Interested in Free Open Source Software in Libraries, but not sure what library-specific products are out there or where to begin? Have a bit of time to attend a free webinar? Then FOSS4Lib may be just what you are looking for …

In January, one of my favourite library technology bloggers, Peter Murray (who blogs as the Disruptive Library Technology Jester ) launched this brand new community site.

Peter describes the site like this:

The FOSS4Lib resource site for open source software in libraries was launched in January to help libraries decide IF and WHICH open source software is right for them in service to their patrons. Consultants specializing in library open source software created the FOSS4LIB self-guided readiness assessments to help libraries determine if open source software is right for them. The site also features a registry of software packages to help libraries find information about open source software service providers, events, and usage by peers.  Funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and supported LYRASIS Technology Services, FOSS4Lib is a community-run site where anyone with a valid e-mail address can register and update information about packages, service providers, events and software releases.

You can learn about FOSS4Lib at one of two introductory webinars timed to be convenient to Australian colleagues:

• April 18th from 10pm to 11pm Eastern U.S. Time (April 19 0200 to 0300 UTC)
• May 16th from 9pm to 10pm Eastern U.S. Time (May 17th 0100 to 0200 UTC)

Sign-up by e-mailing Peter.Murray@lyrasis.org and learn more at http://foss4lib.org/content/free-webinars-introducing-foss4lib

Thanks!

Trying to fill a position in your library or have an internship on offer? Need volunteers to help with a stocktake?

Image: photologue_np on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/44313045@N08/6290270129/

From the go-get we have welcomed job advertisements that would interest people who like to read about Australasian Libraryland.  To post one, just join up as a contributor by filling in our online contributor’s form . We will then approve you so that you can write drafts that we will then make live when you let us know they are ready.

Another great place to advertise job vacancies is the WAIN e-list. It stands for Western Australian Information Network, however material on it is of interest to people throughout Australia and one of its purposes is to “advertise positions that have become available”. To sign up, go to the WAIN Info Page .

A reminder: do not try to post to job advertisements to just any ALIA elist, even though you think the readership would match the vacancy or would like to share directly with a group of colleagues that you choose. This is against online communication guidelines , as it conflicts with a money-raising operation run by the association.  There is a separate  elist for job vacancies and – as cautioned through an email sent to members tonight – it is considered unfair to advertisers who pay for ALIA’s services. The relevant policy point is:

ALIA e-lists and social media are not to be used to advertise vacant positions. ALIA offers an online employment advertising service via ouremployment pages and the dedicated employment e-list (maintained by the National Office Publishing Team). Messages sent to e-lists which advertise vacant positions will be rejected, and the author contacted with details on how one can best utilise ALIA’s employment services to reach a wider range of candidates.

Here’s hoping that ALIA does not decide to take advertising from any library blogs, or Libraries Interact may cease being a topic that may be mentioned by members on their own elists ….

UPDATE: Thanks Kelly for this information:

Another place for posting vacancies is the South Australian Library and Information Network (SALIN) – http://www.salin.org.au/. Click on Join to subscribe to the elist

Sunday morning coffee and Lazy Sunday Afternoon,

For the bloggers from #blogjune

So what do librarians away from work do ?

Frances visits the Supreme Court ,

While Kelly runs for sport,

And Fiona has problems shooting through .

Tony is into stitchonomy,

Alisa audits her PLE,

While Janelle cools off at Long Beach.

Jo quilts up in the cold,

Corin celebrates being old

While Sally’s book club brings a dish each.

Kate explains blocking

Mysskitn shows us that pink hair is rocking

And Sophie explains why learning games are great form

Kate reminds us that Luton is not in London city

Tania explains how to choose a committee

While everyone else absolutely cooks up a storm.

Sunday’s blog posts explored the relationship between Sustainable Technology and privacy.

With influences as diverse as Audrey Hepburn , Patrick Lee Fermor and the Collingwood Historical Society, new tensions were crafted from ipods, travelling without a map and both explicit and implicit meanings.

Ever since the authors were teenagers they have been fascinated by Long Island Tea, Lebanese food, pies and the traditional understanding of the sulky human condition. What starts out as hope soon becomes corrupted into a tragedy of power, leaving only a sense of what could have been, a desire to achieve goals, use Google Reader and the chance of a new beginning.

As temporal phenomena became clarified through boundaried and critical practice, the reader was left with an impression that anything can happen if you let it and of the inaccuracies of our era.

The359. (2008). Operation: Truck Nuts - Successful. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/the359/2534292446/

This wonderful statement comes courtesy of Corin’s Sunday post about the Arty Bollocks Generator .

So – what was on the minds of our bloggers on Sunday 5 June? Study, work, going out, sex, tech and food. Sounds about right for a mob of librarians. (Not to let the side down, I made sure that there was at least one post about a cat in there ).

Study

Fiona asked for help with her very important Adelaide – research . She asks where she can find the best chocolate shops. Another Fiona was asleep at her books after completing an outstanding assignment . Sally submitted her final assignment for the semester. Alisa gave some tips about how to improve writing.  In an inspiration to those still studying, Steph described what it was like to finally receive her Masters of Information Architecture .

Work

Morgan told us why working for the ACCC was the most exciting job he had ever done. Michelle, answering her work email on a Sunday, wondered when one’s work was a job, when a profession and when it could be described as a calling.

Food, food and more food

I am not sure that it is strictly  legal to mention mouth-watering treats (even including photos!) without also adding in recipes, but some of our bloggers were definitely at it…there was pumpkin soup after a long walk , trail couscous salad and blueberry crumble slice,   gluten-free pizza ,  slow food and fast food, potato bake, a large variety of curries, portuguese tarts, bratwurst, sauerkraut and mashed potato , brains and chocolate goodness.

Getting out and about

Kim ran up some steep hills and visited the rellies .  Kelly and Karina did an Amazing-Race style scavenger hunt through Perth. Clare described her new opportunity to go out to music gigs . Debbie played Mahjong at Chris’ place. Rachel went out shopping. The other Rachel went out rock-climbing .

Sex

Sex was on our minds. Corin mused about sexuality and the continuum of attraction .   Julia and Tony observed that the safe sex campaign on Brisbane bus stops was probably beneficial rather than scandalous.

Tech

We were thinking about technology too, with Kat and Con using their mobile devices to compose their posts while snail confessed that his smart phone had replaced his beloved fob watch.

Keeping up with posting

Alethea, John and Sally all made an appearance -short, sweet and definitely counting as a “Blog every day of June” type of post.

Last year I asked which libraries were lending downloadable ebooks to their users.

During a workshop about ebooks today, a student asked me whether it is common for public libraries in Western Australia to lend out ebook readers, or to have some that they let the public use.

I knew of a few libraries, but it made me wonder how many libraries across Australia are doing this.

Is yours? Do you know of one?

If so, please share.  Add to the comments on this post:

• library name
• library type
• device(s)
• if staff only , users in library only or lent out.
• (Extra points if you give a URL with further info).

Thank you very much to everyone who entered our “make our library camp logo” competition.

Congratulations to the winner, Adrian Gould. He is now our first official attendee at Library Camp Australia.

He also wins our gratitude and a fabulously creatively crocheted Thingie from Kim Tairi.

We will open registrations for the event soon. To keep up to date with all things Library Camp Australian, watch our site, http://www.librarycampaustralia.com/

You can see the large version of his design here at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60468422@N04/5514487451 .

Here is a bigger version:

Are you a creative digital artist, photographer, icon maker, masher-upper or just a clever dabbler ? If so, use your talents for libraryland good.

SAVE THE DATE
Library Camp Australia 2011 is being held in Perth on 19 September 2011, 9am to 4pm at the State Library of Western Australia. This will be an unconference for anyone who works in, researches, uses or is interested in libraries, following the principles that session topics are set on the day and that everyone contributes in some way. It is being organised by volunteers and so far is being supported by our generous sponsors the State Library of Western Australia and Public Libraries Western Australia. We welcome further offers of support to help feed hungry library campers. Library Camp Australia COSTS NOTHING to attend. We only ask for enthusiasm and participation!

LOGO COMPETITION
We need a logo for Library Camp and would love you to make it. If your design is selected it will feature on the website, all publicity material and we will even be setting up a (profit-free) Cafe Press store so that people can buy t-shirts and mugs and other goodies. To show our appreciation, Kim Tairi, librarian and brilliant fibre artist, will make for you your very own crocheted copy of the library camp logo or a hand-crocheted librarian. You will also receive a guaranteed place at LibraryCamp for you or a friend and our never-ceasing adoration.

Here is an example of some of Kim’s gorgeous work.

Some of Kim's gorgeous work

The logo needs to be simple enough to work in black and white or colour and to be recognisable when it is a Twitter-friendly 48 pixel square. Since we would like to print it on tshirts, we will also need a high-resolution copy that is at least a 2000 pixel square. It does not have to have the words “LibraryCamp Australia 2011″ on it, but it can. It could incorporate the hashtag #libcampoz. It would need to be released under a Creative Commons- Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Australia licence .

To enter, upload your image to Flickr, tag it with libcampozlogo, then use the form at the Library Camp Australia website.
COMPETITION ENTRIES CLOSE ON FRIDAY 10 MARCH 2011 and will be announced on SATURDAY 19 MARCH 2011 on the LibraryCamp Australia 2011 website

Any questions about the competition or the unconference, please contact Kathryn Greenhill (k.greenhill@curtin.edu.au) or Hoi Ng (HNg@vicpark.wa.gov.au ) or Matthias Liffers (m.liffers@murdoch.edu.au)

Want to help unorganise the National Library Camp to be held in Perth on Monday 19 September 2011, immediately after the Library Technicians Conference and the New Librarians’ Symposium? Volunteers from all over Australia are welcome – and being on the unorganising group will guarantee you a spot on the day.

This will be an unconference for anyone who works in, researches, uses or is interested in libraries, following the principles that session topics are set on the day and that everyone contributes in some way.

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People with organisational flair, marketing experience, enthusiasm, vision for librarianship, design experience, a pulse, new to libraries, experience dealing with sponsors, planning unconferences, or project management experience are very welcome.

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A bunch of us are meeting at X-Wray Cafe in Fremantle at 2:30pm on Saturday 22 January to talk about the preliminary details and would love to have more peoples’ input. (Apologies for the short notice).

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We hope to involve people from interstate to make this a truly NATIONAL event, so are planning a meetup at the Information Online Conference in Sydney. Please let us know if you are interested in being involved in this. Kate Freedman ( kate.freedman@iinet.net.au ) is our Eastern States contact.

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We are also after suggestions for organisations open to providing sponsorship or a hosting venue. The ideal space would involve:
1. Space for at least 100 people. Ideally one large room with several smaller connected breakout rooms. Space for 200 people a plus.
2. Tea/coffee facilities
3. Free, reliable wifi a plus
4. Computer training lab and presentation facilities a plus
5. Central location – CBD or no more than 10 minutes walk from a train station close to Perth

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If you want to join in or just keep an eye on what we are chatting about as we plan this, please join the google group: http://groups.google.com/group/unconfwalib .

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For more information, please see the wiki from the 2010 Perth Library Camp for information about what we did last year: http://www.librarycampperth.com/ or contact Kathryn Greenhill (k.greenhill@curtin.edu.au) or Hoi Ng ( HNg@vicpark.wa.gov.au ) or Matthias Liffers (m.liffers@murdoch.edu.au) .

I enjoyed watching everyone flex their bloggy muscles during June, but maybe we need another exercise to keep up the impetus. I’m being selfish here – I want to read more Australian library blog posts… And maybe some people who did not join in in June could test the waters?

Bobbi Newman from the Librarian by Day blog has been behind the “Day in the Life of A Librarian” project for the last couple of years. Every six months an ever-growing group of librarians is recording what happens during the same week. Here are the instructions from her blog post, Round 5 of Library Day in the Life!.

The only suggestion I would make is that as well as joining the wiki, we could tag all our posts “ozlibdayinthelife5” . UPDATE 26 JULY 2010. The generic tag is “libday5” , so let’s go for “ozlibday5” instead.

So, who’s in?

July 26th 2010 will start Round 5 of Library Day in the Life Project.

What is the Library Day in the Life Project? well it started with this post suggesting that we blog what we do all day at work.  Libraries are changing so rapidly and we all know no ones is reading books, despite what the public may think  The idea being that you’re sharing an average day, so many of us don’t have an average day though so a lot of people did a week, me included. I maybe just do a day this time though, we’ll see.

If you are wondering why you should participate Meredith Farkas offers an excellent explanation of why she did. The Project has turned into a great resource for students, instructors, staff and patrons.

So how you particpate?

• Go to the wiki
• Create a PB Wiki (pbworks?) account (it’s free)!
• Add your name, your job title (so we can see what you do at a glance) and a link to your blog.
• On the 27th start recording your day or week.  It doesn’t have to be a blog post it can be photos, podcasts or videos
• Tag your posts, pictures, videos, podcasts with librarydayinthelife.
• After you’ve finished your first day come go back to the wiki and edit your link to link directly to your tagged blog posts, videos or photos.

Of course read along!