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The library profession in Australia is not large but is dispersed across an ancient continent as large as mainland USA. In this situation management styles have developed which enable the libraries to provide the most effective service to their clientele. This article describes the styles applicable to the academic arena and particularly in the era for the digital access and delivery of information.

Looks at the Editorship of Professor Patricia Layzell Ward of Library Management from 1997‐2003. Examines some of the areas which articles under her editorship have covered.

The CAVAL member libraries believe that the major issue confronting libraries at the start of the new millennium is collection development. These libraries have been committed to the achievement of VADL for the past 12 months. VADL will be a digital library which will be shared and yet reflect the discipline interests of the member universities. VADL has established a range of research into the shape and extent of existing collections within Victoria. This paper highlights the path taken by these libraries, how their response differs from the American experience, and how collaboration is achieved through a new service model.

Cooperative storage is essentially the sharing of a space within a facility, while collaborative storage implies a shared approach to the collection in terms of growth, shape, management and access. Collaborative storage provides a more efficient use of resources. This study is an investigation of the physical options, rather than of digital storage. However, the study does reflect on the prospective relationship between these two responses. The tension is an emerging issue and one which is not yet placed in the policy context of a local, regional or national perspective.

The skill set required to be a professional in any profession is inherent in the qualifications required for entrance to that profession. The ability to demonstrate leadership in the middle to upper echelons of that profession is demonstrably different. The School of Information Studies at the Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga Australia sought to explore what a postgraduate qualification in the leadership of the profession might look like and what the demand for such a qualification might be. The purpose of this paper is to detail that research effort and the outcomes.

The study undertook a number of different approaches including engaging in networks of professional colleagues globally and a series of focus groups in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The outcomes were analyzed in terms of the expectations of what a new degree might contain as well as the enrollment prospects for such a degree.

There was a strong ground-swell of support for a new degree of Masters of Information Leadership. The combination of subjects from the LIS environment together with subjects from a MBA environment was strongly endorsed. These areas of interest were documented in the paper along with recommendations.

There is a fertile ground for research here in two ways. First, there is much scope for the examination of the course requirements and how they sit in a future work environment. This is especially the case where there is a convergence of the interests of the galleries, libraries, archives and museums sectors. Second, there is much to be done as the authors look at leadership skills sets for future information environments which are highly speculative.

This study has produced a set of requirements for a new Masters of Information Leadership. It is a very useful set of requirements to base future studies. There was also a very strong requirement for real life aspects to such a course rather than theoretical exercises as has been the current academic practice.

This study is quite original as it sought to engage practitioners in different areas and sectors in Australia aiming to ensure that the resulting academic program was closely aligned with practitioner need.

Repository Libraries need to pause and re-consider their role and future purpose in the light of the Digital Disruption of the whole library and publishing industries. This paper seeks to expose some of the issues in this re-examination.

The Kuopio Conference is a seminal conference series exploring the trials, successes and futures of repository libraries globally. The paper seeks to draw out the tensions in libraries and in publishing asking the questions of why and how.

Scenario planning assists in enabling us to think about issues which are disruptive rather than assuming that the future will be steady and assured. This paper is a call to the community to re-think what is being planned and executed.

This re-examination is different in the nature of the papers detailing what has been achieved.

The function of this article is to examine both the current state of scholarly communication and its prospects. Among the issues to be examined are the viability of the present model of scholarly publishing, the cost of the delivery of unit articles and the difficulty of assigning value to this whole process. The operating principle of this article is that the scholarly communication process is a partnership between a number of players, but that while the nature and content of the relationships are changing, there needs to be a serious engagement with the many issues if the process is to move onwards.

This paper sets out to explore the place of the repository library in today's information world.

This paper argues that it is important to view repository libraries anew and to re‐invigorate the debate as to their value and their place in the digital world. The paper is also set in the context of the Caval Archival Records Management Centre (CARM), located in Melbourne, Australia.

There seem to be three basic roles for the repository in the emerging digital world. First, there is a role managing the low‐use legacy collections that will never be digitised, providing access to them in some defined service and pricing model. Second, there is a role to manage the vast array of learning objects that are being developed institutionally for online learning programs on behalf of existing institutional libraries and their learning and teaching units. Third, it can be argued that the peer review process is under severe pressure in the emerging digital world.

Ascertains that repository libraries need to debate a new, more active and involved role in their information communities. Much will be gained from a rigorous re‐examination of the economics of systems rather than of individual repositories.