Information Studies at Charles Sturt University

CSU Master's Student has paper accepted at the Special Libraries Association Arabian Gulf Chapter 2010 Conference

2010-02-12T14:39:00.005+11:00

Congratulations to Mohamed Boufarss, from the Petroeum Institute in Abu Dhabi who is about to graduate with a Master of Applied Science (Library and Information Management) from the School of Information Studies at CSU. Mohamed has had a paper based on his research project for the subject Research Projects in Information Studies INF553 accepted for presentation at the 16th Annual Conference of the Special Libraries Association, Arabian Gulf Chapter 2010 - Virtual Knowledge in Information Institutions: Issues and Perspectives March 2-4 2010. His paper is titled Institutional Repositories Among Faculty At The Petroleum Institute.

Introduction to Statistics using SPSS

2010-02-09T10:37:00.007+11:00

Some of the SIS staff (Damian, Jake, Asim, Bob, Tanya and Mary Anne) were privileged to attend a workshop titled "Introduction to Statistics using SPSS". It was conducted by Anindito Aditomo (Nino) of the CoCo Research Centre at the University of Sydney and the Faculty of Psychology at Surabaya University.

While Nino worked on improving our knowledge, skills and understanding the guys at the back

(you know who you are :-)) provided relevant

entertainment. The workshop was very useful

and should see an increase in the use of descriptive

and inferential statistics in research within the School.

Thank you Nino.

Research Applications in Library and Information Science (RAILS)

2010-01-28T07:21:00.015+11:00

The Research Applications in Library and Information Science (RAILS) 6 conference was held on Friday the 22nd of January, 2010 at Charles Sturt University’s Canberra Campus. Academic, student and practitioner researchers from around Australia gathered to share their research, renew friendships, and dream up new projects.

The organising committee for this year's RAILS consisted of Dr Anne Lloyd, Dr Bob Pymm, and Damian Lodge - many thanks to them for their efforts, much appreciated. On behalf of ALIA, Derek Whitehead, University Librarian at Swinburne presented the ALIA RAILS 6 Scholarship to Jia Tina Du, PhD candidate at QUT (above left).

The program was diverse with papers on a wide range of topics, from an analysis of the choices and decisions that inform entry into the library and information profession, to the role of cognitive coordination in web search. The full program is available at: http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/educat/sis/RAILS6.html.

An important part of any meeting is the social networking - at right Kerry Smith from Curtin infiltrates a table of blokes at lunch (Gobinda Chowdury, UTS; Peter Macauley,RMIT; Michael Olsson UTS; Damian Lodge, CSU; Mike Middleton QUT and Mark Brogan, ECU )! Apologies to all the other people I took photos of. I am a very poor photographer, and you wouldn't thank me for posting them :-) Here's to meeting in another year at the next RAILS!

ALIA Higher Educators' Forum. Thursday 21 January 2010

2010-01-24T17:37:00.003+11:00

On Thursday 21st January ALIA hosted a Higher Educators Forum. The venue was CSU's campus in Canberra. Academics from the universities offering bachelors and masters programs in library and information studies were invited to attend. Educators attended from Curtin University; Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove and Gardens Point; RMIT University; University of South Australia; University of Technology, Sydney; University of Canberra; Edith Cowan University; and of course, there was a large contingent from CSU. Employer and ALIA representatives also attended - Sue Hutley, Dianne Walton-Sonda, Damian Lodge, Robyn Ellard and Gillian Hallam (ALIA), Derek Whitehead (Swinburne and ALIA), John Shipp (University of Sydney and CAUL), Jasmine Cameron (NLA and ASLA) and Deirdre Kiorkgaard (NLA). Items discussed included course recognition/accreditation, fieldwork placement, recognition of prior learning, the proposed RDA changes and research in the LIS sector. While agreement was not reached on all topics, valuable discussion and community building occurred. The photo is of some of the attendees who enjoyed dinner together afterwards at the Kurrajong Hotel.

ADCS 2009 (Australasian Document Computing Symposium)

2009-12-07T09:45:00.003+11:00

The Fourteenth Australasian Document Computing Symposium (ADCS) was held in conjunction with The ARC Network in Human Communication Science (HCSNet) SummerFest at UNSW on 4 December. ADCS is a major forum for Australasian researchers and practitioners working in the areas of document management, information retrieval and digital libraries. This year's presentations covered a variety of topics within these areas, including collaborative recommender systems, text categorisation, sentiment analysis, search log analysis of Wikipedia use and information retrieval (IR) system evaluation. Mark Sanderson's plenary speech provided an overview of the history of IR evaluation in the construction of test collections and recent trends in user evaluations that move beyond simulations of search performance. Of particular interest are the papers that attempt to model human judgment behaviour, including Newman and Karimi's 'External evaluation of topic models' and Turpin and Scholer's 'Modelling disagreement between judges for information retrieval system evaluation.'

I had a chance to talk to other IR researchers who are also interested in user interactions with IR systems from RMIT and CSIRO. Since this conference is part of HCSNet week long big bang event, it provides the opportunities for connecting with related areas of research, such as speech and language technology and music communication science. Overall, this conference is well-planned and very successful in promoting innovative interdisciplinary research.

IR (Information Retrieval) Talk at CSIRO ICT Centre

2009-11-27T10:52:00.003+11:00

Dr Ying-Hsang Liu gave a presentation to a group of researchers with special interests in information retrieval, data mining and document computing at CSIRO ICT Centre in Canberra on 23 November.

His presentation was concerned with the impact of state-of-the-art controlled vocabularies, exemplified by MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), on search effectiveness by different types of searchers in the genomics domain. The study suggested that MeSH terms were more useful for domain experts than for search experts in terms of the precision measure, even though domain experts did not perceive that MeSH terms were useful.

He also met several researchers at CSIRO whose current research projects range from distributed IR (also known as federated searching in information studies), enterprise search, patent classification, tweets as annotations to intelligent search tools for answering clinical questions. The knowledge sharing in this discussion group has stimulated many exciting ideas for future collaborative research.

SWITCH: Public Libraries in a Changing Environment

2009-11-27T09:32:00.004+11:00

Suzanne Lipu reports that:

The Public Librarian's Conference (in Sydney Sunday 22 November 2009 to Tuesday 24 November 2009) went well, and the SIS booth was well attended. There were 290 delegates with a good number of local government councillors, 5 representatives from Wagga City Library, a couple of mayors, and of course lots of metro, regional and rural librarians (including an Indigenous Knowledge Centre librarian from WA). Many of the attendees were library managers and/or team coordinators. We had some excellent talks from Hugh McKay, Frank Panucci (Director, Community Partnership of the Australian Council of the Arts) and Michael Pascoe (a very entertaining and amusing presenter for an economist!). All other papers (including mine) was presented as part of either a Social Sustainability, Economic Sustainability, or Cultural Sustainability strand - 4 speakers in each - followed by an interactive panel with the audience for about half an hour. This was facilitated by Lucy Broad from the ABC and this arrangement fostered lots of discussions, and questions directed to me.

My talk focussed on the new courses available, particularly the Community Networking strand (since these were public librarians) and as a result of the talk I got many queries about that strand, as well as the change in courses and other offerings.

Next year the South-West Zone of Public Libraries NSW Country will be holding a conference in Albury from 13-16 July at the Albury Entertainment Centre for those of you who might be interested.

Usability Laboratory

2009-11-26T12:12:00.006+11:00

Earlier this semester Dr. Asim Qayyum of the School of Information Studies and Alice Ferguson of the Division of Library Services hosted an open house of the new Digital Library Usability Lab. The Lab has been setup to facilitate Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research and transform the experiences that people have with new technologies.

The objective is to study the needs of computer users to evaluate and develop technologies, and to ensure that the needs and practices of users are reflected in future software applications and information technologies.

Primary activities will include carrying out research to study and design user interfaces, and to carry out usability studies.

CSU Researchers can book the facilities available in the lab for project use.

Equipment available in the lab:

Three high end desktop PCs running on Windows XP, equipped with microphones, headset, and Webcam.
Morae 3 software with Manager, observer, and recorder modules to record interactions.
Two rooms to accommodate researcher and experiment participants.
One way mirror between rooms to facilitate observation.

ASIST 2009 Annual Meeting: Thriving on Diversity - Information Opportunities in a Pluralistic World

2009-11-22T22:32:00.012+11:00

Each year the American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) holds an annual meeting. It is a key conference for those working and researching in the field of information science and technology. Ideas and research are shared, networks formed and agendas set. The theme for the conference this year was “Thriving on Diversity: Information Opportunities in a Pluralistic World”. This year I was privileged to attend the 2009 ASIS&T conference in Vancouver as an invitee to the Doctoral Seminar for Research and Career Development. There was such a wide variety of papers I won’t attempt to do a summary, but from the Keynote presentation by Tim Bray of Sun Microsystems were three pithy lines which represent some of the topics. “The killer app of the Internet is people”; “What happens on the Internet stays on the Internet … forever” and “The culture of online is epistolary … we are in a golden age of writing …”.

While at ASIS&T I met many interesting people, including Dr Heidi Julien from the University of Alberta who we will welcome as a visiting professor at CSU next year. I also met Chang Liu, who was co-author of a poster paper titled “To Search is to Believe: A Comparative Study of health Information Use” with our own Dr Ying-Hsang Liu. Attached is a picture of Chang Liu with their paper. There were many interesting and creative papers, panels and workshops. One particularly interesting session which focused on future directions for information behaviour research mentioned the work Dr Annemaree Lloyd is doing in the area of information practice as something to watch.

Vancouver is a beautiful city. I did not really have the opportunity to explore, as I was only there for such a short period. I did, however, manage a daily walk, on one of which I discovered their very interesting city library building pictured here.

Doctoral Paper Award - Congratulations Sally Burford!

2009-11-03T17:51:00.002+11:00

The SIS Research Development Committee (RDC) is pleased to report that the winner of the SIS Doctoral paper award for 2007-2008 and the accompanying $500 prize is Sally Burford for her conference proceeding:

Burford, S. 2008, “Understanding How Organisations Achieve Effective Web Information Architecture using a Grounded Theory Approach.” AusWeb 08: The 14th Australasian World Wide Web Conference, 5-9 April 2008, Ballina, NSW, Australia: Conference proceedings. AusWeb 08.

After reviewing the paper, the Committee agreed that it was an interesting paper on an interesting topic. We should acknowledge that Sally also received the best paper award at the AusWeb 08 conference for this paper. CONGRATULATIONS SALLY!

The RDC would like to encourage Doctoral students to take this Doctoral paper award as an incentive to publish their work as they progress through their studies and to submit their papers for awards as opportunities arise to do so.

Dr. Jennie Bales wins Beth Southwell Award

2009-10-30T13:27:00.000+11:00

Congratulations to Dr. Jennie Bales, a recent PhD graduate of ours, who has won a Beth Southwell Research Award for Outstanding Educational Thesis from 2008! This award is from the NSW Institute for Educational Research and nominations are limited to one per university. Beth Southwell was a well known educator and academic who gave many years of committed service to the NSW Institute for Educational Research. This award perpetuates her memory.

Dr. Bales' thesis, "Supportive Online Learning Environments for Primary Students: Literature Circles in an Education MOO", is attracting a great deal of favourable attention from the educational community. Well done, Jennie!

Annual Conference Brisbane 2009

2009-10-26T12:05:00.002+11:00

Australian Society of Archivists - Annual Conference Brisbane 2009

The Australian Society of Archivists recently held their annual conference in Brisbane this year as a joint event with the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (ARANZ) and PARBICA (the Pacific and Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives). The theme for the conference was Voyaging Together – Integrity, Memory, Sustainability.

With over 200 delegates, and a busy program of workshops, papers and panels, the event provided archivists, records managers and related professionals with a range of opportunities to share knowledge, network and socialise. Two CSU staff were involved. Sigrid McCausland was a conference organiser and co-presented two workshops – Advocacy for Small Archives (with Desley Soden of the Anglican Diocesan Archives of Brisbane) and Review of the Statement of Knowledge for Recordkeeping Professionals (with Marian Hoy, Professional Development and Education Officer of the Records Management Association of Australasia). Bob Pymm presented a paper on the 9/11 Virtual Archive in the US and was a panel member for a discussion on Educating Archivists: Life after Bradley.

SIS students excel at workplaces

2009-10-23T15:40:00.003+11:00

Always is good to hear about the good things our students are doing:
_______________________________________________________

From: Sally Kudrna [mailto:S.Kudrna@australiacouncil.gov.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 13 October 2009 3:14 PM
To: Pymm, Robert
Cc: Claire Eggleston
Subject: CSU students who volunteered at the Australia Coucnil for the Arts

Hi Robert,

Three students from the post graduate Library and Information Studies course volunteered to help us with a stocktake here at the Australia Council for the Arts.
Ellen Fitzgerald, Antonia Wall and Jess Irwin.
They have been extremely keen to learn about our library and library management system. They have been hard working and their time has been recognised and valued by us in the library, our directors and the finance division of the Australia Council.
When I am next asked how to become a librarian I will definitely be recommending CSU by correspondence.

Thanks again for posting our work experience opportunity on your forum. We have really enjoyed having work experience student here and I hope they learnt some things and enjoyed their time with us as well.

Thanks

Sally Kudrna
_________________________________
Research Librarian
Research and Strategic Analysis, Arts Development

Australia Council for the Arts
PO Box 788 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Australia

SIS at the Institute for Information Management Annual Conference in Canberra

2009-10-23T13:44:00.003+11:00

On Wednesday October 8th Bob and Mary Anne took information about the new SIS Courses to the annual conference of the Institute for Information Management Conference “Managing Information Today and Tomorrow” in Canberra. We met lots of interesting people, including past, present and hopefully future students of SIS.

The conference provided a forum for both information practitioners and solution providers to come together in order to develop their understanding of theory and practice in all aspects of information management. The conference had interesting papers in three streams:

Governance, Risk and Compliance
Enterprise Content Management
Business Intelligence

In the afternoon there was a panel discussion on "Freedom of Information (FoI) and Web 2.0". Panel members included Vladimir Videnovic, Institute for Information Management; Tony Corcoran, Department of Defence; Christine Johnson, National Archives of Australia; Thomas Kaufhold, Records Management Association of Australasia; David Eade, Objective; Peter Outteridge Australian Computer Society; and Mary Anne. A large part of the discussion centred around education in the changing information landscape.

Study visit to Sydney 13th to 16th October 2009

2009-10-22T12:36:00.004+11:00

A group of 45 students from the masters degrees in library and information management, information studies and teacher librarianship, and the undergraduate degrees in library and information management and information studies, visited a range of libraries in Sydney from 13-16 October. The group were guided by SIS staff James Herring, Kim Thompson and Roy Crotty. The students all visited the Ultimo TAFE library on Tuesday morning and the University of Technology Sydney library on Friday morning. In between, students had a choice each morning and afternoon of 3 different libraries, including public libraries, a medical library, the state records, the parliamentary library and other special libraries.

The photos below show a group of students at the Australian Research Museum library a) under a spectacular peacock and b) next to a very tall but remarkably well behaved ostrich. The library has a notice saying that animals such as this would not be exhibited in today’s more enlightened times.

The Sydney Royal Botanic Garden Library visitors were shown a remarkable rare books collection and learned about how a small special library survives by working extensively with volunteers.

On the Friday morning, in the debrief session at UTS, students were given an outline of what ALIA can do for them as information professionals by Nikki Kallenberger.

At the debriefing, students were asked to reflect on the value of the visits to the various libraries and students noted the enthusiasm of the librarians they had met, especially those working under severe financial restrictions. Students also saw the study visit as an excellent opportunity to meet both the staff (James, Kim and Roy) as well as other students on their own course but also on other courses. The studetns were full of praise for the organisation of study visit, including all the preparatory work done by Carol Morton, the professional experience officer. Students were split into groups to discuss their findings.

At the close of this very successful study visit, Nikki Kallenberger kindly took a group photo of SIS staff and students.

How I use classification and thesaurus at home?

2009-10-15T14:46:00.003+11:00

Sharyn Mayne is my student in INF 116. She sent the following to the forum. It is interesting to see application of information organization at home:

I classify my food cupboard thus:

top shelf is items that are used most often like condiments, vegemite, salt, milo, etc.
2nd shelf down is that are used less often like canned goods. I classify them according to type of packaging with cans on the right and boxes and packages on the left.
3rd shelf (and least likely to make me bend as often) is items used least often like cereal, flour, vinegar etc.

So to summarise, my food cupboard is classified according to:
1. Need
2. Type of packaging

Now my bookshelf is atypical of libraries and very typical of my laziness... just like the food cupboard, my bookshelf is classified according to need with items I haven't read at the top. Books that have been read are moved to the bottom. BUT, when i do a spring clean, i often move my favourite series to the very top shelf, so I can admire them whenever I look at the bookshelf.
Other than need, the books are classified according to Author, then series. For example, the Eddings series is situated to the left of the Jordan series and each series is situated in numerical order e.g. Book 1 is to the left and progresses upward to book 12.

Now, my spare bedroom has been harder to classify and generally I use a Thesaurus which I created myself and use annually or bi-annually, depending on the amount of resources and their condition. It's called the JUNK THESAURUS and I think with a bit of marketing, could become a worldwide tool for household description.

My Junk Thesaurus is so easy to use that a baby could do it. It contains limited broad terms - namely "Junk" and "Useful Stuff". When I acquire new resources for this room, they are given the narrower term "junk to be sorted". Occasionally (i.e. once a year), I will find the need to add a new term, "Rubbish", to the Thesaurus when I reclassify the parts of the room.

Just like the traditional library stocktake, my stocktake of the Spare Bedroom involves alot of dusty moving of objects with 3M sticky notes that classify piles of resources related terms like "Rubbish Junk", "Junk" and "Useful Junk".

During the last stages of the classification, instead of using "Useful Junk", I assign the terms "Storage", "Kitchen drawer", "Bedroom" and "Study". At the end of the process instead of using a broad term like "Rubbish" I use a narrower term - "Garbage bin".

SIS at Oz-IA in Sydney, Oct 2-3, 2009

2009-10-09T17:08:00.004+11:00

Here is Asim introducing our new curriculum to the country's Information Architects at Oz-IA in Sydney.

Welcome Tea for Dr. Kim Thompson

2009-09-07T11:08:00.004+10:00

Here are a few photographs from the morning tea held to welcome Kim. Kim is on the far left in the upper one and in the middle (standing) in the next photo. And the food contributions were great also!

Dr. Jennie Bales nominated for national award

2009-07-14T04:16:00.006+10:00

Each year, the Australian Association for Research in Education presents the AARE Award for Research in Education, which recognises and celebrates the achievement of an outstanding Australian doctoral thesis in Education. All Faculties of Education in Australian universities are invited to nominate one doctoral thesis that has been examined during the previous 12 months for consideration for the award. This year, Dr. Jennie Bales’ thesis ‘Supportive Online Learning Environments for Primary Students: Literature Circles in an Education MOO’ has been nominated for this award. Congratulations, Jennie, and best wishes at the next level of this competition!

Library & Information Careers Evening

2009-06-19T16:44:00.003+10:00

Library & Information Careers Evening
Melbourne, May 2009

Held at Experimedia, State Library of Victoria, 26th May, 5:30-7:30pm.
Organised through the Australian library and information associations, and supported by the State Library of Victoria, the School Library Association of Victoria and Public Libraries Victoria.

The session was very successful, attracting 150-180 people interested in work and study in the field. It began with a panel consisting of a library technician, a teacher librarian (a CSU MEdTL grad), a university librarian and a special librarian who has a wide range of experience. Each of the panel members introduced themselves and described their work and how they felt about their careers in this profession. This was followed by a Q&A session, based on questions collected from the participants as they arrived.

It was particularly pleasing to hear Jodie Heath, a CSU MEdTL graduate on the panel. Jodie spoke extremely well, and very positively, about her DE online study with CSU.

After the panel session people were encouraged to visit the stands of the tertiary institutions. Roy Sanders was supported on the SIS/CSU stand by 7 of our students/graduates (list below), and between them estimate they talked to over 60 of the participants. Interest was pretty even between MIS, BIS and TL courses. All our brochures were taken, and at one stage we looked to have most of the attendees around us.

Other courses represented were Swinburne (LibTech) , Box Hill TAFE, RMIT and Monash.

Many thanks to our student and graduate Helpers on the night:
Tania Barry BALIS graduate
Deanne Shoosmith BASLIM graduate
Annie Reilly BASLIM graduate
Deborah Parkinson BASLIM, 4th yr
Lizzie Gilmour MASLIM, 1st yr
Lesa Maclean MASLIM, 3rd yr
Satu Alakangas BALIS + MASLIM graduate

2009-06-19T16:24:00.006+10:00

Another doctorate for Information Studies

The Charles Sturt University graduation ceremony at Burlington, Ontario on 5 June 2009 was notable for the graduation of Dr Shelby Sanett. Shelby completed her doctoral studies while enrolled in the School of Information Studies, with Ross Harvey as Principal Supervisor. She chose to graduate at the ceremony held in Canada for the Ontario campus because she is currently working in the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. Her decision meant that Ross Harvey, currently based at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, Boston, and Professor Michele Cloonan, a co-supervisor of Shelby’s thesis and Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, Boston, could also attend. Shelby also gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the students at the ceremony. Congratulations, Shelby!

Drs Ross Harvey, Shelby Sanett, and Michele Cloonan

Libraries in the Digital Age Conference

2009-06-18T14:08:00.004+10:00

Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) May 25-30, 2009. Dubrovnik and Zadar, Croatia.

The University of Zadar

This annual conference, now in its tenth year, provides a good mix of papers presented in a beautiful environment. It is co-hosted by the University of Zadar and Rutgers University, New Jersey. This approach enables a wide range of speakers and topics including big names from the US – this year the invited speakers were Marcia Bates and Michael Buckland, together with Peter Ingwersen from Denmark. The conference attracts around 200 participants and runs for a week, starting and ending with workshops covering a range of topics including working with Dublin core tools and an introduction to the Digital Library Reference Model. The first two days were held in Dubrovnik, a jewel of a city and this year, extremely warm. The organisers then moved everyone to the University itself in Zadar – another Croatian town set on the water’s edge. Again, a beautiful setting with the University in a prime location and chandeliers in the lecture theatres!

Presentations were wide ranging and included CSU lecturer Bob Pymm’s paper on archiving television in the digital age.

Bob on the balcony of the lecture theatre

SIS student at Museum Victoria

2009-06-17T16:05:00.002+10:00

Read all about how Daniel, a student from our school's library and information management program, spends his three week placement at Museum Victoria's Discovery center. Visit the museum's blog at http://museumvictoria.com.au/accessallareas/discoverycentre/. Scroll down to June 10 entry titled "Thanks, Daniel".

Joy McGregor at Canadian Library Association conference

2009-06-10T10:20:00.009+10:00

Dr. Joy McGregor attended the Canadian Library Association 2009 conference in Montreal from 29 May-1 June, where she presented a session called “Smart Information Use: Generating Knowledge and Avoiding Plagiarism”, soon to be available on the CLA website at http://www.cla.ca/conference/2009/. The presentation was based on the ARC funded research project she is concluding this year with Dr. Kirsty Williamson. It focused in particular on the understandings of plagiarism held by student, teacher, and teacher librarian participants and on the strategies developed by teachers and TLs to support students in avoiding plagiarism in their writing.

The conference was un-themed, with topics ranging across the spectrum of possibilities, from Joe Janes’ (University of Washington) opening keynote called “Rethinking the Library” to Helene Blowers’ (architect of Library 2.0: 23 Things) closing address, “The Experience of Play”.

An online community was created for this conference at http://cla2009.ning.com. Photos were posted to Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/groups/cla2009/. Although these online communities attracted only small numbers of attendees this year, similar communities are bound to develop and grow exponentially over the next few months and years, as more people become familiar with social networking tools through their work. This trend of growing familiarity was apparent in many of the sessions Joy attended.

Since the Canadian Library Association/Association Canadienne des bibliotheques is bilingual, and especially with the conference taking place in Montreal, French language exhibits and sessions were everywhere.

A French language kiosk at a Montreal street fair, however, demonstrated an unexpected cross-cultural experience—one could purchase kangaroo sausages. When asked (through a by-stander/ interpreter) what their connection with Australia was, the merchants indicated that there was no connection whatsoever. Interesting to speculate how this French Canadian ‘sausage sizzle’ came to be….

Roy is in SMH!

2009-06-01T12:46:00.002+10:00

Roy Crotty, an associate lecturer at SIS was recently interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald on School Libraries. The online version of the full article on SMH can be accessed through this link:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/book-now-libraries-are-top-shelf-in-family-attractions-20090530-br1b.html

Roy is also the president of the Australian School Library Association in NSW.

Sydney study visit

2009-05-26T12:30:00.005+10:00

See more photos about this visit on CSU Information Studies.

SIS staff members Suzanne, Maryam, and Asim recently led groups of students on a tour of various libraries and museums in Sydney. This picture shows the magnificent new Law library at the University of Sydney. Click on the photo to visit our school's photo collection on FLICKR.

Tanya receives her award from VC

2009-04-08T09:36:00.004+10:00

Pictured here are Professor Ian Goulter (VC), Dr. Joy McGregor, Tanya Tye, and Dr. Annemaree Lloyd. Joy and Anne nominated Tanya for this well deserved award.

See more award ceremony photos on CSU Information Studies.

LIM graduates 2009

2009-04-08T09:34:00.004+10:00

Many of our Masters (LIM and TL) and PhD graduating students attended the ceremonies on April 1 here at the Wagga Campus. Well done!

See more graduation photos on CSU Information Studies.

SIS booth in ONLINE conference

2009-03-03T09:47:00.002+11:00

Online Booth 5
See more photos of the event at CSU Information Studies.

SIS recently set up and managed a booth at the ALIA sponsored ONLINE conference 2009. Here you can see Bob Pymm putting up all his charm to attract visitors.

Steve Hutchinson visits SIS/CSU

2009-02-24T09:39:00.003+11:00

Steve speaks at a seminar arranged at SIS during his visit to CSU on Tuesday, February 10, 2009.

School photos 043
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Steve is Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University. The PGCE is a unique pre-service course in initial teacher education for graduates and since its inception in 1992 it has contributed 5000 new teachers to the profession; many of whom can only train through this route.

Steve's research uses Activity Theory to investigate the problems, dilemmas and opportunities facing student teachers as they move between the university and schools; as they cross boundaries between and within each of these settings.
Prior to his appointment to the Open University in 1997 he taught music in Secondary schools in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

SIS res school in pictures

2009-02-24T09:29:00.004+11:00

On Jan 29, the incoming students started a three day long residential school on Wagga campus. Here is one picture from the event.

School photos 026

For more pictures, including those of students and staff going wild, visit our photo gallery in FLICKR at CSU Information Studies.

BBQ at the SIS res school

2009-02-24T09:23:00.003+11:00

The master chefs in our BBQ team - Roy Sanders, Roy Crotty, & Bob Pymm

CSU Graduate plans new Library Building

2009-02-24T08:30:00.001+11:00

http://www.mountgambier.sa.gov.au/towards2015.asp

http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2008/10/24/2400617.htm?site=southeast

These links take you to a website, and to a virtual tour and sound interview in which one of our BALIS & MASLIM graduates, Cathryn Harris (Library Manager, Mount Gambier Public Library ) discusses plans for the new Library building in Mt Gambier.

Cathryn says:

“Work on our new library has commenced with a completion date Nov/Dec 2009. I have attached the website below for you have a look at. The design and floor plan has taken 3 years to develop and we have looked at many libraries in Australia and New Zealand for inspiration and have tried to incorporate many of the good elements from a number of other successful libraries.”

Dr. Williamson visits Univ. of Washington

2009-01-23T10:07:00.003+11:00

Geoff, Kirsty, & Terry
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Dr Kirsty Williamson is currently in the United States meeting with Terry Asla, an international PhD student in the School of Information Studies. Here is a photo of Kirsty and her husband, Geoff, with Terry outside the University of Washington Library. Kirsty and Terry were invited to the University of Washington by Professor Bruce, Head of the Information School at the University of Washington while he was in Australia conducting the Information Studies School Review. It sure looks cold there!

Seminar on Broadband, libraries and the creation of Australia’s digital culture

2009-01-07T15:29:00.001+11:00

This seminar, the third in a series jointly supported by the National Library of Australia, Charles Sturt University and ALIA, was intended to provide a broad overview of what the creation of Australia's digital culture means for libraries and information agencies in strategy and in practice. It was held in the National Library, Canberra, on Tuesday 18th November 2008.

The proceedings and mp3 recordings of the lectures are now available. To access these, click on the title of this post or the direct URL is http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/meetings/austdigitalcultureprogram.html

Celebrating school libraries around the world

2008-10-27T12:39:00.002+11:00

School libraries around the world are celebrating International School Library Month (ISLM) during October, and on Monday 27th October, Australian teacher librarians will use the day to highlight the important role of school libraries.

"This year´s theme is `Literacy and learning at your school library´ and school libraries around the country will be celebrating", announced Rob Moore, President of the Australian School Library Association (ASLA).

"Teacher librarians play a vital role in students´ literacy and learning", said Mr Moore. "Through their comprehensive understanding of literacy, literature and how to promote and foster reading, they are able to help students develop a deep understanding across the curriculum. This transcends basic literacy in the traditional sense, extending into the growth of students´ cultural capital which forms the foundation of lifelong learning."

"The teacher librarian´s understanding of both broad curriculum and programs specific to their school underlies their value and importance to teachers and students alike", he said.

"The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) joins with ASLA in recognising the significant contribution that teacher librarians and staff in school libraries make to the life and learning of school children in this country and helping to develop a smart nation of information literate students", ALIA President, Derek Whitehead commented.

Stephen Krashen, a linguist and researcher from the University of Southern California, said at a recent conference: "The availability of quality reading material in school libraries coupled with read-alouds and conferencing leads to better reading and learning (and writing, spelling, vocabulary and
grammar) and that more access to books results in more reading".

Australian teacher librarians, teachers and students are celebrating ISLM through a variety of activities and events. Schools around the globe exchange bookmarks and information about their school community in an international spirit of collegiality, information sharing and co-operation.

Others celebrate the excellence and commitment of their profession through awards programs, special presentation events and conference programs.
Literacy and reading are promoted in harmony with websites, blogs and Internet based activities.

For more see School Libraries Online

2008-10-27T09:52:00.003+11:00

SIS lecturer Roy Crotty recently presented the following paper on technology and communication skills at a CSU Foundations in University Learning and Teaching workshop.......

The School of Information Studies on the Wagga campus prepares students to work in the fields of information management, librarianship and teacher librarianship. All our students are taught in the DE mode which places challenges on the teaching staff to develop innovative means of delivering content. One of the challenges is having students work in the collaborative mode, especially with teacher librarians who are now beginning to work in collaborative exercises within their schools and between schools. Their students also have learning styles different than their own i.e. they work together in collaborative settings and modes as part of their normal lives. Our students are scattered across Australia and even across the world so participating in collaborative exercises is a challenge.

CSU Interact has offered some means of addressing this challenge and the following example demonstrates strategies used by students and staff to enhance the experience. Students in one of the TL strand subjects were organised into groups of 4 (there were 180 students so 48 groups were established). Their task was to develop a 15 slide Powerpoint presentation to the editorial panel of a major educational journal.

The members of each group were randomly allocated. With the assistance of the school’s educational designer, sub-forums for each group were created on Interact with only the members of the group, the subject coordinator and educational designer being given access to their sub-forum. Each group had access to their own wiki, Resource page, group email and chat room. Of course there was still the overall subject forum where items of general interest to all students could be communicated through the group email, resource, chat and wiki pages.

The students were geographically spread across Australia and the world. One group had two members from Qld, one from NSW and the fourth from Belgium. Members of each group made initial contact using the Interact chat room facilities and demonstrated the usual cautious approach to ‘meeting’ new people and establishing their task. The group had to develop their own topic based upon one of the learning objectives of the subject which presented its own communication difficulties in being able to establish common times to be available to meet in the chat room. Some problems soon became evident, often technical problems such as students without broadband access attempting to use Interact across dial up lines occurred and had to be managed. Students were encouraged to use whatever means they found useful to be able to communicate with each other. Email was used but of course is not synchronous, phone calls were made but not many used conference calls due to the cost.

It became obvious that the technical skills of many of the students varied greatly across the entire cohort and within groups. To their credit most accepted the challenges of learning new communication skills and technologies. Skype was mentioned to all as an efficient and cost effective means of communicating and many group members took the opportunity to learn this new technology (to them). Comments indicated that the ability to actually speak with each other and, in some cases, actually see each in real time while using Skype video aided to the collaborative efforts. Being able to conference using Skype also enhanced the collaborative efforts. Being a free service was also an attractive bonus.

In sharing their developing Powerpoints, students began to use the Resource page on Interact to upload their presentations. Other group members would them download the Powerpoint, edit or add pages and then repost to Interact. While this was useful, there was still a delay while each person edited etc. Students could discuss the changes but the time lag was present and only one person could use the Powerpoint at any one time. Some students attached their Powerpoints in emails to other group members in order to speed the process.

Google have developed an application called Google docs where files can be posted onto a site and other people can be invited to view the file and edit directly from the site. Simultaneous editing can be done by all invitees. Students were informed of this Google app via Interact’s group email facility and invited to use the site. They were informed that this application was a beta version, its use was not supported by CSU and to keep backups of all work. Several groups used Google docs to load their Powerpoints and share the file without having to download/upload. One group reported using both Skype and Google docs simultaneously – speaking with each other about their Powerpoint and editing as needed by any group member. Google docs can be accessed form the Google homepage – just look under MORE for DOCUMENTS.
Youtube contains some excellent videos on the use of Google docs and some links are included here.

One technical aspect we discovered was that attempting to edit Powerpoint formatting features was not successful. Its worth is in editing text so we recommended that the text be edited in Google docs and then add the formatting – build the house before painting it.

Part 2 of the assignment involved a personal critical reflection by each student which included commenting upon their communication and collaborative skills. Overall the comments were similar – people with little or no technical skill taking a chance and learning new skills. They expressed excitement at what they had learnt about new communication technologies and how collaboration, while seemingly daunting at first, can be an enriching and invigorating experience. A number of groups asked for the sub-forums to be kept open in order for the group members to continue collaborating during the rest of the semester.

Look who's on telly

2008-10-21T14:24:00.003+11:00

Look who's on telly
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Lecturers Roy Crotty and Dianne Lane attended the Western Association of Teacher Librarians conference - in Dubbo. Here they are joined by Arthur, Joy and Ashley by videoconference.

Government information management

2008-10-21T14:17:00.003+11:00

parliament_jacarandas
Originally uploaded by monkeytypist.

A conference at the Queensland Parliament highlighting a range of important issues around information management within government was attended by lecturers Damian Lodge, Lisa Soon and Jake Wallis.

A range of skills gaps were discussed, as well as strategies for managing interaction and information flows within, across and outwith government.

ALIA Dreaming08 TV Episode 4

2008-09-08T15:10:00.003+10:00

A vendor perspective on ALIA Dreaming08, from Jeroen Prinsen of Thomson Reuters

ALIA Dreaming08 TV Episode 3

2008-09-08T14:02:00.003+10:00

Kathryn Cass of City of Botany Bay Library Service discusses her experience of ALIA Dreaming08.....

Dreaming08 TV Episode 2

2008-09-03T21:40:00.002+10:00

Helen Kwaka, from Tea Tree Gully Library Services, talks about her involvement with Dreaming08......

Dreaming08 TV Episode 1

2008-09-03T21:33:00.006+10:00

Helen Livingston, Director of Library Services at the University of South Australia, talks about the value of the conference experience.

The road to Dreaming 08

2008-09-03T21:24:00.003+10:00

Lecturers Damian Lodge, Bob Pymm and Jake Wallis went on the road to make the long drive to Alice Springs for the ALIA 08 bi-annual conference at which they will be presenting a paper entitled Library education 2.0: shaping the librarian of the future.

Jake Wallis presents the rationale for the trip:

Sydney study visit

2008-08-28T09:07:00.003+10:00

Sydney Harbour
Originally uploaded by Komshiki.

Bob Pymm and James Herring recently led the Sydney study visit. A good time was had by all with the usual selection of stimulating experiences of the real world of professional practice in the information industry.

James blogs the experience here and here.......

ASLA NSW State Conference

2008-08-27T10:07:00.001+10:00

On Friday March 28 and Saturday March 29 the Australian School Library Association (NSW) and the NSW Department of Education and Training jointly hosted the 2008 State Conference for teacher librarians. The event was held at The King’s School, North Parramatta and was attended by a large number of teacher librarians from primary through to high schools from across NSW.

Staff from the School of Information Studies from CSU were involved in the proceedings. In particular Professor Stephen Kemmis from the Faculty of Education gave a keynote speech as did Dr Kirsty Williamson. Lyn Hay, lecturer at CSU and Dr Williamson also conducted sessions for smaller groups during the program. CSU hosted a reception for delegates on the Friday night, providing prizes from the CSU winery for delegates who participated in fun activities at the end of a hard day’s work

James Herring at IASL

2008-08-27T09:56:00.002+10:00

Our very own James Herring recently gave a keynote address at the International Association of School Libraries conference in Berkley, California, USA.

Catch a few minutes video of James being interviewed (at http://www.librarymedia.net/IASL.html ) about the issues and ideas that he is currently emphasising in his teaching, research, workshops and speaking.

Subversive technology

2008-08-07T14:59:00.002+10:00

It is interesting to note the subversive effect that the Internet is having on political action. Marginalised populist movements are able to mobilise using the web to bypass the mainstream media channels.

There are many examples of this from the broad coalition of anti-globalisation groups or organisations against the invasion of Iraq through to specific movements such as that of Beppe Grillo in Italy. Beppe Grillo is a comedian with a strong political motivation who, through the web, is orchestrating a one-man campaign to clean up Italian politics. How? Through one-man stage shows to thousands and using his blog - - to keep up the momentum. Is the Web the new public sphere for politics?

winner of both the Australian Library and Information AssociationStudent Award and the Softlink Australia Teacher Librarianship Prize

2008-04-21T13:04:00.005+10:00

JM, Ailsa Moyses, Ailsa's Dad
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Dr Joy McGregor with winner of both the Australian Library and Information Association Student Award and the Softlink Australia Teacher Librarianship Prize, Ailsa Moyses (and her father)

winner of the Zenith Management Services Group Postgraduate TeacherLibrarianship Prize

2008-04-21T13:04:00.004+10:00

AF, SD, Raeanne & JM
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Ashley Freeman, Sally Dallas and Dr Joy McGregor with winner of the Zenith Management Services Group Postgraduate Teacher Librarianship Prize, Raenne McLean

TL Group photo

2008-04-21T13:03:00.002+10:00

TL Group photo
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Graduates in Teacher Librarianship

All LIM Graduates

2008-04-21T13:02:00.002+10:00

All LIM Graduates
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Graduates in Library and Information Management

Sally Dallas with Frances Dodd (Zenith Undergrad Prize Winner)

2008-04-21T13:01:00.002+10:00

1. Sally Dallas with Frances Dodd (Zenith Undergrad Prize Winner)
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Sally Dallas of Zenith Management Services Group with winner of the Zenith Management Services group Postgraduate Teacher Librarianship Prize winner, Frances Dodd.

LIM Postgrad students

2008-04-21T13:00:00.002+10:00

LIM Postgrad students
Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Dr Philip Hider with postgraduate students in Library and Information Management, including newly awarded PhD, Dr Meryl Ubel-Yan (centre).

SIS leads the research strand of the ASLANSW-NSWDET State School Libraries Conference

2008-04-21T10:09:00.001+10:00

Professor Stephen Kemmis presents his keynote address

The School of Information Studies played a significant role in supporting the conference program of the inaugural ASLANSW-NSWDET State School Libraries Conference which was held at The Kings School, Parramatta on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th of March. The theme of the conference was 'School Libraries Leading Learning', with around 300 participants attending a number of keynotes and workshops across the two days. As part of Friday’s program, Lyn Hay presented a mini-keynote on the findings of her Student Learning through Australian School Libraries research project and at the end of the day hosted a social event for 1½ hours within the trade fair area which featured CSU wine and cheese, sponsored by CSU’s Faculty of Education. CSU’s Centre for Information Studies also donated a number of its recent publications as lucky door prizes for this event, and Duncan Ball, author of the Selby and Emily Eyefinger series launched one of his recent children’s books.

Saturday’s program began with Professor Stephen Kemmis (pictured) presenting the opening keynote address on ‘Research Circles and the Participatory Action Research Process’. Stephen’s keynote was sponsored by CSU’s Centre for Studies in Teacher Librarianship and it was the first session of a full-day program strand devoted solely to research-based conference presentations. Our own Dr Kirsty Williamson built on Stephen’s introduction to action research in her keynote address ‘Action research in school settings: Method, techniques and exemplars’, and after lunch Dr Ross Todd worked with Kirsty and Lyn to host an afternoon workshop for those participants who wished to explore their ideas on implementing an action research project at their school. Feedback from participants who attended the research strand was very positive and we hope ASLANSW and NSWDET will include a research strand in future conference programs. On the Sunday morning, Kirsty followed up with a post-conference workshop on interviewing techniques for ASLANSW’s Community of Action Researchers – Teacher Librarians (CAR-TL) members. Given all of the above events, CSU’s presence did not go unnoticed!

Professional development courses in information organisation

2008-04-07T09:11:00.004+10:00

Photo: 399 Lonsdale Street, which houses the CSU Study Centre, Melbourne

Two short courses in the field of information organisation (known to older generations of librarians as cataloguing and classification) were conducted by Dr Philip Hider on 26th and 27th March at the CSU Study Centre in the Melbourne CBD. The two one-day courses, organised by the School, covered MARC cataloguing and Dewey Decimal Classification, and were attended by both CSU students and ‘private’ participants. The two courses were both ‘sold out’ well in advance, indicating the continuing demand for professional development opportunities in the ‘cat & class’ area. Participants hailed not only from in and around Melbourne, but also from regional Victoria and interstate – e.g. Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra, even Perth!

Philip was very much encouraged by the high level of interest and participation shown in the courses and plans to hold more in the future. He would like to thank Judy O’Connor, from our School, who did a great job with the administration, and also the staff at Study Group Australia, who run the CSU Study Centre and accommodated the courses.

St Patrick's Day at SIS

2008-03-18T22:30:00.003+11:00

The craic was mighty at SIS for St Patrick's Day. There was cake, traditional music, at least one real live Irishman and even a splash of Irish whiskey in a few of the morning coffees.

Lyn Hay presents keynote and JH Lee Award at ASLANSW State Library Day

2008-03-13T17:51:00.005+11:00

Photo: (from left to right) Anne Lockwood (2007 NSW Teacher Librarian of the Year), Westley Field (John H Lee Memorial Award), June Wall (ASLA NSW President), Jennifer Watts (John Hirst Award), Lyn Hay (School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University)

Each year the Australian School Library Association (New South Wales) hosts a Professional Learning Day in the month of February at the NSW State Library. The State Library Day has a reputation for being a great way to kick off the academic year for school library professionals in NSW. This year was no exception with over 150 participants arriving at the State Library on Saturday February 23 to attend a variety of sessions addressing the theme 'Leading Learning ...into the Research'. Sessions explored practice informed by research on Web 2.0, graphic novels, podcasting, wikis and collaborative learning, YA Literature and the 'heart' of questioning. The title of Lyn's keynote was 'Moving beyond the rhectoric: What the research tells us about Web 2.0 & student learning'. Lyn encouraged those TLs and teachers currently integrating Web 2.0 technologies with their students to seriously consider building in an action research component into the design, planning and evaluation of these curriculum units to help build research evidence that clearly demonstrates how Web 2.0 supports student learning outcomes.

This event also hosts ASLANSW's annual professional award ceremony, and Lyn had the honour of representing the School of Information Studies in awarding the John H Lee Memorial Award to Westley Field, the Director of Online Learning at Methodist Ladies College (MLC) in Sydney, for his outstanding leadership in learning technologies, and in particular his innovative vision in establishing Skoolaborate.

The School of Information Studies at CSU has sponsored the John H Lee Memorial Award since its inception in 2003. John Lee was a professional colleague and friend of the Teacher Librarianship academic team at CSU, and in the 1990s he was a member of CSU's TL Courses Advisory Committee. John was a passionate advocate for teacher librarianship, an innovator in learning technologies and was very generous in sharing his insights with the teachers, TLs, principals and ICT coordinators alike. For more information about the ASLANSW awards ceremoney for 2008, see http://www.aslansw.org.au/awards/

School of Information Studies FM

2008-02-29T16:28:00.004+11:00

Roy Sanders and Jake Wallis were broadcast live on 2AAAFM being interviewed by Jenny Knowles about how the School has evolved since its inception in 1974; from hand written essays to word processed assignments, from letters to e-mail and online foums, from on-campus students to distance education with students all over the world (from the Middle East to Malta!).

Missed it? Now problem, you can listen to or download the audio here and relive the moment!

The future of education and research in information

2008-02-18T15:31:00.006+11:00

Dean Emeritus and Professor of the University of Washington Information School, Dr Mike Eisenberg offered some reflections on the workshop process and outcomes;

"The future of education and research for the information field is clearly in the form of 'ischools'. And, CSU is ready to make the major leap to becoming a full ischool with a rich and impressive array of teaching programs, meaningful scholarship, and outreach to the information field and to a range of applied professions. I was particularly intrigued by the possibilities of teaming up with health professions, agriculture, education, and sustainable environment. Lastly, it was fantastic to see the entire staff come together in full agreement that this was the right and desirable thing to do—to move aggressively to become an ischool."

Building Australia's national iSchool

2008-02-14T16:27:00.002+11:00

Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

A three day workshop at Charles Sturt University has produced a vision for a national iSchool. A cross-section of expertise from the information industry worked with staff from the School of Information Studies to define a shared vision of what information education in Australia might look like in 2020.

The iSchool model is being applied across many of the most prestigious universities in the United States, the world's most advanced post-industrial economy, and is appropriate given the Australian government's thinking on the nation's development as a digital economy.

Dean Emeritus and Professor of the University of Washington Information School Mike Eisenberg travelled round the world specifically to be involved in re-envisioning information education in Australia. Professor Eisenberg provided invaluable expertise in assisting the group to formulate this vision, having been through such transformative processes in the United States.

Additional expertise came from information and knowledge industry leaders from across Australia, including Nerida Hart (Land & Water Australia), Robert McEntyre (Robert McEntyre & Associates), Kay Harris (Vista Information Services and Solutions), Sally Dallas (Zenith Information Management Services), Suzette Boyd (Scotch College, Melbourne), Anne-Marie Schwirtlich (State Library of Victoria) and Dean Mason (Enakt Consulting).

The Library is an evolving organism

2008-02-02T12:44:00.001+11:00

People want cookies....

2008-02-02T12:41:00.000+11:00

Professor Joe Mika visits CSU

2008-01-31T14:41:00.000+11:00

Professor Joe Mika, the Director of Wayne State University Library and Information Science Program recently visited the School of Information Studies at CSU as part of his research study on international LIS programs. His visit enabled a rewarding sharing of perspectives across LIS education in both Australia and the United States.

Professor Mika is pictured here with his wife Marianne Hartzell (who is the former Executive Director of the Michigan Library Association) and Dr Joy McGregor (centre) of the School of Information Studies.

Res school - what's it all about...?

2008-01-23T21:52:00.000+11:00

With our on-campus residential school for undergraduate students kicking off shortly, you might be wondering what to expect from the three days. Well, here's Dr Bob Pymm to tell you more.....

We'd be interested to hear about your own expectations and experiences.....

Highlighting the potential of web 2.0

2007-12-18T17:28:00.001+11:00

Dr Robert Pymm speaking at the National Library of Australia Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Dr Robert Pymm and Jake Wallis recently organised, chaired and presented (phew - long day!) at a professional development seminar at the National Library of Australia on the potential of web 2.0 for information services. With the registration having filled within about 20 minutes of the rego form going online, this was a popular event!

Given the demand for the event from across Australia, we arranged for the audio to be recorded on the day so that it could be podcast after the event. So, for all of you who couldn't make it, the presentations, including audio, are available at http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/meetings/web2prog.html Enjoy!

Damian and Bob @ ALIA Lib Techs 2007

2007-11-07T14:56:00.001+11:00

Damian and Bob @ ALIA Lib Techs 2007 Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Damian Lodge and Bob Pymm (pictured here looking a little nervous before giving their paper) attended the ALIA Library and Information Technician's Conference held in Melbourne in October. The Conference attracted around 400 people and was a mix of good, interesting and often practical papers; some great visits and a hectic social whirl. Photos from the Conference dinner, held at the Melbourne Aquarium have had to be held back due to their potential for embarassment!

Anne Lloyd, also from the School of Information Studies at CSU, also attended and gave the keynote address on the last day and, considering it was the Friday morning after the dinner, did a great job at keeping people awake with her story of welders in the TAFE library and her subsequent 'research' with firemen!

'The Librarians' airs on ABC

2007-11-01T13:17:00.000+11:00

Last night ABC's new comedy series 'The Librarians' aired with its first episode. Funny(ish) seems to be the consensus. Needs time to gain momentum. There were some good moments mixed in with 'The Office' style awkwardness.

Of primary importance to most librarians I know was how the profession would be portrayed. Would it be the cardigan-wearing shushers or the buns and spectacles behind the desk stamping books? I'm relieved to say that there were no cardies to be seen.

The creators have done their best to reassure us that the only cardies to appear in the series will be trendy ones.....

Lyn Hay wins ALSA Citation Award for 2007

2007-10-12T12:22:00.000+10:00

The School of Information Studies' Lyn Hay has won the Australian School Library Association Citation award for 2007.

The Australian School Library Association presents this award "for outstanding leadership in promoting and developing teacher librarianship in one or more of the following fields: policy formation, program implementation, publications, administration of the association, research, innovation and education. The award was presented to Lyn at the awards ceremony held during the very recent ASLA 2007 conference in Adelaide. Lyn has given outstanding service and leadership to school libraries in Australia and receives this award for the areas of education, publications, research and innovation. Her vision has had ongoing positive consequences for the profession of teacher librarianship across Australia" (Karen Bonanno, ASLA Executive Officer, OZTL_NET message).

You can read the citation and Lyn's acceptance speech on the ASLA website.

Photo credit: Australian School Library Association at http://www.asla.org.au/advocacy/citation/citation2007.htm

Study group visit to Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre

2007-10-05T17:12:00.000+10:00

James Herring recently took one of our study visit groups to the fascinating Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre. James reports below......

The visit was excellent with the centre manager (a librarian by any other name) introducing the work of the centre as a focus for education but also as a gateway to the museum for inquiries and identifications. This means that people send in photos of beasties for the museum to identify. In some cases, people send specimens and sometimes, the specimens e.g. spiders, are still alive.

Students were then split into groups and each group was given an artefact e.g. a sheep’s skull or a shell and they had to go and use the centre’s displays, collection (i.e. drawers of fossils, bones etc), book collection and catalogue on the centre’s website, to identify the artefact - a real live information retrieval exercise, enjoyed by all.

There was also a chameleon in a glass case which was fascinating to watch – see James' blog for a link to a photo of the chameleon in the centre.

If you’re in Melbourne, it’s a fascinating – and free – place to visit.

Perth workshops for Teacher Librarians

2007-08-29T15:36:00.001+10:00

James Herring Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

James Herring recently led 2 workshops for teacher librarians in Perth at the invitation of the AISWA Libraries group. The workshops were focused on:

the role of the teacher librarian

the implications for TLs of the new WACE courses being introduced at year 11/12 in WA schools
Advanced searching in Google and other search tools and a look at visual search engines such as Kartoo

Web 2.0 and schools

As a follow up to the last session, James constructed a wiki for the participants.

James found Perth to be a very attractive, clean and very green city – not only the beautiful parks surrounding the river but the running/walking and cycling tracks which have been constructed all over the city and out to the beaches – all off the road.

Deep Thought

2007-08-22T20:05:00.001+10:00

The School of Information Studies has a new photocopier/scanner/spaceship (ably piloted here by our Administration Officer, Lyndal).

It's amazing, it can do everything; photocopy, scan, update the blog (almost).

Hong Kong Library Education and Career Forum 2007

2007-08-14T10:17:00.001+10:00

Dr John Mills in Hong Kong Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

At the recent Hong Kong Library Education and Career Forum the partnership between the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University and the School of Professional and Continuing Education at Hong Kong University was represented by Dr John Mills.

The partnership is long running and successful, with many library and information professionals in Hong Kong attracted to this accredited course, recognised in Australia, Canada, the USA and UK.

ALIA InfoLit Forum turns 6 with a competition

2007-08-02T11:25:00.000+10:00

ALIA Information Literacy Forum is turning 6!

The ALIA Information Literacy Forum is celebrating is 6th birthday! The forum was established in 2001 as one of the many new ALIA groups. In the last six years the forum has been involved in a number of exciting initiatives including the launch of the Advocacy Kit in 2003 and the IL satellite workshop at the 2006 New Librarians' Symposium. We have decided to celebrate our 6th birthday with a "mini makeover". The ALIA Information Literacy Forum committee is inviting you to help rename the group by hosting a renaming competition. The entry with the winning name will receive a $50 Borders book voucher.

The competition deadline is Monday August 13 2007 with the winning entry to be announced in August. Entries should be emailed to the group convenor Helen Partridge at helen.partridge@alia.org.au. Further details can be found on the group's website http://www.alia.org.au/groups/infolit/

Information Architecture post @ Victorian Dept of Justice

2007-08-02T11:18:00.000+10:00

We've been contacted by the Dept. of Justice in Victoria who are keen to take on someone in an information architecture role (not necessarily with experience) - job description attached. I'm quoting below:

"We are advertising a taxonomist position at present and would welcome applications from information architecture graduates. [snip] I'd like to emphasise that we would be very open to applications from people who don't have much practical work experience, but whose theoretical grounding is strong. Because it is a specialist role, we want to encourage as many applicants as possible.

We do need candidates to be able to demonstrate good communication skills, as a key part of the role is communication with business unit content owners and the ability to educate content managers about taxonomies. The current closing date for the position is this Friday, but I'd also be open to late applications if I'd spoken to any interested candidates."

The contact for those interested is:
Juliette Cox
Tel: [03] 8684 1599
Fax: [03] 8684 1579
Project Manager, Taxonomy Management
Innovation Knowledge and StrategyStrategic Projects and Planning Division
Email: juliette.cox@justice.vic.gov.au

Libraries in the 21st century

2007-07-24T18:03:00.000+10:00

The Centre for Information Studies is proud to announce its latest publication, Libraries in the twenty-first century.

Libraries in the twenty-first century brings together leading library educators and practitioners to provide a scholarly yet accessible overview of library and information management and the challenges that the twenty-first century offers the information profession.

The papers in this collection illustrate the changing nature of the library as it evolves into its twenty-first century manifestation.

Aimed at students and practitioners alike, Libraries in the twenty-first century covers specific types of library and information agencies, discusses specific aspects of library and information management and places developments in library and information services in a number of broad contexts: socio-economic, ethico-legal, historical and educational.

Library tatts

2007-07-24T17:57:00.000+10:00

Just how hardcore a librarian are you? Would you get a tattoo to show your passion for libraries?

Just like the US Marine Corps or the Parachute Regiment - you'd want people to know you'd done your tour of duty. Wouldn't you? Maybe....

Libraries in the Digital Age

2007-07-13T12:14:00.001+10:00

Dr Bob Pymm, working hard preparing his conference paper (uploaded by CSU Information Studies).

LIDA (Libraries in the Digital Age) is an international conference, held annually, that this year (in Dubrovnik, Croatia May 28 – June 2 2007) focused on two themes – users and digital libraries, and the economics of digital libraries. The conference was organized by the JJ Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia and Rutgers University New York. Papers covered a wide range of topics associated with the conference theme, including one from our very own Bob Pymm, on e-book use in public libraries. The presentations from the conference are available online.

Around 150 people attended – evenly split between those from eastern Europe and those from the west with a large contingent from the US. These included some surprisingly high powered names including Christine Borgman (Dean of UCLA Library School), her predecessor and now emeritus professor Bob Hayes; Karen Fisher (University of Washington, Seattle) – one of the authors of Theories of Information Behavior and Peiling Wang from the University of Tennessee, award winning author in the information behavior field.

Librarians are cool - it's official!

2007-07-12T15:37:00.000+10:00

According to the New York Times there's a new breed of techno-savvy librarian, sporting tattoos and up on pop culture.

Hey, you knew that already didn't you? You probably are one. The article points out that the information environment exists well beyond the library and that the next generation of librarians realise that they need to explore online spaces as much as library spaces. That's why the online information environment, the use of technology and new media all feature strongly in our program at the School of Information Studies.

Research librarian post at Blake Waldron Dawson

2007-06-13T11:27:00.000+10:00

Blake Waldron Dawson, an international law firm, are looking for a part-time research librarian at their Canberra office. Details pasted below -

Blake Dawson Waldron is one of Australia's international leading law firms with more than 1000 staff nationally. A part-time position, equivalent to three days a week is available within our Library team.

Reporting to the Canberra Library Manager you will be responsible for providing research services to lawyers, support staff, and external clients to enable them to perform their roles effectively. A key responsibility will be providing training to BDW staff in the efficient selection and use of information resources. Duties also include, but are not limited to, accessioning, collection maintenance, and various administrative tasks.

Qualified in Library and Information Management, or in your final year of your qualification, you have a strong client service commitment and friendly approach. You will possess excellent organisational and time management skills, attention to detail, a willingness to learn and the ability to prioritise.

This is a fast paced and challenging work environment where excellence in work quality, initiative and professionalism are essential.

For further information about this position please contact Maria Pate by telephone 02 6234 4071. If you are interested in this position please address your application by COB Friday 22 June to:

Jane Haddock
Blake Dawson Waldron
Level 11, 12 Moore Street
Canberra ACT 2601
Email: jane.haddock@bdw.com

Study visit to Canberra

2007-06-05T15:31:00.001+10:00

Study visit to High Court Library in Canberra Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Study visits are an essential component of many of the courses we offer. The visits provide students with an insight into professional practice across a range of sectors of the information profession in Australia, usually from the inside of some of the nation's most prestigious institutions. The recent study visit to Canberra took in the National Library of Australia, the Parliamentary Library, the Australian War Memorial and the High Court Library (to name but a few).

They're also good fun. Students studying by distance get the opportunity to meet up, to share experiences and make connections.

Thai Information Science academics visit CSU

2007-06-05T14:59:00.000+10:00

Associate Professors Chutima Sacchanand and Tassana Hanpol visited the School of Information Studies during May. Chutima (who holds a doctorate from CSU) and Hassana are both from the School of Liberal Studies, STOU (Suhkothai Thammathirat Open University) in Bangkok, where they teach information science.

At CSU they discussed with staff of the School of Information Studies possibilities for collaboration. They also visited public libraries in Wagga Wagga and Canberra. As Chutima is currently President of the Thai Library Association they also visited the Parliamentary Library in Canberra, to meet the Parliamentary Librarian and ALIA President Roxanne Missingham.

Acting Head of School Dr Joy McGregor

2007-06-05T13:40:00.000+10:00

Dr Joy McGregor has taken on the role of Acting Head of School, here at the School of Information Studies. Joy talks to Jake Wallis about the challenges that the School faces as she settles into her new role (the audio of their conversation is available online, running time 3 minutes 37 seconds).

Dr Kirsty Williamson heads way out west

2007-05-09T19:42:00.000+10:00

As Director of Information and Telecommunications Needs Research (a research partnership between Monash University and Charles Sturt University), Dr Kirsty Williamson recently spent some time working in Western Australia. Kirsty was interviewing for the Australian Research Council Discovery project: One Day, We'll All Invest This Way! Regulating Online Investment, and whilst there took the opportunity to interview the Chief Librarian of the City of Joondalup Libraries for the project, The Impact of the Retirement of the Baby Boomers on the Public Library. The latter project is funded by Upper Murray Regional Library, the State Library of NSW, and Public Libraries Australia.

Kirsty's involvement in this project stems from the belief that the level and standard of information seeking, undertaken by online investors, will indicate whether there is a need for further regulation of the activity. Kirsty notes that the four interviews she did in Western Australia were some of the most interesting that the group has done – providing a wide variety of information-seeking approaches.

Kirsty was invited to present on various research projects and was sponsored by ALIA West, the State Library of WA, and Information Studies in Faculty of Media, Society & Culture, Curtin University of Technology. The presentation covered both projects mentioned above, as well as her work with CSU PhD student, Terry Asla, on the information needs and behaviours of older people.

Also mentioned was the Australian Research Council Linkage project, Generating Knowledge and Avoiding Plagiarism: Smart Information Use by Secondary Students (in which Kirsty works along with Dr Joy McGregor, Professor John Weckert, Dr Yeslam Al-Saggaf as Chief Investigators). A CSU student from Western Australia, Maureena Lockyer-Benzie, who is investigating baby boomers in relation to public libraries for her PhD studies, also made a contribution to the presentation.

The PowerPoint used for the presentation can be found at:

http://infotech.monash.edu.au/research/groups/itnr/assets/perth-seminar.ppt

Managing knowledge together

2007-05-08T17:30:00.000+10:00

Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, was in Australia recently doing a number of workshops around the country. The events were organised by education.au, an organisation involved in the promotion of ICT in education.

"What's all the fuss about?" you might ask. Well, Wikipedia is fascinating for those of us involved in education and research in information studies. In a very powerful way, Wikipedia demonstrates the potential of online spaces for a collaborative and consensus-based approach to the creation and management of knowledge. The technology platform, the wiki, that is the foundation for a large-scale (global) project such as Wikipedia has grown from the open-source software movement. Various flavours of wiki software are freely available for download and implementation.

Here in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University we're thinking about how the potential of the wiki environment can be harnessed to faciliate group learning within Higher Education and as a tool for knowledge management.

Congratulations, Dr Fan!

2007-05-06T17:48:00.001+10:00

Qiuyan Fan PhD Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

The School of Information Studies’ graduation ceremony on 20 April was notable for the conferring of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on Qiuyan Fan (pictured above between supervisors Professor Ross Harvey and Dr Kirsty Williamson).

Qiuyan’s topic was ‘Internet access and Government policy: the case of Australia’. Her research looked at how Australian federal government policy on telecommunications influences internet access in Australia. Its findings provide insights into the regulatory outcome and the effectiveness of national approaches, which are helpful to inform and improve current practice in Australia. It also has implications for other countries. Qiuyan’s research is of course particularly relevant to libraries, who increasingly deliver services via the internet.

Qiuyan is now a Lecturer and Course Advisor for Bachelor of Business (E-business) at the University of Western Sydney.

We have a tie....

2007-05-04T15:53:00.001+10:00

Zenith Management Services Group prize winners Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

....for the Zenith Management Services Group Undergraduate Library and Information Management Prize!

Time for a deciding tie-breaker, fingers on buzzers.....no, in fact the prize was jointly awarded to Rachel Gillot and Amy Heap, who are pictured here with Marian Cantarella, Senior Personnel Consultant at Zenith Information Management Services, on graduation day.

ALIA prize winners

2007-05-04T15:42:00.001+10:00

ALIA prize winners Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Well done to our ALIA prizewinners Alinda Sheerman, Rosalind Wade, Deborah Hill and Lynette Barker, pictured here at graduation with ALIA board member, (our very own) Damian Lodge.

Congratulations also to Colin Noud (not pictured).

Points mean prizes!

2007-05-04T15:24:00.000+10:00

The School of Information Studies is fortunate enough to have the sponsorship of prizes for our top students from a number of prominent information industry organisations. Prizes are sponsored by:

Can't look bad on your CV!

Graduation Day 2007

2007-04-21T14:30:00.001+10:00

Graduation 2007 Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

It was graduation day yesterday, a very special day for staff and students at the School.

After all the hard work (we're talking blood, sweat and tears here) graduation day is often the culmination of several years of study. Accepting your degree in front of your family, your peers, your teachers, is the recognition that effort deserves.

Given that all our courses are taught by distance education, it feels particularly special to have students here on the campus to accept their degrees. It's the acknowledgement of a relationship with the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University which has been challenging, stimulating and ultimately rewarding.

Damian Lodge elected to ALIA Board of Directors

2007-04-21T14:14:00.001+10:00

Damian Lodge Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Congratulations to School of Information Studies lecturer, Damian Lodge, who has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Australian Library and Information Association!

Damian has a background in academic library management and is currently working hard on a PhD exploring organisational culture in libraries. Damian is sure to do a sterling job in his new role, which will allow the profession to benefit from his many talents.

Kylie Hanson

2007-04-17T15:34:00.000+10:00

It was with sadness that School of Information Studies staff learned of the passing of Kylie Hanson on January 22, 2007. Kylie was a member of the SIS academic team for 7 years from 1996 to 2002 and taught a number of subjects for the Teacher Librarianship courses, including ETL402 Literature in Education, ETL501 Information Environment and ETL525 Knowledge Management, and was heavily involved in the development of the professional practice program for TL and LIM students.

Over the past 2 1/2 years Kylie battled with 3 different types of cancer. During the last few months her health declined dramatically and, thankfully, she passed away peacefully in her own home with her sister and brother by her side. The Australian School Library Association (NSW) website (http://www.aslansw.org.au/) has published a vale detailing Kylie’s contribution to the teacher librarianship profession both in Australia and internationally.

People at the School of Information Studies

2007-04-10T15:01:00.001+10:00

People at the School of Information Studies Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

We're a fairly international bunch here at the School of Information Studies. Joy McGregor, our Acting Head of School, is Canadian. We've got Kiwis, Aussies of course, Irish, English, Scots.

The advantage is an international outlook on information studies in theory and practice. For those keen to work managing information in a globalised world, a diversity of perspectives is certainly to be valued.

Meeting over dim sum

2007-03-23T18:46:00.001+11:00

Meeting over dim sum Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

One of the pleasures of travelling is, of course, enjoying the food and social activities of different cultures.

Thanks to our partnership with Hong Kong University School of Professional and Continuing Education, this is an experience that lecturers at the School of Information Studies are able to enjoy when we teach our students in Hong Kong.

Jake Wallis, Roy Sanders and John Mills spent some time in Hong Kong in early March, teaching groups of students in our Masters of Applied Science (Library and Information Management) course. Roy had been even further afield, having visited our students at the University of Mauritius!

Here we enjoy a traditional dim sum lunch with Ruby Lee, the program administrator at HKU SPACE.

Off-shore teaching

2007-03-23T18:32:00.001+11:00

Opening hours Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

Whilst the majority of our students are in Australia, the focus on distance education here at the School of Information Studies allows us to provide courses to groups of students in countries a long, long way away. You'd be surprised by the locations that some of our student assignments have to be sent back to!

Welcome!

2007-03-23T16:13:00.000+11:00

We'll be using this blog to keep you informed about what is happening at the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University; who's who's, who's where and who's doing what!

There's always plenty going on and we'll even provide some piccies too.