On a personal note...

I am immensely proud of my wife, who is in Brisbane today to receive a Peter Doherty Award for Excellence in Science and Science Education. She is one of five teachers in Queensland to receive an award in the category of Outstanding Teacher of Science. It's great to see her dedication, enthusiasm and passion for science teaching recognised in this way.

Amsterdam Central Library

Now this sounds like an amazing public library. Christine Mackenzie from Yarra Plenty Library has just returned from a round the world trip visiting some great libraries. Here she writes about the Amsterdam Central Library.

From Christine's post:

• It is the largest public library in Europe, at 28,000 sq m over 10 floors.
• It is the highest public point in Amsterdam and many visitors come for the view of the city.
• There are 2 eating places, a small café near the magazine area and a restaurant.
• The City of Amsterdam recognises that the library needs to be regularly refurbished and renewed. There is a budget for total renewal in 10 years.
• A Radio station is located in the library, broadcasting in the afternoon and evening to a city and national audience.
• There are 600 pcs, many of them Apple Macs.
• The Theater van ’t woord is professionally designed with the latest in light/ sound/ recording technology. It seats 270 (the 10th largest in Amsterdam) and is linked with the library. Nearly everything is possible: film/ music/ lectures and it is also linked to catering and conference rooms.

My favourite point - Librarians work on the floor, the information desks are designed to consult with the borrower side by side.
Nice work folks!

Keeping up to date with What's New

Of all the blogs and email lists I subscribe to, there are a precious few that are 'must-reads'. An item falls into that category only if the content is consistently interesting, new and unique. What's New from Mary Ann Kajewski at the State Library of Queensland is a definiate 'must-read'.
It an excellent round-up of sites (with brief descriptions) that covers useful websites and online applications, webcasts and other such events, training tools and tips and more. It is posted to a few SLQ email lists, and is available on the OPAL Training blog. The content is always good, the decriptions are short enough to quickly scan, but detailed enough inform, and each edition is short, not too many items to wade through.
This is one skill of librarians that should be promoted and encouraged more to non-library users - in a time of information overload, who do you go to in order to find 'the good stuff'.

Library 2.0: Making it work - Townsville Professional Development Day

Over the last few weeks I've been working with some wonderful staff from JCU Library to help plan...


LIBRARY 2.0: MAKING IT WORK
Townsville Professional Development Day

Learn how Web 2.0 is being applied in Townsville libraries, from other local librarians.
This information and networking day will include presentations on Second Life, iGoogle, blogs, wikis, instant messaging, and future trends in technology by staff from the tertiary, government and public library sectors. Anna Raunik (Executive Manager, Resorce Discovery) from State Library of Queensland is a special guest.

A program of the Professional Development Day is available, but I haven't figured out how to link a PDF here...yet. Drop me an email (warrenbc * at * hotmail * dot * com) and I'll send it to you.

Date: Tuesday 11th November 2008
Time: 10:00am – 3:30pm
Location: CitiLibraries Thuringowa, Von Stieglitz Room. 86 Thuringowa Drive, Kirwan
Cost: $25 (includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea)
RSVP: By 4th November to Claire Swift claire.swift@jcu.edu.au

Conference papers available - ALIA 2008

Some interesting reading can be found in the papers from Dreaming 08, the biennial conference of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) which are now available: http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2008/