Sutherland Shire Libraries Staff News

What are you reading?

What are you reading?

Today is a very important day. Not only is it the first day of spring, but the "Get Reading!" campaign for 2011 has just kicked off, it started on 29th August and runs until 30th September. Today is also the soft launch of the National Year of Reading, 2012. Most importantly, today's the day that we at Sutherland Libraries kick off a campaign of our own, "What are you reading? to tell the world what our library staff are reading. Who better to set an example of reading than a library service staffed by book worms? To get everyone involved, staff will be interviewed individually, being asked these three thought provoking questions:

What you are reading? What do you like (and dislike) about it? What’s your favourite book of all time?

The answers will be posted each week on Facebook, starting in September. There are 70 weeks and approximately 74 staff, so, don’t worry, no-one needs to miss out.

How do you know when to expect your fifteen seconds of reading fame? That’s easy. Are you celebrating your birthday soon? If so, expect a phone call with best wishes for your birthday and the chance to help celebrate the National Year of Reading at the same time.

Remember, reading is not just books. It includes everything from newspapers and magazines, to recipes, blogs, tweets, online articles and textbooks. Your post can either remain anonymous or you can let the world know who you are and what you are reading.

New titles in the Hot Topics series

Available in lending and reference at all libraries.

Employment and the law (76)
Employment brings us into a relationship over which, for many employees, there is little control, particularly young people entering the workforce for the first time. This issue examines the area of employment law since the Fair Work legislation, and looks at the responsibilities of the national and state systems. Areas covered include getting a job, entitlements, work arrangements, discrimination, bullying, health and safety and leaving work.

Refugees (77)
Australia is a signatory to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. This issue looks at who is defined as a 'refugee', their legal status, and Australia's obligations under international law. Included are statistics and the case of children in immigration detention.

Ref Rap

Australian Human Rights Law
Bib. 390640
Call Number. R341.48BAG
Location : Reference Library at Sutherland

Australia does not have a federal charter or bill of rights, which has led people to believe that perhaps our rights are not as protected as they are in those countries that do. In fact, we enjoy extensive rights and freedoms that are protected under various statutes and laws. Because there is not just one body to refer to it may be difficult to find the correct legislation. This book addresses this issue and includes within information drawn from many different areas of Australian law. It deals with the different Human Rights we enjoy; such as ‘the right to life’, ‘freedom of religion’ and (very topical at the moment) ‘Protection from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’. This book provides plain English explanations and case examples and is written by three authors that have extensive knowledge and experience of these laws in Australia.

If you are looking for something at your branch on this topic – try
“Hot Topic No. 65 Human Rights” Bib. 334796.
Current human rights issues such counter terrorism laws, indigenous Australians, refugees, mandatory detention and homelessness. Discusses human rights in an international and domestic context. Contains the full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Also don’t forget “Find Legal Answers” website.

Upcoming Library Workshop

I received this invitation via email.  Thought I would pass it on in case anyone is interested and wants to make a case to go...

• Applying collaborative technologies: Twitter, Facebook, blogs, social bookmaking, RSS and content
• Possible service impact of ebooks, cloud computing and the mobile web
• New trends in opening up the library – open source, open data, open access
• Social media, Web 2.0 and libraries

The upcoming Revolutionising Libraries study group will explore some of these concepts further. For more details please visit the links below or contact Ark Group Australia on aga@arkgroupasia.com or call +611300 550 662

Revolutionising Libraries
Using practiced and emerging new media to maximise your information centre


One-day interactive study group
31 October 2011
Rydges World Square
Sydney

Libraries and corporate information centres are experiencing a revolution in the way information is delivered, accessed, obtained and stored.

With the emergence of tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, wikis, LinkedIn, virtual worlds and RSS feeds, it is now necessary to offer a more customer-driven, socially rich and collaborative model of service and content delivery online and in our buildings.

In order to stay relevant and respond accordingly to the changing needs of users, libraries and corporate information centres need to choose the right tools from the vast array of options available and seek practical methods to implement these processes within their organisations.

The future of e-readers

Earlier this year we presented two sessions on e-readers. I came away wondering if dedicated e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader were about to be marginalised by the slew of tablet computers coming to market.

Although the true believers know that in most cases reading on a Kindle or a Sony Reader is more satisfying than reading on say an iPad, many of us would be willing to forego the Kindle in favour of the iPad or other tablet because the tablet is more versatile and it has a colour screen.

The popularity of the iPad as an e-reader has not escaped e-book publishers and providers. 40,000 classic titles from the collections of the are about to be made available for the iPad by the British Library, reports the BBC.
These will not be plain text but will be be digital copies of the original works, complete with illustrations and page numbers.
And this is just the start. The Library has a deal with Google to digitise 250,000 titles.

So will deals like this help to kill the dedicated e-reader? Well no. At least not yet because the sale of dedicated e-readers continues to climb. And a major hurdle, the lack of colour, may soon be resolved. Fujitsu just demonstrated what looks like a very advanced – but usable – prototype of an color e-Paper based e-Reader.

The Internet Archive. www.archive.org

The value of digitising existing library collections was brought home to me recently when I went looking for a special 1919 issue of the quarterly journal Art in Australia. Printed copies are held in some Uni and State libraries so access is possible if not exactly easy. Further searching led me to a digitised copy at the Internet Archive which I was able to download. The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. They work with partner institutions and organisations world wide. Check them out.

Document Delivery just Ducky

Don't doubt the library wide Document Delivery/Interlibrary loan team can still deliver d goods.

Melissa enjoyed her time in Reference. So the DD team wouldn't miss her too much, DD Duck has taken his place on the trolley.