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The June 2024 issue of the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association (JALIA) features two research papers, two research-in-practice papers, an information-in-practice paper, an obituary, and ten book reviews. One research paper examines the challenges and prospects of public library services in rural Australia, highlighting their value to communities. Another research paper focuses on codesigning public library spaces and the challenges in achieving genuine codesign. A research-in-practice paper discusses cataloguing Indigenous knowledge and the need for more accurate representations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Another research-in-practice paper explores the views and experiences of opera librarians. An information-in-practice paper presents a unique approach to a community literacy project in Kerala, India. The issue also includes an obituary for a dedicated librarian and various book reviews covering a range of topics. [Extracted from the article]

The Amazon forests act as a global reserve for carbon, have very high biodiversity, and provide a variety of additional ecosystem services. These forests are, however, under increasing pressure, coming mainly from deforestation, despite the fact that accurate satellite monitoring is in place that produces annual deforestation maps and timely alerts. Here, we present a proof of concept for rapid deforestation monitoring that engages the global community directly in the monitoring process via crowdsourcing while subsequently leveraging the power of deep learning. Offering no tangible incentives, we were able to sustain participation from more than 5500 active contributors from 96 different nations over a 6-month period, resulting in the crowd classification of 43,108 satellite images (representing around 390,000 km2). Training a suite of AI models with results from the crowd, we achieved an accuracy greater than 90% in detecting new and existing deforestation. These findings demonstrate the potential of a crowd–AI approach to rapidly detect and validate deforestation events. Our method directly engages a large, enthusiastic, and increasingly digital global community who wish to participate in the stewardship of the global environment. Coupled with existing monitoring systems, this approach could offer an additional means of verification, increasing confidence in global deforestation monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My favourites were the chapters on Metadata, cataloguing, linked data and the evolving ILS; Community resilience; Managing technology; and Advocacy. In her foreword, Diane Kelly from the University of Tennessee describes Hirsh's revised and updated third edition as 'a key foundational text for both aspiring information professionals in search of a comprehensive overview of the field and senior information professionals in search of contemporary insights and inspiration'. [Extracted from the article]

The Journal of the Australian Library & Information Association's first issue of 2024 includes a variety of research papers, research-in-practice papers, an information-in-practice paper, and an obituary. One research paper explores how teacher librarians can teach with and about generative artificial intelligence (GAI), emphasizing the role of teacher librarians in fostering critical and ethical use of these tools. Another research paper presents the results of a national survey indicating that library and information practitioners are confident in their research abilities. The research-in-practice papers discuss topics such as transitioning to a team approach in library services, perceptions of artificial intelligence among Filipino academic librarians, and a proposed knowledge organization system for Laos ethnic groups. An information-in-practice paper examines the implementation of a proactive chat widget at the University of Wollongong Library, which proved valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue also includes an obituary for Professor Michael J. Ramsden, a significant figure in the library and information professions. Additionally, the issue features book reviews covering various themes, including online instruction, cataloguing, and the internationalization of academic libraries. [Extracted from the article]

There is a growing recognition of the interdependencies among the supply systems that rely upon food, water and energy. Billions of people lack safe and sufficient access to these systems, coupled with a rapidly growing global demand and increasing resource constraints. Modeling frameworks are considered one of the few means available to understand the complex interrelationships among the sectors, however development of nexus related frameworks has been limited. We describe three open-source models well known in their respective domains (i.e. TerrSysMP, WOFOST and SWAT) where components of each if combined could help decision-makers address the nexus issue. We propose as a first step the development of simple workflows utilizing essential variables and addressing components of the above-mentioned models which can act as building-blocks to be used ultimately in a comprehensive nexus model framework. The outputs of the workflows and the model framework are designed to address the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OPACs range over libraries' internal records and because they are based on the MARC record format required by their library management systems, OPAC metadata is known and authoritative, whereas WSDS have to take whatever metadata they can access in order to build their indexes. Web-scale discovery services (WSDS) will therefore '... seem to remain limited, at least in current technological development, to being basic, start-up tools, apt for a first and univocal search and discovery of the available resources [resulting in] an unfinished information discovery activity'. [Extracted from the article]

The creation of crop type maps from satellite data has proven challenging and is often impeded by a lack of accurate in situ data. Street-level imagery represents a new potential source of in situ data that may aid crop type mapping, but it requires automated algorithms to recognize the features of interest. This paper aims to demonstrate a method for crop type (i.e., maize, wheat and others) recognition from street-level imagery based on a convolutional neural network using a bottom-up approach. We trained the model with a highly accurate dataset of crowdsourced labelled street-level imagery using the Picture Pile application. The classification results achieved an AUC of 0.87 for wheat, 0.85 for maize and 0.73 for others. Given that wheat and maize are two of the most common food crops grown globally, combined with an ever-increasing amount of available street-level imagery, this approach could help address the need for improved global crop type monitoring. Challenges remain in addressing the noise aspect of street-level imagery (i.e., buildings, hedgerows, automobiles, etc.) and uncertainties due to differences in the time of day and location. Such an approach could also be applied to developing other in situ data sets from street-level imagery, e.g., for land use mapping or socioeconomic indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using primary source material, contemporary accounts and personal recollection the author traces the emergence of the National Library of Australia’s confident view of itself as a library for all other Australian libraries, with a special responsibility for computer-based bibliographic control systems at the centre of national library cooperation. The paper focuses on the period 1968–1979, a time of unprecedented growth in library and information services – a time when the computers came. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Land cover derived from remotely sensed products is an important input to a number of different global, regional and national scale applications including resource assessments and economic land use models. During the last decade three global land cover datasets have been created, i.e. the GLC-2000, MODIS and GlobCover, but comparison studies have shown that there are large spatial discrepancies between these three products. One of the reasons for these discrepancies is the lack of sufficient in-situ data for the development of these products. To address this issue, a crowdsourcing tool called Geo-Wiki has been developed. Geo-Wiki has two main aims: to increase the amount of in-situ land cover data available for training, calibration and validation, and to create a hybrid global land cover map that provides more accurate land cover information than any current individual product. This paper outlines the components that comprise Geo-Wiki and how they are integrated in the architectural design. An overview of the main functionality of Geo-Wiki is then provided along with the current usage statistics and the lessons learned to date, in particular the need to add a mechanism for feedback and interaction as part of community building, and the need to address issues of data quality. The tool is located at geo-wiki.org. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There has been significant progress by individual Australian states in developing criteria for the delivery and improvement of their public library services. Queensland has a suite of standards and guidelines, with a rolling cycle of updates. New South Wales takes an evidence based approach, using data from its annual survey of public library activities to set targets for a select group of measures (standards), supported by guidelines for service delivery in key areas. The Queensland and NSW guidelines are informed by the work of the other, and by work elsewhere. In Victoria a framework and toolkit for self assessment and peer review has been developed to assist public libraries in meeting their service obligations and objectives. The Australian Library and Information Association (Alia) and the public library associations have a simple set of national standards and guidelines based on prior work. 'Beyond a quality service: strengthening the social fabric; standards and guidelines for Australian public libraries' was launched in April 2011. This paper reviews the national standards initiative and explains how the standards and guidelines might be applied to evaluating and continuously improving library services. It also comments on the characteristics of the evidence base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) has been identified as one of several key satellite-derived biophysical datasets. With multiple global FAPAR datasets now available and a lack of in-situ measurements and comparison studies in the far north, this study attempts to provide the reader with an indication of the performance of four global FAPAR datasets (MODIS, CYCLOPES, JRC and GLOBCARBON) over Northern Eurasia in the year 2000 via comparison. Within the year 2000 growing season, both the MODIS and CYCLOPES datasets recorded on average similar but substantially higher values than the JRC and GLOBCARBON datasets. Among three of the four datasets, a high level of agreement in deciduous broadleaf forests and croplands was observed. Largest disagreement occurred among needleleaf forests and grassland/shrubland. Potential reasons for discrepancies among the datasets include different retrieval methods, use of LAI and land cover, snow effects and others. Findings from this study and other published results suggest that overall, JRC best captures FAPAR over northern Eurasia in the year 2000. However, when considering individual landcover types, any one or more of the four products may be suitable. There exists a real need for more in-situ measurements in this region — the lack of such measurements makes evaluation extremely difficult. It appears that areas north of 60° urgently require further investigation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We have provided a framework for identifying least-cost sites for afforestation and reforestation and deriving carbon sequestration cost curves at a global level in a scenario of limited information. Special attention is given to country risk in developing countries and the sensitivity to spatial datasets. Our model results suggest that within 20 years and considering a carbon price of US$50/tC, tree-planting activities could offset 1 year of global carbon emissions in the energy sector. However, if we account for country risk considerations–associated with political, economic and financial risks–carbon sequestration is reduced by approximately 60%. With respect to the geography of supply, illustrated by grid-scale maps, we find that most least-cost sites are located in regions of developing countries such as the Sub-Sahara, Southeast Brazil and Southeast Asia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Global change issues are high on the current international political agenda. A variety of global protocols and conventions have been established aimed at mitigating global environmental risks. A system for monitoring, evaluation and compliance of these international agreements is needed, with each component requiring comprehensive analytical work based on consistent datasets. Consequently, scientists and policymakers have put faith in earth observation data for improved global analysis. Land cover provides in many aspects the foundation for environmental monitoring [FAO, 2002a. Proceedings of the FAO/UNEP Expert Consultation on Strategies for Global Land Cover Mapping and Monitoring. FAO, Rome, Italy, 38 pp.]. Despite the significance of land cover as an environmental variable, our knowledge of land cover and its dynamics is poor [Foody, G.M., 2002. Status of land cover classification accuracy assessment. Rem. Sens. Environ. 80, 185–201]. This study compares four satellite derived 1km land cover datasets freely available from the internet and in wide use among the scientific community. Our analysis shows that while these datasets have in many cases reasonable agreement at a global level in terms of total area and general spatial pattern, there is limited agreement on the spatial distribution of the individual land classes. If global datasets are used at a continental or regional level, agreement in many cases decreases significantly. Reasons for these differences are many—ranging from the classes and thresholds applied, time of data collection, sensor type, classification techniques, use of in situ data, etc., and make comparison difficult. Results of studies based on global land cover datasets are likely influenced by the dataset chosen. Scientists and policymakers should be made aware of the inherent limitations in using current global land cover datasets, and would be wise to utilise multiple datasets for comparison. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper is a selective review of recent publications, focused on the economic value of public and special libraries which are treated separately, since context and organisational objectives differ widely for different types of libraries. Those who wish to further explore this topic will find many studies into the social value of libraries which establish their general 'worth.' A good place to start is Roswitha Poll's examination of ways of assessing economic value, social value, and outcomes for literacy, information retrieval, and academic and professional success (Poll 2003). An extensive bibliography of earlier work is given in Fitch and Warner (1997). Promising methods of evaluating the economic benefits of libraries and expressing them in financial terms are at last emerging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws on information derived from the Census and from pupil records to explore the relationships between the backgrounds and GCSE performance of the 1998/99 GCSE cohort of pupils in an Inner London borough. It provides evidence of substantial differences between the backgrounds of pupils attending different schools and of a strong relationship between these differences and differences in the GCSE performance of schools. This is followed by discussion of the methodological implications of the use of Census data for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The final paper is Research-in-Practice paper and explores the B I Use of social media by academic libraries in Australia i b . Finally, there is also a Research-in-Practice paper describing the use of social media by academic libraries in Australia. We kick off 2023 with a rich issue consisting of diverse research papers that cover many aspects of Library and Information Science, including library history, library accessibility, library research and LIS education, and also a paper by a researcher and user of academic libraries detailing a complicated project about compiling sociology PhDs in Australia, which involved expert help from some amazing academic libraries and librarians. [Extracted from the article]

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses various reports within the issue on topics including public library developments in Australia, the communication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine information by public librarians, and embedded librarianship.

The article presents information about several reports published within the issue including one by Geoff Strempel on the contributions of public libraries to literacy, one by Nola Allen describing an early childhood literacy program developed by the State Library of Western Australia, and one by Regina Sutton regarding the implication of an aging population on library services.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Christine Mackenzie on exploring Web 2.0 capabilities in partnership with library users and another by Julie Sloan on workforce planning.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Peter Dobrovits on Internet searching and another by Marijana Bogdanovic and Graeme Johanson on improving access to online multicultural resources in an ethnically diverse community.

The article focuses on Warren Michael Horton, director general of the National Library of Australia commitment to help young librarians and his contribution to the Aurora Library Leadership Program. The contribution to the Festschrift is a lightly edited transcript of a short speech made at the celebration of Warren Horton's distinguished career held at and hosted by the National Library of Australia on 26 March 2004. Aurora is a Library Leadership Program modelled on the Library Leadership Institute at Snowbird and supported by the Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. Horton demonstrated the value of working together and the camaraderie and fun involved in supporting each other. He proved that librarianship is a deeply personal as well as a professional commitment. Through Aurora, Horton made a major contribution in identifying and developing young librarianship in both Australia and New Zealand. Aurora was the last professional concern, Horton relinquished, just days before he died.

The Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance, initiated and funded by Zurich Insurance, brings together NGO partners, academia and the private sector to help build flood resilience in communities across the globe. We highlight two innovative efforts of risk and resilience knowledge co-generation innovatively blending local knowledge with earth observation technology.Risk data is sparse in many vulnerable regions and global expert-generated models are often too coarse in terms of resolution. Participatory Vulnerability Capacity Assessment is a widely used tool to collect local risk and resilience information, yet not linked to digitised information. Combining such community-based participatory mapping processes with internet-based collaborative techniques, our approach digitises maps on disaster risk and community resources where locations of rivers, houses, infrastructure and shelters are usually hand-drawn providing critical information used by local stakeholders. Such new digital community maps, uploaded and overlaid with satellite imagery or OpenStreetMap as taken forward with collaborators in Nepal, Peru and Mexico, are richer in content, more accurate, and easier to update and share than conventional approaches. Understanding what builds resilience is fundamental to informing action, yet few systematic and large-scale efforts have systematically measured resilience.To this effect, the Alliance developed the Flood Resilience Measurement Framework for Communities (FRMC) to benchmark and track the underlying sources of resilience. The FRMC involves measuring a community's sources of resilience pre- and post-disaster, operationalised around 5 types of assets (human, natural, social, physical and financial) and their interactions. Resilience sources are qualitatively graded based on household surveys, community focus groups, expert informants, and other third-party sources. Sources are assessed by specially trained NGO experts embedded in communities, while data is collected globally via an integrated mobile and web-based system. Through an inclusive process and technology, the measurement framework and tool, rolled out globally in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the US to more than 100 communities, has helped communities and development partners make improved decisions on how to build resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented which discusses articles in the first issue of the journal in 2022 on topics including the National Library of Australia's oral history collection, a library student work placement program, and read-aloud programs for cancer patients.

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a key asset for tropospheric monitoring. Currently, GNSS meteorology relies primarily on geodetic-grade stations. However, such stations are too costly to be densely deployed, which limits the contribution of GNSS to tropospheric monitoring. In 2016, Google released the raw GNSS measurement application programming interface for smartphones running on Android version 7.0 and higher. Since nowadays there are billions of Android smartphones worldwide, utilizing those devices for atmospheric monitoring represents a remarkable scientific opportunity. In this study, smartphone GNSS data collected in Germany as part of the Application of Machine Learning Technology for GNSS IoT Data Fusion (CAMALIOT) crowdsourcing campaign in 2022 were utilized to investigate this idea. Approximately twenty thousand raw GNSS observation files were collected there during the campaign. First, a dedicated data processing pipeline was established that consists of two major parts: machine learning (ML)-based data selection and ionosphere-free Precise Point Positioning (PPP)-based Zenith Total Delay (ZTD) estimation. The proposed method was validated with a dedicated smartphone data collection experiment conducted on the rooftop of the ETH campus. The results confirmed that ZTD estimates of mm-level precision could be achieved with smartphone data collected in an open-sky environment. The impacts of observation time span and utilization of multi-GNSS observations on ZTD estimation were also investigated. Subsequently, the crowdsourced data from Germany were processed by PPP with the ionospheric delays interpolated using observations from surrounding SAPOS (Satellite Positioning Service of the German State Survey) GNSS stations. The ZTDs derived from ERA5 and an ML-based ZTD product served as benchmarks. The results revealed that an accuracy of better than 10 mm can be achieved by utilizing selected high-quality crowdsourced smartphone data. This study marks the first successful demonstration of high-precision ZTD determination with crowdsourced smartphone GNSS data and reveals success factors and current limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented of articles published in the journal including a paper on the potential of the Australian Indigenous language database AUSTLANG to enhance Australian Indigenous language identification, prestige in scholarly book publishing and its impact in publications in the humanities and social sciences, and Australian universities efforts to provide remote access for poor college students in rural and remote communities.

The article discusses the release of a report on business models for electronic (e)-book for public libraries from the American Library Association (ALA). The position of ALA is that the availability of e-book titles to the public need to be also available to libraries for lending. The ALA acknowledges that it is significant that libraries aggressively negotiate for the most flexible and favourable terms.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses the re-design of the publication, its academic credentials, and heritage collections in Australia.

The article highlights the Australian Library and Information Association, as it celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. Formed in August 1937 at the conference held at Albert Hall in Canberra, the association through the years has continued documenting progress in research and professional practice and stimulating discussion on issues relevant to libraries and librarianship. According to the author, the Association, this year, prioritizes membership growth, empowering and supporting groups, and education and workforce planning, all central to the next 70 years.

Critical knowledge gaps seriously hinder efforts for building disaster resilience at all levels, especially in disaster-prone least developed countries. Information deficiency is most serious at local levels, especially in terms of spatial information on risk, resources, and capacities of communities. To tackle this challenge, we develop a general methodological approach that integrates community-based participatory mapping processes, one that has been widely used by governments and non-government organizations in the fields of natural resources management, disaster risk reduction and rural development, with emerging collaborative digital mapping techniques. We demonstrate the value and potential of this integrated participatory and collaborative mapping approach by conducting a pilot study in the flood-prone lower Karnali river basin in Western Nepal. The process engaged a wide range of stakeholders and non-stakeholder citizens to co-produce locally relevant geographic information on resources, capacities, and flood risks of selected communities. The new digital community maps are richer in content, more accurate, and easier to update and share than those produced by conventional Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments (VCAs), a variant of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), that is widely used by various government and non-government organizations. We discuss how this integrated mapping approach may provide an effective link between coordinating and implementing local disaster risk reduction and resilience building interventions to designing and informing regional development plans, as well as its limitations in terms of technological barrier, map ownership, and empowerment potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opinion. Describes the author's experience of being a mentor at AIMA's Aurora Leadership Institute at Thredbo in November, 1995. His acceptance of an invitation as a mentor; Reasons for his acceptance; How materials were presented; Examples of concepts relevant to each session; Details of optional sessions; Comment about Aurora's success in its objectives.

The article reviews the web site BOOKish from Bookish LLC located at http://www.bookish.com/home.

Raw observations (carrier-phase and code observations) from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can now be accessed from Android mobile phones (Version 7.0 onwards). This paves the way for GNSS data to be utilized for low-cost precise positioning or in ionospheric or tropospheric applications. This paper presents results from data collection campaigns using the CAMALIOT mobile app. In the first campaign, 116.3 billion measurements from 11,828 mobile devices were collected from all continents. Although participation decreased during the second campaign, data are still being collected globally. In this contribution, we demonstrate the potential of volunteered geographic information (VGI) from mobile phones to fill data gaps in geodetic station networks that collect GNSS data, e.g. in Brazil, but also how the data can provide a denser set of observations than current networks in countries across Europe. We also show that mobile phones capable of dual-frequency reception, which is an emerging technology that can provide a richer source of GNSS data, are contributing in a substantial way. Finally, we present the results from a survey of participants to indicate that participation is diverse in terms of backgrounds and geography, where the dominant motivation for participation is to contribute to scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Involving members of the public in image classification tasks that can be tricky to automate is increasingly recognized as a way to complete large amounts of these tasks and promote citizen involvement in science. While this labor is usually provided for free, it is still limited, making it important for researchers to use volunteer contributions as efficiently as possible. Using volunteer labor efficiently becomes complicated when individual tasks are assigned to multiple volunteers to increase confidence that the correct classification has been reached. In this paper, we develop a system to decide when enough information has been accumulated to confidently declare an image to be classified and remove it from circulation. We use a Bayesian approach to estimate the posterior distribution of the mean rating in a binary image classification task. Tasks are removed from circulation when user-defined certainty thresholds are reached. We demonstrate this process using a set of over 4.5 million unique classifications by 2783 volunteers of over 190,000 images assessed for the presence/absence of cropland. If the system outlined here had been implemented in the original data collection campaign, it would have eliminated the need for 59.4% of volunteer ratings. Had this effort been applied to new tasks, it would have allowed an estimated 2.46 times as many images to have been classified with the same amount of labor, demonstrating the power of this method to make more efficient use of limited volunteer contributions. To simplify implementation of this method by other investigators, we provide cutoff value combinations for one set of confidence levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]