Library Technology Projects Advisory Committee

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Library Technology Projects Advisory Committee

Progress ReportJune / July 2002

Online Projects Team - Staff

Stephanie McGlinchey has been seconded for 2 days per week for 2 months to the LNU to work on setting up the VLNC proposals and the Collaborative Library Management System Project.

Rie Law has been appointed as a casual to backfill Stephanie for those two days for admin duties. This will allow the RLOL project in particular to begin preparing files for the post project audit.

Statewide Network Infrastructure Project - Arts Victoria

Atmospheric Links - progress

Based on survey information and costing from the surveys allocations have been made to;

Wireless links have been completed for:

• East Gippsland - Upgrade existing 2 x 2Mbps Microwave network from Bairnsdale to Lakes Entrance ( $157,000 )

These are under construction:

• Campaspe Library Service - link from Echuca to Rushworth and possibly Rochester, Final design of the network is being completed.

• Gannawarra Library Service – link from Kerang to Cohuna and Leitchville, This is to be completed first week of September and is for the supply and installation of a 11Mbps Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum point to point and point to multipoint network.

Works for Murrindindi are being considered. The only solution that may be sustainable here is to install frame relay and we are in the process of obtaining quotes for this work.

Options for 2002 onwards

This project has three years to run to completion and the bulk of the funds in each year are to be expended upon building and upgrading of atmospheric wireless links. The rationale behind this is twofold,

• To build on the work of stage 3 of RLOL, and;
• To build sustainable infrastructure for libraries as opposed to supporting recurrent technologies e,g ISDN, DSL

For a range of reasons including the fact that the money for 2001 –02 came through to VICNET at a very late stage, decisions were taken by the Library Technology Projects Advisory Committee to expend the money on rural libraries in the first year. This was made easier as the final reports from the RLOL Surveys were available.

The RLOL meetings at Warragul set the criteria for stage three of RLOL. This criterion identified priority branches at the upper end. The RLOL steering committee felt that the best use of this element of the SNIP funding would be to complete where possible some of the smaller and more straightforward library services. Based on information and costing from the surveys allocations were made to Gannawarra, East Gippsland, and Campaspe.

As reported at the previous LTPAC meeting the process for allocating the amounts for the building and upgrading of atmospheric wireless links need to be clarified for this current year’s money.

Two realistic options for funds dispersal exist:

1. Make the funds available to the RLOL as per 2001- 02: This would mean that any decisions to be taken would be done by the RLOL steering Committee. This process is in place however this would mean that for the first 2 years metropolitan libraries would be excluded from funding opportunities. The Urban Libraries Demonstration project has identified several metropolitan libraries that have employed wireless technology.

1. Make the funds available to all libraries via a competitive grants process: This practice has worked successfully for the Urban Libraries Demonstration project and the proxy server stage of the SNIP. This would enable libraries to design works in conjunction with councils on the local level and be owned and implemented by the eventual beneficiaries of the SNIP funds. In addition opportunities to leverage local and existing expenditure would be more readily available.

Recommendation

1. That option 2 be adopted

Virus Protection

Preliminary reports have indicated the Virus Protection kits sent to libraries have been running smoothly. A Virus Protection Kit was sent to North Central Goldfields in July.

Proxy server Funding

Proxy server funding of $30,000 this year (Round 1) has been allocated with a further $20,000 (Round 2) for 2002-03. So far only two libraries have provided invoices for the work done. The project team is chasing up those either yet to complete the works or to submit the paperwork.

Launch

The possibility of a launch for this project has been raised with Arts Victoria. We are yet to hear back how this is expected to be progressed.

Victorian Rural Libraries Online Project - Networking the Nation (DoCITA)

Stage 3 Building Links.

As a result of the meetings held with the Steering Committee libraries with Priority Level A links have been asked to commence negotiations with the tower site owners involved in the network design. These are:

• Wodonga and Albury libraries to the Library Service Headquarters (Upper Murray Library Service);
• Hamilton library to the Portland library (Glenelg RLC);
• Wangaratta library to the Benalla library (High Country RLC);
• Sale to the Maffra library (Wellington).

The project team is also communicating with those slated for category B links. There is no certainty that any funding will be available to complete these. At this stage the following are still possibilities and the libraries are negotiating for the tower leasing costs and maintenance:

• Central Highlands ( Ararat, Bacchus Marsh and Wendouree to HQ )
• Goulbourn Valley ( Mooroopna to Shepparton)
• Latrobe ( Moe)
• North Central Goldfields ( Bendigo to Castlemaine )

Of the category C links Warrnambool to Colac has dropped off as Corangamite are unable to afford the ongoing tower leasing and they have with the project team and their consultant worked out a network design that includes DSL at the Warrnambool and Colac ends. Wimmera indicated financial issues precluded them from supporting the ongoing costs for the Horsham to Stawell link which was a B link.

State-wide Backchannel

Optus frame-relay links running successfully – nothing further to report.

Transition Issues

The service agreement for hardware and software maintenance has been finalised and issued to the RLOL libraries for signing. A number of questions of detail have been explained and resolved. Swan Hill, Mildura, North Central Goldfields Regional Library Corporation, Wimmera Regional Library Corporation and Campaspe have indicated that they will not be participating in the maintenance agreement, and that they will therefore not be keeping the equipment.

Printers for libraries Project - Networking the Nation (DoCITA)

This project has been fully completed with the external audit report being filed to NTN.

Victoria’s Virtual Library - VICNET

Site Statistical results are at See below for summary. The most visited pages of the Virtual Library after the home page are;

• Hot Topics (students)
• Gulliver and
• The Infonet (library staff), for recent reports and documents.

The redesign and databasing is progressing well. Victoria’s Virtual Library has been in the top 10 domains hosted by VICNET since August 2000. It is interesting to note that in 2 years of operations the site has attracted over 4 million hits. Further analysis of the statistics found through Webalizer show the Virtual Library Site to be “sticky”; that is people return to the site over and over again. In summary the hits for each month from June 2000 to July 2002 are as follows:

Table 1 – Hits on Victoria’s Virtual Library since launch– Raw Data

Table 2 – Hits on Victoria’s Virtual Library – Daily Usage Graph

Table 3 – Hits on Victoria’s Virtual Library - Graph

As requested, user sessions have been introduced to the report to highlight the number of unique visits to the sites.

Table 4 – User Sessions on VVL since September 2001 – Monthly Usage

Month

March

April

September

October

Total visits 94,573

The redesign provides an opportunity to build on usage and awareness of the site by having a re- launch. As this site was originally launched by Minister Brumby and was MMV funded first option for organising a relaunch should be offered to MMV.

6.1Ask a Librarian project – VICNET

Whitehorse-Manningham Regional Library Corporation and Glen Eira Library and Information Service, undertook the Ask a Librarian project for the months of June and July respectively. Feedback from participating libraries shows this service to be a valuable one as well as professionally rewarding.

Whitehorse Manningham answered 12 questions in June, with Glen Eira answering 15 questions. Vision continues to act as a backup to a small number of the questions .

There have been 400 questions asked so far by users, with the ratio of metropolitan to rural users being approximately 2:1.

Stephanie has been invited to appear on a panel discussing Virtual Reference at ALIA 2003 in Sydney. The panel will involve representatives from Brisbane City Council Library Service, the University of Sydney, UTS and Steve Coffman of LSSI, based in the United States. The panel will be chaired by Diana Kresh of the Library of Congress.

Stephanie has also been involved in the CASL live reference pilot titles Asknow! Training has been undertaken and is expected to go live in August.

Open Road and LOTE access - VICNET

Andrew Cunningham presented a paper at the Electronic Networks - Building Community: 5th Community Networking Conference. The paper “E-diversity: the potential for, and barriers to, a multilingual web” [

Ongoing editorial work on MCL-net has been occurring, and a set of links for Ethiopian and Eritrean resources in English, Arabic, Tigrigna and Amharic are being developed for Brimbank Library and Information Services.

Port Phillip Library Service has procured a list of all languages spoken by the city’s resident (according to the 2001 Census data). We are working in conjunction with Port Phillip Library Service staff towards 100% coverage of those languages on their public access computers. This will address both viewing of web pages as well as input issues.

There has been ongoing work on the Minority Language Support sub-site, with work on a pan-Sahelian keyboard layout continuing.

Discussions and research into the next generation of electronic multicultural library services is being undertaking. Current research also touches on issues relating to multilingual and multicultural electronic reference services. Part of this research is feeding into the planning of the third stage of the Open Road project. The third stage builds on the knowledge and experience drawn from the first two stages of the Open Road.

The first stage of “the Open Road” project was a proof of concept in the provision of multilingual public internet access and multilingual web design for local communities. In the early stages of public internet access in public libraries, a small number of libraries began to provide multilingual public internet access. A small web directory was developed providing access to internet resources in six languages. Stage two extended the provision of multilingual public internet access workstations (MPAWs) to all Victorian public libraries. Stage two centered around the development of necessary skills and knowledge library staff required to allow their libraries to provide multilingual public internet access. During Stage 2, the static web directory was converted to a database and extended to 12 languages.

These early stages in multilingual public internet access and electronic multicultural library services highlighted a number of areas that need to be addressed. The third stage of “the Open Road” relates to the necessary MPAW (multilingual public internet access workstation) and content infrastructure developments that are necessary to foster and develop multilingual public internet access and enhance multicultural and multilingual services.

The three key areas are:

• Public access: Current MPAWs are severely limited in language coverage. Major gaps exist in language coverage with many of our smaller, and key larger language groups unable to use the full potential of the internet in their language. Most public access workstations may allow web sites and PDF files in a range of languages to be view, but few workstations are configured to allow users to type in the required language. Thus searching, completing forms, using email, instant messaging or chat in their own language becomes problematic. Skills and knowledge gaps within the community and community based organizations relating to language specific issues that need to be addressed. Tools for locating internet resources (search engines, directories and government and community information) need to be enhanced and made more economical and efficient to develop and maintain. Government online multilingual resources require bilingual metadata and a harvesting protocol to enable the development of portals to and searching of multilingual information provided by the government.

• Electronic multicultural library services:Current library reference services’ use of technology is predominately focused on English language resources. Tools and infrastructure to assist in the provision of multicultural and multilingual reference services need to be developed. Libraries need to capitalize on the technologies available to expand the range of languages they can support. Access to professional information about the provision and development of multicultural services needs to be established.

• MPAW and multilingual web design support:Currently government department and agencies, community organizations, NGOs and library services operate within a vacuum. Knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of language technology and multilingual web design is limited. A support infrastructure for the development of multilingual community websites, development of MPAWs, and even basic information about language and font support in web browsers needs to be established.

Hits for for June were 19613 and for July were 22088.

Hits for for June were 13323 and for July were 14778.

Libraries projects– Multimedia Victoria

Urban Libraries Demonstration Project.

Multimedia Victoria has made funds available ($140k for capital) to VICNET for the Urban Libraries Demonstration Project. The aim of the project is to provide improved ICT infrastructure to the seven public library services situated in the outer urban areas of metropolitan Melbourne with the intention of improving telecommunications capacity and thereby assist in the delivery of their service to their communities.

Program Implementation

The Project is being coordinated by VICNET and the Grant Agreement meets the costs for the administration and coordination as well as expenditure for capital equipment.

The Library Services included in this Project are:

• Wyndham;
• Brimbank;
• Hume, Moonee Valley (including Melton);
• Yarra Plenty Regional;
• Eastern Regional;
• Casey, Cardinia; and

Mornington Peninsula.

Each Library Service has been visited and consulted with regard to their participation and all at this stage have indicated that they wish to be involved. Libraries were asked to identify ICT and community networking priorities and to supply VICNET with any pre-existing documents, which may assist, eg. IT strategy, budget for coming year. This stage was completed by the 2nd of August and all libraries have now submitted proposals. These are to be discussed on the 7th of August by the project steering committee and included:

• Wireless links
• Router replacement and upgrades
• 2 way satellite for branches and mobiles
• proxy servers/ new and upgrade
• relocation to another branch of a satellite connection established through the original LOL metro bandwidth funding

Libraries will be notified in the next few weeks of the outcome of their individual submissions.

This letter will include a “conditions of grant agreement form” which library managers/ CEO’s will have to sign and return to the project team. Equipment will then need to be purchased and installed by a set date, this is anticipated to be by Friday the 18th of October. Release of funds will be contingent on the “conditions of grant agreement form” and the target dates being met. The project is an infrastructure project, with recurrent costs to be supported by the libraries.

Project Launch

MMV have undertaken to investigate project launch and publicity opportunities.

Voiceprint/LibTel - VICNET/RVIB/NILS

The LibTel project is to be demonstrated at this meeting. This is now in beta testing and NILS demonstrated this to the Online Projects Team on the 17th of July. The issue of reaching non metropolitan areas for the 20000 vision impaired clients of NILS across Australia is yet to be addressed.

This project supports a service that provides direct telephone access to the RVIB/RBS combined catalogue, allow searching of the catalogue and placing a request for a book. This is delivered by synthetic voice read straight from the catalogue entry. Attached in Appendix A are details of the hardware and software installed to run this networked service.

NILS are yet to consider the launching and publicity aspects of this project.

Collaborative Library Management Systems Project – Doi/Statewide Projects

The VICLINK Statewide projects have moved forward with the development of a project to further explore the business case for the rationalisation of Library Management Systems across Victoria

Project Snapshot

To investigate and identify the potential benefits including service outcomes for library users, financial and infrastructure resourcing of a joint venture for investment in collaborative library management system/s for Victoria’s public libraries. To prepare a,