VALA Conference Day 1
Open as a Rule, Closed by Exception
Adam Moriarty – Auckland War Memorial Museum, Head of Collection Information and Access
Discussed the shared value of libraries and museums of open access to information and how digitisation can allow for this greater access. Pointed out the importance of the mission of building connections and inspiring discoveries and that by sharing resources more widely this mission can be met even if it doesn’t translate to greater statistics for the museum.
This presentation was particularly interesting as we have been considering the possibility of digitising local history collections and working with local history groups to support them in digitising and sharing their collections. Adam’s presentation highlighted the importance of linking digitisation to the organisation’s mission to help show the value of a digitisation program as well as the importance of metadata and it was useful to hear how the Museum handled their metadata.
Really real and virtually real: celebrating the works of Bert Flugelman
Michael Organ – Manager Repository Services, University of Wollongong
Grant White – Manager University Archives, University of Wollongong
Karen Illesca – Communication & Events Co-ordinator, Library, University of Wollongong
Nathan Riggir – Maker/MediaSpace Co-ordinator, Library, University of Wollongong
Phillippa Webb – Exhibitions Curator, Library, University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong library undertook a display of artworks and models by Bert Flugelman many of his works are in places that are not easily accessed or far from the campus and are extremely large, it wouldn’t be possible to have these as part of the display so they used Virtual Reality to make these part of the exhibition. Although the virtual elements were not as clear and detailed as the real elements it was still a great way to allow access that would have been impossible otherwise.
As we have recently taken our first steps into VR, purchasing and Oculus Quest, it is interesting to see how different organisations are utilising VR and to consider whether something similar may be possible in the public library. The idea of using VR and AR to bring things to people that they would otherwise not be able to view was extremely interesting and I was involved in organising a visit from Rone an artist who created artwork at Burnham Beeches but was able to share it more widely using VR. Unfortunately, this event had to be cancelled due to Corona virus concerns, however we hope that the Lilydale Library will be able to hold this event in the future.
Putting the student in the library driver’s seat: implementing student co-design with existing library platforms to build blended learning outcomes
David Feighan – Information and Library Services Manager, Mentone Girls’ Grammar School
Ellie Beni – Head of Year 7 and science teacher, Mentone Girls’ Grammar School
This school library utilised libguide discussion boards to encourage students to find things that needed to be added to the libguide. The students then had to engage in a peer review process and discuss what they found and why they thought it should be included where they were suggesting.
This was apparently a tricky learning experience for students to ‘review’ their friends and not see it as being unkind.
The students used APA referencing and when they posted on discussion boards were given acknowledgement from librarians and teachers, when something was included in the libguide it was given an icon to mark it as student-curated content.
The presenter commented on how the project helped to give students greater control over the content which helped to democratise the learning process and enabled the library to play a more proactive role in students learning and centralise the library as a learning and knowledge centre.
I enjoyed this presentation as an example of how giving young people greater input and control over library services and programs can help encourage them to take a more proactive role in the library as well as their own education, I hope to use this program as an example to management to encourage them to allow us to run programs facilitated by young people in the library.
Using technology to enable 24 hour access to print collections
Karen Seymour – Manager Resource Delivery and Physical Collections, University of Queensland Library
Robert Bowen – Senior Systems Engineer, University of Queensland Library
I was interested to see how technology was used to increase access to the library. Part of my role as Digital Literacy Officer is to keep abreast of new technologies and it is always useful to know more about how technologies can be utilised to improve library services.
University of Queensland law library opened 24-hours and lost no items. They used RFID tags and gates to track library items and visitors. Had security walk through but not consistently. Access was granted with a library card. A significant number of visits and items borrowed outside of staffed hours.
This is a great example of how many of the concerns of what may occur if the library has un-staffed hours are unfounded. It’s provides great evidence of the benefits that could come from extending the libraries hours and providing late night access, the evidence presented here is something I could use to show management the benefits that one library found from providing 24-hour access and how technologies we already utilise, like RFID tags, can assist with providing greater access to the library.
Intuitive library discovery
Cathy King – Executive Director, OCLC
Making our libraries, and particularly our technology, more intuitive for our users is always useful and something worth knowing more about, as such I hoped this presentation would provide some insight on how we might achieve this.
Cathy talked about how people now expect things in a one-stop-shop and to be able to get anything, anywhere, anytime. To be able to track an item’s progress, like Uber. Cathy related this to holds and how hold times need to be more predictable. There is an increase in voice searches, ‘hey google’, but searches this way may be worded differently to traditional searches, libraries need to be aware of this if they want their websites etc. to be accessible via voice search, there was also the suggestion of incorporating voice searches into library catalogues. Cathy discussed terms and language used like ‘open access’ that are not commonly known terms, so need to be linked to ‘free’. Cathy emphasised the need to focus on the needs and wants of the end-user and pointed out that oclc.org provides access to research on user expectations.
This presentation provided some interesting aspects to keep in mind in future developments of our libraries and technology. It is also very useful to have greater knowledge of research available to support or discover more about our users and their expectations.