Introducing The Source
Hidden costs in cheaper books
From the Australian Policy Online (APO) website
Not so long ago, the Productivity Commission released its final report* on a very vexed question, which was: should the provisions of the Copyright Act, which currently prevent overseas editions of Australian-published works from being imported into Australia, be repealed? These provisions, known as parallel import restrictions, give a degree of assistance to Australian publishers, authors and printers, which they would not have without them.
Factors other than market efficiency need to be considered when we contemplate change, writes Jenny Stewart in the Canberra Times.
*see also Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of Books - Supplement to Research Report (Note: PDF)
Collecting cultural material: principles for best practice (Note: PDF)
From the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (Australia) website
These guidelines assist Australia's collecting institutions to acquire their collections in a manner that meets the highest standards of legal, ethical and professional practice. The booklet has been developed by the Heads of Collecting Institutions (HOCI), which is a forum of the Chief Executives of the National Collecting Institutions within Australia.
Australia's collecting institutions vary but they share common objectives of collecting, researching, preserving, and exhibiting cultural material from Australia and around the world.
They also share a concern that their collections are acquired in a manner that meets the highest standards of legal, ethical and professional practice. These guidelines are intended to assist cultural institutions within established legal and ethical frameworks.
Analysing selection for digitisation: Current practices and common incentives
From the D-Lib Magazine website
Over the past few decades, the explosion of digital and digitised documents, and the addition of a purely digital facet to the documentary life-cycle, have been forcing memory institutions from all sectors to address the same questions that the growth in analogue production necessitated in the early 20th century: Can/should all documents that pass the initial test of appraisal also remain stored indefinitely? What are the requirements for long-term preservation? At what point (if ever) do digital collections become too large to handle? And how can we decide what gets deleted?
Individual institutions and collaborative research efforts alike have adopted a wide range of practices in their attempt to tackle these questions. We would expect the current phase of trial-and-error to move slowly towards a set of somewhat more uniformly adopted governing concepts and practices.
National Library of Wales unveils new reading room
From the National Library of Wales website
The National Library of Wales has unveiled its newly refurbished reading room, which first opened in 1916. The face-lift cost the library in Aberystwyth more than £750,000, and now includes a place for people to meet and discuss their work.
Understanding Users of Social Networks
From the Harvard Business School website
Many business leaders are mystified about how to reach potential customers on social networks such as Facebook. Professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski provides a fresh look into the interpersonal dynamics of these sites and offers guidance for approaching these tantalising markets.
Key concepts include:
* Online social networks are most useful when they address failures in the real world
* Pictures are the killer app of social networks
* Women and men use these sites differently
* Businesses shouldn't consider SNs as just another channel
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