Presentations by the National Library of Australia at the State Library of Queensland 6 July 2007

Strategic directions

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA DIRECTIONS FOR Our major undertaking in will be to enhance learning and knowledge creation by further simplifying and integrating services that allow our users to find and get material, and by establishing new ways of collecting, sharing, recording, disseminating and preserving knowledge. Strategic directions

DESIRED OUTCOMES 1. To ensure that a significant record of Australia and Australians is collected and safeguarded. 2. To meet the needs of our users for rapid and easy access to our collections and other resources. 3. To demonstrate our prominence in Australia’s cultural, intellectual and social life and to foster an understanding and enjoyment of the National Library and its collections. 4. To ensure that Australians have access to vibrant and relevant information services. 5. To ensure our relevance in a rapidly changing world, participate in new online communities and enhance our visibility. Strategic directions

‘Learn still; take, reject, choose, use, create Put past to present, purpose make.’ Rosemary Dobson

The bottom line: budget facts and figures, collection valuation, workforce planning and commercial services Gerry Linehan Assistant Director-General, Corporate Services

Federal arrangements $850m/yr on arts and cultural heritage Majority of arts and cultural heritage agencies in one portfolio 14 agencies within the portfolio - the NLA is one of the eight Arts agencies included

Facts and figures NLA revenue about $71 million –$58m appropriation from Government (83%) –$2m goods free of charge (legal deposit etc.) –$11m external revenue (Libraries Australia $4m, sales $4m, bank interest and cash donations $3m)

Facts and figures expenses about $71m: –$33m salaries (46%) –$19m suppliers (IT $2m, serials/subs $3m, building management $4m, contractors $3m) –$19m depreciation

Facts and figures Assets around $1.690b: –collection $1481m –building and land $158m –plant, equipment & software $15m –other $36m Spend or receive in total up to $13m on the collection each year

Facts and figures Five buildings: –main building ( sq metres) –2 warehouses in Hume (6400 sq metres) –workshop in Mitchell (500 sq metres) –Australian Embassy In Jakarta –new warehouse to replace existing one

New Warehouse Land area m2 Building dimensions –111m long –30m wide –12.8m high Shelf space – linear metres –shelves 6.6m high

New Warehouse

High rise shelving

Jakarta office staff

Facts and figures Full-time staffing level = 443 To decline to 424 this financial year 71% staff = female 25% staff have been at the Library for at least the last 15 years Average age of staff = 45

Facts and figures

Strategic workforce plan Attract, recruit, develop, retain staff Build a leadership and learning culture Promote a united, inclusive, informed workforce Promote our service ethos

Strategic workforce plan Attract, recruit, develop and retain staff –align HR systems with business objectives –introduce a marketing focus –implement a mentor program –provide focussed learning and development –acknowledge staff achievements

Strategic workforce plan Build a leadership and learning culture –communicate and promote the leadership and learning culture –identify and develop future leaders –encourage teamwork, innovation and imaginative thinking

Strategic workforce plan Promote a united, inclusive and informed workforce –promote consultative workplace practices –maximise the benefits of the Library’s diversity –ensure staff are informed about corporate strategies –ensure staff are aware of Library initiatives

Strategic workforce plan Promote our service ethos –clarify and communicate the service ethos –ensure staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities and there are systems to assess individual and overall performance

Mature age strategy Respond strategically to the shift in the demographic profile of the workforce Build positive cultural change, particularly in regard to mature staff

Mature age strategy To provide: –information on conditions under CA and AWAs –superannuation and financial planning advice –access to healthy work and lifestyle activities –opportunity to transfer to a different position –access to paid sabbatical

Some future issues Funding pressures –extra funding –increased returns –external support Security Building management Workforce planning –Collective Agreement –recruitment

Collection management: key strategies Pam Gatenby Assistant Director-General, Collections Management

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA DIRECTIONS FOR DESIRED outcome 1 To ensure that a significant record of Australia and Australians is collected and safeguarded. Strategic directions

Australian Materials

Australian Web Resources Selective approach Whole Domain harvest approach –two harvests carried out, one planned for 2007 –500 million documents (URLs) collected in 2006 harvest (19.04 terabytes) –snapshot of the Australian web domain for long term preservation –no public access yet

Overseas Publications

Collection Management New acquisitions catalogued soon after receipt Target turnaround times Cataloguing Policy on website A brief record better than no record

OPAC Libraries AustraliaGoogle Picture Australia Music Australia RAAM Australia Dancing One record, many uses. Many search options. Finding items in the collection

Bibliographic control of the collections Collection size = 5.6 million items 4.8m 601, ,640 Catalogued online no record record in card catalogue

Serials Records (1985–2007) records NLA OPAC Libraries Australia

Cheaper, faster, better We are aiming to: Reduce the cost of original cataloguing of new acquisitions Streamline record creation for existing collections not already catalogued online Improve coverage of our collections in online catalogues

Reduce cost of original cataloguing Purchase records: –from Serials Solutions for e-journals –from suppliers of books published in India and China Simplify subject analysis (subject suggestor tool)

Streamline cataloguing of existing collections Semi-automated creation of MARC records from existing sources of data, e.g. paper lists, descriptions provided by creators and volunteers, subject thesauri Used with large collections, e.g. topographic maps, aerial photos, picture collections, ephemera.

Hugh P. Hall Ballet Russes Photograph Collection Records for 500 photographs created using: information provided on spreadsheets by subject specialists global insertion of data in common fields Some authority work by cataloguers

The Ephemera Collection Generation of records for hundreds of items Representation of a wide range of subjects Addition of records to Libraries Australia

Other initiatives Projects to process collections and record management information Scanning catalogue cards and title pages Providing access to individual maps in series Experiment with user tagging

Access, access, access! Strategies for resource discovery Margy Burn Assistant Director-General, Australian Collections & Reader Services and Dr Warwick Cathro Assistant Director-General, Innovation

73% of NLA onsite users visit fortnightly or more often 35% visit weekly 71% of onsite users report accessing NLA website from off-site

More strategies for resource discovery Warwick S. Cathro Assistant Director-General, Innovation

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA DIRECTIONS FOR DESIRED outcome 2 To meet the needs of our users for rapid and easy access to our collections and other resources. Strategic directions

Our strategies Expand the scope of our discovery services Improve the discovery and access experience Remove access barriers Reshape our supporting IT infrastructure

Expand discovery services More contemporary content Newspaper and journal articles Biographical information Federated search with museums, galleries, archives

Improve the access experience Relevance ranking, clustering, FRBR User participation – annotation, tagging Take advantage of Libraries Australia Explore new models for interlibrary loan

Remove access barriers Free access to metadata Access to in-copyright content Seed Google with metadata Collaborate with state/territory libraries

Replace our catalogue? Take advantage of Libraries Australia Give users access to a wider pool of library resources Limit searches to our own collection if required Enhanced user experience through integration with other services

We need better interfaces Users starting in Libraries Australia need to access detailed holdings data ‘Deep links’ from Libraries Australia replaced by ‘web services’ protocol Simple, stateless protocol for requesting a resource

Data is missing from the NBD Copy-specific information Local information about formed collections Links to record sets

We will … Work through standards bodies to develop the necessary protocols Examine how to incorporate institution specific data into the NBD Examine use of access controls for links to record sets

Newspaper digitisation

Cover the period Cover every state and territory Text-searchable newspaper database Freely available online

The proposed process Convert microform to digital images Process digital images to produce enhanced, zoned, OCR content Build a search and delivery system to use enhanced content Provide a user feedback and annotation capability

Proposed funding arrangements NLA to fund creation of digital content for one newspaper from each state/territory NLA to fund development and support for search and delivery system State libraries to fund creation of digital content for additional newspapers

Challenges Microfilm quality OCR accuracy Zoning, categorisation, linking Quality checking procedures Costs

Project status More than pages have had initial scanning Contract with Apex Publishing for OCR conversion, article zoning, etc. Workflow support system is being developed Search and delivery system commenced

First 500K pages (indicative)

The future Collaborate with services that have digitised post newspapers Expose biographical articles to People Australia Integrate with online newspaper indexes Encourage citation using persistent identifiers Use the same infrastructure to digitise other text- based content

Australian journal articles Provide free access to NLA-generated metadata (APAIS, AMI) Phase in arrangement negotiated with RMIT Publishing Include journal articles in our resource discovery offering from 2008

NSLA Information Access Plan Aim: to reduce the complexity of access pathways for the general public Existing IAP was defined in 2005: –improve web site design –internet guides –federated search –take advantage of Libraries Australia NSLA has initiated a review of the Plan, which has now commenced

‘Australian News & Business Information’, ‘General Reference’ & ‘Health Information’ products offered Available to all Australian libraries: interest in 500+ subscriptions already (individual libraries and consortia) 31 July 2007: Interest from online Product Polls will establish prices for subscriptions for Sep/Oct 2007 – Jun 2008 More information is at era.nla.gov.au

Federated search project Enabled collections of cultural institutions to be searched online Established feasibility study Settled on distributed search model, using the OpenSearch protocol Agreed to encompass metadata aggregations

Current status Implementation of OpenSearch protocol –PictureAustralia –Libraries Australia –Powerhouse Museum –CAN central database (still being tested) Strong interest from other cultural institutions (e.g. National Gallery, NFSA)

Sample search

Enhancing our visibility in the online world Tony Boston Assistant Director-General, Resource Sharing and Mark Corbould Assistant-Director General, Information Technology

Libraries Australia Australia’s National Union Catalogue –built by Australian libraries over 25 years 42 million items held by about 800 Australian libraries

Under-used catalogues? “1% of Americans (2% of college students) start an electronic information search at a library web site” Perceptions of libraries and information resources (OCLC, 2005). Appendix A “Today, a large and growing number of students and scholars routinely bypass library catalogs in favor of other discovery tools” “The catalog is in decline, its processes and structures are unsustainable, and change needs to be swift” The changing nature of the catalog and its integration with other discovery tools (Karen Calhoun for the Library of Congress, 2006)

The long tail Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want.... People are going deep into the catalog … and the more they find, the more they like. As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought Chris Anderson. ‘The long tail’, Wired magazine, October 2004

Libraries and the long tail 80% of people want just 20% of any collection 80% of the collection requested rarely –The long tail of sporadic usage –Represents a new business model –Fewer, larger resources => Union Catalogues –Project library services into Web 2.0 world “Fewer but larger pools of metadata to support discovery would help” Lorcan Dempsey, D-Lib, April 2006

The solution?

Ranking of bibliographic records We have good content to leverage: the catalogue record –exact matches are more important than phrases –matches in the main MARC fields (e.g. 245, 100) are more important than in the 700s or 800s –matches in several fields are more important than single –title, author and subject matches most important. We could also try using: –is it a collection level record? –what sort of item is it? –how many libraries hold the item?

Library labs prototype

From prototype to production Resource discovery services: –relevance ranking, clustering, annotation –new software platform –roll out from 2008 => Better, more integrated discovery services with shared functionality

Rethinking resource sharing Reference Group established late 2006 Libraries Australia: –end user requesting, home delivery of items Pilot across selected libraries and NLA issues: –policy, systems, e-commerce, handling

People Australia Information about Australian people and organisations Links to related library resources and websites Interoperates with partner agencies A sustainable and persistent repository

Issues Authority data Matching/merging entries Relationships Annotations

Project stages and progress Feasibility study (completed) Analysis & design (completed) Development (commenced) Pilot service Production service

Picture Australia Collaborative search service hosted by the Library since million images of Australian life 45 cross-sectoral participants: now including the general public

Collaboration with Yahoo! Commenced early 2006 Over images added by 800 people Metadata harvested weekly into PictureAustralia flickr ™

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, Christopher Chan, 20 Feb 2007

Best seats in the house_8674, suburbanbloke, 9 June 2007

Photo opportunity at the Pasha Bulker, Nammo, 13 June 2007

Mackay 1959, Pizzodisevo, uploaded 2 August 2006

Photo made by pizzodisevo taken in the year 1959 Photo made by Jonesey_79 taken in the year 2006

Project issues Moderation of PictureAustralia flickr groups –metadata quality, image quality, tagging Long-term preservation - NLA’s Pictures Collection –image resolution 14% of images met image resolution standards –copyright 22% of images used Creative Commons licences

Project benefits Embeds PictureAustralia in the user environment Allows active user contribution by individuals Provides the ability to juxtapose images past and present Engages with new audiences Raises the profile of the service

Conclusion Open collaboration is changing the way we view information New rules are reshaping the information environment The challenge for libraries: to make our search services better, easier and more enjoyable to use

The National Library’s approach to Information Technology architecture Michele Huston Assistant Director-General (Acting) Information Technology

IT architecture project To define the IT architecture needed to support the discovery and delivery of the Library’s collections over the next three years

Our achievements

Our plans NBD RAAM Pictures Australia People Australia ARROW Journals Newspapers Music Australia Pandora E-Resources

Our users want Crime fiction by West Indian women Australian poetry on the Korean war Biographies of 19th-century Aboriginal sportsmen Information about burial practices in Ancient Egypt suitable for upper primary students Research on how the mid-19th-century gold rush affected the Federation movement Where to start exploring the Petrov affair Understanding of abortion case-law reform in Australia Journals discussing Australian literature in the 1950s Information about the leadership of the Country Party between the wars Contemporary reporting of the WWI conscription debate

A better user experience Simple and efficient discovery –relevance ranking –clustering, FRBR –subject guides/topic pages –full text searching Encourage tagging, commentary, link creation, guide creation Improve ‘getting’

Library problems Current systems do not meet users’ expectations An unsustainable approach –each service is a new IT project and a new IT system –we’ll never have the resources to implement great systems at a speed to match user demand –we’ll never be able to provide a consistent user experience across all systems The consequence –Library resources are under-discovered, under- utilized through these delivery services

Our assets Resources –structured resource descriptions –subject classified resources –usage data (purchases, circulation) –access to/control of physical resources Community –large network of collaborators –experts available to develop/steward trails & guides –strong synthesis with user communities

External sources Leveraging the full potential of Web 2.0 into our services –searching full text from GooglePrint/Scholar, Amazon, Gutenberg, MillionBooks… –reviews, tags … –citations –xISBN from OCLC, everything from LibraryThing –guides from Wikipedia

Single business model A single discovery service –Newspapers, People Aust, RAAM and NLA Catalogue as views of a single data corpus A common technical infrastructure –multiple services constructed on a common infrastructure platform A common approach to solving problems

Technical approach Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) –assembling of small, loosely coupled reusable components interacting via messages (not objects) Lightweight, rapid, incremental prototyping –design to change, design to replace –hands-on user involvement Open source, open standards –hardware and software agnostic –use, and contribute to, open source software

Service Oriented Architecture Discovery Service Authentication Service Search Service “Annotation” Service Spelling check Service Newspapers View People Aust View Pictures Aust View Music Aust View Single data corpus

National Library challenges for 2007 Embrace our users Expand our horizons –partner with experts –expose our services Digitise our unique resources

Engaging the community Helen Kon Assistant Director-General, Public Programs

Friends 2006 Kenneth Myer Lecture with Geoffrey Robertson QC

Volunteers

Collaborative events

Conferences

Programs for children & young adults

Community Heritage Grants

Managed by the National Library Program partners: –Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts –National Archives of Australia –National Film and Sound Archive –National Museum of Australia –National Library of Australia

Community Heritage Grants Helps community organisations preserve their nationally significant cultural heritage collections Annual grants up to $ Since 1994: –506 projects received grants –over $2 million distributed

Community Heritage Grants Queensland $ distributed to 58 organisations 34 applications received in 2007

Exhibitions reach National Library exhibitions seen by almost 3 million people over the past decade 14 exhibitions to 114 venues across Australia since 1994 From Bunyip to Brisbane, a National Library exhibition has been shown in every State and Territory

Travelling exhibitions

National Treasures Exhibition

Over visitors to date First major exhibition to travel to every Australian capital city NOW AT LAST VENUE! Western Australian Museum, Perth

National Treasures Exhibition

National Treasures Gallery

Communicating through the media

eNews

Collaborative marketing

Reaching the community

Interpreting the collection online

Books & merchandise

New directions

National Library bookshop

Online shop

National coordination Jasmine Cameron Assistant Director-General, Executive Support

Coordination National meetings and forums Peak bodies; action at the national level International liaison, support and visits Fundraising and sponsorship