This paper aims to provide a historical overview of VICNET at the State Library of Victoria (www.slv.vic.gov.au)., to introduce VICNET's conceptual development and to explore some…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a historical overview of VICNET at the State Library of Victoria (www.slv.vic.gov.au)., to introduce VICNET's conceptual development and to explore some of the impact and achievements of VICNET.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper looks at some of the published papers on VICNET and draws on the experiences of implementing and maintaining information and communications technology projects and services outlined in those papers. It also draws on the experience and opinions of the author as a senior manager within VICNET.
Findings
VICNET recognized that the online‐networked environment required development in parallel of access, content and skills. Its internet service provider and web design and hosting activities underpin VICNET's remarkable growth. This has served to enhance its capacity to deliver government ICT information society projects such as Skills.Net (www.skills.net.au) and My Connected Community (www.mc2.vicnet.net.au). The importance of community web publishing and access to online information is emphasized in the development of the VICNET web site (www.vicnet.net.au) and other key online content initiatives such as Victoria's Virtual Library (www.libraries.vic.gov.au), the Gulliver consortium, the Open Road project (www.openroad.vic.gov.au) and the MyLanguage Portal (www.mylanguage.gov.au).
Originality/value
The paper gives to the wider global library sector an overview of a unique library‐based information technology initiative.
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Brendan Fitzgerald, Wayne Hawkins, Tom Denison and Tegan Kop
This chapter looks at Australian public libraries and how they have developed and delivered inclusive service to people with disabilities over the past decade or so. As digital…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter looks at Australian public libraries and how they have developed and delivered inclusive service to people with disabilities over the past decade or so. As digital technology impacts the public library sector the question of “how are libraries responding?” emerges, especially for the one in five Australians living with disabilities. This chapter is focused on how the public library network is delivering digitally inclusive services to people with disabilities.
Methodology/approach
The approach was to examine the international obligations, related governance, and professional standards that apply to Australian Public libraries; the current disability and digital inclusion related research from the past decade; and highlight some of the better examples of practice in Australian public library service.
Findings
This chapter is not a comprehensive examination but rather a summary scan of digital inclusion practice. However, it raises a number of questions for further investigation: research as to how these obligations are put into practice; how they can be better shared and learnt from; and more importantly how the aspiration of “inclusion for all” is being met.
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Brendan Fitzgerald and Frances Savage
This article explores the impact on public libraries in Victoria, Australia, as they become increasingly reliant upon information communications technology (ICT) to manage, access…
Abstract
This article explores the impact on public libraries in Victoria, Australia, as they become increasingly reliant upon information communications technology (ICT) to manage, access and deliver information services. Libraries Online and Rural Libraries Online have, since 1998, been developing Internet access in Victorian public libraries. Funded by State (Multimedia Victoria) and Australian Federal (Networking The Nation) and delivered by VICNET, a division of the State Library of Victoria, these projects have provided a library approach to e‐services which includes provision of bandwidth, infrastructure, ICT skills, and content. The specific projects such as satellite delivery of bandwidth, rural points of presence (POPs), Victoria’s Virtual Library, the Gulliver Consortium and the SWIFT Initiative are discussed. Aligned critically to the actual ICT models and implementations is the capacity of the 44 individual public library services to understand and meet the ongoing issues.
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I suppose that most noticeable of all the changes in our profession since I came into it has been the multiplicity of the methods by which one can become a librarian. A. E…
Abstract
I suppose that most noticeable of all the changes in our profession since I came into it has been the multiplicity of the methods by which one can become a librarian. A. E. Standley says in a recent article in the L.A.R., in 1970: “The term librarian includes the Library Association chartered librarian, the graduate with a degree in librarianship, the scholar librarian, the information and intelligence officer, the translator, the abstracter, the non‐library‐qualified subject expert”.
The quote above was taken from the actor Brendan Gleeson, who struck a chord with Irish people in his outburst about the lack of care shown to the old and vulnerable during the…
Abstract
The quote above was taken from the actor Brendan Gleeson, who struck a chord with Irish people in his outburst about the lack of care shown to the old and vulnerable during the years preceding the economic downturn in 2008. In the Irish case, it has always been the marginalised and poorest who have suffered at the hands of the pride and greed of the ruling elite. This chapter will establish an understanding of the ideologically driven and often tragic economic planning undertaken in the Irish state since Independence in 1922. The chapter will outline the problems associated with political elites which then became manifest in the socio-economic life of the country. These problems were political, but also cultural, and shaped the difficulties that have befallen the Irish state in almost every decade of its history.
Sylvia Fitzgerald and John Flanagan
The implementation of the UNICORN Collection Management System from Sirsi Ltd is described, showing its adaptation to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's particular needs, for books…
Abstract
The implementation of the UNICORN Collection Management System from Sirsi Ltd is described, showing its adaptation to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's particular needs, for books, art, archives and other materials; and the inter‐relationship of management and system factors.
Garry D. Carnegie and Brendan T. O'Connell
The purpose of this Australian case study, set in the 1960s, is to comprehensively examine the responses of the two major professional accounting bodies to a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this Australian case study, set in the 1960s, is to comprehensively examine the responses of the two major professional accounting bodies to a financial/corporate/regulatory crisis necessitating the defence of the profession's legitimacy.
Design/methodology/approach
This historical paper draws on surviving primary records and secondary sources and applies the perspectives on the dynamics of occupational groups and the legitimacy typology of Suchman.
Findings
While the history of the accounting profession has been characterized by intra‐professional rivalries, this case study illustrates how such rivalries were put aside on recognising the power of collectivizing in defending the profession's legitimacy. Based on the available evidence, pragmatic legitimacy is shown to have been a key focus of attention by the major accounting bodies involved.
Research limitations/implications
The paper may motivate similar studies in Australia and elsewhere, thus potentially contributing to developing a literature on comparative international accounting history. The evidence for this historical investigation is largely restricted to surviving documents, making it necessary to rely on assessments of the key sources.
Originality/value
In addressing responses to crises in defending the legitimacy of the profession as a whole, the paper makes an original contribution in exploring the relationship between literature on the dynamics of occupational groups and on legitimacy management.