Friday, May 29, 2009

New Hurstville Library Website


Hurstville City Library, Museum & Gallery service has a new website they would like to share with you.

Hurstville Library Website

The brand new website has a number of exciting new features. Customers will enjoy far greater access to both information and entertainment. The new features include:

The LMG Blog
The Blog allows people to post comments on information ranging from LMG events, book reviews, to new items added to the collection. Don't miss this opportunity to tell us what you think.

HSC Help Wiki
The HSC Help wiki is an extensive resource of HSC material which is available within the library, from home, school, or anywhere with an Internet connection. It includes selected journal articles from the library's electronic databases, links to a number of different websites concerning school and HSC assignments and a list of useful items from the physical collection. Many of these resources cannot be found on the internet and are only available to members using the wiki so make sure you check this out.

Facebook
Want to meet other LMG members or staff? Perhaps see what events are coming up or check out recent photos. Then go to the brand new LMG Facebook profile. It provides all this and more. Become a fan today.

FLICKR
Flickr is a photo/video streaming website which is freely available on the Internet. The site allows users to upload their personal photos and videos to a world wide audience. The LMG Flickr page provides a visual record of current and past events run by the LMG & Hurstville City Council.

Your Tutor
This is a real time virtual homework help service with live qualified teachers for school aged children. What's more, this fantastic service is free of charge to all LMG members. Who said tutoring was expensive.
Increase your grades today.

Assignment Assistant
Our support for students does not end there. Assignment Assistant is another resource which aims to provide a comprehensive suite of resources for students all in the one spot. These resources include the HSC Help wiki, useful student related delicious weblinks, the Your Tutor tutoring service, a complete list of the research databases which contain over 1,000,000 journal articles, and a link to the computer school which provides training for a variety of IT based applications.

Ask Us
If Your Tutor and Assignment Assistant has not answered your question then ask us. Ask Us is a free on-line reference service where you can submit questions to our qualified librarians for assistance. So if you need help with your assignment don't waste time just sitting there. Fill out the Ask Us webform and let us help you.

RSS Feeds to What's On & What's New
Want to be the first to find out when the book you have been waiting for arrives. Then subscribe to What's New and receive an RSS feed which will alert you to a selection of our latest purchases. Alternatively be the first to know what events are coming up in the LMG by subscribing to the What's On RSS feed. You will always be the first to know by subscribing to the RSS feeds.

Discovery Writers group blog
Check out and comment on a selection of short stories and poetry from the local Discovery Writers Group blog. Give them feedback or perhaps join the group. This is an exciting new resource which launched with the new site.

Hurstville Library Website

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

ALIA News

I wish you a happy Australian Library and Information Week for 2009. With the theme of Libraries your passport to discovery there is a world of potential to showcase the many ways in which your library makes a difference. Remember to send us stories and photos of what you've done to promote LIW 2009. It's also important that you and your colleagues take time to celebrate your contribution to our industry, whether this be a slap up morning tea, a glass of bubbles after work or maybe a lamburger after National Simultaneous Storytime!

Last week was a big week for ALIA with meetings of the outgoing and incoming boards and our Annual General Meeting neatly sandwiched in the middle. It was a time for us to farewell outgoing ALIA President, Derek Whitehead and Directors Katy Watson and Damian Lodge and welcome incoming Vice President/ President Elect Graham Black and new Directors Kate Sinclair and Gill Hallam. A huge thanks to Derek, Katy and Damian for their commitment, professionalism and insights. The "take home" messages from our meetings are available on the ALIA website - please take time to have a look at them and stay in touch with the diversity of issues before your Association.
ALIA Reports here

I look forward to meeting and working with many of you over the next 12 months

Best wishes

Jan

Jan Richards
President
Australian Library and Information Association
ph: 61 2 63938126 or 0418234827
jan.richards@alia.org.au
www.alia.org.au

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

News From Richmond-Tweed Libraries....

Hi all,

Hope all Library Staff and libraries have survived the disastrous weather OK.
Please let me know if any libraries were flooded or damaged in the past few days.

Here at Richmond-Tweed all staff OK. Our Lismore City Library was closed when the CBD was evacuated - library staff came in at around midnight to move equipt up to the 2nd & 3rd floors. However the rivers peaked at just below the new levee top, and disaster avoided by app 200mm. On Saturday morning staff cam in early to reorganize the stored equipment so the library could open. Our Lennox Head Branch was blocked by a falling tree - lucky no damage to the building, and it re opened once the chainsaws arrived.
2 Branches closed briefly during short power cuts, and one Branch closed early as staff had to leave to avoid being cut off by flooding creeks. One of the 2 main streets leading to our HQ will be closed for months, as a flash flood swept a vast 4 metre wide section of road, roadbase and underlying culvert away, leaving a yawning chasm About 4 metres deep. Pics on ABC North Coast website. Fortunately no vehicles on it at the time.
Most Branches busier than usual after the events, as locals gather to meet and compare stories.

Regards,
Martin

Martin Field
Director
Richmond-Tweed Regional Library
Ph: 02 6625 1415
Fax: 02 6625 1479

Monday, May 25, 2009

Mosman Library vs That Search Engine




For Library and Information Week, Mosman Library is challenging "The Search Engine"

The Challenge

Staff at Mosman Library are pitting Mosman Library's online reference: Mosman Reference collection against what you can find from the search box on the world wide web!

Each day during Library & Information Week (this week) they will be posting a question that represents the range of queries that we get at Mosman Library.

Who will come out on top? You decide the winner!

Follow the action at mosmanlibraryblogs.com/challenge/

Follow the action here

PS The Mosman staff would love it if the Library came out on top - so make sure you vote for the Librarians answers!!!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Nancy Pearl

I just want to remind you and bring your attention to the world famous librarian Nancy Pearl. The following details can be seen along with links to video interviews conducted by Nancy at:

Nancy Pearl website

Nancy is an outstanding Library Leader shining attention onto the significant roles of libraries.

The New York Times calls her “the talk of librarian circles.” Readers can’t get enough of her recommendations while bookstores and libraries offer standing room only whenever she visits. Since the release of the best-selling Book Lust in 2003 and the Librarian Action Figure modeled in her likeness, Nancy Pearl has become a rock star among readers and the tastemaker people turn to when deciding what to read next.
Having worked as a librarian and bookseller in Detroit, Tulsa, and Seattle, Pearl's knowledge of and love for books is unmatched. In 1998, she developed the program "If All of Seattle Read the Same Book," which spread across the country. The former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book, Pearl celebrates the written word by speaking at bookstores and libraries across the country and on her monthly television program Book Lust with Nancy PearlÊon the Seattle Channel. She is a regular commentator about books on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" and NPR affiliate stations KUOWÊ in Seattle and KWGSÊ in Tulsa.
In 2004, Pearl became the 50th winner of the Women’s National Book Association Award for her extraordinary contribution to the world of books. In the moments when Pearl finds herself without a book, she is an avid bicyclist and happy grandmother of two. She lives in Seattle with her husband Joe.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ageing and the Australian Demographic

Making Choices - Future Dementia Care: Projections, Problems & Preferences Access Economics, 2009

"An important consequence of Australian demographic ageing is the rapid increase of the number and proportion of people who have dementia, projected to increase from about 230,000 in 2008, to 465,000 in 2030 and to over 730,000 in 2050. Australia has recognised dementia as a health priority and taken the first steps through the Dementia Initiative to meet the growing challenges of the dementia epidemic.

Ideally, the care continuum for dementia should be a seamless process and carers should be supported in the delay of institutionalisation. The findings of this report also highlight the need for a fundamental rethinking of how to achieve the delivery of flexible dementia services that respond to the needs of the person with dementia and their families and carers."

Full report available at:
Click here for Report

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Calling all women

Have you ever wanted to contribute to a book? Fill in this survey and you may be immortalised!



Women's Stuff by Kaz Cooke: The Survey
Hello there!

I'm writing a book for women of all ages, about all sorts of aspects of our lives – appearance, confidence, health, mind, purpose, relationships, friends, family, nesting, money, and much more... a bit like the one I wrote for teenage girls called Girl Stuff. This survey is to find out what you think is important, how you feel about things that affect you, and what you'd like to read about in the new book Women's Stuff, to be published by Penguin Books.

I promise your name and details will never be given or sold to anybody else for any reason. Some quotes from survey answers may be used in the book, along with a first name and suburb or area (you can use a fake name).

You don't have to fill in all the questions in the survey, just the stuff that's interesting or relevant to you. Skip as many questions as you like. Please finish your survey before 1 June 2009.
Thanks so much for your help with Women's Stuff!


Click here to access survey

Survey here

Thanks Naomi for this!

Latest issue of Australian Library Journal

Keep an eye out for the latest issue of Australian Library Journal (May 2009) - it has a focus on cultural heritage:

Vanishing collections: special issue on cultural heritage

Table of contents:

* Movable heritage in libraries: an introduction to heritage and what it means for managing library collections (Meg Quinlisk)

* An audible voice of the past: the rare printed collections of the State Library of New South Wales (Maggie Patton)

* Collecting against the tide: building a new collection of rare books in the digital age (Megan Martin)

* An enduring presence: special collections of the Barr Smith Library at the University of Adelaide (Cheryl Hoskin)

* Heritage book collections in Australian libraries: what are they, where are they and why should we care? (Matthew Stephens)

Guest editor: Matthew Stephens

Monday, May 11, 2009

Australian Communications and Media Authority

Did you know?

* That Australians are supported in their development of literacy,
reading, education, business, community and digital access through a
network of approximately 9,000 school libraries, 1,600 national, state
and public library services, 42 university libraries, 387 TAFE campus
libraries, plus thousands of health libraries, law libraries and other
special libraries.

* That Australian Communications and Media Authority sponsors Library and
Information Week?
As part of its national cybersafety education program, the Australian
Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is a major sponsor of Library
and Information Week 2009.

* That ACMA's cybersafety program provides information and activities for
children, parents, teachers and library staff so their online
experiences are both safe and positive.

* That recognising the important role that public libraries play in providing
internet access and educating users, ACMA has produced a range of
resources targeted to library staff. These materials, including four
information videos, the Cybersmart Guide for Library Staff, Cybersmart
Guide for Families and cyber rules poster, aim to complement existing
library policies and provide additional support for staff.

For more information, to order brochure copies and to view the videos,
visit
ACMA Library information