Web Magazine for Information Professionals

News and Events

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

TASI Offers Workshops over Summer and Autumn Months

The JISC-funded Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI) is offering a number of workshops in the coming months, of which two below are given as examples.

Building a departmental resource
11 August 2005

This workshop aims to demonstrate the steps for creating, maintaining and delivering an image collection. Through a range of hands-on activities, attendees will investigate suitable Image Management Systems (IMS), be introduced to Metadata, and consider its practical application. It is suitable for anyone who wishes to construct and publish simple image collections, including academics, technicians and library staff, who are developing a departmental resource.

Create and animate vector graphics using Flash
16 September 2005

This workshop will introduce the underlying theory and provide a practical understanding of the use and properties of vector graphics within the Flash environment. It is suitable for non-technical professionals, who wish to create animated graphics for use on the Web, or in presentations. This workshop requires no prior knowledge of using Flash, though some understanding of digital imaging would be an advantage.

Full details of each workshop and an online Booking Form can be found at: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/training/training.html

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OpenURL and Metasearch: New Standards, Current Innovations, and Future Directions

A NISO educational workshop:
Venue: Washington DC, USA
Dates: 19-21 September 2005

This workshop represents an opportunity to get the latest information on OpenURL and Metasearch, two standards supporting technologies that continue to transform the information landscape. The three-day programme includes a training day for technical staff from all types of content providers (publishers, vendors, and libraries). Training will cover the basics of implementation, available tools, and requirements for standards conformance. In this highly networked world, the key to success is "learning to play well with others" - the training day intends to tell you how.

In addition: The programme includes opportunities for dialogue with experts and informal networking during breaks, meals, and a special conference reception. Sponsoring vendors will highlight the features of their products in Vendor Showcases and in Exhibits. The workshops will be held at the spacious state-of-the-art conference facility at the Academy for Educational Development near DuPont Circle in Washington, D.C.

See the NISO Web site for details on the agenda, speakers, exhibitors etc, and to register: http://www.niso.org/

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Canadian Metadata Forum 2005: Metadata: A Reality Check

Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce the Canadian Metadata Forum 2005 - a two day event designed for key decision-makers and leaders in the field of information resource management.

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/metaforum/index-e.html

Date: 27-28 September, 2005
Venue: 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Canada.

The Canadian Metadata Forum 2005 will build on the foundation of the first forum held in September 2003 to address the challenges of metadata implementation, namely: how to realise the investment in metadata and how to influence metadata policy where it matters most: organisations and search engines.

Metadata continues to gain recognition as the tool to resource discovery and information management, not only for Web information products but for information in all formats. However, basic questions remain unanswered:

Experts from the Canadian metadata community, both government (federal and provincial) and non-government, including libraries, archives, museums, educational and research institutions, academia, multimedia producers and other experts will gather in Ottawa to discuss these important questions.

You are invited to be part of this groundbreaking discussion. The Canadian Metadata Forum 2005 is pleased to offer sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities. By participating in the Forum you allow it to be recognised as a strong supporter of the metadata community.

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Digital Resources for the Humanities Conference (DRH 2005)

4-7 September 2005
Lancaster University, UK
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/drh2005/

REGISTRATION for DRH 2005 is now open: see
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/drh2005/registration.php

Registration will remain open until Friday 12 August 2005.

Programme

The keynote speakers are:
Lou Burnard (Oxford University Computing Services, UK)
Neil Silberman (Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation, Belgium)

A full list of papers accepted for the conference is available http://www.ahds.ac.uk/drh2005/papers.php?first_letter=all

At this, the tenth DRH conference, the focus will be on critical evaluation of the use of digital resources in the arts and humanities. What has the impact really been? What kinds of methodologies are being used? What are the assumptions that underlie this work? How do we know that the work that we accomplish is truly new and innovative? How does technology change the way in which people in this area work?

The Conference will also address some of the key emerging themes and strategic issues that engagement with ICT is bringing to scholarly research in the arts and humanities, with a particular focus on advanced research methods:

Please address any queries about the conference to drhconf@lancaster.ac.uk

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Netskills Workshops in September 2005

Netskills will be running the following workshops at North Herts College, Letchworth Garden City:

1. Mobile Learning: Education on Demand

Tuesday 6 September 2005
Mobile Learning: the next stage of e-Learning, or a whole new learning experience? Learning without barriers, or the latest fad? This workshop explores the principles and practice of m-Learning. It is for anyone who is interested in the application of mobile technologies in education, or those who simply wish to know more about the emerging technologies and potential uses.

2. Detecting and Deterring Plagiarism

Wednesday 7 September 2005
This is a practical workshop aimed at staff in Further and Higher Education institutions who wish to find out more about the impact of the Web on plagiarism, and how to deal with it. As well as gaining a thorough understanding of issues concerned with plagiarism, participants will also explore essay banks, online plagiarism detection services, and, through discussions and scenarios, consider different approaches to deterring plagiarism.

N.B.:This is one of the last opportunities to take advantage of the JISC subsidy available for this workshop.

Full details of these workshops, together with booking forms are available from our events Web site: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/workshops/forthcoming.html

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1st International Digital Curation Conference

Venue: Hilton Bath City, Bath, UK
Dates 29-30 September 2005
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/dcc-2005/

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is jointly funded by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) on behalf of the UK Research Councils. The DCC provides a focus on research into digital curation expertise and best practice for the storage, management and preservation of digital information to enable its use and reuse over time.

The programme, which includes Keynote Speakers, will provide an overview of the work of the DCC and an opportunity via a "Symposium" to discuss the concepts and principles of Digital Curation. There will also be a series of parallel sessions, which will look in more detail at specific topics including Socio-Legal Issues, Format Registries, Storage Media, Training, Staff Development and Certification.

Who should attend

The Conference will be of interest to individuals, organisations and institutions across all disciplines and domains that are engaged in the creation, use and management of digital data from researchers and curators through to policy makers and funders.

Confirmed Speakers

The Conference will be chaired by Chris Rusbridge, the Director of the DCC, with contributions from the DCC Directorate as follows:

Opening address: Graham Cameron, Associate Director, European Bioinformatics Institute

Closing address: Clifford Lynch, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)

Further details can be found on the Draft Programme
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/dcc-2005/programme/

For further information regarding the conference please contact:
events@ukoln.ac.uk

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Exploring Common Issues with New Contacts: MLA Conference Bursaries 2005

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is again offering to sponsor places at three major sector conferences taking place in 2005.

The £10,000 sponsorship is divided equally between the three domains with the Society of Archivists, CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and Museums Association each managing the nomination process for their respective workforce. This year in order to support a broader understanding of the issues which cut across museums, libraries and archives the funding will be used exclusively for cross-domain sponsorship enabling museum, library and archive staff to attend conferences other than their own. This is an opportunity to develop a greater understanding of common concerns and to establish contacts in a wider arena.

The conferences for which sponsorship is available are:

The Museums Association Conference 2005

http://www.museumsassociation.org

The Museum Association's annual conference and exhibition will be held at the QEII Conference Centre, London on 24 October to 26 October. The conference will cover a wide variety of subjects but will explore four main themes Collections for the Future, Valuing Learning, Cultural Tourism and World Cities, World Cultures.

The Society of Archivists Conference 2005

http://www.archives.org.uk/conference.html

The Society of Archivists Conference 2005, entitled 'From Parchment to Pictures to Pixels', will look at many aspects of archival preservation and access in this electronic age, and will take place at the University of East Anglia from 2.00 p.m. on Tuesday, 6 September to the afternoon of Friday, 9 September inclusive.

For further Information on applying to attend a conference please contact the appropriate professional association.

Museum staff wishing to attend either the 2005 Umbrella (Libraries) Conference or the Society of Archivists Conference, should contact Lorraine O'Leary at the Museums Association lorraine@museumsassociation.org

Archive staff wishing to attend either the 2005 Museums Association Conference or Umbrella, should contact Stephen Harwood at the Society of Archivists stephen.harwood@nationalarchives.gov.uk

In the event of applications exceeding available places priority will be given to non-managerial and frontline staff who do not usually have the opportunity to attend a conference. Delegates who receive sponsorship will be asked to write a short summary of their experience and learning at conference for their sponsoring professional association that may be published in the trade journals.

Note also that Umbrella Conference 2005 http://www.umbrella2005.org.uk was organised by CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals at the University of Manchester on 30 June - 2 July 2005 with the theme 'Tackling the key issues together' and was also part of this scheme.

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TAPE Workshop on Management of Audiovisual Collections

Amsterdam, the Netherlands
28 September - 4 October 2005

Librarians, archivists and curators in charge of audiovisual collections need to know about the role of new technology in collection management. Digitisation offers unprecedented opportunities for access to historical materials. But how can it be combined with established preservation methods in an integrated strategy, to ensure optimal access today as well as in the future?

In this 5-day workshop, the characteristics of film, video and sound recordings and the different recording systems and devices will be reviewed. Specific requirements for their handling and preservation will be related to the nature and function of different kinds of audiovisual materials. The workshop will explore the different transfer and conversion methods, technical requirements in relation to quality, and long-term management of digital files. Issues will be approached as management problems, and due attention will be given to aspects like needs assessment, setting priorities, planning, budgeting and outsourcing, and project management

Target group:
All those responsible for audiovisual collections in archives, museums, libraries. For this introductory course, no specific technical expertise is required.

The workshop will be in English. Participants are expected to have a working knowledge of English in order to participate in discussions.

Organisation:
European Commission on Preservation and Access, (ECPA) Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The workshops are supported by the Culture 2000-programme of the EU as part of the TAPE project.

Venue: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam.

Registration fee:
600 euros, this includes coffees, teas, lunches and a course pack with reading materials. Participants from institutes who are TAPE partners or ECPA contributors will pay 500 euros.

How to apply:
For online registration: http://www.tape-online.net/courses.html The registration deadline is 1 August 2005. By 15 August you will be informed whether your application has been accepted.

For more information on the TAPE project: http://www.tape-online.net

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The Second International Workshop on Grid Computing and its Application to Data Analysis (GADA'05)

http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/gada2005cfp.html

In conjunction with OnTheMove Federated Conferences (OTM'05) http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/

Proceedings will be published by Springer Verlag
Venue: Ayia Napa, Cyprus
Dates: 31 October - 4 November 2005

Grid computing has become one of the most important topics in the computing field in the last decade. The research area of grid computing is making rapid progress, owing to the increasing necessity of computation in the resolution of complex applications.

Clusters are, in some sense, the predecessors of the grid technology. Clusters interconnect nodes through a local high-speed network, using commodity hardware, with the aim of reducing the costs of such infrastructures. Supercomputers have been replaced by cluster of workstations in a huge number of research projects.

The great challenge of grid computing is the complete integration of heterogeneous computing systems and data resources with the aim of providing a global computing space. The achievement of this goal will involve revolutionary changes in the field of computation.

This workshop is intended for researchers in grid computing, who want to extend their background on this area and more specifically to those that use grid environments for managing and analysing data.

Topics of Interest

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

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SemAnnot 2005 - 5th International Workshop on Knowledge Markup and Semantic Annotation

http://km.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/ws/semannot2005
Workshop at the 4rd International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2005)
7 November 2005
Galway, Ireland

While a lot of basic infrastructure exists now for the Semantic Web (OWL, Editors, Inference-Engines), the lack of semantic metadata is still a major hurdle for the broad success of the Semantic Web. To overcome this obstacle, one needs methods that facilitate and accelerate the creation of metadata at a mass scale.

The workshop will address the issue of upgrading the actual Web towards the semantic web by means of (automated) annotated strategies for Web documents. The target audience are researchers and developers working towards the proliferation of semantic annotation. The goal of the workshop is to share experiences and to establish common strategies for semantic annotation of the current Web covering various aspects of the actual Web, like structured vs. instructed information, static vs. dynamic web pages, textual vs. multimedia or multi-modal information.

Topics of Interest

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

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ICDM '05: The 5th IEEE International Conference on Data Mining

Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
27-30 November 2005

http://www.cacs.louisiana.edu/~icdm05/
November 27, 2005 Tutorials and Workshops
November 28-30, 2005 Conference

The 2005 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (IEEE ICDM '05) provides a premier forum for the dissemination of innovative, practical development experiences as well as original research results in data mining, spanning applications, algorithms, software and systems. The conference draws researchers and application developers from a wide range of data mining related areas such as statistics, machine learning, pattern recognition, databases and data warehousing, data visualisation, knowledge-based systems and high performance computing.

Conference Co-Chairs:

Vijay Raghavan, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, USA
Rajeev Rastogi, Bell Laboratories, Lucent, USA

Further Information and latest updates, see
http://www.cacs.louisiana.edu/~icdm05/

Or contact:
Vijay Raghavan
University of Louisiana, Lafayette, USA
Phone: 337-482-6603
Fax: 337-482-5791
E-mail: raghavan@cacs.louisiana.edu

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8th International Bielefeld Conference

Academic Library and Information Services:
New Paradigms for the Digital Age
7 - 9 February 2006
Venue: Bielefeld, Germany, Bielefeld Convention Centre
Arranged by: Bielefeld University Library

Preliminary Programme: Thematic Areas

Please see the conference Web site for the programme and further details:

Web site http://conference.ub.uni-bielefeld.de
E-mail: conference.ub@uni-bielefeld.de

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Library Use Soars

A new report published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) shows a record rise in public library usage across the UK.

In 2003/04, visits to public libraries increased by nearly 14 million, over 250,000 extra visits a week. This is the second consecutive annual rise and builds on an additional 5 million visits made in 2002/03 - the first upturn in usage since the early 1990s.

The sea change in popularity coincides with the introduction of computers and internet access into all 4200 of the UK's public libraries. Thanks to the lottery-funded People's Network project there are 32,000 computer terminals offering broadband internet access in public libraries, and all library staff have been trained to provide help and advice for users.

Welcoming the figures, Mark Wood, chairman of the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) said: "This is an astonishing turnabout. Since 2002/03 there have been 18 million additional visits to public libraries - that's 200 times the capacity of the new Wembley Stadium. If libraries were listed companies, people would be rushing to invest.

"Libraries have been tremendously successful at keeping up with the times, offering broadband internet access, wifi and SMS alongside traditional services."

The CIPFA figures are based on a 100% response rate from all local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales and represent the most accurate information available on public library usage in the UK.

[Received May 2005]
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DCMI Recommendation on Bibliographic Citations

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative has published a Recommendation ( http://www.dublincore.org/documents/#recommendation ):

It is entitled Guidelines for Encoding Bibliographic Citation Information in Dublin Core Metadata http://www.dublincore.org/documents/dc-citation-guidelines/

This recommendation uses an OpenURL Framework ContextObject to describe a machine-parsable citation.

It is primarily about capturing the bibliographic citation information about a journal article (for example) within its own metadata for which it recommends the DC property 'dcterms:bibliographicCitation', which is an element refinement of 'dc:identifier', but also includes recommendations for capturing references in 'dcterms:references'. But this could easily be extrapolated to using a recommended parsable citation as the value of a 'dc:source' property, for example when capturing the publication citation for an eprint.

Moreover the recommendations in the document assume that 'qualified' DC is being used, ie. with the availability of all the 'dcterms' properties. But it does also give guidelines for using simple Dublin Core.

[Received: June 2005]
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CNI Interest in Major Reports on Digital Preservation and Curation

In a recent posting Clifford Lynch, Director CNI, pointed to a number of significant reports.

"The U. S. National Science Board has approved the release of the final version (subject to copy-editing) of Chris Greer's report on Long-Lived data collections. Chris gave a talk on this report at the spring CNI meeting, and I circulated a pointer to the earlier version of this report that was issued for comment in March 2005; the version that has just been posted incorporates many of the comments that were received on the draft report.

You can find this document at: http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/documents/2005/LLDDC_report.pdf

I would urge anyone at a U.S. research institution or organization concerned with research to take the time to at least look at the executive summary of this very important report."

Clifford went on to state, "In addition, the Canadian National Research Council has issued its final report on the 18-month Canadian consultation on access to scientific research data. This is in important, interesting and timely document that serves as a fine complement and counterpoint to the U.S. report just discussed; it is much broader in terms of policy questions but also somewhat more tentative. Again, I would urge anyone interested in scientific or scholarly data curation to at least skim this important report. It can be found at:

http://ncasrd-cnadrs.scitech.gc.ca/home_e.shtml

In the UK, the JISC has announced a new series of awards (totalling some four million pounds) under its repositories programme. For information on this, see:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_digital_repositories

and follow the pointers to the descriptions of the individual projects, many of which are of extraordinary interest."

[Received: June 2005]
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RCUK Announces Proposed Position on Access to Research Outputs

The principal investors in publicly-funded research in the UK have responded to the debate on improved access to research outputs by putting forward their emerging views on the issue. The eight UK Research Councils, under the umbrella of Research Councils UK (RCUK), have proposed to make it mandatory for research papers rising from Council-funded work to be deposited in openly available repositories at the earliest opportunity.

The Councils are seeking views on their position statement published on 28 June 2005 on the RCUK Web site: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/index.asp

RCUK spokesman, Professor Ian Diamond said that Councils have already widely consulted the research community:

"We've held workshops, given evidence at Select Committees, met with the publishers through a DTI working group and written out to all UK Vice Chancellors to share our views as they emerge on this issue and hear what others are saying," he said.

"The technology that has led to this debate is still evolving and so is our position. We see today's statement as a starting point and we're actively seeking the views of all parties involved in the debate, such as the Learned Societies," he added.

RCUK proposes:

A requirement for all grants awarded from 1 October 2005 that, subject to copyright and licensing arrangements, a copy of any resultant published journal articles or conference proceedings should be deposited in an appropriate e-print repository (either institutional or subject-based) wherever such a repository is available to the award-holder. Deposit should take place at the earliest opportunity, wherever possible at or around the time of publication. Research Councils will also encourage, but not formally oblige, award-holders to deposit articles arising from grants awarded before 1 October 2005. Councils will ensure that applicants for grants are allowed, subject to justification of cost-effectiveness, to include in the costing of their projects the predicted costs of any publication in author-pays journals.

A full copy of RCUK's position statement on access to research outputs can be found at http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/index.asp

[Received: June 2005]
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ALA MARS UASC Discusses "Do You Trust Your IT Staff?"

The tension between the need to keep our library systems secure against hackers and virus attacks and the desire to maintain maximum accessibility for legitimate users of those systems has long been of concern to library staff. Control over the computing environment in the library can be a significant source of contention between systems/information technology and public services/reference personnel.

To investigate this relationship, the American Library Association's Machine-Readable Reference Section's User Access to Services Committee (ALA MARS UASC) put together a panel consisting of two systems and two public services professionals as part of the ALA's Annual Meeting in Chicago, USA, on 25 June, 2005. Craig Davis, Director of Adult Services at the Chicago Public Library and Mary Ellen Spencer, Head of Reference & Research Services at Virginia Commonwealth University Library in Richmond, Virginia, represented the reference/public services side. Karim Adib, Director of Library Automation for Chicago Public Library, and Dennis Newborn, Head of Systems for West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, offered the systems/information technology viewpoint.

Adib, who is not a librarian by training, pointed out that hardware must be fairly new, the network had to be robust, and the primary responsibility of his staff was to their 'customers' -- the library staff and the users of the library system. Davis agreed that this had been a fairly successful endeavour. In fact, this part of the panel presentation turned into a bit of a 'love fest' - rather than an exploration of tension.

Dennis Newborn spoke for the information technology viewpoint within academic libraries. His primary concern (and one that is shared widely among academic computing staff regardless of geography) is security. Hacking and viruses can completely shut down productive work in an entire institution, but often success in fending these off also has the effect of protecting users from fully understanding the potential threat. Newborn's experience with a major attack several years ago actually helped his public services colleagues better to understand the seriousness of the situation, as they lost functionality on their staff machines and watched users' computing grind temporarily to a halt. In this case, he asserted, a brush with disaster engendered greater understanding by public services staff of his responsibility to protect the library's assets effectively.

Earlier in her career Mary Ellen Spencer had also worked in a systems department and so fully understood what 'the other side' was experiencing. She did comment that it would be helpful though if systems staff could consider feedback from public services colleagues as 'usability data' rather than as of 'anecdotal' interest.

The MARS UASC analysed the panel presentation afterwards and concluded it was worthy of further investigation by the Committee in the form of an article. It is hoped to submit the article to Reference & User Services Quarterly ( ISSN 1094-9054 ) in the summer of 2006.

For further information contact:
Bryna Coonin
Co-chair, ALA MARS User Access to Services Committee
East Carolina University
Greenville, N.C.
USA

Email: cooninb@mail.ecu.edu
Web site: http://www.library.umaine.edu/staff/MARS_ALA/MARS_UASC_index.htm

[Received: July 2005]
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Documents Online will soon be a JISC Collection

All Higher and Further Education institutions in the UK will soon have the opportunity to offer their staff and students access to The National Archives' collection of digitised public records - DocumentsOnline. They can subscribe to this online resource through the JISC licence.

With DocumentsOnline, users can tap into a rich archive of public records, including academic sources, maps, images, government documents, wills and family history sources. The breadth and depth of the content ensures its relevance across a wide range of subject and curriculum areas including: architecture, environmental management; history; international relations and politics; legal history; military history and war studies. New material will be added, which will be available at no extra charge to subscribing institutions.

Enjoy the benefits of onsite and remote access
As you can access this online resource through the Athens authentication system, you can maximise the value of your subscription with multiple users and remote access.

No Obligation Free Trial
To take advantage of a no obligation 30 day free trial, please contact trial_access@jisc.ac.uk. Please remember to include DocumentsOnline in the subject line of your email and let us know which online resource(s) you would like trial access to.

Further details on this resource can be found at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/coll_documentsonline.html

[Received: July 2005]
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Oxford Journals Launches Oxford Open: A New Open Access Initiative

Oxford Journals, a division of Oxford University Press (OUP), has announced its latest Open Access (OA) project, Oxford Open. Commencing July 2005, it will offer an optional author-pays model to authors of accepted papers in a range of Oxford Journals titles. Oxford Journals has also amended its post-prints policy to be compliant with the latest National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy. Both of these announcements further support Oxford Journals' central remit, as a leading not-for-profit publisher, to bring the highest quality research to the widest possible audience.

Oxford Open will give published authors in participating Oxford Journals titles the option to pay for research articles to be freely available online immediately on publication. The open access charge for each article will be £1,500 or $2,800, with authors being given the option to pay this amount once their manuscript has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. Discounted author charges of £800 or $1,500 will be available to authors from institutions that maintain a current online subscription. Authors from developing countries will also be eligible for discounted rates. The online subscription prices of participating journals will be adjusted for 2007 and subsequent years, according to how much content was paid for by authors and thus freely available online during the previous year.

Further details about Oxford Journals Author Self-Archiving Policy can be found at: http://www.oupjournals.org/selfarchivingpolicy/

[Received: May 2005]
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UKOLUG Becomes UKeIG

The Group's name has changed. The membership passed a motion at the 26th UKOLUG AGM (8 June 2005) to change the groups' name to UKeIG (UK eInformation Group). CILIP Council has approved this name change.

http://www.ukeig.org.uk

[Received: June 2005]
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MLA Issues Call to Action for Public Libraries

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has presented England's public libraries with five major challenges to be met over the next three years.

In its response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's report on public libraries, published today, MLA is calling on local authorities and other funding bodies to back its improvement programme for libraries by:

MLA chair Mark Wood said: "Councils must be confident they are providing modern public libraries that are relevant to today's users and open at convenient times. Traditional lending services must be improved, and complemented by online access to information using up-to-date technologies."

MLA states that in 2002 it oversaw the introduction of computers and Internet access in all 3000 public libraries in England. That year, for the first time in a decade, library visits increased - by 5 million. Last year they shot up by a further 14 million. Mark Wood continued: "We are calling on local authorities to capitalise on the success of the introduction of Internet access by extending library opening times, improving book stock and modernising other aspects of public libraries.

"We are also calling for urgent investment in library buildings so that they're the sorts of places people want to visit. We know that when libraries are properly funded book borrowing rates and visitor numbers increase, yet most public libraries have suffered from a chronic lack of capital investment. We have commissioned a comprehensive audit of the condition of library buildings and the costs of refurbishment or replacement which we will publish later this year."

MLA's full response to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport's review of public libraries will be available from 29 July on http://www.mla.gov.uk/information/responses/resp2005.asp

[Received: July 2005]
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MLA Becomes Partner in Cultural Leadership Programme

In response to the Government's commitment of £12 million to promote leadership skills within the cultural sector, the Arts Council is developing a cultural leadership programme. Working with sector partners, including MLA, it has published Cultural Leadership Programme - A call for ideas. The document outlines the scope of the proposed programme and signals the start of a consultation process that will inform its further development.

Along with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Arts Council England is supported in this initiative by the Clore Leadership Programme, Creative and Cultural Skills and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The Cultural Leadership Programme will make it possible for the cultural sector to develop and strengthen its leadership and establish a culture of excellence for the future. It will develop the business and leadership skills required to lead in a changing global environment. The programme will address the development needs of leaders at all stages of their careers as well as trustees and board members.

The Cultural Leadership Programme will run for two years from April 2006 and has two areas of priority:

  1. Creating a culture of strong leadership To embed a culture of support and development for leaders in the sector.
  2. Diversity in leadership

To enhance the diversity in cultural leadership with a particular focus on leaders from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

The Arts Council is seeking partnerships across the sector and to learn from other sectors facing and tackling similar challenges.

[Received: July 2005]
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Publication Date: 30-July-2005 
Publication: Ariadne Issue 44
Originating URL: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue44/newsline/