The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Melvil Dewey’s Ingenious Notational System (Note: PDF)

From the Digital Library of Information Science and Technology (dLIST) website

Historically, the notational system of the Dewey Decimal Classification provided for non-institution-specific, relative location shelf arrangements, thus substantially reducing bibliographic classification effort. Today its decimal notation continues to provide the classification scheme with flexible granularity, is hospitable to expansion, expresses relationships, interfaces well with modern retrieval systems, and is internationally understood.


Sustaining Digital Resources: an On-the-Ground view of projects today (Note: PDF)

From the Ithaka website

Tens of millions of dollars, pounds, and euros are invested each year by government agencies and private foundations to develop and support digital resources in the not-for-profit sector. As budgets tighten, will these digital resources be able to survive and thrive? This question is at the heart of the Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability project, a multi-year, international exploration of the strategies being used to support digital initiatives over the long term.

The report argues that sustainability entails much more than simply covering the costs of putting a resource online, but also ongoing development to suit the evolving needs of its users. It presents a framework for thinking about sustainability and outlines the five stages of developing a successful sustainability model, from acquiring a deep understanding of users and their needs, to thinking broadly about the range of revenue models that might be possible.


A New Page

From the New Yorker website

Can the Kindle really improve on the book?


Working paper on scholarly digital use and information seeking behaviour in business and economics (Note: PDF)

From the JISC Information Environment Repository website

Only tentative and draft conclusions are offered here because the study is ongoing and more data are to be evaluated. However, on the basis of the data we have evaluated it is clear that Business/Economics stands out in regard to e-book use in that:
1. these subjects are major and significant users of e-books in that they view them more, spend longer viewing titles and undertake much busier and intensive sessions
2. their e-book users tend to search off campus and are more likely to access the books via VLEs
3. a high proportion of e-book use comes from the newer universities (this is true for other subjects too)

In regard to e-journals, where a good deal more data evaluation has to be completed, it appears that Economists:
1. are significant users, especially so the ones from universities with big business schools
2. tend to search more out of hours and on weekends
3. have a strong preference for tables of contents and abstracts
4. read relatively low impact factor journals and have a tendency to favour current material”


The Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom Hierarchy and its Antithesis (Note: PDF)

From the Digital Library of Information Science and Technology (dLIST) website

The now taken-for-granted notion that data lead to information, which leads to knowledge, which in turn leads to wisdom was first specified in detail by R. L. Ackoff in 1988. Besides being causal and hierarchical, the scheme is pyramidal, in that data are plentiful while wisdom is almost nonexistent. Ackoff’s formula linking these terms together this way permits us to ask what the opposite of knowledge is and whether analogous principles of hierarchy, process, and pyramiding apply to it. The inversion of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy produces a series of opposing terms (including misinformation, error, ignorance, and stupidity) but not exactly a chain or a pyramid. Examining the connections between these phenomena contributes to our understanding of the contours and limits of knowledge.


The End of Institutional Repositories & the Beginning of Social Academic Research Service: An Enhanced Role For Libraries

From the Law and Technology Resources for Legal professionals (LLRX) website

The concept of the institutional repository (IR) is too narrowly focused to develop the value that universities should be extracting from its existence. Is it not possible for IRs to serve as full-fledged electronic libraries and thereby serve the greater purpose of collecting, disseminating, analysing and exchanging useful digital information for academic purposes? Should not the IR be coupled with the full range of academic and research support services that new technologies permit? In an era of social networking, why is the university not moving quickly to develop social academic research services that can enhance the role of libraries, librarians, and IT specialists in the academic endeavour? The above assertion and questions are addressed in this presentation, many of the points being made by using the example of the Catherwood Library of the ILR School (School of Industrial & Labor Relations) at Cornell University.

Problems with external emails

Update 3pm 28 July: Life as normal is restored at the Library. If you're not receiving a reply to your emails, it's no longer the technology's fault.

Update, 1pm 28 July: We are now able to send and receive external emails. The backlog of delayed emails is still being processed.

The National Library is currently experiencing delays sending emails to and receiving emails from external addresses.

The problem started on Saturday 26 July and we hope to have it fixed later today (28 July). Any emails sent or received will not be lost but there will be a significant backlog to process, resulting in delays.

This impacts several services, including:

-- forms on www.natlib.govt.nz such as the ISBN form, the CIS form, and the Ask a Librarian form and registratiosn for professional development

-- Te Puna reports which are normally delivered via email.

If you need help or to get in touch with a National Library staff member, please call our Helpdesk 0508 837 862 or our main switchboard (04) 474 3000.

I'll update this message as soon as we know the problem. is fixed

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

21st Century Shipping: Network Data Transfer to the Library of Congress

From the D-Lib Magazine website

Between 2008 and 2009 the Library of Congress added approximately 100 TB of data to its digital collections, transferred from universities, publishers, web archivists and other organisations. The data comprised a broad range of content from photos to video, from books and periodicals to websites. Most of the data was transferred over the Internet rather than by hardware media, and for good reason: 650 GB of data shipped on a drive can take weeks from the time the content owner sends it to the time it is finally loaded onto a Library server. The same quantity takes just hours to transfer over the network.
While network data transfer has not completely replaced shipping data on hardware storage media to the Library, it is gradually becoming the preferred method. The Library's transfer process is relatively simple and quick, and it utilizes open-source software. This article describes the Library's network data-transfer process.


Australia's digital economy: future directions (Note: PDF)

From the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy website

This paper discusses the key initiatives being undertaken by government, industry and the community to develop the digital economy, along with case studies of successful individuals and industries engaged in the area.
This paper explains:
· why the digital economy is important for Australia
· the current state of digital economy engagement in Australia and why current metrics point to a need for strategic action
· the elements of a successful digital economy
· the role for the Government in developing Australia's digital economy


Measuring Mass Text Digitization Quality and Usefulness: Lessons Learned from Assessing the OCR Accuracy of the British Library's 19th Century Online Newspaper Archive

From the D-Lib Magazine website

This article will discuss how to measure the accuracy of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) output in a way that is relevant to the needs of the end users of digital resources. A case study measuring the OCR accuracy of the British Library's 19th Century Newspapers Database provides a clear example of the benefits to be gained from measuring not just character accuracy but also significant word accuracy. After briefly discussing the role of OCR in the text capture process and how OCR works, we give a detailed description of the methodology, statistical data gathering techniques and analysis used in this study. Our conclusions point the way forward with suggested actions to assist other mass digitisation projects in applying these techniques.


Training in Electronic Records Management (TERM)

From the International Records Management Trust website

The Training in Electronic Records Management (TERM) programme consists of a series of five training modules on electronic records management plus related resource materials (Glossary, Route Maps, Best Practice Indicators). Modules include:
1. Understanding the context of electronic records management
2. Planning and managing an electronic records management programme
3. Managing the creation, use and disposition of electronic records
4. Preserving Electronic Records
5. Personnel Records as the information base for human resources and payroll management


100G Ethernet and beyond: preparing for the exabyte Internet (Note: PDF)

From the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) website

In the nearly 30 years since the Ethernet standard was first published, it has become the dominant mechanism for communication between devices at the data link layer of the OSI networking model, increasing in speed from the initial 10 megabits per second standard through 100 megabits and 1gigabit per second, to 10 gigabits per second (Gb/s) today.
Over the last decade, the availability of, and the demand for, information has increased at an unprecedented rate and this is driving the need for increases in the access speed across networks, and between networks and servers. Network managers are seeing a new scenario materialise, one that has moved away from a period of predictable traffic growth where capacity planning could be applied to both the Ethernet network and the separate networks used for voice, video, and storage.
This report explains why there does not appear to be a consensus for a single target and looks at the implications that may have for network managers in HE. It will review some of the technical implications of a move to 40Gb/s or 100Gb/s and make recommendations for how to maximise purchasing decisions at a time of flux in the industry. Finally, it will look ahead to the development of terabit Ethernet in order to put the continuing evolution of Ethernet into a longer-term context.


Libraries of the Future

From the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) website

JISC's 'Libraries of the Future' debate has gone digital, with a specially-commissioned documentary. The ten minute video marks the culmination of a year long campaign, which stimulated debate among librarians, information professionals and academics on the issues surrounding technology's impact on the emerging role of the academic library in the 21st century through a series of events, printed resources and podcast interviews.
The documentary showcases interviews with leaders from JISC, Oxford University and LSE as well as students and academics who discuss what the library of the future will look like.


Semantic Integration of Collection Description: Combining CIDOC/CRM and Dublin Core Collections Application Profile

From the D-Lib Magazine website

This article is motivated by the demand for unified access to the wealth of distributed digital cultural collections, allowing users to make queries and discover information about them through integrated processes. Our effort originates from the semantic interoperability perspective and considers CIDOC/CRM as the mediating schema, which integrates in an optimal way the semantics of the collection-level metadata schemas and application profiles. The research reveals the complexity of mapping metadata schemas to ontologies and resolves particular difficulties by presenting the crosswalk between Dublin Core Collections Application Profile and CIDOC/CRM.

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Involving children and young people in research (Note: PDF)

From the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) website

Involving children and young people in participatory research can be of great benefit to the young participants as well as to researchers. However, that involvement also raises a number of ethical and access challenges. ‘Involving Children and Young People in Research’ is a compendium of papers that seeks to define and address those challenges within the broader context of changing attitudes toward the right of children and young people to play an active role in the decisions and actions that shape their lives. The compendium is one result of a symposium held in November 2008, co-hosted by ARACY and the NSW Commission for Children and Young People. The Think Tank brought together leaders in the field of participatory research to share their experience and identify what works and what doesn’t work in research that is with and by children – as well as for and about them.


Papers and Presentations from the 13th International Conference on Electronic Publishing: Rethinking Electronic Publishing: Innovation in Communication Paradigms and Technologies

From the International Conference on Electronic Publishing website

Here are the titles of some (just a few) of the presentations that are available to read/view online. This conference took place in Milan, Italy at the beginning of June 2009.

* Creation of an International Digital Library of Manuscripts: seamless access to data from heterogeneous resources (ENRICH Project)
* Exploring the costs and benefits of alternative publishing models
* Understanding how Students and Faculty REALLY use E-Books: The UK National E-Books Observatory
* Economic sustainability during transition: the case of scholarly publishing
* Digital Futures: Strategies for the Information Age


Information Literacy Seven Corners: Improving instruction by reviewing how librarians, faculty culture, professional literature, technology, and today’s college students converge (Note: PDF)

From the E-prints in Library and Information Science website

This article reviews library and education literature, as well as the author’s personal observation of undergraduate information literacy (IL) instruction sessions, and provides a range of ideas and suggestions for ways in which librarians can increase the effectiveness of IL instruction sessions. The author asserts that there are five major influences that present challenges and opportunities to librarians who wish to increase authentic collaboration with faculty for course-integrated instruction that more fully addresses the higher-thinking skills true information literacy requires. In today’s world of expanded electronic access to information and the impact ubiquitous Internet searching has had on students entering or returning to post-secondary education, new strategies must be employed to facilitate instruction that goes beyond procedural skills – the conceptual aspects of information literacy and critical thinking must come to the forefront of library and classroom instruction.


Music Libraries in the Digital Age (NB: PDF)

From the Koninklijke Bibliotheek website

In the week 5th – 10th July, the annual conference of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) took place in Amsterdam. The first speech of the Keynote Session was ‘The Sirens of Pirate Bay’ by Dr. Martin Bossenbroek, Director of Collections & Services at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. He focused on the actual debate on copyright and its implications for (music) libraries. In his presentation the following items are addressed:
· the far-reaching effects of the digital revolution for the media landscape as a whole and the music industry in particular
· it shows the extreme diverse reactions in society on the transformation of the media landscape and its implications for copyright
· it poses – and answers – the most important question: how can librarians – including those far away from the turbulent pop music scene and devoted to classical music – cope with these shifting realities of the digital world?


The Future of Publishing (VIDEO), Running Time: 1:34:30

From the MIT World website

Nostalgia, anxiety and optimism mix in this panel devoted to imagining what lies ahead for the book, as publishing professionals and others discuss the impact of digital technology on the business.

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Arts content for the digital era

From the Australia Council for the Arts website

Developed in response to the current and anticipated future impact of digital technologies on the arts sector, artists and arts audiences, this is the Australia Council’s blueprint for supporting arts content and its creators in the digital era. The strategy addresses:
•How digital infrastructure will affect where and when artists engage with their audiences
•How traditional artforms - from Indigenous music to literature and the performing arts can use digital technology to push their creativity into new domains and construct engaging audience experiences
•The new business capabilities required to navigate the emerging business models of the 21st century, to ensure a sustainable future for Australian arts and culture
•How our arts heritage will be preserved in a digital environment and how it can be made more accessible for future ‘digital native’ generations


The Cloud, the Crowd, and Public Policy

From the Issues in Science and Technology Online website

A new age of more flexible, less expensive, and more secure computing will emerge soon if governments act wisely.


The digital melting pot: bridging the digital native-immigrant divide

From the First Monday website

Educational technology advocates claim today’s students are technologically savvy content creators and consumers whose mindset differs from previous generations. The digital native-digital immigrant metaphor has been used to make a distinction between those with technology skills and those without. Metaphors such as this one are useful when having initial conversations about an emerging phenomenon, but over time, they become inaccurate and dangerous. Thus, this paper proposes a new metaphor, the digital melting pot, which supports the idea of integrating rather than segregating the natives and the immigrants.


The role of digital identity management in the internet economy: a primer for policy makers

From the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) website

This report aims to provide policy makers with a broad-brush understanding of the various dimensions of digital identity management. It introduces, in non-technical terms, the basic concepts and issues raised by IdM and points to additional sources where policy makers may gain a deeper understanding of the topic. Consistent with the OECD’s Seoul Ministerial Declaration, it also aims to support efforts to address public policy issues for securely managing and protecting digital identities, with a view to strengthening confidence in the online activities crucial to the growth of the Internet Economy.


International collaboration steers future of mass digitisation

From the British Library website

Feeding into the EU's i2010 vision to significantly improve access to Europe's cultural heritage, the British Library and the University of Salford have teamed up with a group of 15 institutions from across the continent as part of the four-year IMPACT project - IMProving ACcess to Text - to remove the barriers that stand in the way of the mass digitisation of the European cultural heritage. Led by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the IMPACT project aims to share expertise from across Europe and establish international best practice guidelines with a view to speeding up, standardising and enhancing the quality of mass digitisation through establishing a Centre of Competence for text-based digitisation. As one of the main participants, the British Library has taken the lead on one of IMPACT's four sub-projects, establishing the operational context of the work carried out by contributors to the project.


Public library revitalization in India: Hopes, challenges, and new visions

From the First Monday website

With India’s growing economy and status as an emerging world power, a new consciousness is developing in the country about the need to reinvest in public services. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) is an advisory body constituted by the Prime Minister to provide recommendations for improving India’s knowledge infrastructure. As part of this Commission, a set of recommendations has been developed to improve India’s long neglected library system. This article explores the implications of these recommendations, with a specific focus on India’s public library system and the social development gains that are often associated with public libraries. The potential of India’s public libraries to serve as community information centres (CICs) is highlighted, as well as the challenges that lie ahead in implementing a new vision for public library revitalisation. The article serves as an invitation for concerted action, reflection, and dialogue with regard to this important and pressing issue.


Virtual Competence Is Vital in the Workplace: Online Communication Tools, Such as Facebook, Develop Important Work Skills
[Scroll down to the entries for Thursday July 2]

From the Ascribe website

When the Ontario government banned thousands of its employees from using the social networking site Facebook during work a couple of years ago, opponents of the move argued the workers were deprived of a powerful tool. Recent research from Nicole Haggerty, an assistant professor of information systems at the Richard Ivey School of Business, now shows that online activities, such as communicating on Facebook, result in skills that are valuable in the workplace.


The edgeless university

From the Demos website

British universities have world-class reputations and they are vital to the country’s social and economic future, yet they are under siege. This report argues that this can be a moment of rebirth.
The huge public investment that sustained much of the sector is in jeopardy and the current way of working is not sustainable. Some are predicting the end of the university as we have known it. Technology is changing universities as they become just one source among many for ideas, knowledge and innovation. But online tools and open access also offer the means for their survival. Their expertise and value is needed more than ever to validate and support learning and research. Through their institutional capital, universities can use technology to offer more flexible provision and open more equal routes to higher education and learning. We need the learning and research that higher education provides. This will take strategic leadership from within, new connections with a growing world of informal learning and a commitment to openness and collaboration. By exploiting this role, universities can harness technology as a solution and an indispensable tool for shaping their vital role in the future.

The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Global financial crisis and recession: Impact on the arts (Note: PDF)

From the International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies (IFACCA) website

Arts councils and ministries of culture have a key role in working to minimise the negative impacts of the downturn on the arts and in helping artists and arts organisations navigate such uncertain times. They also have a key role in advising on and coordinating the arts and cultural aspects of the much-publicised central government responses to the downturn. The aim of the report is to consolidate the collective expertise of IFACCA members as quickly as possible in order to help members respond to the downturn in a timely and informed way. This report presents the results of a survey of members of IFACCA on the likely impacts on the arts of the global downturn, and on how arts councils and ministries of culture around the world are helping arts sectors meet the challenges of the downturn.


Copyright: 2008 Country Reports Now Available from IFLA

From the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) website

Read about changes in national copyright legislation, lobby & educational activities, law cases, and strategic plans for the future from various countries, including.
*Australia
*Canada
*Denmark
*Finland
*Germany
*Netherlands
*Norway
*Sweden
*United States


Oxford Internet survey 2009 report: the Internet in Britain (Note: PDF)

From the Oxford Internet Institute website

A new survey into how British people are using the Internet in 2009 suggests that the proportion of people reading online newspapers has doubled since 2007. The Oxford Internet Survey 2009 (OxIS), carried out by the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, shows that nearly six out of ten (58%) Internet users said they read a newspaper or news online, compared to three out of ten (30%) two years ago. The survey also shows, however, that most users are continuing to read print versions of newspapers as well as reading online news.
One of the main challenges in creating a Digital Britain will be to change the perceptions of the third of the British population who choose not to use the Internet, according to the latest in a series of Oxford University surveys. The Oxford Internet Survey shows that while most British Internet users (84%) are extremely confident about using new technology and see the Internet as central to many activities, over half of non-users of the Internet (57%) now distrust new technology more than they did before.


Libraries to the Rescue

From the Institute of Museum and Library Services website

“Libraries have emerged as one of the go-to places for people looking for work or filing for unemployment, starting new businesses, or learning how to use computers for the first time,” said Anne-Imelda Radice, IMLS Director. “Libraries are proving just how important they are to their communities. In these episodes, library leaders share their expertise so others don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Libraries to the Rescue provides valuable insights from:
*Mary Boone, State Librarian of North Carolina
*Bernard Margolis, State Librarian of New York
*Sheryl Mase, Michigan Library’s Director of Statewide Services
*Jan Walsh, State Librarian of Washington, and Randall Simmons, Program Manager for Library Development in Washington
*Kendall Wiggin, State Librarian of Connecticut
The five episodes cover a range of topics, including how libraries are increasing access to key information through virtual libraries, the importance of broadband access, and new partnerships between libraries and state and federal agencies to help citizens access all types of assistance. The Libraries to the Rescue episodes are short (12-15 minute), digestible audio episodes designed to educate IMLS’s library audience.


U.S. Public Libraries and E-Government Services (Note: PDF)

From the American Library Association (ALA) website

In the fourth of a series of reports regarding technology access in U.S. public libraries, the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Research & Statistics (ORS) is highlighting how public library technology supports public access and use of e-government information and resources. The issues brief draws from national data published in the Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study. “U.S. Public Libraries and E-Government Services” describes the increased use of online government information and services, the critical role of public libraries in helping provide access and assistance using these resources and the challenges that must be addressed to improve e-government at the local, state and federal level.
Among the findings from the national study are:
*71 percent of libraries report they are the only source of free access to computers and the Internet in their community
*80 percent of libraries report providing as-needed assistance with e-government services
*61 percent of libraries report providing access to government information is one of the most critical Internet services they provide
*Public libraries offer a number of training classes and/or as-needed assistance on a range of topics, particularly Internet use (92.8 percent), general computer skills (91.3 percent) and online Web searching (76.9 percent)


How Teens Use Media (Note: PDF)

From the Nielsen website

At the annual 'What Teens Want' conference in New York, The Nielsen Company presented 'How Teens Use Media', which argues once you look past the hype - American teens are not as alien in their media usage as you might expect. Sure, it might sound hip and trendy to suggest they’re too busy texting, Twittering or LOL-ing to be engaged with traditional media, but ultimately, the research proves otherwise.
Key points:
*Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more TV than ever, up 6% over the past five years in the U.S
*Teens love the Internet … but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online. Far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes
*Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads are highly engaging to them: Teens spend 35% less time watching online video than adults 25-34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on television
*Teens read newspapers, listen to the radio and even like advertising more than most: Teens who recall TV ads are 44% more likely to say they liked the ad
*Teens play video games, but their tastes aren’t all for the blood-and-guts style games: Just two of their top five most-anticipated games since 2005 have been rated “Mature”
*Teens’ favourite TV shows, top websites and genre preferences across media are mostly the same as their parents: For U.S. teens, American Idol was the top show in 2008, Google the top website and general dramas are a preferred TV genre for teens around the world

Find, Out.

Part of the National Library's purpose may best be summed up in three words: Collect, Preserve, Access. Seems fairly straightforward - any items the Library collects, we have to preserve them and provide access to them. The problem occurs when you consider access, and how many collections (and items in those collections) we have here. Published, unpublished, digital, physical, different media types, on-site, off-site, collaborative…if you drew a diagram, you could title it 'Everything, and Then Some'.

We've been fairly heads-down for the past few months with work on the latest National Library discovery service, and it's now available to the public, in beta form:

http://find.natlib.govt.nz/

Why?
There are a lot of drivers for this – one of which is some of our discovery tools are on older technologies that provide results at sub-optimal speeds. The planned move from the Wellington building is another one, where simpler access to Library and collaborative resources online will make things easier for our customers.

I think the biggest driver comes in the form of a lack of a unified way to find things at the National Library. Yes, we have several other sites that can provide our customers information, but it is a bit of a divided approach, and it certainly caused me confusion when I arrived. Where is the ideal place to search for the information I want? How do I get there? How are these sources of information connected? What is their context?

The idea of having a cross-collection discovery tool has been in the planning for some time, but it's just been recently that we've had the technology to accomplish it. A lot of thinking went on in those early days as to how best we could do this, and the team used that work as a basis for what's called the 'Discover, Deliver, Interact' programme, mainly because that's its name.

The 'Find'* site is really the first piece of the foundation in the DDI programme. We knew that without some sort of overarching discovery technology, there would be nothing to build on, and we would wind up with the same issues. It makes logical sense, really – if you can't find things, how can you expect to do anything with them?

How?
The underlying software - Ex Libris' Primo - provides us with a few other things we were after as well. The ability for customers to tag and comment on items, thus providing conversation (one-to-one, many-to-many) rather than just broadcasting (one-to-many) is something we're looking forward to leveraging in the future.

We also get the benefit of an application programming interface (API) from the software. This allows us to have flexibility in how we can create and support new digital services. It also means we will be able to extend and adapt the finding of our collections into other places, beyond just a web site. I'm thinking of things like mobile applications, Firefox plug-ins, or Google Gadgets, but there are heaps more things we're now able to do. After we figure out some details around how to implement it, we want to release the API from behind our walls, so that those of you so inclined may use them, perhaps even linking them up with the Digital New Zealand API.

What?
There's quite a bit of our information in Find now, and the plan is to keep adding to it. For now, we've got:

• National Library of New Zealand catalogue
• TAPHUI
• Timeframes
• Publications New Zealand
• Index New Zealand
• Te Puna Web Directory

Also, some collaborative project information is there as well:

• Matapihi
• findNZArticles
  

We also have the metasearch capability over other National Library digital services and subscription databases.

What Next?
That's the real high-level view of things. As mentioned, this is a beta release. We're aware of several issues that we're working to resolve right now, and I'm know we'll encounter more as we move forward. But, to quote someone in a very different line of work, this is the business we've chosen. I encourage you to give it a try, and let us know what you think. What works? What doesn't? What would you like to see, and where do you want it to go? This is the first step in a continuing journey, and you're invited along. You can use the feedback form on http://find.natlib.govt.nz/, use the comments here, or email find-feedback@natlib.govt.nz.

* 'Find' is very deliberate usage – and name - here. There are those that feel people don't like searching, they like finding. I'm one of them. For instance, which do you prefer – searching for your lost car keys, or finding your lost car keys?