Returning to Ithaca to get on with the mission: defining value in terms of our contribution to our customers and our profession.

Returning to Ithaca to get on with the mission: defining value in terms of our contribution to our customers and our profession. Keynote speech keynote speechn.See keynote address.Noun 1. keynote speech - a speech setting forth the keynotekeynote addresskeynote - the principal theme in a speech or literary work delivered at An information odyssey ... a long andeventful journey. 11th ALIA National Library Technicians ConferenceHobart 21-24 August 2001. The author explores the conference theme An information odyssey ...a long and eventful journey within the context of Odysseus'wanderings, using them as a metaphor for the library professionreturning to fundamental customer-centric issues. He presents recentinformation on library use, technology in libraries, the quantifiablevalue of library services, and participation in professional activities. The key points are: the justification for professional behaviour isthe value provided to customers, and the mark of professionalism is thesupport professionals provide for each other. ********** TODAY, THE MISSION -- THE LIBRARY PROFESSION. OUR CHARGE. The placewe choose to place our energy. It's a great conference theme: an information odyssey ... along and eventful journey. Since we are all so much like the star of the Odyssey, Odysseus --wise, curious, resilient, shrewd, brave, eloquent, resourceful re��source��ful?adj.Able to act effectively or imaginatively, especially in difficult situations.re��sourceful��ly adv. andcourageous, we too can be tempted to wander around in strange places andforeign lands. But because we're information professionals, sooneror later we realise we must return to our Ithaca, and recover ourmetaphorical home and kingdom. Ultimately, the justification for our professional behaviour is thevalue we provide for our customers, and the mark of our professionalismis the support we provide for each other. But let's consider Odysseus' journey first. What did hedo, and what can we learn from his travels? If you're like me, you might appreciate a refresher ...Here's the condensed con��dense?v. con��densed, con��dens��ing, con��dens��esv.tr.1. To reduce the volume or compass of.2. To make more concise; abridge or shorten.3. Physicsa. version. Background to the Odyssey Odysseus was the son of King Laertes of Ithaca, husband ofPenelope. Soon after his son Telemachus was born, Odysseus joined theexpedition to Troy to rescue Helen, wife of King Menelaus, from theTrojan prince Paris. In the tenth year of the Trojan War Trojan War,in Greek mythology, war between the Greeks and the people of Troy. The strife began after the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. When Menelaus demanded her return, the Trojans refused. , the Greek fleet sailed away,leaving a colossal wooden horse behind. The Trojans, thinking it a gift,took it within the walls of Troy. That night Greek soldiers under thecommand of Odysseus emerged from the horse and opened the city gates tothe Greek army. Troy was destroyed. Then it was time for Odysseus andthe other Greeks to return to their kingdoms across the sea. Now Homer helps Odysseus account for his adventures. `My name is Odysseus of Ithaca, and here is my tale since setting out from Troy. We sacked a city first off, but then reinforcements arrived and we lost many comrades. Next we visited the Lotus Eaters, and three of my crew tasted this strange plant. They lost all desire to return home and had to be carried off by force. On another island we investigated a cave full of goat pens. The herdsman turned out to be enormous, with a single glaring eye in his forehead. This Cyclops promptly ate two of my men for dinner. We were trapped in the cave by a boulder in the doorway that only the Cyclops could budge, so we couldn't kill him while he slept. Instead we sharpened a pole and used it to gouge out his eye. We escaped his groping by clinging to the undersides of his goats. `Next we met the Keeper of the Winds, who sent us on our way with a steady breeze. He'd given me a leather bag, which my crew mistook for booty. They opened it and released a hurricane that blew us back to where we'd started. We ended up among the Laestrygonians, giants who bombarded our fleet with boulders and gobbled down our shipmates. The few survivors put in at the island of the enchantress Circe. My men were entertained by her and then, with a wave of her wand, turned into swine. Hermes gave me a herb that protected me, and Circe told me that to get home I must travel to the land of Death to consult the blind prophet Tiresias. `I travelled to the land to which all journey when they die, at the furthest edge of Ocean's stream. In the underworld I held all the other shades at bay with my sword until Tiresias had drunk from the sacrificial lamb's blood. He gave me warnings about my journey home and told me what I must do to appease my enemy the god Poseidon, angry because I blinded his son the Cyclops. `At sea once more we had to pass the Sirens, whose sweet singing lures sailors to their doom. I had stopped up the ears of my crew with wax, and I alone listened while lashed to the mast, powerless to steer toward shipwreck. Next we encountered Charybdis, who swallows the sea in a whirlpool, then spits it up again. Avoiding this we skirted the cliff where Scylla exacts her toll. Each of her six slavering maws grabbed a sailor and wolfed him down. Finally we were becalmed on the island of the Sun. My men disregarded all warnings and sacrificed his cattle, so back at sea Zeus sent a thunderbolt that smashed the ship. I alone survived, washing up on the island of Calypso. I was there for seven years before Zeus commanded her to release me. Even then I was still in trouble, because Poseidon wrecked my boat. Luckily I was able to swim to your island.' When Odysseus has finished his tale, King Alcinous orders him spedto Ithaca. The sailors put him down on the beach asleep. Athena wakeshim, warns him of the situation at his home -- his mansion is infested in��fest?tr.v. in��fest��ed, in��fest��ing, in��fests1. To inhabit or overrun in numbers or quantities large enough to be harmful, threatening, or obnoxious: with suitors for the hand of his wife Penelope -- disguises him as anold man, and instructs him to find his faithful swineherd, Eumaeus. Eumaeus welcomes the bedraggled stranger and, observing Zeus'scommandment com��mand��ment?n.1. A command; an edict.2. Bible One of the Ten Commandments.commandmentNouna divine command, esp. to be kind to guests, slaughters a prime boar, and serves itwith bread and wine. Odysseus, true to his fame as a smooth-talkingschemer, makes up an elaborate story of his origins. That night the herosleeps by the fire under the swineherd's spare cloak, while Eumaeushimself sleeps outside in the rain with his herd. Athena summons Telemachus home. He evades the suitors' ambush (language) AMBUSH - A language for linear programming problems in a materials processing and transportation network.["AMBUSH - An Advanced Model Builder for Linear Programming", T.R. White et al, National Petroleum Refiners Assoc Comp Conf (Nov 1971)]. ,and following Athena's instructions, proceeds to the farmstead ofEumaeus. There Telemachus makes the acquaintance of the tattered tat��tered?adj.1. Torn into shreds; ragged.2. Having ragged clothes; dressed in tatters.3. a. Shabby or dilapidated.b. Disordered or disrupted. guestand sends Eumaeus to his mother with news of her son's safe return.Athena briefly restores Odysseus' normal appearance, father and sonare re-united, and they plot the suitors' doom. Disguised once more as an old beggar BEGGAR. One who obtains his livelihood by asking alms. The laws of several of the states punish begging as an offence. , Odysseus journeys to hishome. At Athena's urging Odysseus begs food from the suitors, buthe is abused. He breaks one man's jaw in a fight, and another,Antinous, strikes him with a footstool. This makes the other suitorsnervous, for sometimes the gods masquerade as mortals to test theirrighteousness. Penelope takes kindly to the stranger, who has not yet revealed hisidentity, and orders her maid Eurycleia to bathe his feet and anoint a��noint?tr.v. a��noint��ed, a��noint��ing, a��noints1. To apply oil, ointment, or a similar substance to.2. To put oil on during a religious ceremony as a sign of sanctification or consecration.3. them with oil. Eurycleia, who was Odysseus' nurse when he was achild, notices a scar above the hero's knee, and recognizes hermaster. Odysseus silences her lest she give away his plot prematurely. Penelope now appears before the suitors. She carries a stout bowleft behind by Odysseus when he sailed for Troy. `Whoever strings thisbow,' she says, `and sends an arrow straight through the sockets oftwelve axe heads lined in a row -- that man will I marry.' None of the suitors is strong enough to bend the bow to string it.Odysseus asks if he might try, and though the suitors refuse, Telemachusagrees. As easily as a bard fitting a new string to his lyre lyre,generic term for stringed musical instruments having a sound box from which project curved arms joined by a crossbar. The strings are stretched between the crossbar and the sound box and are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum. , Odysseusstrings the bow and sends an arrow through the axe heads. Telemachusarms himself, joins his father and with Athena's help they manageto kill all the suitors and unfaithful servants. The mansion is purged with fire and brimstone fire and brimstonen.1. The punishment of hell.2. Homiletic rhetoric describing or warning of the punishment of hell.Noun 1. . Penelope stillwon't accept that it's truly her husband without some secretsign. She tells a servant to make up his bed in the hall. `Who had thecraft to move my bed?' storms Odysseus. `I carved the bedpostmyself from the living trunk of an olive tree and built the bedroomaround it.' Penelope rushes into his arms. The next morning Odysseus goes to the vineyard where his father,old King Laertes, labours like a peasant. Meanwhile, the kin of thesuitors have gathered at the assembly ground, ready for revenge.Odysseus, Laertes and Telemachus meet the challenge. However, Athenastops the fighting and tells the contending parties to live together inpeace down through the years to come. (1) What are the lessons? * Things may not be as they appear. Not realising this can get youinto a lot of trouble (ask the Trojans). * Achieving important objectives can be quite difficult. It maytake a long time. You may need luck and the help of others. You may needexternal intervention, and possibly even divine intervention. Expectmany setbacks. * Not everyone who starts a journey completes it. Expectcasualties, but cherish those companions who make it with you. Teamworkis very, very important. * Appraising a situation before reacting to it can be a survivalissue. * There are happy endings. Libraries' operating environment In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. These are some of the lessons from the world of Odysseus. Whatabout our world? What's it like? Apart from each other, who are weinvolved with? The latest data we have, covering the 1999-2000 financial year,comes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and is based on a censusof local government libraries, national and state libraries and archivalservice organisations. (2) Here's a snapshot. * At the end of June 2000, there were 505 local government libraryorganisations with 1510 library locations (twice as many as Macdonalds`outlets', and approximately 400 more than the 1125 speciallibraries reported in 1999) (3), eight national and state libraryorganisations with twenty-six locations, and eight national and statearchive organisations with twenty-seven locations operating inAustralia. * The total library holding stock of these organisations was 54.3million books and other library materials at the end of June 2000, ofwhich 36.4 million were available as lending stock and 17.9 million asnon-lending stock. This holding stock represented a three per centincrease in lending stock and a six per cent increase in non-lendingstock since June 1997. * During 1999-2000, there were 99.4 million visits to localgovernment [approximately 5.3 visits per capita [Latin, By the heads or polls.] A term used in the Descent and Distribution of the estate of one who dies without a will. It means to share and share alike according to the number of individuals. (US 4.13 visits percapita in 1996/7)], national and state libraries, which represented aneleven per cent increase in visits since 1996-1997. In comparison, therewere 11.8 million visits to botanic gardens and 79.4 million paidadmissions to motion picture cinemas during the same period. * Libraries and archives are particularly reliant on governmentfunding for their operation with ninety-one per cent ($725 million) oftotal income being thus sourced. * In total, 12 596 employees worked for libraries and archives atthe end of June 2000, and 5150 volunteers worked for libraries andarchives during the month of June 2000 (twenty-nine per cent of thisworkforce are volunteers). * Of the 9592 employees working in local government libraries, 4254worked as permanent full-time, 3013 worked as permanent part-time, and2325 worked on a casual basis. * Of the total number of employees in local government libraries,thirty-nine per cent (3735 persons) were qualified either as librarians(2422 persons) or library technicians (1313 persons). * Female employees accounted for eighty-seven per cent of theemployees in local government libraries, with eighty-five per cent oflibrarians and ninety-one per cent of library technicians being females. * Of the 2248 employees in national and state libraries, fifty-oneper cent, or 1147 employees were either qualified as librarians (713persons,) or library technicians (434 persons). * Females represented sixty-eight per cent of employees in nationaland state libraries. Whilst we need to remember that these statistics describe thepublic library world, and omit o��mit?tr.v. o��mit��ted, o��mit��ting, o��mits1. To fail to include or mention; leave out: omit a word.2. a. To pass over; neglect.b. academic libraries, specials and schools,and no doubt other libraries as well, this is nevertheless a picture ofa healthy `sector', and a picture borne out by parallel customersatisfaction surveys. We're not in as much strife as Odysseus. The tide of information technology Technology? Yes. Lots, and lots more coming. But remember: thetools are easier to deal with than the tasks. * At the end of June 2000, local government libraries contained 11510 personal computers, of which 5220 were for public use and 6290 werefor library staff use only. * At the same time, national and state libraries had 2625 personalcomputers, of which 454 were for public use and 2171 for library staffuse only. * There were 2832 internet workstations in local governmentlibraries (173 in national and state libraries), which was a 242 percent increase on the 827 internet workstations at the end of June 1997. * At the end of June 2000, there were 1.9 internet workstations perlocal government library location with the Australian Capital Territoryhaving the highest number with 3.4 workstations per location and WesternAustralia Western Australia,state (1991 pop. 1,409,965), 975,920 sq mi (2,527,633 sq km), Australia, comprising the entire western part of the continent. It is bounded on the N, W, and S by the Indian Ocean. Perth is the capital. being the lowest at 1.3 workstations per location. Inaddition, local government libraries had 2967 online public accesscatalogue (OPAC) workstations which equated to 2.0 per location. * The proportion of local government libraries with a web presenceat the end of June 2000 was seventy-three per cent in New South Wales New South Wales,state (1991 pop. 5,164,549), 309,443 sq mi (801,457 sq km), SE Australia. It is bounded on the E by the Pacific Ocean. Sydney is the capital. The other principal urban centers are Newcastle, Wagga Wagga, Lismore, Wollongong, and Broken Hill. ,ninety-one per cent in Victoria, thirty-nine per cent in Queensland andSouth Australia South Australia,state (1991 pop. 1,236,623), 380,070 sq mi (984,381 sq km), S central Australia. It is bounded on the S by the Indian Ocean. Kangaroo Island and many smaller islands off the south coast are included in the state. , twenty-seven per cent in Western Australia, 100 percent in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, forty-one percent in the Northern Territory, for a national average of forty-sevenper cent. * The proportion of local government libraries with theircatalogues available on their website was sixteen per cent in New SouthWales, fifty-seven per cent in Victoria, eight per cent in Queenslandand Western Australia, seven per cent in South Australia, 100 per centin Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, and thirty-six percent in the Northern Territory. The national average was fifteen percent. * Incidentally, the National Office for the Information Economy hasa NetSpots Directory (http://www.noie.gov.au/netspots) of public onlineaccess facilities. If your library is not listed, you can add yourinformation over the internet. Library land, internet world What's happening in our world? I examined the (twenty) advertisers in the 24-page black, white andred January 1995 issue of ALIAs inCite news magazine with the(twenty-seven) advertisers in the 44-page full colour August 2001 issue-- more than six years on. Only two were the same: Auslib Press and theNational Library. Here's how they compared: Care to reflect on what's happening in our marketplace? On thefree flow of information and ideas? On the need for constant vigilancein defending the first object of our Association: to promote the freeflow of information and ideas in the interest of all Australians and athriving culture, economy and democracy? Despite ALIAs advertisement for the imminent arrival of `a fullinternet connection, available to all members' (4), only four ofthe twenty advertisers in 1995 listed an e-mail address, and none listedan internet address There are two kinds of addresses that are widely used on the Internet. One is a person's e-mail address, and the other is the address of a Web site, which is known as a URL. Following is an explanation of Internet e-mail addresses only. For more on URLs, see URL and Internet domain name. . By August 2001, all but three had either an e-mailaddress or a website reference, and most had both. The internet has happened to us. Not simply for database access,but for e-mail -- and for commerce. (The Net was built on electronicmail; it is still the dominant application, although it no longeraccounts for the bulk of the data traffic, the web does). (5) It isreckoned that 3.5 million Australian households are connected to theinternet, that one third of all homes have internet access See how to access the Internet. , and thatfifty three per cent have at least one computer. (6) Home internetaccess has grown by over fifty per cent between 1999 and 2000. It isexpected that by the end of 2001, every second household will have homeinternet access. (7) (Incidentally, in May 2001, the top four Australiansites, measured by traffic or visits, were Ninemsn, Yahoo, Telstra andBig Brother.) The following usage profile emerged from a recent survey of 300Australian households: (8) `The internet is one of the most remarkable things human beings have ever made. In terms of its impact on society, it ranks with print, the railways, the telegraph, the automobile, electric power and television. Some would equate it with print and television, the two earlier technologies which most transformed the communications environment in which people live. Yet it is potentially more powerful than both because it harnesses the intellectual leverage which print gave to mankind without being hobbled by the one-to-many nature of broadcast television. `Printing liberated people's minds by enabling the widespread dissemination of knowledge and opinion. But it remained subject to censorship and worse. Television shrank the planet into Marshall McLuhan's `global village', but the representations it diffused were tightly controlled by editors, corporations, advertisers and governments. `The Net, in contrast, provides the first totally unrestricted, totally uncensored communication system -- ever. It is the living embodiment of an open market in ideas. (9) `And the Net -- with a mere 407 million users in November 2000, is very, very young. It wasn't until 1985 that TCP/IP was incorporated into commercial versions of the UNIX operating system. (10) (Transmission Control Protocol disassembles messages into packets,transmits and reassembles them and checks for anything missing. InternetProtocol See Internet and TCP/IP. (networking) Internet Protocol - (IP) The network layer for the TCP/IP protocol suite widely used on Ethernet networks, defined in STD 5, RFC 791. IP is a connectionless, best-effort packet switching protocol. locates specific computers and handles the naming, addressingand routing of packets.) It was only ten years ago (May 1991) that Tim Berners-Lee'sWorld Wide Web software was generally released on European Centre forNuclear Research (CERN CERNor European Organization for Nuclear Research,nuclear and particle physics research center straddling the French-Swiss border W of Geneva, Switzerland. ) machines. We owe Tim a lot. He invented theUniform Resource Locator LOCATOR, civil law. He who leases or lets a thing to hire to another. His duties are, 1st. To deliver to the hirer the thing hired, that he may use it. 2d. To guaranty to the hirer the free enjoyment of it. 3d. (URL URLin full Uniform Resource LocatorAddress of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. ) which specifies where information isheld. He created the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) to specify howinformation exchange between machines should be handled. Then he went onto invent a uniform way of structuring documents using a HypertextMark-up Language (HTML HTMLin full HyperText Markup LanguageMarkup language derived from SGML that is used to prepare hypertext documents. Relatively easy for nonprogrammers to master, HTML is the language used for documents on the World Wide Web. ) as a subset of the Standard Generalised Mark-upLanguage (SGML SGMLin full Standard Generalized Markup LanguageMarkup language for organizing and tagging elements of a document, including headings, paragraphs, tables, and graphics. ) which was already used in publishing. For a language which has become the lingua franca lingua franca(lĭng`gwə frăng`kə), an auxiliary language, generally of a hybrid and partially developed nature, that is employed over an extensive area by people speaking different and mutually unintelligible tongues in order to of the wiredworld, HTML is remarkably simple -- essentially consisting of a set ofconventions for attaching tags to text. (11) As Andy Grove, chairman of Intel has said: `we're just a stepaway from the point where every computer is connected to every othercomputer ...' (12) This means that every computer user will soon beconnected to every other computer user. Our business is the provision of information. How do we positionour services when the world's most persuasive marketing machines --and governments -- are convincing our customers that they can servethemselves? A recent survey commissioned by networking company Cisco Systemsfound: Fifty-five per cent of Australian companies are now part of the country's $28 billion a year internet economy, according to a report launched last week by the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Senator Richard Alston. Internet-related spending at these businesses reached $28 billion in 2000-01 -- 4.3 per cent of Australia's gross domestic product, it says. The US's comparable figure for 1999 is estimated at $US524 billion ($A1000 billion) or 5.6 per cent of GDP. Survey respondents said the most significant benefits to business from using the internet included incremental productivity. Internet economy companies were fifty per cent more productive per worker than the others. A fifth of small businesses estimated that their overall revenue would increase by twenty per cent in the next three years as a result of using the Internet; sixty-two per cent estimated that it saved them costs ... (13) The very next page in the same paper warned of the inequities inthe digital divide: Some people could not get access because it was too expensive -- they were on low incomes or were homeless, living in refuges, unemployed single parents or young people. Once children from homes without books were considered disadvantaged. Now it was those who came from homes without computers. The second group may have access to a computer, but a disability or linguistic or cultural constraints made it difficult to take full advantage of available services. Providing hardware and software was the easy part. Training and other measures were required to bridge the divide. (14) Survival: adding value Our operating environment has been transformed by technology How dowe continue to provide value? Fortunately, pretty much the same as wealways have, by providing people with the information resources (1) The data and information assets of an organization, department or unit. See data administration.(2) Another name for the Information Systems (IS) or Information Technology (IT) department. See IT. theyeither want or need. Proving this value is reasonably straightforward for those workingin special libraries in government, commerce, and the research andeducation fields. Here there is a direct connection between the adequacyof information provision and use, and the achievement of organisationalobjectives. Many studies have shown that libraries: * improve the quality of work; * increase productivity; and * shorten product lead-time from discovery to market. By calculating the cost of a special library to its supportingorganisation, and calculating the cost of researchers findinginformation for themselves -- without a library and library staff, and`factoring in the benefits that would be lost by not having thenecessary information, it actually would cost approximately 7.2 timesmore not to have a library than it does to have one.' (15) In the public library arena, demonstrating economic benefits is notso clear cut. A recent study (January 2001) of public library economicbenefits and impacts in Florida found that `patrons believe librariescontribute to their financial well-being, provide economic benefits tolocal businesses, and support the prosperity of the community.'(16) This same study reports an approach to calculating library value bybreaking down each service provided by the library and determining anaverage retail price for that service. The total of all services istaken as the total benefit, or value received by library users. The costto the taxpayer of supporting the service is then subtracted from thetotal benefit, resulting in a total return on investment. The finding(1998/9) was $6.27 for each tax dollar invested. (17) The researchers concluded: The economic impact and benefits from public libraries in education, small business development, computer training, support to local institutions and organisations, and directly supporting individuals' well-being ... are clear and profound. The public library also provides important intangible and indirect impacts and benefits, and has become increasingly vital in this era due to the reliance on -- and expectation of -- public access to networked information services and resources. Indeed, as the world and nation as a whole continue to move into the networked environment with increased access to a broad range of digital information, one may reasonably expect additional economic impacts and benefits to result from public library networked services and programs. (18) In Australia, it seems that only Brian Haratsis has done thenumbers. After listing the direct economic benefits of cost savings fromavoiding book purchase, the value added Value AddedThe enhancement a company gives its product or service before offering the product to customers.Notes:This can either increase the products price or value. through cataloguing, and thebelow marginal cost Marginal costThe increase or decrease in a firm's total cost of production as a result of changing production by one unit.marginal costThe additional cost needed to produce or purchase one more unit of a good or service. access to library materials, library technology andfacilities, he went on to comment: `My broad estimates suggest that forevery $1 in operating costs operating costsnpl → gastos mpl operacionalesinvested in the public library sector thereis at least $2 of benefit created.' (19) The profession: us! Now, let's make all this a little more specific, a little morepersonal. The 1996 census uncovered 9567 librarians and 5502 librarytechnicians. At the end of June 2000, 3823 or forty per cent of thelibrarians belonged to ALIA, but only 414 or 7.5% of library technicianswere members of our professional association. (20) It seems that manypeople -- and many more technicians than librarians -- who could choseto make their information odyssey in company, chose to do so alone. And this despite the obvious benefits of belonging (here are afew): * The company and support of like-minded souls. * Networking and learning opportunities for professional and careerdevelopment * access to authoritative and spirited information sources likeALJ ALJ Administrative Law JudgeALJ Association for Legal Justice (Northern Ireland), inCite, and the ALIA website; * funding for activities provided through an effectiveinfrastructure; * expert advice on personnel, industrial relations industrial relationspl.n.Relations between the management of an industrial enterprise and its employees.industrial relationsNoun, plthe relations between management and workers and copyrightissues; * recognition: a brand new category of Associate Fellow open totechnicians and librarians alike, and conditional, sensibly andcredibly, on enrolment in the Continuing Professional Development CPD is the means by which members of professional associations maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge and skills and develop the personal qualities required in their professional lives. program; * a single advocate for the whole profession; and * great conferences in great locations -- like this one! Perhaps this low participation rate is what makes it so hard formany of our colleagues to score well on my litmus test litmus testn.A test for chemical acidity or basicity using litmus paper. of libraryliveliness. Here it is. Twenty questions. A list derived from a wholeclutch of consultancies. A self-administered health check and realitytest. * Who are my customers? * What do they use my library for? * Are they aware of all the services provided? * Do I have the right balance between print and electronic servicedelivery? * Do my customers get what they want? * Are they treated in the way they want to be treated? * Do I serve equally my customers and those who provide my librarywith its resources? * What does my operation cost? * What proportion of the organisation's budget is this? * How does this compare with similar libraries? * How do I assess the value provided by my library? * How do I judge its success? What are my key dials? * How do I collect and use customer feedback? * How do I introduce my library to new staff?. * What training is available for library staff?. * What training does my library provide for its customers? * What is my library's web or intranet presence? * How does my library's web or intranet presence relate to myorganisation's web or intranet presence? * What information management role does my library play for itsparent organisation? * What relationships does my library have with other libraries? The pass mark is 13, a credit 15, a distinction 17, and a highdistinction 19 plus. ALIA members usually score highest. I have no doubt that by now the answers to many of these questionswill be coursing through your consciousness. If you find your thoughtsvaguely unfulfilling, chances are the remedy is a stronger dose of ALIA.But if you found your thoughts downright depressing, it could be thatyou feel a little isolated -- like Odysseus alone with Calypso Calypso, in Greek mythologyCalypso(kəlĭp`sō), nymph, daughter of Atlas, in Homer's Odyssey. She lived on the island of Ogygia and there entertained Odysseus for seven years. -- thatyou want to get back into the boat, and with your colleagues, pull inthe same direction. It is even conceivable that you are not a currentmember. If you fall into this latter, tragic category, all is not lost. Outstanding issues At this late stage, immediately prior to concluding, I suppose Ishould cover the outstanding advertised topics. I can do this quickly First, technician's roles. You can lead an organisation fromanywhere in the hierarchy, especially when armed with the lessons fromthe Odyssey, which I am about to restate re��state?tr.v. re��stat��ed, re��stat��ing, re��statesTo state again or in a new form. See Synonyms at repeat.re��state . Second, management effectiveness. My advice here is to be wary ofthe predominant styles: management by jargon (`right-sizing',`market testing'), management by cliche (`maximisingshareholder/stakeholder value', `optimising returns'),management by threat (`I feel a restructure coming on' or, `we needto cut our cost base -- not grow our customer base') and managementby ego (`if I task you in an area of your weakness rather than yourstrength, then I'll feel good when you fail'). Beware also thesiren's sibilant sibilant/sib��i��lant/ (sib��i-lant) whistling or hissing. sib��i��lantadj.Of, characterized by, or producing a hissing sound like that of (s) or (sh). song: structure, staff, services. They're inthe wrong order. It must be services first, then staff, and then, if youmust, structure. And finally, appropriate skills and the responsibilities of theprofession to its members. As luck would have it, our president'saddress tomorrow morning (21) deals emphatically with these issues andmore. Having read Alan's paper already, I can confidently predictthat his delivery, although short, will be yet another event in ourjourney, together. Conclusion Predictably, my conclusion is the same as the lessons of theOdyssey: * Things may not be as they appear. Not realising this can get youinto a lot of trouble. * Achieving important, worthwhile objectives can be quitedifficult. It may take a long time. It may be a life's work. Youmay need luck and the help of others. You may need externalintervention, and possibly even divine intervention. Expect manysetbacks. * Not everyone who starts a journey completes it. Expectcasualties, but cherish those companions who make it with you. Teamworkis very, very important. * Appraising a situation before reacting to it, can be a survivalissue. * There are happy endings. And, for good measure, if you want it summed up on a bumpersticker bumper stickern.A sticker bearing a printed message for display on a vehicle's bumper.bumper stickern → Aufkleber m, a la Kinky kink��y?adj. kink��i��er, kink��i��est1. Tightly twisted or curled: kinky hair.2. Friedman: Look after your customers Look after each other ... and you can't help but arrive at Ithaca!'Table 1. inCite advertisers 1995 and 2001Advertiser Jan 95 Aug 01Library system software supplier 8 8Personnel agency 2 2Training/Conferences 5 1Publishers/book suppliers 2 4Subscription services 2 2Removalists 1 2Electronic content providers 5ID cards 1Consultants 2Total 20 27Table 2. Internet activities undertakenActivity No. %1. Using e-mail or chat sites 279 91.52. General browsing/surfing 238 783. Finding information about goods and services 177 584. Reading news/information services 160 52.55. Finding information relating to work 144 47.26. Paying bills and banking 143 46.97. Finding information relating to studies 138 45.28. Accessing shareware 125 419. Playing/downloading games 91 29.810. Purchasing/ordering goods and services 86 28.2Table 3. Duration of Internet useDuration No. %Up to five hours per week 144 47.2More than five but less than 10 hours per week 79 25.9More than ten but less than 20 hours per week 39 12.8More than 20 but less than 40 hours per week 21 6.9More than 40 hours per week 22 7.2Table 4. Frequency of Internet accessFrequency No. %Everyday 169 55.4Two to six days per week 115 37.7One day per week 16 5.2One day per fortnight 5 1.6 Endnotes (1) Sources: Hammond, N G L and Scullard, H H Oxford ClassicalDictionary The Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD) is the standard one-volume encyclopedia in English of topics relating to Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.It was first published in 1949. A second edition followed in 1970, edited by the late Nicholas G. L. Hammond and H. H. , 2nd ed. (Clarendon Press, 1972): Odysseus, p746-7Homer's The Odyssey summarised:http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/8657/odyssey.html Mythweb: http://www.mythweb.com/odyssey/index.html Homer: theOdyssey, translated by EV Rieu. (Penguin Books, 1967) (2) Australian Bureau of Statistics. Public libraries 1999-2000. 27June 2001. Catalogue no. 8561.0. (3) According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. the ALIA Directory of Special Libraries inAustralia (10th edition, 1999), there are 1125 special libraries inAustralia. (4) inCite, vol. 16, issue 1, January 1995, p20. (5) Naughton, John. A brief history of the future: the origins ofthe internet. London, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1999. p149. (6) http://www.nua.ie/surveys (7) Centre for International Economics (2001) Save@Home: Valuingthe benefits of home internet access, prepared for the National Officefor the Information Economy, Canberra. (8) Ibid. pp41-2 (9) Naughton, p21. (10) Naughton, p167. (11) Naughton, pp235-238. (12) Naughton p23. (13) Canberra Times, Monday July 30 2001, p13. (14) Canberra Times, Monday July 30 2001, p14. (15) Tenopir, Carol and Donald W. King. Towards electronicjournals: realities for scientists, librarians and publishers. SLA (1) (StereoLithography Apparatus) See 3D printing.(2) (Service Level Agreement) A contract between the provider and the user that specifies the level of service expected during its term. Publishing, Washington DC, 2000. p208. (16) Charles R McClure, Bruce T Fraser, Timothy W Nelson and Jane BRobbins. Economic benefits and impacts from public libraries in theState of Florida. Final report to the State of Florida, Division ofLibrary and Information Services See Information Systems. , Florida Department Florida is a department (departamento) of Uruguay. Population and DemographicsAs of the census of 2004, there were 68,181 people and 21,938 households in the department. The average household size was 3.1. For every 100 females, there were 100.4 males. of State,Tallahassee, Florida For other uses, see Tallahassee (disambiguation).Tallahassee is the capital of the State of Florida and the county seat of Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida in 1824. As of 2006, the population recorded by the U.S. . November 2000, revised January 2001. p vii. (17) McClure et al, Section 2-10. (18) McClure et al, Section 5-29. (19) Haratsis, Brian. `Justifying the economic value of publiclibraries in a turbulent local government environment.' In Publiclibraries -- what are they worth? Proceedings of the 2nd National PublicLibraries Conference, Sydney, 1995. Auslib Press, 1996. p99 and 103. (20) I am indebted to Susanne Bruhn, Deputy Executive Director,Australian Library and Information Association, for these figures. (21) Bundy, Alan. `Enabling the knowledge nation: what Australianeeds in the 21st century.' Paper presented at An informationodyssey ... a long and eventful journey. 11th ALIA National LibraryTechnicians Conference Hobart 21-24 August 2001. Ian McCallum Ian McCallum (born September 1965 in Kenton, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England) is a Los Angeles based English Guitarist. He started writing and touring in the early 1980's. He plays guitar for Stiff Little Fingers, and is also a recording artist in his own right. BA (Hons) Dip. Lib. FALIA FALIA Fellow of the Australian Library and Information Association began his library career inhis Dad's library, shelving books in the Central Highlands Central Highlands is the name for several mountainous regions located in the center of the nations or geographical regions. Central Highlands (Central America) Central Highland (France) Central Highlands (Iceland) RegionalLibrary Service in Ballarat in the sixties. He has worked in and withlibraries ever since, and along the way has been employed by the Crownand by Mammon. Having proven unmanageable in both contexts, it's agood thing that he now works for himself in his iconoclastic i��con��o��clast?n.1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.2. One who destroys sacred religious images. libraryconsultancy company, Libraries Alive! P/L e-mail:ian.mccallum@alianet.alia.org.au