Melbourne Students & Learning - Research Publications
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ItemEstablishing Digital Preservation at the University of Melbourne(Swiss National Library, Bern, 2016)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableFrom zero to hero – the journey of a timeline from text heavy to interactive- creating more inclusive websites(2015 ALIA, 2017)In the minds of many, dense text and limited photos equals boring—yet numerous libraries and content providers use this format to present the valuable information that is burrowed away in their databases and catalogues. Innovative new methods of information dissemination are required to pique public interest, capture attention, and enticing people to engage with content. Digital humanities tools can make content go from zero to hero, just by changing the aesthetic. The Find & Connect web resource (Find & Connect web resource project, 2011 - 2016) is a government-funded initiative, which provides information for individuals raised in Australian out-of-home care from the beginning of the last century. Anecdotal feedback, and formal usability testing, regarding the site suggested it relied too heavily on text to deliver the content. To alter this perception, the pre-existing plain text hyperlinked timeline was transformed into a visually engaging and interactive experience for the user—using TimelineJS software by Knight Lab (Northwestern University, 2015). The new format brings together otherwise disperse content into an easily navigable, intuitive interface. Modifying the timeline code template to create a well-referenced robust tool, that was also visually appealing, was not always simple and required the resolution of several broader issues. A fundamental shift in the design process involved moving away from the Google Spreadsheet provided, and into JSON files. In addition, the hosting of the timeline was relocated to internal servers to remove the reliance on external providers. Large images, limited text, and interaction are three points of variation of the newly created timeline on the Find & Connect web resource. Initial feedback suggests this timeline version vastly improves user experience. The new timeline engages the user, encourages exploration of the content on the site, and showcases certain elements of the collection reviving a story that was otherwise lost and forgotten.
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ItemBut where is the library ...?: Reframing the library at the University of Melbourne in a shared services environment(IATUL, 2016)Commencing in late 2013 and continuing through 2014, the University of Melbourne, a research-intensive and highly ranked Australian university, undertook an extensive review of all services, business processes and the required resourcing profile to deliver them. This review, known as the Business Improvement Program, ultimately led to a complete reconceptualization of the University’s operating model, the most significant in its 160 year history. The scale of the change was sweeping and the speed was audacious, resulting in the implementation of a new shared-services model across the University known as the Melbourne Operating Model. The entire University has been reorganized according to the principles of this operating model. The model has three core elements – Chancellery (responsible for leadership of overarching University strategy, policy, brand and capital); Academic Divisions (or Faculties and Schools), and University Services where the operational activities of the University are grouped together as shared services to support Academic Divisions (Faculties) to deliver on their teaching, research and engagement agendas. How did the Library fare? As a formal, visible organisational unit, the University Library ceased to exist. The University Librarian took on the mantle of University Librarian & Executive Director, Collections and was placed in Chancellery to provide strategic direction and policy oversight to the Library as well as to the University’s other cultural collections located in Faculties. However Library services, delivered by the two directorates of Scholarly Information and Research and Collections, were positioned as discrete operational units within the Academic Services division of University Services, so that both Directors (who formerly reported to the University Librarian), now report to the Executive Director for Academic Services. In this presentation the authors outline the background and rationale of the Business Improvement Program at the University of Melbourne and describe the current organisational structure under the Melbourne Operating Model. They present their personal views on how the Model has impacted the Library’s operational activities and priorities within the wider Academic Services context and describe how operational separation from the strategic leadership of the University Librarian position has been managed.
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ItemMenzies’ book club: using a relational database to reconstruct the social networks of Robert Menzies( 2014)The University of Melbourne Library holds the personal library of Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, prime minister of Australia from 1939 to 1941 and 1949 to 1966. The collection reflects a lifetime of acquiring books and comprises almost 4000 books (as well as magazines, photograph albums and ephemera) that belonged to Menzies. As well as reflecting the owner’s tastes and interests, the collection sheds light on Menzies’ extensive personal, social and personal networks. We demonstrate in this paper how is it possible to use a relational database to piece together an impression of Menzies’ intricate social world, based on the evidence of his books. Much of the value of the collection lies in the annotations and dedications inside the books. We have discovered that almost forty percent of the volumes bear inscriptions or signs of dedication ranging from signatures and brief notes to more personal dedications. These reveal the identity of the giver of the book and often its date of acquisition. A smaller number contain signs of previous ownership, suggesting they were donated, exchanged, or perhaps lent to Menzies (and never returned). Presents to Menzies from family members and friends are common. The collection also contains numerous books presented to Menzies by international dignitaries, not to mention unsolicited gifts from his admirers and constituents. The exchange of books was a form of ‘social networking’, and these inscriptions reveal a complex network of associations both within and outside the world of politics. This paper will focus on our efforts to map the connections between books, writers of inscriptions, events and organisations relevant to the life and times of Robert Menzies. Moving beyond the bibliographic approach, our project incorporates archival research and digital technologies to learn more about Menzies’ public and private self. Looking ahead, there is further scope for this project to be used as the basis of a detailed social network analysis. Personal libraries occupy an ambiguous position in traditional library and archival practice. The professional literature on the management and conservation of personal libraries is therefore limited. In disciplines such as history and literature, however, personal libraries have been used as sources of unique biographical evidence. We are not aware of a comparable project using digital technology to build a social and biographical profile of an individual, derived from their personal library. We hope the outcomes of this project will not be confined to the interests of Australian and political history. This new approach to understanding personal libraries will encourage others working in digital humanities to explore these unique collections held in a number of Australian academic and state libraries. Personal libraries offer great potential for digital applications in the humanities. In addition to network analyses, these collections provide opportunities for book digitisation and OCR technologies, as well as database design. This project will be of interest to librarians, archivists and curators, as well as researchers working in book history, digitisation, textual analysis and digital curation. It will also interest technologists, especially database designers and developers. The online resource resulting from this project, The Robert Menzies Collection: A Living Library, has been published as a work in progress: http://www.menziescollection.esrc.unimelb.edu.au.
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ItemEstablishing and fostering communities of practice( 2012)This paper reviews the foundation literature on communities of practice. It describes two communities of practice established at the University of Melbourne Library and the lessons learned in the development of these communities. It outlines plans for the future and strategies being used to make communities of practice self-supporting.
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ItemContext entity analysis: using public domain knowledge to build information infrastructure( 2012)The purpose of this paper is to surface in an explicit way the challenges of corporate self-knowledge. The emphasis is on how corporations, and the individuals that comprise them, provide public access to authoritative records and information that adequately explains who they are, what they do, how they function, and the ways important organisational narratives evolve through time. The paper reports on a case study completed by the University of Melbourne’s eScholarship Research Centre in December 2011, for a Division of a Victorian Government agency, Australia, the Department of Primary Industries (DPI). The study utilised a research and analytical methodology called Context Entity Analysis (CEA). CEA provides a means through which knowledge resources generated using narrative techniques, such as reports, journal articles, books, or websites can be utilised to create open complex networks of entities that more closely mirror the multiplicity of what actually happens, both within corporations and at the intersection between corporations and the citizenry.
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ItemLinking agricultural extension, decision support systems and context: implications for knowledge management practice( 2012)There exists a substantial knowledge management challenge for organisations with responsibilities to mediate public interests. This challenge relates to the means by which knowledge assets are managed to integrate a hierarchy of knowledge in a continuum from the micro-level (individual), group (institutional / organisational), formal (peer-authorised) to the macro-level of focus (societal norms). The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of a specific program – FarmPlan 21. FarmPlan21 was introduced within the Australian state of Victoria to promote the uptake of whole-farm planning practices. Through this initiative an objective has been to mediate private and public interests related to the integration of commercial and sustainable land management practices. The analysis of FarmPlan21 is presented through the lens of two different knowledge hierarchies – one for a farmer and one for an agricultural extension officer engaged within the Victorian Department of Primary Industries.
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ItemA tale of two libraries: the Melbourne/Griffith exchange program( 2011)This paper describes an exchange program between the libraries of The University of Melbourne and Griffith University. The paper covers the reasons behind the decision to arrange an exchange, the preparations, the actual exchange experience and the follow up. The advantages for professional and personal development and the value of bringing staff from two university libraries together in a co-operative program are also explained. The initial exchange involved a team of Senior Library Service Officers from The University of Melbourne, who participated in a five-day visit to Griffith University. Two team members were based at the Griffith University Gold Coast campus and the other member was at the South Bank (Brisbane) campus. This took place in August and September 2010 and was followed by a reciprocal visit to The University of Melbourne by a team from Griffith University. The main aims were for the team members to observe the functioning of another academic library, and to facilitate discussion and the interchange of ideas. Although Griffith University Library has a similar academic role to the author's home library, it was found that a number of influences helped to create distinctive characteristics at the two libraries. Influences include the location of the Griffith Gold Coast campus within a tourism region and The University of Melbourne Campus in an inner-city area. Climate also plays a part, as does the age of the two universities. Melbourne's traditional heritage and the more recently established Griffith campuses have contributed to the contrast in their layout and physical environment. A further distinction was Melbourne's research-based collection and Griffith's subject-based collection, which appear to be products of each university’s individual philosophy. This exchange program with Griffith University was an excellent opportunity for both professional and personal development. The skills and knowledge gained enabled the author to expand her vision for the future of the academic library and provided a variety of aspects that could be discussed with colleagues at her home library. To be able to speak face-to-face with the staff at Griffith and to observe the way in which another library functions were invaluable. It is an experience that can only be given the highest recommendation and it is suggested that further exchange programs between university libraries would be a worthwhile professional and personal development exercise.
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ItemCities, human well-being and the environment: conceiving national regulatory knowledge systems to facilitate resilient knowledge, knowledge based development and inter-generational knowing( 2010)In this paper, we discuss the idea of resilient knowledge and how the concept of knowledge-based development might be conceived as scientific discipline, and on what basis. Discussion is presented in two sections. In the first section we explore the idea of the epistemic loss of knowledge. We suggest this type of knowledge loss occurs where there is inadequate preservation of the knowledge necessary to explain the context, structure and meaning of information through time. We provide a brief overview of an emergent approach that could address this problem – an approach called contextual information management. In the second section, we document examples of how this new approach might be harnessed to create a framework for a (national) regulatory knowledge system. We draw upon one particular case study: the conception of quality standards within the Victorian Community Sector. By extrapolation, we suggest these ideas could well have wider applications – for example, the harmonisation of regulatory standards across State and Commonwealth areas of jurisdiction. By extension, it is suggested the focus of regulatory interventions should not be on compliance per se, but on creating a shared context between Government, stakeholders and citizens to support the dynamics of problem solving, knowledge acquisition and what we call evolutionary possibility.