Writing for Reference Excellence

Immediately following Phillipa's talk on using Reference Excellence as a training tool at #risg2010, Geoff Potter from Gosford Library shared his experience in writing the Local Studies Module on Ref Ex. He told us of his initial apprehension upon being asked and the eventual satisfaction at having completed the task. Finally, Geoff encouraged others to get involved.

Writing the local studies module for ref ex

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If you would like to get involved as part of the editing and maintenance of Reference Excellence contact Ellen Forsyth or Cathy Johnston.

Reference Excellence Training at Gosford Library

Another presentation from #risg2010, Phillipa Johnson shared with us Gosford Library's experience using the Reference Excellence wiki for staff training.

Ref ex

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#risg2010 and RedBubble

Just prior to the 2010 Reference @ the Metcalfe seminar the RISG team put together some simple artwork to reflect the Twitter tag for the event (#risg2010) and with the help of RedBubble were able to turn this into a selection of tee shirts of varying decsriptions. Cathy Johnston briefly introduced this foray into the world of wearable promotions with this brief presentation.

risg2010 and RedBubble

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Trove: Collecting, Sharing and Improving Data

Rose Holley, manager of Trove - the National Library of Australia's discovery service, gave us all some food for thought at risg2010 with her presentation on the changing roles of libraries and librarians.  She spoke about the Australian Newspaper Digitisation project, especially the role that crowdsourcing is playing in correcting the digitised newspaper text.

One of my favourite slides posed the question of why we need libraries? To which, the answer was...

• Long term preservation and access
• No commercial motives
• Universal access
• Free for all

ALWAYS and FOREVER...

Trove: Collecting, Sharing and Improving Digital Data: Changing roles of librarians and users. 4 May 2010. Rose Holley

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The Living Room Library

Have you ever considered whether reorganising and rearranging your collections could have a positive impact on your users experience of the library? Pam Langridge introduced us to Tamworth Library's concept of the Living Room Library. For loan and not for loan non-fiction material is interfiled in subject based collections that improve the browsing experience of library users.

Tamworth : reference collection and access

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Council Staff and You

In one of the Lightning Talks at risg2010 Kathryn Joss from City of Sydney implored those in attendance to consider thier council staff as potential library users...

Council staff and you

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Linked Data: a talk by Tim Sherratt

One of the most exciting presentations of the day at risg2010, but probably the most challenging at the same time, was given by Tim Sherratt. It was titled (a hopefully fairly painless introduction to) Linked Open Data.

Linked Data is a way of embedding machine readable meaning in text on the web. It is fundamentally linked with the concept of the semantic web, one of the hot topics in the emerging development of the web.

Tim introduced those in attendance to the concept and challenged us all to help build the semantic web by tagging photos in the flickr commons with machine readable tags generated by Wragge's Identity Browser.  You can view his slides below and read more about it in a post on Tim's blog.  Even better, get involved and start building meaning into the web - keep an eye out for the 'Great Flickr Machine Tag Challenge', coming to a computer near you!

(a hopefully fairly painless introduction to) Linked Open Data

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Presentations from RISG2010

The Reference @ the Metcalfe seminar for 2010 was held at the State Library recently and a great day it was.

It was a fascinating program with inspiring talks well received by the library folk in attendance.  For me, the day was summed up by one of my favourite responses left in the follow up evaluations, "to think, I got paid to go!"

We'll be posting the slides from the presentations where available over the next little while so keep your eye on the blog to catch up with what went down or relive the glory.

First up, I'll add my slides asking the question...

Does your library need a website?

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Got Something to Say? Here's Your Chance

This year at the 2010 Reference @ the Metcalfe Seminar we're opening the microphone to you, library workers of NSW.  On 4 May 2010 at the State Library we're offering you the opportunity to talk about an aspect of reference and/or library services that inspires, delights, annoys, frustrates or puzzles you.  We're dedicating part of the seminar program to a series of  Lightning Talks - brief, 5 minute talks on a topic of your choosing.

Lightning Talks have been a successful feature of barcamps, unconferences and Public Sphere events for some time. They allow the agenda of the day to be generated (at least to some extent) by the people attending in an effort to keep the program relevant.

So, if you feel passionate about library and reference services we need you to put your hand up and share your thoughts.  Register your interest in speaking on this form.  Based on the responses received, we'll put together the list of speakers and get back to you with confirmation of your place.

This is no time to leave it to someone else.  The library world needs your voice!

reference seminar 2010

The date is already available for the annual reference seminar - it will be 4 May 2010. It will be at the State Library and will be free for New South Wales public library staff.

For other dates of interest have a look here. Some of these conferences and seminars you may need to follow via twitter or blogs.