Student-staff consultation forum, 15 April 2008
Students and staff of the University community were invited to participate in an open forum:
Student-staff consultation forum: "Scholarly Information in a Digital Age"
12.30 pm on Tuesday 15 April 2008Laby Theatre, David Caro building
Almost 50 people attended the student-staff consultation forum on 15 April.
Presentations
Professor Peter McPhee, Provost and Acting Vice-Chancellor, outlined the role of the Information Futures Commission, the importance of our cultural collections, the need for cataloguing, the need for print collections as well as digital collections and the kinds of decisions that need to be made to make Melbourne world class in providing information to its community.
Scott Bloodworth, Secretary of the Melbourne University Student Union, spoke of the work of the Commission, praising Linda O’Brien for the lead she is giving, and noting that there was a broadening out of ideas which would be narrowed down in May 2008. The Student Union has set up a website for both students and staff to participate in.
Professor Iven Mareels, Dean of Engineering, noted information did not exist anywhere unless someone looked for it. The digital world has changed rapidly and made things harder to predict. Engineering students were different in that they did not use print, instead used the internet extensively, so how do they gain skills to find quality of information?
Linda O’Brien, Vice Principal and CIO, spoke of issues of cataloguing, cultural collections, digital versus print and how to use and store information. The consultation paper had been downloaded 600 times, and 40% of the downloads were in the US. Surveys and forums and blogging were available and everyone was encouraged to participate.
- View a video of the presentations
Q&A
Following the presentations Peter, Iven and Linda answered questions, recorded below.
Q. I agree with the idea of both print and digitising. Melbourne has the finest library in the southern hemisphere.
Peter McPhee: The quality of the collections is superb. But it was found when the Education Resource Centre (ERC) was being reconstructed, that a lot of the collection had never been catalogued. There are 33 major cultural collections valued at $71 million, and they are mostly uncatalogued. My dream is for the world to know about our cultural collections.
Q. What does the word Commission mean in the title Information Futures Commission. How does the University interpret “Commission”?
Peter McPhee: It means the University and the Vice-Chancellor are serious about what is required to achieve something substantial.
Q. Interested in Ivan’s presentation. Librarians provide a path to information. Issue of ethical use of information. It is not just about getting lots of money for the library, but freedom of access to information and sharing information. Used to think the library had the best collections, but now we need massive dollars.
Iven Mareels: We need to think beyond our institution. Need access to other libraries and collaboration with others. eg MRI data, use national grid – involve the whole world. We have to bring our bit to the table and look at how to build a bigger pie. Regarding Freedom of Information – not all information is free.
Q. I am from a humanities background and I am interested in the Grainger Museum. I have written a letter on the subject several weeks ago, but it hasn’t been answered. How do we reconcile heritage issues with the digital revolution? Will the Commission consider this question? What approach is being taken?
Linda O'Brien: I am pleased to say that funding is to be made available for the Grainger Museum to be repaired and reopened, subject to Council approval. Regarding other cultural collections, they are not fully catalogued, and this will become a priority with funding possibly available from the government. This changes what we can or cannot do, as there is the reality of resource constraints. Our deep and rich collections will differentiate Melbourne from other universities. The digital world is under constant discussion. However, it is not a question of either/or – but what is meaningful. Investigation of faculties has shown that discipline differences are profound. The digital revolution has shown up differences. Professor Mark Considine (Dean of Arts) noted at the Steering Committee meeting today that we need a list of what we are not going to do.
Q. I am from the publishing/editing area doing a Masters with a focus on digitisation. I agree either/or is not appropriate, but having a proper infrastructure is vital. It is not the death of the book or culture. The needs of undergraduates and postgraduates are very important.
Q: The relevance of information is due to people skills. Information literacy is important. It is not the realm of one discipline.
Linda O'Brien: What is the information professional? Skills are important in the long term. Different disciplines use different information.
Q. I am from languages/linguistics/arts background and support the digitising of information. However, in our area, students don’t have access to equipment to digitise information. Is this part of the role of the Commission?
Linda O'Brien: Information Services loans laptops. If you would like to send an email outlining the demand, we will consider it and provide the service. There are challenges in the future use of media.
Q. Is there a future for discipline libraries?
Linda O'Brien: There are pros and cons for discipline libraries, for example, reduced opening hours and questions of resourcing. It is inconvenient for students to visit 5 or 6 libraries to obtain information they might need. We need to downsize and provide a different type of space and access to collections. It is a hot debate – what is the best way to spend funding?
Q. What is the Commission's attitude to mixing special collections? There are issues of commercialisation and open access to consider.
Linda O'Brien: Digital versions of content affects research rankings and sales of books. These are important questions which we hope to address and have a Melbourne University view.
Iven Mareels: Digital media costs a lot more than print. Some collections may be closed to the public and others partly opened.
Q. Is the university likely to have particular formats -- ideally, adopting open standards -- for documents and digital files?
Linda O'Brien: There is a growing interest in this, but it is still being discussed.
Q. A review is needed on the production of information and how the community uses it. The LMS is restrictive, inward looking and of limited scope for community based programs.
Linda O'Brien: This has been discussed, but there are no answers yet. Agree that the LMS is restrictive. We need to look at how we provide flexibility and capability. This has been done at Harvard, which provides privileging to different cohorts, but is dependent on staffing and budget.
Q. The New Generation degrees require assessment tasks, with students demanding collaborative spaces.
Q. What about information and how we use it? Need to coin some new terminology – eg engsmart, artsmart. Would like to see the library and academics work together and form a community of learning. LMS not ideal, but useful for forums.
Linda O'Brien: We can decide what we need to do, but not who does it. PBC will have views on this. For example, the Engineering space is a library without books. This is an interesting point for discussion. Studies show students and staff at UOM like to borrow books, but use digital data as well. They are high consumers of content. The Fisher report advises that spaces should be available 24/7, but who will manage the space? We need to get expert advice.
Many thanks to Lynda Gilbert for her excellent note-taking.