interesting article in the Guardian about a guy doing a PHD on Second Life. Snippet below…..
Real life crashes into Second Life’s digital idyll

Aleks Krotoski
Thursday November 30, 2006

It was three weeks ago that my virtual world disintegrated. I had been struggling with a digital littering problem in my Social Simulation Research Lab and I wanted to automate the cleanup process. As the home of my PhD research is the virtual world of Second Life, I need to ensure that my online space looks professional and tidy so any potential participants who visit will instantly recognise my good intentions. I’d spent days lining up little planks of wood, straightening out the interactive books on the shelves and placing the windows just so. All that I needed to do, I was assured, was flick a little switch and foreign objects would be removed. I flicked. Then everything disappeared…….

public library closures in the UK that is. As I understand, despite parliamentary select committees and numerous initiatives, costs of the library service keep rising, while book stocks are decreasing and the public are becoming disenchanted with their public libraries, and the result has been lots of library closures. This article in the Times last week said the age of the public library is over…and Tim Coates of the Good Library Blog and a report a couple of years ago on what was wrong with public library management puts the blame of library management and professional librarians. Is there anyone doing any research on this situation?

meeting at RMIT Wednesday OCT 25th, sponsored by the ALIA research commitee

Fascinating meeting tonight at RMIT about doing a doctorate, sponsored by the ALIA Research committee with Professor Ross Harvey, Charles Sturt University, Dr Bonna Jones, RMIT University,and Dr Peter Macauley, Manager, Faculty of Education Library Services & Waterfront Campus Library Deakin University.

The title, “A new challenge or a must have?” was very apt in light of the credential creep currently overtaking the LIS world, but the main thing I took away from the evening was the enthusiasm of the presenters for the PHD process and the satisfactions to be had when all the hard work results in a PHD. Dr Macauley of Deakin spoke convincingly of the joys of becoming a knowledge producer rather than a knowledge consumer, and the ensuing ability to influence colleagues and make a difference based on your own research.

Dr Harvey from CSU spoke of the nuts and bolts of entry requirements, money matters and research topics now being undertaken by current PHd candidates, and the field was surprisingly wide, with Information Seeking Behaviour and Information Literacy the latest bestsellers. It is possible to do the doctorate in other academic departments other than the LIS area, depending on the supervisors available in the subject you wish to investigate. A coursework Masters isnt enough of itself to guarantee admission to the PHD, there needs to be some evidence of research ability, for example acting as a researcher or a record of publication, but as Dr Macauley noted “You dont have to be the sharpest tool in the shed, guts determination and resilience will take you a long way”

Dr Bonna Jones spoke vividly her own journey on the path to the PHD, with some valuable anecdotes about time management, how to get back on track when you have wandered from your schedule (get back into your reading, disagree and take notes!) and the wisdom of letting a problem sit and resolve itself..as well as taking adequate holidays and setting deadlines. Practise your pitch, take the opportunity to explain your thesis in 2 minutes whenever anyone asks and don’t worry if it keeps changing! How to choose a supervisor and all the questions you should ask were explained, with a final proviso that a little research before you begin can help your potential supervisor advise you more tellingly. University websites and Research Offices as well as past students and the Jason database of scholarships available for doctoral research could all be consulted. An excellent resource for prospective students in the PHD is also “Doctorates Downunder: Keys to successful doctoral study in Australia and New Zealand” by Carey Denholm and Terry Evans, Acer Press 2006

This is a brief overview of the evening, there were many more details covered than I have listed here, but all three presenters are very willing to answer questions and may be contacted :

Dr Ross Harvey Charles Sturt University
rossharvey@csu.edu.au

Dr Bonna Jones RMIT
bonna.jones@rmit.edu.au

Dr Peter Macauley Deakin University
peter.macauley@deakin.edu.au
(and is happy to provide his notes via Powerpoint)

Very interesting meeting on Wednesday about RFID. Susan Gately from Hobsons Bay Libraries spoke about the implementation of RFID at Altona Meadows, then Eoin Geaney from 3M gave some facts and figures about the different needs academic, special, public and school libraries have for RFID and a bit of technical discussion then finally Alan Butters of Sybis gave some pointers for the kind of process that should take place before you pick up the phone to place an order with “Vendor”The implementation of RFID at Altona Meadows has been a huge success, thirty percent of loans are now handled with the self serve machine, freeing staff to devote quality time to more patrons. The machines are big hit with the children, and more generally because RFID wasn’t sold as a cost cutting measure, rather with all the excitement that cutting edge technology can invoke, particularly in the Western suburbs of Melbourne where less resources have traditionally been devoted.

Some of the libraries in Australia already implementing RFID are
Gold Coast City
Altona Meadows (first in Victoria!)
Swansea Public Library
High Court of Australia
West Ryde Library
Marrickville Public Library
Redcliffe Library
Medical Library of Canberra Hospital
Belmont Public Library
Brisbane City Council at Wynnum
Commonwealth Parliamentary Library
University of Technology Sydney

and an interesting fact: it takes 2 people to process 260-350 items an hour when first programming the tags, and at Altona Meadows, just as a by the way comment, volunteers aged from 70 to 75 had no difficulties at all with the process:) and incidentally helped the library achieve tagging the inventory in a record three weeks!

Alan Butters from Sybis went through some of the questions to ask when considering RFID in your library, such as
Why?
What do we expect?
What will a successful outcome look like?
How will we know if we are successful? What are the critical success factors for our library?

and a useful tip to kickstart the research process: don’t pick up the phone to a vendor before you have read the literature on RFID available on websites and in general circulation…vendors are all different as are systems, and a preliminary stroll through the options can be a big help before you begin. Alan’s presentation on workshopping the RFID decision process is available via email and Alan can be contacted at
alan @sybis.com.au

Finally about 12 members of the audience, the speakers and the VALA commitee wandered down to University House for convivial dinner and drinks at a very reasonable price… I had the cherry tomato, prosciutto and roast chicken risotto (chef’s special!) and was thrilled to spot Barry Jones of the Labour Party and quiz participant extraordinaire at a table across the way…at first I thought it was Bob Ellis but I wasn’t wearing my glasses so may be excused this minor error. Many thanks to the committee, the speakers and fellow audience members for some amusing conversation on a bitterly cold melbourne midwinter wednesday evening. Glad I ventured out!