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Information
Online Blog
Blog On
I was very fortunate to be a speaker at the
conference and would like to thank the Conference Committee,
especially Kay Harris, for giving me this opportunity,
and Aleks Duric for organizing my trip. That was one of
the best conferences I've attended: great speakers, timely & relevant
topics, great oportunity to learn from the best in the
field. Shall I even mention a terrific dinner party and
other social venues? You mates know how to live a good
life there, down under.
But more than intellectual stimulation of
the conference, more than sweet intoxication of Shiraz
and the beauty of the city skyline, I appreciate the people
I've met.
It was great to meet Kay and her librarians in person. I loved Mary Anne's
coral necklace and enjoyed talking with Rosemary and Caroline.
I learned a couple of
dance moves from Jan, as well as a power of a red dress. Kamilla made me feel
so much at home. And if this was not rewarding enough, there was Elvis.
Trying to escape the scorching sun on my
first day in Sydney, I stepped into the art gallery, which
is in the royal botanical garden. I inquired a gallery
atendant about a blue man torso hanging there on the wall. We talked and
as a gentleman grew more comfortable with me, a stranger,
he revealed that many
years
ago in Hong Kong he won an Elvis competion. As a reward, he was brought to
Memphis to meet the King (he pulled a photograph of him and young Elvis with
pride and
sweet sadness). And then he sang Love is Tender, and listening to his voice
reverbarating in the museum hall , I had no doubt that Elvis was still alive,
he had just moved
to Sydney.
For that and other memorable encounters
I am very thankful to all of you.
Best wishes,
Larisa Brigevich
Franklin Templeton Investments
lbrigevich@templeton.com
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Many thanks to the innovative "blog mistress" of
the first "Information Online" conference blog. May there
be many more. Three cheers for Caroline Regan who survived
the three days of the conference on Thomson red jelly beans
(whatever happen to the white
ones Caro?), coffee and good humour!
Mary Anne Kennan
maryanne.kennan@unsw.edu.au
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Congratulations to Heather Jones, Department
of Education, Tasmania who won the SLA (Stand #12) lucky
prize draw prize of 2 bottles of bubbly!
Sue Henczel
sueh@caval.edu.au
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Well its that time to say goodbye. Once again
I would like to thank all of our sponsors and exhibitors
whose commitment to this exhibition and conference continues
to be invaluable. I would also like to thank all our speakers
for providing us all with a highly stimulating learning
experience. Our biggest thanks go to you the delegates
who make this conference a continuous highlight of the
information
calendar. I hope 2005 has been a rewarding and fulfilling
experience and I hope to see you all again in 2007.
Now come join us for a virtual drink...
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Exhibition booty gathered during a quick exhibition visit.
Soft toys, EBSCO water, the great LEXISNEXIS eyepatches,
it is certainly a stash!
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Metadata Panel feedback
David Hawking of P@noptic (http://www.panopticsearch.com),
Matthew Leske of Your Amigo (http://www.youramigo.com/about.html)
and Warwick Cathro of the NLA (http://www.nla.gov.au)
presented expert insights into the role of metadata in general
search engines as opposed in enterprise search engines and
commented on the advantages and disadvantages of metadata
for search effectiveness.
Conclusions reached were:
- Excellent systems design is essential and without that
no metadata can solve the problems of invisibility.
- Consistent and accurate assigning of metadata is often
useful in enterprise systems but is mostly ignored by
the major search engines. More discussions are needed
on how the sites will be searched at the design stage.
David demonstrated how poor retrieval is with topic metadata.
- Human indexing is prone to error and is becoming increasingly
costly. Automatic harvesting of metadata is becoming increasingly
attractive as costs decline.
- Even with good metadata, dynamic content is usually
invisible for many reasons.
- Spiders these days can usually index all MS Office files
as well as PDF and RTF.
- However, there are forms such as YourAmigo which Matthew
demonstrated can reveal hidden pages with SpiderLinker
even to the Internet search engines.
Thanks for the thought provoking comments by the panel
members
Elizabeth Swan
Chair
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The dinner was fantastic. 24 Hours later delegates
are still talking about it, and those who didn't attend
are very sorry. Adam Spencer was hilarious, and enjoyed
by everyone. The band jumped, the participants jived and
a great time was had by all. Early in the evening ALIA presented
the Redmond Barry Award to John Dwight from DA. For more
information about the award, check out http://alia.org.au/awards/redmond.barry/.
This premier award recognises contributions to the profession
by an individual not eligible for associate membership.
John gave a great speech which was warmly received by in
the room. Marianne Broadbent was also presented with her
Fellowship. Marianne, who many will recognise as a keynote
speaker at ALIA conferences including a previous Online
Conference, has had a long and distinguished career. This
month she will be rejoing Gartner as Senior Vice President
Global Research Business Strategy. For more information
about Fellowships see http://alia.org.au/awards/fellowships/.
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Libraries Australia
- from the NLA
Libraries Australia is an exciting redevelopment of the
Kinetica service from NLA. Its exciting on several fronts:
- Its an exellent example of a service developed to meet
client needs instead of automating a procedural process.
- Its imaginative. It links NLA file to meet catalogues
of major libraries that have disparate interfaces and
show call numbers and availability on shelves.
- If the item is not available for loan in Australia it
links to online bookshops for purchase including amazon.com
- Its user screen is beautifully designed - simple, clean
but with options for linking and for advanced searching.
- The NLA has gone on record to say some of it will be
free in the future.
To have a look at the site the url is: http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/apps/kss.
Congratulations to the NLA team
Elizabeth Swan,
Information Edge
e_swan@infoedge.com.au
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No agenda for health
On Monday night a very noisy group of health librarians
shared a meal at The Malaya restaurant on King Street Wharf.
Colleagues from most states of Australia (and one from Canada)
watched sun set over the Sydney waterfront.
It was a meeting without a formal agenda - a purely social
networking opportunity. We even had a few lost souls from
the 'other' library table in the restaurant wanting to join
our group!
The food was excellent - and healthy only
in the absence of dessert. Afterwards a few interstate visitors
and former residents negotiated the maze of back streets
to view The Bridge and The Opera House. We were lucky -
the next night it rained!
The only item on the agenda now is when we can next meet
for dinner....
Bronia Renison
Bronia_Renison@alianet.alia.org.au
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SLA kicked off their presence
at the conference with a breakfast on Tuesday morning. Marie
McKenzie, the President Elect of the ANZ Chapter, welcomed
particpants to the first official gathering of the SLA ANZ
Chapter (formed only in June 2004), which was kindly sponsored
by Dialog. Members of the Chapter are very geographically
dispersed, so it was great to use the opportunity of many
of us coming together for the Online Conference to actually
meet in person instead of virtually. Janice R. Lachance,
Executive Director visiting from the US then talked about
SLA's role in providing advocacy, learning and networking
for its members and briefly discussed ways in which SLA
aims to achieve these. She also thanked Sue Henczel for
her key role in getting the ANZ Chapter going.
Liz Blankson-Hemans from Dialog (who is also
an office holder of the SLA European Chapter) talked about
Dialog's new learning program. As Liz is also an office
holder of the SLA European Chapter, SLA ANZ members have
much to learn for her about organisations covering vast
geographical distances (tho we do not have the same number
of languages to contend with!). Liz is also presenting a
paper at Online at 3.30 on Thursday in Tumbalong Room 2.
It sounds like avery interesting discussion on defining
the value of information. Those of us who have struggled
to produce ROI reports for our organisations will be listening
with bated breath!
For more information visit the SLA stand in
the exhibition or look at http://www.sla.org/.
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Hemant Manohar (KPMG) presented
his view of the offshoring and outsourcing phenomenon in
India. In a stimulating presentation he discussed the drivers
and benefits of sending work to India and how India is perfectly
positioned to be at the forefront of this new trend.
A panel discussion after the presentation,
with Stephen Cupper (ABN Amro), Angela Abell (TFPL) and
Kay Harris (Conference Convenor) offered differing views
of this trend, including the social impact on both India
and the "sponsoring" country. However, it is a
trend which will only grow in the corporate community and
its one we should all be aware of and keep an eye on.
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The first Online Conference
event for Library Technicians was held yesterday. It was
a round table discussion on the education and structure
of the industry and how this affects Library Technicians
and what the future holds. It was a really stimulating discussion
led by Kay Harris, Angela Abell, Kevin Dudney and facilitated
by Katrina Hughes. The future of our industry looks bright
you will be pleased to know. We need enthusiastic, proactive,
practical people who can meet challenges and then we need
MORE JOBS for them.
This will become a regular Online Conference
event, and we hope to promote it more widely next conference.
Caroline Regan & Mercedes Bertus
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Last nights cocktail party was a star studded
event thanks largely to Thomson and their sparkling welcome.
Kay Harris, the Conference Convenor, set the scene and introduced
Imogen Garner (ALIA President) who welcomed everyone to
the conference and thanked our sponsors and exhibitors for
making it such a dazzling event. The party buzzed with champagne
and canapes including avocado salmon mousse served in shot
glasses. All in all it was a great chance to catch up with
friends and colleagues. There are delegates from all over
the world - China, Finland, Italy, Malaysia, the UK and
of course the US. We also have a strong Kiwi contingent
with 90 delegates. With over 1100 people registered, the
joint jumped!
Caroline Regan and Mercedes Bertus
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Trimagic Software (booth
77) will be holding a product review session on Thursday
2:00pm-3:00pm MEDIA ROOM Exhibition Hall 5. Showing the
latest innovations using INMAGIC products and their 7th
generation Library Automation product "TIMS7".
Peter Smee
peter.smee@trimagic.com.au
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Hope you are all enjoying
yourself at the conference this year. I'm sure it will be
a wonderfull learning experience. Unfortunately I couldn't
make it, but I'll be following this blog with great enthusiasm.
Alan Cohen
acinfo@acinformation.com
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My picture was taken with
our animal collection, because the photographer had heard
that we have a very cute and cuddly representative of our
national symbol, the beaver!  Stop
by the CISTI booth #88 and put your name in our draw for
the beaver or the book, "Culinary Herbs for Short Season
Gardners". What is a short season in Canada is multiple
seasons here in Australia. Please stop by to hear about
accessing CISTI\'s international collection in Science,
technology, engineering, medicine and agriculture through
our efficient document delivery service and other information
services. We are also the largest STM publisher in Canada
with article content from authors the world over
Naomi Krym
naomi.krym@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
.
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The panel from the "Building the Best Information Highway
using all the skills. From the left Linden Fairbairn, Jennifer
Peasley, Sandra Laws and Joan Frye Williams.
Joan Frye Williams provided a very true, witty,
amusing but highly pertinent presentation on the differences
in culture between librarians and IT staff. A very personable
presenter, Joan captured many situations with which we are
all familiar including the all important "What do you
recommend". In fact one delegate accused her of being
a fly on the wall in his library! Delegates were given very
practical tips including one I will pass on to you all which
is to Show no Emotion! So, no tears, no screaming and most
of all no physical violence. Another one I have to repeat
is give your techies good toys! The latest and best. So
they will have credibility and standing with their peers;
and not have sand kicked in their face because they work
in the library. Also, when the information from the techie
gets too dense, ignore the nouns and focus on the verbs
- they always mean the server will go down.
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From the Exhibition Hall I'd like to introduce
you to the Lexis Nexis team who are bringing the conference
good coffee, red jelly beans, calico book bags, stress balls
and blue eye patches. This blogger LOVES these kind people.
They also have stress balls and you can enter their competition
to win a set of luggage - because Lexis Nexis is truly global!
Zenith are giving away an MP3 player and flash
card to a lucky delegate. They are also offering pens to
go with the notepads supplied in your satchel. 
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The big buzz here is Content
Management. James Robertson has received rave reviews. So
check out his company website(http://www.steptwo.com.au)
for white papers etc. Also on the aliaINFOG
list, James regularly updates us on his training schedule.
Caroline Regan
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The panellists for the 3
panel sessions this afternoon have been announced. The metadata
panel will feature Elizabeth Swan from Information Edge,
David Hawking, P@NOPTYIC Search Engine, Mathew Leske from
Your Amigo and Warwick Cathro from the National Library.
The Offshoring Panel will feature Kay Harris from JP Morgan,
Stephen Cupper from ABN Amro, and Angela Abell from TFPL.
The Best Information Highway will feature Joan Frye Williams,
Linden Fairbairn from the University of Sydney Library,
Sandra Laws from Telecom New Zealand, Jennifer Peasley from
Macquarie University Library and Vicki Robl from Serials
Solutions.
They should all be good and all promise a
great deal of controversy... Some of my fellow bloggers
have promised to deliver the goods on the sessions for you.
Caroline Regan
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Information Online is the
first opportunity for Australasian librarians to experience
Meridian, Endeavor’s new solution for reducing electronic
resource headaches! See the efficient, effective management
of all electronic resource information in Meridian, available
to work with any ILS. Participate in one of Endeavor’s
Meridian presentations and be entered in a drawing to win
an iPod Mini. Featured in the Information Online Product
Showcase sessions, a Meridian overview will be presented
Wednesday from 5:15-5:45 p.m. in Theaterette 5 of the Sydney
Convention and Exhibition Centre South.
Additionally, Endeavor Information Systems
stand #68 will feature Meridian demonstrations and informational
presentations throughout Information Online. Learn more
about Meridian Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., 12:50 p.m., 1:20 p.m.,
3:30 p.m. or 5:15 p.m.; Wednesday at 10:15 a.m., 3:20 p.m.
or 4:40 p.m.; or Thursday at 10:15 a.m., 12:30 p.m., or
1:00 p.m. with Endeavor’s in-stand presentations.
Caroline Beatty
beatty@endinfosys.com
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Free ILS at the Katipo stand - #140 just look
for the orange fur! We're giing away the Koha Library System
- even installing it on your laptop if you bring it along.
We're celbrating Koha's 5th birthday with a new version
(V2.2) and would love your feedback on the new features
etc. I look forward to meeting you
Cheers
Rachel Hamilton-Williams
rachel@katipo.co.nz
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Just back from a walk through
for tomorrow. We met 2 Oxford University Press people who
had had a lot of trouble getting their leaflets thru Australian
customs, so were still setting up. It is all very exciting
as the Exhibition Hall looks great! And the exhibition is
bigger than 2003. Sorry about the quality of the photos,
but its very dark and quiet in here right now!
Caroline Regan
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Looking forward to participating
in this year's Online experience.
Meredith Martinelli
mmartine@library.mq.edu.au
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There is an interesting
article in the THES this week that refers to an issue which
may impact especially on those of us in academic libraries,
but also may have other unexpected effects. It reports on
"A mass revolt (which has) erupted this week against moves
to create "top ten" lists of the most important journals
in a bid to establish new performance measures for arts
and humanities research." The full text of the article is
available at: http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2019105
Mary Anne Kennan
maryann.kennan@unsw.edu.au
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DISCOVER Learning Resource
Management from Sentient Learning
ALDIS, in conjunction with Sentient Learning,
is launching the product to the region at this conference.
DISCOVER is an innovative learning resource
management system which provides seamless integration between
learning management systems (within WebCT and Blackboard
etc.), integrated library systems, OpenURL resolvers, federated
search engines, content repositories such as the Resource
Discovery Network (RDN), online journal databases and learning
object repositories, such as EdNA, MERLOT and others.
The Founder and Director of Sentient Learning,
Joe Mitchell, will be out in Sydney for this launch.
Meet Joe at the Product Review on Wednesday
2nd February, 3-3.30 pm, in the Theatrette ,Hall 5, or visit
ALDIS at Stand # 32 for further information.
Robyne Lovelock
robyne@aldis.com.au
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We're launching our federated
search engine AFX (ArticleFinder eXtreme) which can be integrated
with our Web-based document-delivery management system,
Virtual Library, providing in-holdings checks, merging and
sorting of results, automated user authentication for multiple
databases, saved search queries as alerts, and usage reporting.
AFX also allows for one-click LinkOut access to full-text
articles in your electronic collections. See us at Stand
144, and our session at 2:30pm on Thursday.
Tim Burke
timb@infotrieve.com.au
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RMIT Publishing announces
Informit Release 2 at Information Online
Informit Release 2 incorporates browse functionality on
the Informit e-Library titles and other powerful new features
available on the Informit interface.
All delegates and clients are invited to
Informit Release 2 scheduled on Tuesday 1 February 2005
at 5.00pm,
Skyline Room 3.
RMIT Publishing - Informit
info@informit.com.au
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Informit celebrates 15 years
as the leading electronic publisher of Australasian research
information.
Under the imprint Informit, RMIT Publishing provides access
to leading Australasian databases such as Australian Public
Affairs Information Service (APAIS), Attorney General\'s
Information Service (AGIS), Australasian Medical Index (AMI)
plus many more.
Paul Dourlay, Business Development Manager of RMIT Publishing
will be presenting 'Informit 15 years and beyond' on Tuesday
1 Feb at 1.30pm in the Theatrette, Hall 5.
RMIT Publishing - Informit
info@informit.com.au
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James Bennett is a prime
supplier of electronic and online resources to libraries
throughout Australia and New Zealand. We will be promoting
our exclusive \'Etitle\' service and will provide updates
on new publishers and enhancements to the Etitle service.
We are very pleased to announce that James Bennett will
be the prime supplier to libraries of Ebook Library (EBL)
in Australia and New Zealand. Other products that will be
demonstrated:- Gale Virtual Reference Library, SYBWorld
Online, Crown Content Online Resources and other online/electronic
resources.
Amy Garrett (James Bennett - Stand #73)
agarrett@bennett.com.au
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Using WebCT?
courseGenie software is a simple easy way to create online
courses which integrate fully with WebCT and a host of other
different modes. AMPL Software is giving away a free copy
to one lucky OnLine 2005 delegate. Visit our stand for details.
AMPL Software
info@ampl.com.au
Booth 36
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We are launching a product
in Australia at Information OnLine this year.
NetLoan Pro
Public Access PC Bookings and Print Management softwate.
NetLoan Pro is the complete solution for managing
public access PCs. The unique web based solution is ideal
for the administration, supervision and management of your
service. NetLoan Pro has been designed to minimise the demands
created by public access PCs. The cost effective solution
incorporates advanced booking, print management, session
control and management statistics. Ideal for managing Library
internet PCs
NetLoan Pro offers a print management option, which can
be implemented on a mix and match basis to meet the individual
needs of your environment. Prior to the release of a print
job, NetLoan Pro ensures that users are aware of how many
pages they are printing and the total cost of the job. Through
NetLoan Pro, wastage problems, non-collection and non-payment
of print jobs can be avoided.
See InfoVision Technology for a demonstration
at stand 130/131.
Regards,
Judy
Judy Still
Sales & Marketing Consultant
InfoVision Technology
2/899 Wellington Road, Rowville, 3178
Email: judy@infovision.com.au
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Inspec Archive -
Science Abstracts 1898-1968
The entire collection of Science Abstract journals has been
digitised and is now available from Vendors and the IEE
website. This new service provides fully searchable access
to over 70 years of international scientific and technical
literature in physics, electrical engineering, electronics,
and control engineering taken from the Science Abstracts
journal series. The Archive contains 873,700 records along
with the original indexing, tables, graphs and diagrams.
Additional indexing and classification codes have been added
from the current Thesaurus and Classification. Researchers
are now able to search from 1898 to date.
Expanded Coverage of the Inspec Database
Inspec is building on the new Section E: Manufacturing and
Production Engineering of the Database, introducing a set
of new Classification Codes and Thesaurus terms to allow
the indexing of Mechanical Engineering. 200 additional journals
will be indexed to allow this important subject to be fully
covered. In addition, the coverage of areas such as biomedical
technology, information technology and communications will
be expanded.
Come along and see these products at Booth
139.
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Wine Tasting Every Afternoon
at booths 44 & 45 - The IBISWorld Booth. Drop in for
a little fun.
Plenty of give-aways too. Perfumes, aftershave, chocolates.
Meet the friendly team behind Australia's most comprehensive
business information service.
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Welcome to the 12th Information
Online Conference and Exhibition and to the first ever Information
Online Blog! The Organising Committee is pleased to bring
you this new innovation. With it we hope you share your
experiences, thoughts and opinions about Information Online
2005.
This Blog will serve as a record of this event,
so I encourage you all to use it as often as you can. You
can access it from the Internet Lounge or from any other
PC – just logon to http://online.alia.org.au
(but you need to scroll down a bit)
I look forward to sharing this experience
with you both in person and via this blog!
Kay Harris
Conference Convenor
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