Full report - State Library of Victoria - Victoria Online

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The Hon. John Cain and
Dr Varaprasad, CEO of the
National Library Board
of Singapore, signing a
memorandum of understanding
between Singapore and the
Library Board of Victoria.
In the back row are
Anne-Marie Schwirtlich;
Michael Nation, Manager
Executive Offi ce, Arts Victoria;
and Dennis Carmody, Deputy
Director Agencies and
Infrastructure, Arts Victoria
Identifying
Opportunities
t
for Collaboration
National and International Collaborations
In March 2007 the memorandum of understanding
between the National Library Board of Singapore
and the Library Board of Victoria was renewed,
with the purpose of strengthening the relationship
between the two libraries. Much progress has
been achieved over the past 12 months, with both
libraries contributing signifi cantly across all
components of the memorandum. In particular
the two libraries have actively shared knowledge
and information through a number of staff
attachments working in areas such as lifelong
learning, newspaper digitisation, document
delivery, website development and service models.
In addition, the Library participated in an
international benchmarking exercise managed
by Singapore to compare customer-satisfaction
survey methodologies (including data collection
and analysis). Both libraries have fully supported
the memorandum through a range of crosspromotional
marketing activities.
During the past year the Library has hosted
several international delegations, including
more than 30 cultural delegates from the Chinese
Province of Guangdong; visits from peak bodies
such as the Museums, Libraries and Archives
Council (United Kingdom); and delegations from
the national libraries of Singapore, New Zealand
and Korea. The State Library of Victoria has
welcomed opportunities to further consolidate
its long-standing relationship with the Nanjing
Public Library through a proposal to host
a staff exchange in the coming year.
We have continued to partner and
support long-term research and development
projects. Collaborative projects conducted by
the higher education sector, under the auspices
of the Australian Research Council, include
Cultural Collections, Creators & Copyright,
Australian Information Seekers and the Social
Consequences of Information Policy, and the
Dictionary of Australian Artists Online. The
Library has also pledged to provide research
support over the next three years to Monash
University’s Centre for Australian Indigenous
Studies. The centre’s Aboriginal Visual Histories
in the State Library of Victoria: Photographing
Indigenous Australian project, will produce a
systematic and comprehensive social history
which incorporates Indigenous perspectives
and appropriate cultural protocols. During the
past 12 months the Library has been one of 41
organisations working with the Australian Bureau
of Statistics‘ National Centre for Culture and
Recreation Statistics, under the direction of the
Cultural Ministers Council, to develop a standard
national methodology for reporting core data
elements that are relevant to museums, art
galleries, libraries and archives.
National and international conferences
supported by the Library during the year included:
the fourth biennial Open Road Conference,
which provided a forum for more than
100 delegates to debate and discuss
multilingualism and the information society
the Australian Library and Information
Association’s National Library and
Information Technicians conference, which
attracted more than 460 delegates
the 14th biennial VALA – Libraries,
Technology and the Future Conference,
which enabled more than 1000 delegates
to hear speakers from Australia, Canada,
South Africa, Singapore, the UK and the
USA speaking on new and emerging
developments in libraries
Digital Forums, presented in association
with the Australian Library and
Information Association
a copyright training seminar presented
by the Australian Libraries Copyright
Committee, attended by more than 100 staff
from all library sectors in Victoria, as well
as other cultural agencies and government
departments. (The popularity of this
seminar has ensured that this has become
an annual event; the Library is grateful
for the University of Melbourne Library’s
co-sponsorship.)
Strengthening
Corporate
Capability
The Library’s implementation of the Human
Resources Strategy continued in 2007–08,
with signifi cant improvements in organisational
performance.
No time was lost as a result of industrial disputes
during the year. The Library has continued to
meet regularly with the representatives of the
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) to
consult on a range of issues affecting employees,
including the implementation of the Voluntary
Departure Program, which resulted in a net
reduction of approximately fi ve per cent
of the workforce.
The Library’s employee reward and
recognition scheme continued, providing formal
recognition of employees for their length of
service to the Library, for signifi cant contribution
to the improvement of their role, to their work
team or division, or to the Library.
The corporate training program also
continued during the year. The program included
courses in Team Leadership, Recruitment and
Selection, Winning That Job, Conflict Management,
Employee Induction, Employee Performance and
Appraisal, and Dealing Personally with Change.
A number of employee-development
initiatives continued or began as part of the
Library’s commitment to the organisational
capability initiative contained in slv21. An ongoing
program of learning forums continued for the
management team, allowing focused discussions
on a variety of topics dealing with leadership
challenges. The program combined presentations
from external speakers with subject-specific
workshops. The Shared Leadership program,
which focuses on the development needs for
middle managers, was ongoing and will become
a regular part of the Library’s leadership
program. The first two modules of a learning
and development program for all staff, called
connect@slv, were introduced in 2007–08. The
program extends the concepts of the Shared
Leadership program to all staff and will be
extended to embrace team learning concepts
during 2008–09.
In line with slv21, the Access and Information
Division has focused on supporting its staff
through an expanded training and development
program. The program has covered team
leadership, new communication technologies
and customer service.
The results of the People Matter survey,
a public-sector review of organisational
performance, conducted by the State Services
Authority, continued to show that staff satisfaction
is growing with the Library’s organisational
policies and practices. The survey gauges
performance against the SSA’s Employment Values
and Employment Principles; results showed that
the Library’s performance had improved in almost
all of the measures surveyed, with no signifi cant
decline in the remainder.
There were no changes in the composition
or structure of the Library’s Executive during
the year.
Staff Fellowship Program
The Staff Fellowship Program was continued
in 2007–08, allowing selected staff to conduct
various research projects associated with and
using the Library’s collections.
Four fellowships were awarded:
Peter McGrath
Technology Services Division, for a three-month
project titled ‘Oral History Recordings’, involving
compilation and verifi cation of known information;
establishment of evaluation criteria for
prioritisation for digitisation; in-house digitisation
feasibility study; and active audio capture
feasibility study.
Jane Rhodes
Events and Exhibitions Division, to undertake
a three-month project titled ‘At Your Service:
Shopping in the City’, to undertake curatorial
research on a prospective public exhibition of
the Library’s collections, celebrating Victoria’s
long history and fascination with shopping
through the display of a range of collection
and loaned items.
Walter Struve
Access and Information Division, to undertake
a one-month project using the State Library’s
Kurt Offenburg Memorial Collection to provide
important context for Kurt Offenburg’s informed
and forthright ABC radio broadcasts on world
affairs in the years 1936 to 1946.
Zoë Velonis
Access and Information Division, to undertake
a three-month project titled ‘Serials Family Tree’,
which will investigate ways of harvesting data
from serials catalogue records to generate
a graphical representation, similar to a
genealogical chart or family tree, showing title
changes, mergers, splits and related titles.