of business activity; identification of recordkeeping
requirements; assessment of existing systems; strategies for recordkeeping;
design of a recordkeeping system; implementation of a recordkeeping
system; post-implementation review
-
Part
Three:
Appendixes: Guide to documentary sources; Guide to interviews; Interview
questions; Source identification forms: Acts of Parliament, Statutory
rules regulations), Organisation context document; Practical advice for
using Keyword AAA terms in agency business classification schemes;
Function source document; Procedures
for developing a records disposal authority in the Commonwealth; Guide to
developing a business case for a DIRKS project; Recordkeeping cost-benefit
analysis; Risk analysis in DIRKS; and Recordkeeping feasibility analysis.
e-Commerce
The
National Office of the Information Economy has recently released a number of
reports on its website at http://www.noie.gov.au;
-
Advancing
with e-commerce, a report that examines the
adoption of electronic commerce by small to medium enterprises in
Australia, involving interviews with 34 SMEs from different
industry groups and from all areas of Australia including rural and
regional areas.
-
B2B
E-Commerce: capturing value online, offering an independent assessment of contemporary
developments in business-to-business e-commerce and a description of
Government achievements.
-
Government
Online - Better Practice Checklists, a series of short, practical checklists on the key
issues that Commonwealth agencies might need to consider when providing
services online. The checklists cover putting forms online, website
navigation, user testing, use of cookies, online sales, archiving web
resources; and managing online content.
-
Government
Online - Solutions Map. a database that provides a private facility [available to
Commonwealth agencies only] to enable agencies to share information
about how they have addressed
common challenges in putting their services online, and
help agencies avoid reinventing wheels by facilitating the exchange
of ideas, solutions and experiences with online technologies and business
problems.
-
NetSpots
Directory, a
searchable online database that lets you search for public Internet access
facilities across Australia, including Internet cafes, public libraries
and other location where you
can access the web.
Training
The Business Services
Training Package BSB01 has been endorsed by ministers for vocational
education and training in federal and state agencies. The package provides a
new set of Australian business training qualifications from Certificate I
through to advanced diploma. Thirty-seven qualifications, to be used by every
TAFE institute, private business college and school in the country, will
replace more than 400 accredited courses and will cover: common business;
business administration, business development – advertising; marketing &
sales, small business management; frontline management; strategic management,
Recordkeeping; governance for indigenous organisations, human resources; and
assessment & workplace training. New competencies and qualifications in
e-business will be added to the Business Services Training Package later in
2001. The package is available from Business Services Training Australia.
Contact: http://www.bsitab.org
[Source
Aus-archivists]
The
e-TERM Project [European program for Training in Electronic Records
Management] has launched its website at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/e-term/.
[Source: aus-archivists]
Mapping
Hot
on the heels of the European and Australian studies of cross sectoral issues,
Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries in the UK is
also seeking input on the future of museums, libraries and archives. Web: http://www.resource.gov.uk.
[Source: NINCH-announce]
Funding
In
the United States, the Institute of Museums and Library Services has made
available the funds to encourage excellence, collaboration and the use of
digital technology in the following areas: $US15.5 million for outstanding
museums; MAP grants to assess 112 museums;
over $US7.5 million for library/museum collaborations; over $US2.6
million for hi-tech research in libraries; over $US6.5 million to bring
library collections to the Internet; over $US2.9 million for museums to
innovate online; and over $US2 Million to connect tribal library communities;
Web: http://www.imls.gov.
Collection Description
Collection
Description Focus is a joint UKOLN and CIMI project involving a survey of
collection level description activity to gain an understanding of the use
descriptive standards and identify areas where further work is required.
Contact: cd-focus@ukoln.ac.uk. Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cd-focus/
Colorado Digitisation Project
The
Colorado Digitization Project has launched Heritage, a Dublin
Core-based database that provides access to websites and digital objects
created by Colorado's archives, historical societies, libraries and museums.
The database operates on the OCLC SiteSearch software. Participants can create
records online using the DC Builder software developed by the CDP or by
sending files from local library and museum
databases. The CDP developed crosswalks to support the merging of the metadata
into a single database. Web: http://coloradodigital.coalliance.org. [Source: NINCH-Announce)
Cultural Heritage initiatives
The
latest issue of Cultivate Interactive is available from the UK Office
of Library Networking as part of the European Commission's Digital Heritage
and Cultural Content (DIGICULT) program, The issue features news and articles
on international collaboration, museum audiences, national and international
content creation programs, CORDIS, virtual reality, IFAEK: [A Vision of
Improvements for a More Structured and Personalized World Wide Web], content
management and Web publishing systems. Web: http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/
[Source NINCH-ANNOUNCE]
Distributed National Electronic Resource
DNER
has published the first issue of its Collections Update, an e-mail newsletter
designed to inform those responsible for managing local and institutional
collections about DNER collections activities and developments. (http://www.jisc.dner.ac.uk).
It includes information on three policy and strategy documents - Collections
Development Policy (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/collections/coldev_policy.htm.;
Collection Strategy: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/collections/strategy.htm
Charging Policy at:http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub01/charging.html] as
well as information on EMBASE,
JSTOR Ecology & Botany Collection, Web of Science, e-books and EEBO.
Preservation/Conservation of Digital Heritage in Europe
The
Committee on Digital Preservation of the Conference of Directors of National
Libraries (CDNL) has prepared a Draft Resolution on Preservation of Digital
Heritage Prepared for the UNESCO General Conference http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/news.html.
[Source: NINCH announce]
A
Friends of the National Film and Sound Archive has been formed as an
independent non-profit incorporated association to support and extend the work
of the National Film and Sound Archive (ScreenSound Australia).
The Friends was initially formed in response to concern about the
change to the Archive's name and the re-location of its Sydney office to the
commercial premises of the Fox Studios. The group has been instrumental in the
restoration of the word "Archive" to the formal name of the
organisation. The official name of the institution is now the National Screen
and Sound Archive, although an abbreviated form of this formal name is gaining
wide currency. Membership of the Group is free. To join, contact Andrew Pike
andrew.pike@roninfilms.com.au.
[Source: aus-archivists]
Anita L Halverson and Joye Volker in The
Integration of Computer Services with Academic Arts Libraries: New Strategies
for the Hybrid Professional in Art Libraries Journal Vol 26 no 3
(2001) describe how two libraries, the National Institute of the Arts at the
Australian National University and California Institute of the Arts in
Southern California, manage an interdependent relationship with the
information technology or network services units in their respective
institutions. Major considerations are the introduction of electronic
full-text art information on the Web and its pedagogical implications, issues
faced by arts libraries in the integration of computer services in
universities and colleges, and the changing roles of arts librarians and
libraries. Art Libraries Journal is published by Art Libraries Society UK
and Ireland http://arlis.nal.vam.uk
The conference Humanities Computing Curriculum / The Computing Curriculum in the Arts and
Humanities will be held on November 9-10, 2001 in Nanaimo, British Columbia,
Canada. Details: http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/HCCurriculum/
The
New Directions in Humanities Computing Conference (ALLC/ACH 2002 University of
Tuebingen, July 23-28 2002) has called for papers relating to the common
ground between information technology and problems in humanities research and
teaching. Conference organisers are seeking presentations on:
new approaches to research in humanities disciplines using digital resources
dependent on images, audio or video; the application to humanities data of
techniques developed in such fields as information science and the physical
sciences and engineering; traditional applications of computing in the
humanities, including (but not limited to) text encoding, hypertext, text
corpora, computational lexicography, statistical models, and text analysis;
applications in the digital arts, especially projects and installations that
feature technical advances of potential interest to humanities scholars;
information design in the humanities, including visualization, simulation, and
modelling; pedagogical applications of new media within the humanities;
thoughtful considerations of the cultural impact of computing and new media;
theoretical or speculative treatments of new media; the institutional role of
new media within the contemporary academy, including curriculum development
and collegial support for activities in these fields; the broader social role
of humanities computing and the resources it develops. Web: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/allcach2002/
Content Management Systems
Philip
Hunter follows a recent Ariadne article with a detailed list of the different
content management systems in A Content Management and Web Publishing
Systems Gazetteer – available at http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/cms/
Digital Preservation Handbook
The
Preservation Management of Digital Materials: A Handbook
by Maggie Jones and Neil Beagrie has been published by the British Library
with funding from The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries
The UK and Australian distributor is Turpin Distribution Services
Email: turpin@turpinltd.com. The
American distributor is University
of Toronto Press, Email utbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca
[Source NINCH ANNOUNCE]
Dublin Core Metadata Element Set Approved
The
National Information Standards Organization and the Dublin Core Metadata
Initiative have announced the
approval by ANSI of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (Z39.85-2001).
The current standard defines fifteen metadata elements for resource
description in a cross-disciplinary information environment.
These elements are: title, subject, description, source, language,
relation, coverage, creator, publisher, contributor, rights, date, type,
format, and identifier. The standard is available for free downloading or
hardcopy purchase at http://www.techstreet.com/. Additional Information http://dublincore.org
and http://www.niso.org [Source NINCH-ANNOUNCE]
HILT Thesaurus Project
The September 2001 issue of
D-Lib Magazine includes HILT - High-Level Thesaurus Project: Building
Consensus for Interoperable Subject Access across Communities by Susannah Wake
and Dennis Nicholson, University of Strathclyde. Web: : http://www.dlib.org/
Library Statistics
NISO,
the National Information Standards Organization, has announced the formation
of a committee to revise ANSI/NISO Z39.7-1995, the Library Statistics
Standard. The committee will
recommend improvements based on survey instruments in use by nationally
recognized U.S. library data collection programs.
It will also review the revised base standard in light of evolving
methods of measuring electronic network performance, vendor and
publisher-based use statistics, reporting methods, and service quality
measures; and to advise NISO on how best to integrate new measures into Z39.7
and/or suggest other appropriate approaches (such as nationally supported best
practices or guidelines) that over time might lead to the development of
national consensus standards. Web: http://www.niso.org.
Physical storage of records
The
National Archives of Australia has published its Standard for the Physical
Storage of Commonwealth Records (2001), offering a code of best practice
for the storage of records to help government agencies assess commercial
storage provider services as well as their own in-house storage arrangements.
It emphasises the need for government agencies to adopt a risk-management
approach to storage based on the relative value of the records and the cost
effectiveness of protection, security and accessibility. it is available in
PDF and RTF formats and can be accessed at http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/storage/summary.html
[Source: aus-archivists]
Onstage,
newsletter
of the Victoria Theatres Trust, includes information on Australian theatre
history and contemporary issues. The Spring 2001 issue has articles on Bendigo
theatrical history, biographical articles on Julius Knight, Jonathon Dewhurst,
Ellen Terry, and obituaries on Pauline Garrick, Rita Paterson (Wallace), Joan
Rutley, June Salter, Walter Stinger, Fenella Maguire. Contact: victt@bigpond.net.au
An
issues paper has been published as part of the Contemporary Visual Arts and
Craft Inquiry. The paper is intended to stimulate debate, focus the Inquiry's
investigations and encourage contributions on education and training,
infrastructure, financial and
legislative, government support, the challenges and opportunities of new
technologies; and economic and creative contributions. Web http://www.cvacinquiry.dcita.gov.au/discuss_paper.html
[Source: Australian Museums Forum]
This
issue of Cross Currents compiled by Paul Bentley
The
Wolanski Foundation would be grateful for feedback
on the scope, format and content of this bulletin..
