National Library Standards Activities
The library and information community has adopted a range of standards that facilitate the interchange of library data, promote the inter-operability of library systems, and support the operation of national and international networks of libraries. Adherence to standards plays an important role in improving access by users to the information resources that are held in library collections, in collections of other cultural institutions, or that are accessible on the Internet.
The National Library maintains a watching brief over national and international standards activities to ensure that the appropriate standards framework is in place or under development to support its business objectives. The Library is an active participant in the definition and promotion of selected standards for the library and information community.
1 July 2008 - 12:00
This paper explains some of the work done during the Rights Management project at the National Library of Australia, looking at the background to the project, the expected benefits, the process of design and development and user engagement, and explains how some of the many challenges encountered to date have been met.
Background
Rights, including copyright, are not the main thing people using the National Library are interested in, and many users struggle to understand why so many obstacles are placed in their way when they want a copy of an old manuscript, or want to perform a piece of music from the collection. In these days of “it’s on the web so I can use it”, it can be difficult for our users to understand the issue of rights. It can also be difficult for our staff to know the intricacies of copyright legislation, or the history of the rights pertaining to particular items.
1 January 2010 - 12:00
Libraries Australia Document Delivery (LADD) is a web-based system for interlibrary lending and document delivery between Australian libraries, managed by the National Library of Australia. The LADD system has a broad user base with library members representing government departments, academic libraries, private companies and public libraries.
Interlibrary loan (ILL) staff at these member libraries range from volunteers and part-time workers to full-time professional staff working in a dedicated document supply section. Membership drawn from such diverse library sectors and working with such a range of staff resources shows that the LADD system has developed into a service that is used with success by a variety of members.
In September last year, at the ALIA 2014 conference, I spoke about Trove at 5, and asked ‘are we there yet’, focusing on Trove’s audiences and the work still ahead to extend its reach to a full cross-section of the Australian community. Today I would like to focus on where ‘there’ is, by comparing Trove
to three other cultural aggregators, Europeana
Digital NZ
And Digital Public Library of America
These are the services with which Trove is sometimes compared and with which we have fairly close contact. I think of them as the aggregator siblings. All four aggregate metadata describing content from multiple contributors so that users can discover resources through a single portal, and developers can access resources through a single API platform. All are based on a common value of making it easier for the public to access, enjoy and use the collections of cultural institutions.
4 September 2012 - 12:00
Trove, Australia’s national discovery service, provides access to more than 300 million resources managed by more than 1000 Australian and international organisations, and by members of the public. Trove has been enthusiastically embraced by Australians from all walks of life, and from around the country. More than 50,000 unique visitors search the service every day, and tens of thousands of Australians engage much more actively than by just searching. Trove users correct newspaper text, add content, tags and annotations, and create online lists of Trove resources – all within the Trove community space. Trove has extended the reach of the National Library and Trove contributors far beyond our expectations. But while it is gratifying to bask in public and political acclamation, we must also ask – why is Trove a success? Is Trove as a whole a success, or just some parts of it? And what challenges do the answers to that question pose to libraries’ tradi