One of the great things about librarians is that they have such useful skills that they often go on to become something else altogether (see my post on domain names). Not necessarily great for libraries, but a tribute all the same. There was a very nice piece in the newspaper at the weekend about the Victorian Health Services Commissioner, Beth Wilson, a former librarian. I wonder how ALIA might tap into support from people who have started as librarians and gone on to other things? Perhaps this could be one of the things we ask those savvy marketers, referred to by Dana in her comment on an earlier post.
Any thoughts on this? Or on Dana's other comment "had I known then what I know now, I would have been a librarian".
Friday, 6 April 2007
Word of the day
I suspected that there must be an organisation of Librarians Without Borders, since there are so many organisations using this style, and starting off with Medecins sans Frontieres. There is, they are Canadians, as one might expect, and located here They only started a year ago. I thought that given the ultimate model and their Canadian origins they might be bilingual - Bibliothécaires sans frontières.
Thursday, 5 April 2007
Library workforce ... and thank you Jenelle
Back to where we get library staff from. And thank you Jenelle Cleary, who took notes at the session that Indra Kurzeme and I ran at the recent Melbourne Unconference, on the future library workforce. This is maybe the major topics of discussion amongst Australian librarians at present.
For Victorians, Gillian Hallam was in town last week, speaking about the library workforce at the State Library of Victoria. It is interesting that some of the main issues she has pulled out of the joint study she is doing with CAVAL also resonated with the Unconference group that met a few weeks earlier. Some of those issues were:
- Boundaries are blurring between libraries and other occupations, like IT, with big implications for the cohesion of our profession
- There is now a wide range of possible qualifications ranging from certificates (both TAFE and graduate certificates) to postgraduate masters degrees, and they are being offered by a wide range of faculties and disciplines too.
- The impression people receive is that there are not many opportunities for employment for new graduates, and there are different perceptions of why this might be the case.
- The role of our professional association in course recognition needs to be considered.
Our session on the library workforce at the Unconference also highlighted issues about our brand as librarians. The brand does not serve to attract people - why is that? Accountants have recently been through a rebranding exercise. Maybe there is a need to create and foster a coherent and attractive image of what we do. It doesn't mean a total re-brand, just a more engaging picture.
My last post on these issues brought out several comments, and it is clearly a major issue for us. Any more comments?
For Victorians, Gillian Hallam was in town last week, speaking about the library workforce at the State Library of Victoria. It is interesting that some of the main issues she has pulled out of the joint study she is doing with CAVAL also resonated with the Unconference group that met a few weeks earlier. Some of those issues were:
- Boundaries are blurring between libraries and other occupations, like IT, with big implications for the cohesion of our profession
- There is now a wide range of possible qualifications ranging from certificates (both TAFE and graduate certificates) to postgraduate masters degrees, and they are being offered by a wide range of faculties and disciplines too.
- The impression people receive is that there are not many opportunities for employment for new graduates, and there are different perceptions of why this might be the case.
- The role of our professional association in course recognition needs to be considered.
Our session on the library workforce at the Unconference also highlighted issues about our brand as librarians. The brand does not serve to attract people - why is that? Accountants have recently been through a rebranding exercise. Maybe there is a need to create and foster a coherent and attractive image of what we do. It doesn't mean a total re-brand, just a more engaging picture.
My last post on these issues brought out several comments, and it is clearly a major issue for us. Any more comments?
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
A great survey (no, that's not an oxymoron)
Well, for those of you who would never have guessed, I am currently chairing the 2007 Names Policy Panel. This is a review of the Australian domain name system. The review kicked off in March with a meeting of the review panel in Melbourne, and meets again on 10 April in Sydney.
If you would like to have a say, there is an online survey linked from the auDA (.au Domain Authority) website. If you would like to check out the terms of reference, they are here.
The review panel has a membership of 22 people drawn from the domain name industry and other interested groups - lawyers, the Internet industry, business, and domain name users more widely. Support is provided by Jo Lim, auDA's Chief Policy Officer.
I chaired the panel which developed the current policy in 2000 and 2001, so its been a long road, but a fascinating one. And an interesting contrast to the world of libraries.
If you would like to have a say, there is an online survey linked from the auDA (.au Domain Authority) website. If you would like to check out the terms of reference, they are here.
The review panel has a membership of 22 people drawn from the domain name industry and other interested groups - lawyers, the Internet industry, business, and domain name users more widely. Support is provided by Jo Lim, auDA's Chief Policy Officer.
I chaired the panel which developed the current policy in 2000 and 2001, so its been a long road, but a fascinating one. And an interesting contrast to the world of libraries.
Monday, 2 April 2007
Word of the day
Given my last post, the word of the day is part of the rich vocabulary of domain names. The word is domainer - "a person who makes a living from domain name speculation or by purchasing popular domain names and filling the sites with advertising." Australia's best known domainer owns 600,000 domain names. The definition is from Word Spy, which is a pretty nice site, too.
Another nice one is typosquatter "A person who registers one or more Internet domain names based on the most common typographical errors that a user might commit when entering a company's registered trademark name (e.g., amazom.com)." Australia has a policy on registering misspellings as domain names - you can't do it.
Another nice one is typosquatter "A person who registers one or more Internet domain names based on the most common typographical errors that a user might commit when entering a company's registered trademark name (e.g., amazom.com)." Australia has a policy on registering misspellings as domain names - you can't do it.
Librarians as Change Agents
This is about lobbying. It is the title of an article in Information Today by Mary Alice Baish, the associate Washington affairs representative of the American Association of Law Libraries. I mention it because I spent Friday in Canberra - as it turns out the first day of the parliamentary hols (they're back in May for the budget session).
There is so much that we want to say, but we have too few people to say it - even comparied with American law librarians, who clearly have more than one lobbyist in Washington.
What's most interesting about the article? Three things.
First, the issues (this is a law librarian):
- Federal Research Public Access Act - open access to government-funded research
- Net neutrality
- strengthening the Freedom of Information Act
- copyright - legislation to reaffirm fair use
- orphan works (another copyright issue, active in Australia too)
These are all issues that are active, current and alive in Australia too.
Second, the section headed "fellow travellers", which is a list of friends. I have mentioned this before as an issue for us - we need friends and allies who share our goals and are interested in sharing the task of exercising influence.
Third, ten quick rules, a nice summary.
I guess that to be serious about lobbying, we need people who know what they are talking about, and a clear idea of the messages we want to communicate - about open access to information, copyright, the future of the Internet, support for libraries.
There is so much that we want to say, but we have too few people to say it - even comparied with American law librarians, who clearly have more than one lobbyist in Washington.
What's most interesting about the article? Three things.
First, the issues (this is a law librarian):
- Federal Research Public Access Act - open access to government-funded research
- Net neutrality
- strengthening the Freedom of Information Act
- copyright - legislation to reaffirm fair use
- orphan works (another copyright issue, active in Australia too)
These are all issues that are active, current and alive in Australia too.
Second, the section headed "fellow travellers", which is a list of friends. I have mentioned this before as an issue for us - we need friends and allies who share our goals and are interested in sharing the task of exercising influence.
Third, ten quick rules, a nice summary.
I guess that to be serious about lobbying, we need people who know what they are talking about, and a clear idea of the messages we want to communicate - about open access to information, copyright, the future of the Internet, support for libraries.
Sunday, 1 April 2007
Word of the day
Todays word of the day is cybrary. This word once graced the website of the University of Queensland Cybrary but, browsing around today I noticed that it had completely disappeared. The end of a noble experiment in word-coinage, and a lesson for those of us who like to encourage neologisms. See for yourselves.
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