With our usual love of trying new things we have started playing with paper.li which creates a daily ‘newspaper’ view of tweets.
Not only does it gather the tweets but also features the media and content to which they link.

Paper.li is in alpha release at present. Check out the widget in our sidebar and click through to see the paper.

This one is based on the libsinteract twitter account and the accounts that it follows, but other ‘papers’ can be set up to prepare a roundup based on a hashtag.

Please take a look and tell us what you think.

Paul Hagon wowed us at VALA2010 with his presentation on his experiments with images in the National Library’s collection.

Find out some of his other intriguing ideas in this interview by Michael Stephens at ALA Tech Source. Paul discusses the use of location data and mobile applications.

Mash Ups & Mobiles: A Conversation with Paul Hagon by Michael Stephens on May 4, 2010

History Magazine has a ‘reprint’ of a 2001 article on the history of libraries online which is worth a read if you need to refresh your memories on the long and mostly illustrious timeline of libraries. It’s been years since I seriously read anything about the history of libaries and I found a few interesting details in this article. Two of which:

• “Libraries were typically open during standard business hours – sunrise to midday” in Roman times
• Benedict’s rule for the monastery — “Between Easter and the calends of October let them apply themselves to reading from the fourth hour until the sixth hour . . . From the calends of October to the beginning of Lent, let them apply themselves to reading until the second hour. During Lent, let them apply themselves to reading from morning until the end of the third hour, and in these days of Lent, let them receive a book apiece from the library and read it straight through. These books are to be given out at the beginning of Lent.”

Barbara Krasner-Khait. Survivor: The History of the Library History Magazine. (http://www.history-magazine.com/libraries.html)

IzRock’s Joseph (I think that’s his identity) and his mate Rene travel from Sydney to Canberra to visit the National Library of Australia to deposit zines and art books.

Their minds are boggled by the size and scope of the NLA’s archiving activities.

Check out the photo essay.

ALIA has aligned itself with Google, Inspire Foundation and Yahoo to present a statement on Internet filtering.
You can read Core Principles for Effective Action for a Safer Internet on the ALIA site.

As one tweeter put it…
@katiedatwork
smart partnering and a strong stance: http://www.alia.org.au/internetfiltering/ seriously impressed, @ALIANational.

VALA 2010 coverage continues on Day 3.

Live coverage of VALA2010 continues here…

Libraries Interact writers and friends will be covering VALA 2010 using CoveritLive. Prior to the main event, is the OCLC mashathon. A few of us are attending and our tweets and comments can be viewed here, so you can follow along as we discover a variety of OCLC-provided APIs, including the WorldCat Search API, led by Roy Tennant. Each day of VALA2010 will have a new post here at Libraries Interact. If you are attending VALA2010 and would like to contribute your tweets to the coverage – leave a comment here or send dm to @petahopkins.

Have your say to help shape Australia’s cultural future. The Commonwealth Government has established a web forum to gather our ideas for the development of a national cultural policy.

A discussion framework is available on the site as well as a transcript of Peter Garrett MP’s address to the National Press Club, in which he identified three key themes.

1. Keeping culture strong
2. Engaging the community
3. Powering the young

The discussion framework develops expands on these themes.

There are currently three questions on the forum and comments are already accumulating. They are about priorities for a policy, positive steps to advance Australian culture and an open-ended question about other important issues.

There are some great comments already on the site. Including one from Flying Pigeon who takes issue with the theme 3, says “I am young” and argues that it is “dangerous to the collective cultural development to single out a group for attention or benefit based on age”.

Other comments are quite detailed enumerating specific items to be included, and Hayley and Pinknantucket draw attention to libraries, archives and museums in theirs.

How about spreading the news with your library users, and encouraging and assisting those who are less web savvy to contribute to this discussion.

The consultation is not just limited to the web forum. Formal submissions can also be made. Check the site for details.

National Cultural Policy

And for our visual pleasure, this shot of the Mitchell Library, just one of many great cultural institutions in Australia.

Mitchell Library, Sydney (#24). Image by Christopher Chan. Used under CC license. Some rights reserved

And here are some “powered young” enjoying their culture, National Simultaneous Story Time at another great cultural institution, Mosman Library.

Storytime. Image by Mosman Library. Used here under a CC license. Some rights reserved.

In September a program of regional meetings for ALIA members was conducted to gather members’ input to guide the professional organisation.

The consultation focussed on lobbying and advocacy, local issues and reviewing outcomes of the 2008 topic – professional development.

The reports from the regional meetings are now available on the ALIA website.

Just a few interesting ideas that emerged ….

from Canberra & Brisbane meetings – an advocacy kit for all members, including statistics, quotes, fact sheets to promote the profession
from Gawler – a column or issue in Incite showcasing members who are doing a great job in advocacy or lobbying
from Hobart – the creation of an ALIA lobbying group
from Perth – change all membership fees to a low flat rate
from Darwin – more focus on the “I” in ALIA