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ALIA Information Online 2019 Conference, 11-15 February 2019 Sydney: Infinite Possibilities
 
This conference paper discusses the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in providing solutions to the challenges in fulfilling library client service requests 24/7.

ALIA Information Online 2019 Conference, 11-15 February 2019 Sydney: Infinite Possibilities
 
This conference paper provides an analysis of collection, circulation and customer data relating to eBook lending statistics.

ALIA Information Online 2019 Conference, 11-15 February 2019 Sydney: Infinite Possibilities
 
This conference paper discusses a project undertaken by the University of Queensland library which explored the accessibility of a range of ebook platforms commonly encountered by students and how well these platforms serve library clients with a print disability.

Following The Age newspaper article "Schools that excel: No detentions, no libraries, no problems for this girls' school", which claims that Siena College Camberwell in Victoria has abolished its library, Gaynor Robson-Garth, the Principal of Siena College, has written to ALIA stating that the article misrepresents the reality of the situation and that the school continues to have a library and employ qualified library staff. She clarified that the library was merely rebranded as the Albertus Magnus Learning Centre, and it continues to fulfil the essential work that school libraries provide to students.

ALIA Information Online 2019 Conference, 11-15 February 2019 Sydney: Infinite Possibilities
 
This conference paper presents the results of a survey of Australian academic library social media managers, co-ordinators and contributors on the ways in which their libraries use social media, particularly Twitter, their strategies, and how success is defined and measured.

INCITE: The magazine for library and information professionals - November/December 2019 Volume 40 Issue 11/12 (supplement)
 
The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has been a strong advocate for digital inclusion for more than 30 years. Libraries were early adopters of digital technologies, not only to support our own operations, but also to improve customer services and help our clients build their own technology skill sets.
 
In this report, we showcase just a few examples of the kinds of digital inclusion programs and services delivered in public libraries around Australia. We have stories about intergenerational learning, technology training for culturally diverse groups, digital access to local history collections, helping people digitise their personal collections, running coding classes, and providing local communities with opportunities to interact with robots, virtual reality and other advanced technologies.
 
Through public libraries, we reach some of the least connected people in society, but digital inclusion activities are also critical in school, TAFE and academic libraries, where students may have varying levels of digital literacy, and in special libraries, where, for example, clients need help accessing vital information contained in electronic databases and in identifying authentic information from the morass of results generated by an online search. The purpose of all these activities is to help people connect to the internet, have positive online experiences, improve their digital skills, build their confidence and be prepared for the next wave of technological innovation. Today, digital inclusion is core to what a library delivers.
 

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference paper discusses strategies embraced to evoke connections and encourage conversations between University of Otago Māori students and taonga Māori in the Hocken Collections that can enrich students’ journeys towards achieving their goals and aspirations. 
 
Across the Hocken’s vast archival, published and pictorial collections rest diverse taonga Māori (Māori treasures), invaluable resources for Māori researchers, staff and students. Most of these pertain to Ngāi Tahu, our southernmost indigenous tribe, and to the South Island, but many relate to the varied iwi and hapū (tribes) from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Taonga of Pākehā European origins are treasured for the information they have in capturing the presence of tūpuna (ancestors) and mātauranga (knowledge) in reo (language) and pūrākau (narratives). Pūrākau in the collections are more than just stories, they encourage the remembering of whakapapa (genealogy) – of people to place to purpose. They can spark the intellect, ignite the thirst to learn and nourish the spirit.
 
The University of Otago Library plays an important role in ensuring support for Māori learners to grow and develop as Māori at university. In striving to support Māori learning and research, the Library too benefits by growing and developing its own potential as a bicultural organisation that can impact positively on Māori academic success. Māori students are drawn to the Hocken via many pathways; they are of diverse ages and experience, descend from diverse iwi and hapū and are engaged in a wide variety of university programmes and disciplines. Personal cultural journeys develop alongside academic journeys. For Māori, academic learning and research is part of a greater whole that involves tinana (body), hinengaro (mind), wairua (spirit) and whānau (family). All of these are equally important to nourish and empower in the pathway to success.

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference poster presentation accompanied the talk on a partnership between the State Library of South Australia (SLSA) and the Shandong Provincial Library in China.
 

With China being South Australia’s highest export partner, the Government of South Australia has been effectively engaging with China through a long-term partnership with Shandong Province, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016. The Government’s vision is ‘to strengthen the State’s partnership with China and enhance and deepen our long-term engagement in areas encompassing investment, trade and business, education, sport, culture, the arts, sciences, and the exchange of people, skills and ideas’.
 
After hosting two librarians from the Shandong Provincial Library in 2016, the State Library of South Australia (SLSA) further strengthened the relationship and networks with is sister-state province of Shandong, by sending Andrew Piper, Group Manager, Collections and Sharon Morris, Community Learning Educator to Jinan, in April-May 2017. Areas of discussion included the partnering in an exhibition of materials from the Provincial Library’s Ancient Books department scheduled for September 2018 and a return exhibition of SLSA materials; approaches to online engagement with collections and education programs.
 
A large part of the program developed for the SLSA visitors was the introduction to the culture of the people of Shandong along with visits to significant sites discussions, lectures and library tours.

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference poster presentation accompanied the talk on keeping up to date with digital technologies in the every changing digital environment.
 
At Bond Library, the Emerging Technologies Group designed an engaging yet challenging six-week program for all library staff to become more knowledgeable and importantly confident of digital technologies within their working day.  Touching on ‘things’ such as diversity, digital footprint and digital citizenship.

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
[Peer reviewed] This conference paper discusses the emerging trend in librarianship to rely on evidence and data, rather than opinion and anecdotes, to guide the planning, delivery, and assessment of library services that are truly user-oriented.
 
With the ever-increasing focus on the needs and experiences of our users, librarians are compelled to reposition themselves as providers of services and support. Libraries are now more than the sum of their collections, and are becoming hubs for creation, instruction, and research. With this increasingly service-oriented approach to the profession, librarians must view their work and services through lenses of critical inquiry, assessment, and thoughtful design. Above all libraries are increasingly expected to plan, deliver, and assess their services based on evidence and data. This evidence-based approach to librarianship demands greater attention in professional literature and best practices.
 
This paper consists of a review and discussion of evidence-based practices in librarianship, as well as a case study of one academic library’s project to assess reference programming using systematic data collection and analysis. Academic librarians in a small Sino-Foreign university situated in cosmopolitan China explored demand for and use of reference services among their users, a diverse and multinational population of undergraduate students and faculty. Data collected included traffic patterns and circulation activity as well as a system to categorize reference transactions by genre. The resulting data-driven system was used to guide the library’s scheduling and staffing of in-person and virtual reference services. In addition, it was a key tool for training library staff and interns for reference work. As one of the library's first attempts at planning, delivering, and assessing reference services to a small but highly engaged population of academic users, this approach exemplifies the successful use of evidence-based planning in a user- and service-oriented culture.
 

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference paper discusses several cross-departmental projects under the National Library Board (Singapore)'s Operations Remake journey. Each case study details the problem statement, solution and enabler(s), impact indicators, and value created for users, staff pool and the organization. The included projects drive towards encouraging customer independence in areas such as transactional services and collection navigation, and resource optimization within the organization. These projects examine the manner library users interact with the library environment and technologies, and improving the daily operational duties of the staff pool.
 
Highlighted projects include:

• Fully automated, immediate and independent membership registration process for new users therein bringing greater convenience and less barriers to entry
• Crowd sensing technology to manage crowd and seat searching behaviour in larger library premises
• Mobile devices to enable staff pool to rove the library spaces and yet remain contactable
• Collection shelving optimization to improve customer experience in collection retrieval and increase collection turnover rate

 
The case studies will show the need for innovation and process remake in pursuit of improvement that are impactful and scalable, and how technology can be leveraged to assist the delivery of library services and improve staff productivity. The projects will provide perspectives on how to achieve optimization and inspire libraries to embark on a journey to remake their operations.

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference paper shares the experience of ongoing job redesign efforts by the Public Libraries of the National Library Board Singapore (NLB).
 
The impetus for job redesign arises from the need to build a responsive future ready workforce, competent in both functional and professional skills to deliver the Smart Libraries of the Future. NLB’s aim is to develop a future ready work force through:
 
• Upskilling and redesigning jobs that aligns to the delivery of new services that enhance the customers’ experience
• Building staff competencies through a robust staff development process
 
The job redesign efforts look at uplifting of the job scope of library staff. It starts with a shift in the library officers’ jobs (library officers or LOs are also known as para-professionals) to take on higher value added work. This was made possible through automation of tasks at the circulation desks, for example, the introduction of self-service reservations pick-up of library items and changes in how services are delivered, for example, the removal of the circulation counter. The changes provided the LOs with the bandwidth to assume some of the higher value work which used to be done by librarians. Once this was done, we looked into redesigning the job of librarians so that their competency in information management and content knowledge would be further tapped to help users to better navigate resources in this internet age and keep pace with the advancements in the information landscape.
 
From 2016 and over the next 2 to 3 years, four segments of jobs in the Public Libraries will be redesigned and these include: Managers, Librarians, Library Officers and Administrative Officers. The presentation will focus on the job re-design for the Library Officers and Librarians. This would likely be the largest scale job redesign and upskilling done in NLB, involving over 300 staff.

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference poster presentation illustrates how an academic library used data as a baseline to demand changes to be made to the existing physical space in the library.
 
VCUarts Qatar is a school of arts and design and its library has four units under one umbrella as the Main Library, the Materials Library, the Innovative Media Lab and the Writing Center. VCUarts Libraries is no more considered a book depository but envisioned as separate spaces for different services. The Library Management wanted its architectural design to respond in an innovative manner meeting the paradoxical requirements of a library needs such as privacy, safety, social connectedness, ease of movement, and sensory stimulation. A space plan developed by the administration including a campus-wide space reconfiguration negatively affected the Library, and also was excluded from the space-related surveys conducted by the administration.
 
Patron engagement is the new service model and justifying the demand for an effective user engagement space as well as private space was the initial challenge. The methodology included collecting space use data, brainstorming for creating a digital and print space profile of the library using the right images and visual communication tools to represent the history of collection growth and projected growth, identifying and outlining the challenges and conducting user experience surveys. Data analysis helped to diagnose the library’s space needs and shape development plans. The space profile created as part of the project helped to justify investment in long-term improvements and/or make adjustments in temporary spaces to increase their effectiveness. Data raised additional questions and helped to identify opportunities for further study.
 

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference poster presentation charts the collaborative journey of Australia’s nine national, state and territory libraries to address how libraries collect, describe, preserve, store and make available digital publications through the National edeposit networking (NED). 
 
Legal deposit legislation mandates libraries to collect the entire publications of individual jurisdictions. For many years libraries have built collections of print that provide the documentary history of 19th and 20th century Australia – the nation, the states and the territories. In the late 20th century, the arrival of digital media and the internet has been and remains the great disrupter. For libraries, it means that publications are no longer just print. The print formats – books, journals, newspapers, magazines, maps, sheet music – are now available in digital. New digital-only formats proliferate – websites, social media, and blogs.
 
This poster reflects on the work taken to build NED as a partnership and how the libraries grappled with defining the benefits and value proposition for NED and resolved concerns regarding ownership, transfer of metadata, needs of stakeholders, branding and identity, and cost benefits.