Experience Info Online

My work colleague Neal (@nealthorley) and I are trying something a little different at Information Online 2013.

As well as photographing, tweeting and hopefully blogging about our experiences and impressions of the conference, we will try to talk to as many people as possible and do mini video interviews.

Keep an eye on http://experienceinfoonline.tumblr.com/ and make sure you come and say hi to us at the conference!

ALIA Information Online 2013 conference

I'm thrilled to be attending and presenting at the ALIA Information Online conference next week.

With help from experienced facilitator Richard Sayers, my presentation/workshop on Thursday 14th (10.15am - 11.15am) is titled: 

Australian Libraries and the National Broadband Network: What, So What and What Next?


Firstly – it’s not a presentation. It’s an interactive session where you’ll be asked questions. Lots of questions. Questions about questions. The aim of the session is in fact, to develop a list of questions. Confused yet? Please take a moment to watch this video: 

There is also an overview of the session here, with a list of links to useful websites. 

Please start asking questions now! 

• Leave a comment below
• Send me a tweet: @warrencheetham including the conference hashtag #ALIAonline and #bblib (for broadband libraries)
• Leave a comment on the YouTube video 

Can't wait to see you at the session!

VALA Travel Scholarship 2013

Photo credit at end of post

Last week I was informed by VALA that I have been awarded the 2013 VALA Travel Scholarship!

It is an honour to have my application accepted, and I am excited and a little daunted by the task ahead.

About the award:


VALA – Libraries, Technology and the Future Inc. (VALA) awards up to two biennial scholarships for persons intending to undertake overseas travel to explore developments in the application of information technology in libraries and information services.  These scholarships are awarded to members of the library and information community to assist in meeting expenses for travel overseas.
Candidates examining implementation of newer technologies not yet implemented in Australia and which would be of general interest to the library and information services community are more likely to be successful in being granted a scholarship.

My Project:

This research will investigate existing and planned projects where fibre-broadband rollouts affect libraries. 

In the next decade, the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will provide an opportunity for Australian libraries from all sectors to raise their profile within government, their parent organisations and the communities they serve. The process will reinforce and encourage shared information and ideas between ourselves and others outside our profession. It will involve strategic, considered risk-taking to reposition libraries, while remaining true to our profession’s cores values and strengths. This research project would benefit Australian libraries by investigating what works and what does not work in public and private sector projects involving libraries’ use of fibre broadband. 

I propose visiting and speaking with representatives from relevant government organisations (all levels), vendors/suppliers, individual libraries, and broadband research organisations. The outcomes of the research trip would be regular, iterative blog posts on the project and a final report/presentation to the Australian library community about what is the current and emerging best-practices in providing library services and resources via fibre-broadband, and identifying any gaps where Australian libraries might play a lead role in developing new services.

The destination for travel is Canada and the United State of America

Thanks:

Many important people helped me to create and submit the application.

• My wife Sarah came up with the idea! She said I should keep an eye out for travel scholarships which would allow overseas travel to visit and study innovative broadband projects.
• My manager Susan Coker gave me permission to apply and supported the application.
• Past award recipient and all-round library superstar Kathryn Greenhill very kindly read my draft application and gave some incredibly insightful and important tips.
• Darren Rudd and Sean Casey at NBN Co offered some very useful leads on who and where to make contact 

The following people were very kind in offering letters of support, and ideas of places to visit. While the final itinerary and travel plan is still to be decided, I certainly hope to visit and chat with these folk:

• Nate Hill from Chattanooga Library
• Jon Gant from The Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois
• John Windhausen from the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition
• Catherine Middleton from Ryerson University
• My research colleague Michael Stephens

I'm undecided if I'll use this blog or a stand-alone project blog to record the project, but for the time being stay tuned here or watch Twitter for updates.

Photo by Twilight Jones
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/twilightjones/2241798204/ 
CC Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

Testing UStream

Stream videos at Ustream

Online conference presentation - Library 2.011 conference

I'm pleased and excited to assist my research colleague Michael Stephens present at the Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference next week. The conference will be held online in multiple time zones over the course of two days (November 2 - 4) (three if you encompass all time zones), and will be free to attend.

Our presentation is 9am (AEST / UTC + 10hrs) on Thursday 3rd Nov.

Impact and Effect of Learning 2.0 Programs in Australian Libraries

is the latest release of data from our research project. You can read more about the project at http://research.tametheweb.com/

From the conference organisers: More than 3,500 information professionals from 149 countries have signed up to join the global conversation on the current and future state of libraries. The groundbreaking event will be a whirlwind of information with 160 presentations scheduled over two days!

LibraryHack entry: The glorious image viewer: bringing archived images alive

A fantastic entry to Library Hack 2011:

The glorious image viewer: bringing archived images alive

Stating the obvious about Twitter

In a few hours this morning, Twitter has once again demonstrated why it has become almost invaluable to my daily working life.

• I organised a Skype meeting with a colleague
• I offered a proactive reference service to someone
• I found some very interesting events
• I found out about a social networking site for dogs?!
• I kept up to date with news about a topic of interest
• Plus a whole heap of industry news and gossip.

Thanks Twitter!

Mapping Newspapers

Two useful tools mashing maps and newspapers have filtered across my screen this morning.

newspaper map

Via the always excellent, always entertaining Very Short List email comes newspaper map. In the words of VSL:

The Newspaper Map does exactly what it promises to do: It maps 10,000-plus newspapers all over the world and lets you browse through, and read, every one of them.

Newserve

For a more local (Australian) view on mapped news, try Newserve - one of the entries in Libraryhack 2011. The link is to a video demo. This link to the live version isn't working for me, but you might have better luck.

Newserve provides an easy-to-use search interface, interlacing the results on the map and a timeline. The ultimate goal of Newserve is to provide a single point of access to all newspaper resources in libraries of Australia - whether it be just catalogue information of the newspapers stored in the libraries of Australia or be the digitised newspaper collections. So far Newserve uses newspaper catalogue data of State Library of New South Wales and Trove digitised newspaper collection.