On 1 January 2012, early-childhood and out-of-school-hours care services were mandated to begin working under a new framework, designed to deliver greater consistency in service provision across the sector. With the aim of raising quality and driving continuous improvement through consistency among services and service ratings, the National…

The University of Melbourne's Middle Eastern Manuscript collection housed at the Baillieu Library was acquired by Professor John Bowman in the 1950s as part of a teaching collection to promote greater learning of Middle Eastern culture and civilisation (Pryde 2007, 3). The collection is a rare example within Australia and represents many different…

This paper reports the implementation results of the Portuguese School Libraries Evaluation Model, more specifically the results of primary schools self-evaluation of their libraries' reading promotion and information literacy development activities. School libraries that rated their performance as either "Excellent" or "Poor"…

Four librarians from Irish university libraries completed the U.K. Future Leaders Programme (FLP) in 2010. In this article they recount their experience and assess the effect of the programme on their professional practice and the value for their institutions. The programme is explored in the context of the Irish higher education environment,…

This paper examines the idea, commonly expressed in the Library and Information Services (LIS) literature, that public libraries have a growing role as developers of social capital, and brings to bear some of the growing body of research into public libraries and social capital. It reviews definitions of social capital by writers outside the LIS…

The necessity of library and information research is pointed up by referring to some of important categories of research now in progress. Reasons are advanced for the necessity such research in Australia and ways suggested in which students wishing to make a career research and practitioners anxious for research opportunities may be accommodated.…

There is a general perception that as librarians, we know what constitutes and defines a rare book, that our heritage book collections are well-documented and their future survival is planned for and secure. This discussion paper asks whether our definitions of heritage material might be too narrow and whether they reflect the reality across all…

The meanings of professional and academic as qualifiers of librarians are discussed and it is concluded that there is little difference in the expectations they engender. It is then argued that if librarians in academic institutions are to be accorded a status comparable with that of faculty, they must be prepared to be assessed by the comparable…

The author asserts that something is wrong with university-based education for librarianship in Australia. Librarianship does not have a clear disciplinary identity in universities. The lack of differentiation between the roles of technicians and professionals clouds the issue. For these and other reasons, education for librarianship in Australia…

This paper investigates the customer service and library staff benefits of using Vocera badges (www.vocera.com), a portable wireless technology (WiFi), to facilitate roving reference service. Use of portable voice communication devices allows help to be taken to the people and away from service desks. These communication technologies allow library…

There has been much talk about libraries, including public libraries, being uniquely positioned to act as key agents for developing the critical skill of information literacy in their communities. Yet there is a notable lack of literature addressing information literacy and the public library, especially when compared to the volume of material on…

This paper provides an overview of contemporary information literacy research and practice. While the content is highly selective, the intention has been to highlight international and Australian developments which have achieved significant recognition, which are representative of similar trends in other places, or which are unique in some way.…

This paper reports on the implementation of "My Language Portal" in the City of Greater Dandenong Libraries (CGDL), Melbourne, Victoria, through the development of a "My Language Portal Project Plan" in 2006. It discusses how the aims of the designers of My Language Portal (MLP) are fulfilled in the exceptional, changing…

User involvement in information services is a contentious issue. This article explores the participation of patrons in libraries, archives and records centres. It reviews the causes of this change, and discusses the consequences for the information profession. The article notes the constants in information environments, and concludes by suggesting…

From the information literacy educator's perspective, librarians have the potential to play important roles in strengthening information literacy elements within curricula learning scaffolds. While there needs to be an increased awareness amongst academics about the forms of assistance teaching librarians can provide teachers as integrated…