Tag Archives: RMIT

VALA2022 Lightning Talk Chapman

The future is here, but are we there yet?

VALA2022 Lightning Talk

Keely Chapman
  • Library Coordinator
  • RMIT University Library

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Abstract

It’s said that fortune favors the bold, so with ageing institutional repository software to replace, RMIT University Library implemented Esploro, the newest offering from ExLibris in 2020. As members of the “early adopter” program, our brief was to contribute to the build of the Esploro software while using it as a fully-fledged IR solution.

In addition to the refresh of our IR software, RMIT University’s Research Office were seeking a successor to their Research Master service for Excellence in Research for Australia publications collection and verification.

While aiming to plant the seed and watch it grow, our Esploro implementation has provided a curious mix of disappointments and unexpected successes, of lessons learned and a crash course in how to work successfully with your vendor.

Why did we select Esploro? Being an existing ExLibris customer helped and the need for an IR that could integrate with other university systems, plus provide detailed analytical reporting were other good reasons. The promise of an eventual replacement to our existing unwieldy and difficult to maintain public researcher profiles, also provided a distinct step up from our previous repository software and the carrot on the end of the stick for researcher engagement (and hopefully supply of more accepted manuscripts for open access!).

The first stage was to confirm the project scope, our budget and what constituted a ‘minimal viable product’. When the time came to identify the multiple sources of our data, the need for all participants to be fully cognizant of the true breadth and depth of the project soon became apparent. What was originally seen as a simple IR replacement, became a combined dual system upgrade, with the obvious risk of becoming unmanageable all too likely.

Our vendor was not always familiar with the audiences and unique purpose of an institutional repository. I and my other ‘early adopter’ colleagues, were sometimes surprised by the new functionality released every month and sometimes underwhelmed. Ideas regarding how to minimize the display of record information and attached full text, often left us scratching our heads given the point of an IR is to promote, promote, promote! The only solution was providing feedback and lots of it.

Similarly, perfectly adequate searching and sorting functionality would suddenly vanish as the vendor had decided it wasn’t useful, without consulting the team of ‘early adopters’ (who would then inevitably request it’s reinstatement).

So, are we there yet? Esploro was partially developed at the time of implementation and it was expected RMIT University and several other participating institutions, would gradually develop services and functionality via a series of monthly upgrades, a process we now understand, will continue well into the future.

The most significant lesson for us has been around our underestimation of researcher interest. We’ve not managed to avoid frustrating and disappointing them while gradually developing Esploro. Clear, honest, and regular updates are essential for positive initial user/researcher experiences. Only then, can we be convincing in our message that the future really is here.

Biography

Keely Chapman, as the Coordinator, Research Services Publishing, has primary responsibility for engaging and maintaining relationships across RMIT University to manage the operations of the RMIT open access research repository. A relative newcomer to Alma-based systems, Keely’s contributions have ensured the goals set for services offered by the RMIT Research Repository were met. With nearly 30 years experience, Keely made the leap from Liaison/Reference Librarian 12 years ago to the often unpredictable adventure world of institutional repositories and open access.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

VALA2022 Lightning Talk Rowe

Where to get help in a post-COVID library: Who do I call?

VALA2022 Lightning Talk

Amelia Rowe
Tanya Bramley
Steve Thomas
Angela Kopelis
  • RMIT University Library

Please tag your comments, tweets, and blog posts about this session: #vala2022

Abstract

RMIT Library services consists of four physical sites offering studying spaces, access to physical collections, and formerly on-site face to face reference services. For many years now the data was telling us that most questions at the library reference desk were directional and fundamental service-related questions such as how to use the printers. Thoughts of a concierge model have been floating about the library for several years to consider how we might better respond to these types of queries. Then COVID19 struck. In less than a day RMITs library reference service moved to an online only mode of delivery. Ask the Library became the RMIT Library online front door acting as a referral service for our study support, peer mentoring, and research support services. This is how RMIT Library services stayed for the duration of 2020, and then for much of 2021. If this was not disruption enough for you add a library restructure at the end of 2020. RMITs reference services would never be the same again.

The library restructure saw the library service model for physical library sites shift away from staffed reference desks to online Ask the Library combined with a face-to-face user focused Concierge model. The new structure required strong collaboration between the Library Learning team where the Ask the Library service resides and the Library Facilities team where the Concierge service resides. On reopening in 2021 we had our first impression of how a library concierge model and online Ask the Library service would work.

This lightning talk covers RMITs experience in moving reference services online and some of our early experiences with a concierge service model at physical sites. We will explore where the concierge model idea came from. How the Ask the Library team responded to the sudden move to online only, and how they have adapted this model over the span of two years. What worked and what did not when RMIT Library sites reopened their doors. How we have reviewed and changed the service from our 2021 model to what we plan to deliver in 2022. We will get a quick glimpse of the teething problems the new Concierge service model faced. What we had to change in how we deliver Ask the Library service. How the Learning team and the Facilities team have changed their modes of communication to support the new model. Insights into the benefits a concierge can bring to the library service, both for staff and library users, and a few thoughts for the future.

Biography

Amelia, Tanya, Steve and Angela work at RMIT University Library. Between them they manage the library reference services and the library concierge service, two services that require constant interaction to deliver well.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

VALA2022 Online Session 6 Hegarty

Unlocking social media archives: creative responses to the challenge of access

VALA2022 CONCURRENT 6

Tuesday 14 June 2022, 12:30 – 13:00

Kieran Hegarty
  • PhD candidate (Global, Urban and Social Studies)
  • RMIT University

Please tag your comments, tweets, and blog posts about this session: #vala2022 #os6

Read the paper here:

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VALA2022 Online Session 6 Hegarty 256 KB
Abstract

Collecting institutions, particularly libraries, are increasingly seeking to incorporate social media content into their collections. However, platform APIs used to gather social media data bind libraries to a license agreement that governs the collection, distribution, and use of these data. These agreements, along with ethical and technical challenges, mean traditional pathways to access need to be reimagined. This paper presents the implications of this changing information environment for libraries, and how the State Library of New South Wales has used novel approaches—including data visualisation and curation—to advance responsible, sustainable, and engaging access to these increasingly important cultural artefacts.

Biography

Kieran Hegarty is a librarian and sociologist. He is a currently a PhD candidate at RMIT University and works on the ARC Linkage project ‘Representing Multicultural Australia in National and State Libraries’, run in partnership with the National Library of Australia (NLA) and three state libraries (New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria). Kieran’s PhD research considers how the web has changed how national and state libraries build collections and how they are put to use. He is particularly interested in how automation and third-party applications used in web archiving and social media collecting are changing the nature of curation and documentary heritage. Through extended periods of fieldwork at the NLA and the State Library of New South Wales, Kieran is exploring the day-to-day production of two collections: the national Australian Web Archive and the New South Wales Social Media Archive. Kieran is passionate about taking experimental, creative, and collaborative approaches to research. Following his PhD, he hopes to continue his work in libraries, creative arts institutions, and sites of research, supporting ways to understand and challenge the power structures that shape how knowledge is created, disseminated, and authorised. You can find out more about Kieran’s research at his website (assemblingtheweb.com) or on Twitter @assemblingweb.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Student Award 2010 RMIT

The 2010 VALA Student Award for a student at RMIT University goes to Carrie Thomas.

Carrie is a part time mature-age student who has attained superb results, and has been working part time while studying, managing a home and primary school-aged children. She has achieved consistent High Distinction in all courses at RMIT and has impressed the staff there with her level of commitment and involvement with her cohort. She has excelled in all the technical courses offered, with particularly high marks for Information Organization.

Her previous career was as a paintings conservator, where she worked to preserve the physicality of these cultural objects. However, all cultural collections lose meaning if their information is not cared for, and she chose to study Information Management because she was interested in the way information about museum collections is managed and hoped to change career in this direction. Although the RMIT program is a route to librarianship, she felt that it would also provide her with skills and experience which could be applied more broadly, and she has found that to be so. For example, while studying she has done work experience at the Discovery Centre of the Melbourne Museum, at the Shaw Research Library at the National Gallery of Victoria, at the Picture Collection of the State Library of Victoria and also with Culture Victoria, where she applied Victoria’s Framework of Historic Themes (a simple two level taxonomic structure) to the digital cultural assets on the Culture Victoria website. She now has her first “information management” job, verifying catalogue records at the NGV to ensure the consistency and accuracy of data prior to collection information being added to the public website.

Carrie says that while combining study with family commitments and work experience has been a juggle, she has absolutely loved studying and being introduced to the current information culture after a long absence from formal study. It has opened her mind to many possibilities, and while she hopes to continue to work with heritage collections, this might well take her into libraries or areas such as digital asset management in the future.

Congratulations, Carrie, and good luck!

Student Award 2009 RMIT

 

The 2009 VALA student Award for a student at RMIT University goes to Angela Hogan.

The top student at RMIT in the technical subjects in the Graduate Diploma in Information Management, Angela finished the diploma in June, and has gone on to study in the Master of Business Information Technology, while also working sessionally for RMIT as a tutor.

It could be said that Angela’s career has evolved into information management. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Philosophy, she started to work at the Department of Defence in the Defence Library Service. It was there she was given the opportunity to move into content management, where she got a taste of how important it is for information to be accurate, accessible and reliable and how critical it is to an organisation’s success. Whether this is making decisions on how to increase profits or how to improve outcomes for clients, in the social services context, the quality and accessibility of an organisation’s information is crucial to its success. This realisation, and having the opportunity to have that level of impact on an organisation’s outcome, is what led her to seek out further studies.

After looking at different information management courses, she decided to do the Graduate Diploma of Information Management at RMIT, because of its high quality teaching and its practical focus. She really enjoyed doing the Graduate Diploma of Information Management, and believes this has given her a solid foundation in the field of information management. She says the staff at RMIT provided her with a supportive and rich learning environment, while her fellow students shared their wide range of experiences in information management.

With her qualification, she was able to pursue a job opportunity as a Business Analyst on an information project for the Department of Human Services, while studying part time for that Masters of Business (Information Technology) to further her knowledge.

One day Angela would like to become the Chief Information Officer of some organisation, and she believes the Grad Dip has put her on this path.

Congratulations, Angela, and good luck!

 

Student Award 2008 RMIT

 

The 2008 VALA student Award for a student at RMIT University goes to Alice Fahey.

The top student at RMIT in the Graduate Diploma in Information Management, Alice told us that she would have to say that she fell into libraries/information management. She started working as a Customer Service Officer at Darebin Libraries towards the end of her Arts Degree (Linguistics and Japanese). It was only half way through a second undergraduate degree (Speech Pathology) that she decided she might actually prefer a career in libraries.

She chose to do the Graduate Diploma of Information Management at RMIT because she wanted to study face-to-face rather than online and the course seemed to have a practical focus. She really enjoyed the breadth of the course and thinks it provides great preparation for work in a variety of library and information management contexts. She believes that enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff and classmates were also one of the most valuable aspects of the course.

At this stage she is not exactly sure what she hopes to do in the future. She has loved working as a customer service officer in a public library but she is also looking forward to getting stuck into the more technical behind-the-scenes tasks in her new job at Deakin University. Congratulations, Alice!

 

Student Award RMIT 2001 to 2007

The VALA Student Awards for students at RMIT University from 2001 to 2007

  • 2007 Marion Slawson
  • 2006 Anna Farrell
  • 2005 Rosemary Smith
  • 2004 Simone Pakin
  • 2003 Helen Shipperlee
  • 2002 Zoe Velonis
  • 2001 Carol Bradford

 

VALA2008 Session 6 Mercieca

VALA2008Publication patterns of Australian academics and the impact on open access publishing

VALA 2008 CONCURRENT SESSION 6: Publishing
Tuesday 5 February 2008, 14:00 – 14:30
Persistent URL: http://www.vala.org.au/vala2008-proceedings/vala2008-session-6-mercieca

VALA Peer Reviewed PaperPaul Mercieca

Lecturer – Information Management and Digital Publishing, RMIT University
http://www.rmit.edu.au

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VALA2008 Session 6 Mercieca Paper 45.15 KB
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VALA2008 Session 6 Mercieca Podcast 11 MB

Abstract

This paper reports on research that is exploring the publication patterns and engagement with open access publication processes by Australian academics. The findings are based on a survey of academics that was administered in late 2006. The survey explores the publication process of the respondents’ last article (last instance analysis), as well as discussion of their perceptions and general engagement with open access publication processes. The practice is predominantly one of focusing on international journals, possibly at the expense of local publications. While there is some support for open access publication processes, the last instance analysis suggests that this is not currently extensive.

VALA2006 Session 8 Mercieca

VALA2006Changing patterns in scholarly publishing: interim report on ARC funded research project

VALA 2006 CONCURRENT SESSION 8: Digital and e-publishing
Thursday 9 February 2006, 14:00 – 14:30
Persistent URL: http://www.vala.org.au/vala2006-proceedings/vala2006-session-8-mercieca

VALA Peer Reviewed PaperPaul Mercieca

Lecturer – Information Management and Digital Publishing, RMIT University
http://www.rmit.edu.au

Please tag your comments, tweets, and blob posts about this session: #VALA2006

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VALA2006 Session 8 Mercieca Paper 44.69 KB

Podcast [Not Available]

Abstract

This paper reports on the progress of a three year ARC funded research project that is exploring issues associated with ongoing business models for digital scholarly publishing. While the ARC project itself is exploring broad changes within the publishing environment, this paper focuses on issues associated with open access publishing. The paper provides an overview of the research focus and its methodology and then broadly discusses issues of ongoing sustainability, and the impact of policy change on access and potential changing patterns of usage of digital scholarly content. These issues form the basis for the ongoing research project.