Imagine the possibilities: Library networking in Australia
| Published date | 01 April 1996 |
| Date | 01 April 1996 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045485 |
| Pages | 307-310 |
| Author | Arthur Winzenried |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Focus
Article
Imagine the possibilities:
library networking
in
Australia
Arthur Winzenried
Information
Manager/Librarian,
Lilydale
Adventist
Academy,
PMB
#1,
Lilydale,
3140
Victoria,
Australia
E-mail:
arthurw@ozonline.com.au
Abstract: Australia
is
set outside the usually perceived information technology
development areas of Europe and North
America.
Despite this its technology
needs are the same
as
in any other developed country. By reason of
its
relative
isolation, a number of local solutions to needs have been found
Lilydale Adventist Academy
(LAA)
has chosen to build a single platform
network,
utilising readily available software where possible but integrating it with a fully
multimedia library/data
system.
This has necessitated some very flexible software
adaptation, as well
as
some fairly creative thinking regarding development of the
total system and the way it meshes with school functions and connected sister
schools.
An integrated multimedia electronic library system has so far proved an ideal
solution to the challenges of
LAA.
We also see a fully integrated multimedia
system as the way of the future and are presently developing a seamless front end
which totally integrates
the
Internet with our existing materials. Administration
difficulties and perhaps a touch of conservatism will see these innovations
develop faster at several other sites using the same library software, but the
principles remain
the
same.
The
key to the system as it
is
being developed at each
site
is
very much
user-oriented:
what does the customer want? how can we
provide it in the most available and cost effective manner?
The
entire process
is
an attempt to provide data for users in the most useable
form,
utilising the best of available
technology,
without letting that technology
become
an end in
itself.
1.
Introduction
Australia as a geographical entity has
several characteristics which impact
on library and library technology in a
major way. It
is
a
large
country,
around
the same size as the entire United
States. By contrast it has a very small
population, some 17 million. Largely
as
a
result of these two factors, compli-
cated by its relative youthfulness
(founded in 1788), communications
are expensive by American and Euro-
pean standards. This is not to say that
technology is in any way inferior:
Australia has access to all the existing
technology of the western world com-
bined with a close proximity to the
enormous Asian manufacturing sec-
tor. The net result of these factors is a
high cost for library communications
and a plethora of individualistic,
home-grown and sometimes even
highly original solutions to informa-
tion storage and retrieval.
There are literally hundreds of
dif-
ferent library packages on the Austra-
lian market. The vast majority of these
are standalone systems, without incor-
porated communication facilities. For
the most part they are based on simi-
larly original cataloguing practices,
often bearing little resemblance to
standard formats. AUS MARC, an
adapted US MARC system, is utilised
by many of the larger libraries but by
no means all. Several large libraries
use the British cataloguing system: a
few, growing in number, use US
MARC. Further complicating matters
is the isolation so typical of many li-
braries in Australia. The more densely
populated eastern seaboard contains
the larger share of total population, but
large numbers of small communities
dot the remainder of the
country.
Com-
munications have reflected this situ-
ation, with a very advanced system of
mobile telephone communications but
slow adoption of cable television. Dis-
tances make telephones important but
the huge costs of cable are an unneces-
sary extravagance.
The world of data provision also re-
flects this situation with many isolated
solutions to specific and often unique
situations. This is now changing. The
importance of shared data is consider-
able in a community of small isolated
identities: thus the present library en-
vironment in Australia is one of con-
siderable computerisation. In 1993
43%
of Australian school libraries (c/f
Canada at
35%
(Lightall 1994)), large
and
small,
were completely automated
(Dillon
1995,
p.3).
Today that number
has risen to something approaching
80%
(Dillon 1996). Attending the in-
terest in automation has been corre-
sponding development in CDROM
use and Internet activity. In common
with libraries round the world, the
Australian scene is firmly committed
to an Internet future.
It is within this context that work at
Lilydale Adventist Academy (LAA),
located in an eastern suburb of Mel-
bourne, Victoria, began an assessment
of
its
current automation system. Two
factors emerged: the existing system
was non-standard and it allowed no
The Electronic Library, Vol. 14, No. 4, August 1996 307
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