A night at the museum

The information agency for this placement was Museum Victoria (MV) which comprises a number of sites including the Melbourne Museum (MM), the Immigration Museum (IM) and Scienceworks, but also runs distinctive stand-alone permanent exhibitions within the Melbourne Museum such as Bunjilaka, the Planetarium and Imax theatre. Each of these sites operates under a shared philosophy to enrich and inspire patrons in the areas of Humanities, the Natural Sciences, and History and Technology and each is uniquely supported through the MV library. The whole of Museum Victoria itself is an information agency; its collection includes everything in its vast assemblage both on exhibit and in storage, and its users are both its public patrons and the behind-the-scenes scientists, researchers and academics from across the world. Only one sixteenth of its collection is ever on exhibition yet its stored collection which includes everything from bones to live animals, and from millions of insects to a giant squid is used, and indeed loaned out for research, every day. Whilst this placement included an experience in every facet of the museum’s collection including the Melbourne Museum’s Discovery Centre (MMDC), the Immigration Museum’s Discovery Centre (IDC) and Museum Victoria’s main library, the focus of this report will be the MV library. The main users of the MV library are curatorial and research staff employed at MV, as well as other museum staff involved in day to day operations such as Customer Service Officers. More specifically, the users are characterised this way: Humanities staff: who regularly borrow monographs, purchase books and require cataloguing services, and require access to old and rare books. These are frequent users of the library loan service. Vertebrate Zoology staff: who most frequently utilise the Distributed Collection (DC) in their departmental library and regularly request book purchases and cataloguing. These are frequent users of journals for information purposes Invertebrate Zoology staff: who also most frequently utilise their DC and regularly request book purchases and cataloguing. They are also frequent users of journals and scientific periodicals for information purposes. Paleontology and Mineralology staff: who mostly utilise their departmental library and regularly request book purchases, journals and periodicals for information purposes. Museology staff: who mainly use the collection for reference purposes. They occasionally request reference lists on museology and design then make selections to peruse from this list. With some regularity, external patrons such as university lecturers, Masters students or PhD candidates, scientific researchers, or members of other museums locally or from abroad will request access to books in the MV collection. Although not a public library, this can be facilitated by a paid reciprocal interlibrary loan arrangement with that institution as per the MV loans policy. As the library’s holdings is accessible via Trove, there is a constant stream of requests from outsiders by external researchers. In general, members of the public to not have access to this interlibrary loan service Aspects of its collection has been made available for public use at the IDC and the MMDC to assist with public queries, however generally speaking, only a small portion of its collection of approximately 30,000 titles is accessible in this way and all are for reference use only. This library is distinguished by its comprehensive Natural History collection, its unique assortment of scientific journals dating back to the early nineteenth century, and by its collection of rare seminal texts in the natural sciences. However, unlike its public exhibits, the MV library is not just a collection for posterity and interest. Its main focus is for current daily use in the natural history, geology, paleontology, indigenous material, history, technology, and museology areas. The current scope of its collection includes over 28,000 monographs reflecting both the past and present interest of the museum and approximately 1400 periodical titles (mostly historical) with approximately 200 current subscriptions. Despite the majority of the collection being housed in compactuses in a warehouse type facility, the museum still has space issues which means that a large number of titles (both periodical and monograph) have had to be relocated to external storage facilities. This does not make them inaccessible but it does mean there are processes involved in accessing these titles and adds another dimension to the librarian’s role. There is also a limited range of microfiche, audio-cassette, video and DVD in the collection which are interfiled into the general collection. Interestingly, only a very small number of eBooks and eJournals featured in the museum’s current collection (approximately 75 while I was there). However the aim is to increase this size while exploring ways to facilitate accessibility and investigate the best platforms on which to deliver these. The MV collection also includes a collection of pamphlets that support current and future research projects, many of which are unique to MV. The Distributed Collection refers a collection that is housed outside of the main library. For example, hundreds of titles in the Vertebrate and Invertebrate Zoology sections are housed in those two departments to facilitate access to users. The collections for public reference at the MMDC and IDC include material aimed at helping staff and the public answer any questions pertinent to the services at each centre. Finally, its collection includes a very sizable and distinguished assortment of rare books dating back to the nineteenth century including historical ledgers, scientific expedition accounts and books which are of particular significance to the development of the city of Melbourne and the state of Victoria. The MV library’s objective is to ensure that the information needs of curators and researchers are met. Since the library is not set up for public access and the compactuses makes browsing a challenge (particularly when some titles are stored externally), an important aspect of the librarian’s job is to ensure that the catalogue is satisfactorily maintained and that online browse-ability is facilitated. The MV library uses Voyager as its OPAC which is linked and powered by the State Library of Victoria. Newly acquired titles are promoted online through the MV library webpage and weekly blogs, while a small display of new books is featured near the MV library office. However this office is not frequently visited by staff so this display has limited potential to promote new titles. Whilst some curators and researchers will indeed browse the actual shelves, I am told that typically users know what they want and simply request it via direct email to the library team. The title is then physically located on behalf of the borrower and sent to the user via the internal mail system. When outsiders request a title, this is facilitated using a reciprocal interlibrary loan system which staff can also use to borrow from common lenders outside MV. Another feature of the MV library is its Pop-up libraries in staffrooms at the MM and Science works, the objective being to promote the MV library given its limited public accessibility, and to support staff learning about exhibits, especially Customer Service Officers whose knowledge of the museum’s subject areas may be more limited. Technology featured at a rudimentary level at the MV library. In essence, technology is used to catalogue the collection using Voyager as their OPAC, and to facilitate interlibrary loans. Increasingly, however, technology is being introduced in a number of critical areas: to digitise their collection of old and rare books in order to preserve them and to increase their accessibility to outsiders, and, to address space and storage limitations by way of transitioning to eBooks and eJournals. At this point in time, I’m told that a freeze on State Government funding has impacted the museum’s ability to dedicate library staff to properly exploring which eResource platforms best suit the MV library, to changing a culture of reliance on print books, and to training MV library patrons on how to use eBooks from their desktop and mobile devices. Similarly, funding restrictions has meant that the digitisation of important and sought after old or rare collections depends on volunteers. By contrast to the resources offered at my school library, websites, online databases and Web 2.0 technologies were not part of the MV library information culture nor offered as part of a pathfinder via a lib-guide or similar. Insofar as the MV library’s role is to purchase, catalogue and provide access to titles that its users need, the library fulfills its role well. However, the current scope of the collection which consists predominately of printed materials limits accessibility and makes retrieving information slow and labor intensive. For example, many journals are now housed off site. Accessing a journal can take several days and does not allow for browsing content. The user must know exactly what they want including the month, volume and issue to order the material. Transitioning to eResources will address this in part. The MV library’s reticence to direct users to credible websites and online information sources, and to have the ability to organise and promote such resources on a lib-guide or equivalent seriously impedes its ability to provide currency in its repertoire of resources that it unnecessarily limited to print monographs. The MV library’s lack of a physical presence underpins need for an even stronger online presence. Also, in a school library, Teacher Librarians collaborate much more closely with teachers in order to source materials that support their curriculum. There is also an expectation that TLs understand the requirements of the Australian Curriculum and that they will proactively build their collection accordingly. The information agency at MV played a more passive role, responding to demand from experts rather than actively sourcing for the collection themselves. This placement involved three main areas of the museum; the Melbourne Museum’s Discovery Centre (MMDC), the Immigration Museum’s Discovery Centre (IDC) and Museum Victoria’s main library. Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre: Activities included orientation of the MMDC’s website and attending to emails from the public, the promotion of NAIDOC week through a book display in the MMDC’s distributed collection, assisting patrons with queries about the MMDC Collection both in person and online via the MV MMDC blog comments section, the creation of a new hands-on Indigenous topical display for MMDC patrons for NAIDOC week including aboriginal artefacts with corresponding information sheets, attending staff meetings and lectures by curators & research candidates, attending tours of the current exhibits, and attending tours of collections not accessible to the public such as the entomology collection, the marine biology collection and the exhibit preparations department where animals were taxidermied. Activities here included familiarisation of the IDC’s website and its links to external websites such as the public records office in order to assist visitors with their immigration and shipping enquiries, to familiarise myself with the MV library’s collection of migration monographs, to take a tour of the IM and become familiar with the exhibits, and finally to appraise and deselect titles from the IDC collection in order to address limited space issues. Activities included orientation with the MV library’s intranet on Musenet, learning about the processes involved in facilitating interlibrary loans, familiarisation with the MV library OPAC, attending to staff requests by searching the catalogue for titles, locating these in the compactuses and sending these to staff in the internal mail, shelving, checking in newly arrived journals onto the system, sourcing titles for, and developing an annotated bibliography for the Education and Activities team looking to rejuvenate the Children’s Gallery (see Appendix 1) and writing a blog on the Book of the Week for the MV Library Blog. The most involved of all these activities were the de-selection project at the IDC and the annotated bibliography at the MV library. The de-selection of titles from the IDC was prompted by the issues of space which is facing the MV library as a whole. In all, about 100 titles were weeded from the collection based on a set criteria and in accordance with the MV library’s collection policy. De-selecting titles from a collection whose inherent value is historical material was challenging. Most of the de-selected material was cross-checked on Trove to ascertain how prolific or rare the title was or whether the material was now digitally available online at another institution. Books in a very poor condition were de-selected on the basis that new editions could be purchased whilst others were retained despite their poor condition because they were otherwise unavailable. The compiling of the annotated bibliography for the Children’s Gallery at the MM involved firstly visiting the gallery space to gauge its purpose, and attending a lecture by MV curator Padmini Sebastian who had just returned from a tour of the award winning Children’s Museum at the National Museum in Copenhagen. The bibliography was to be a list of current MV monographs that could inform curators of ways to improve the space, increase patronage, and promote early learning. The list was extended to include websites and online scholarly articles on the latest research on children’s museum spaces and the impact of spaces on learning in children. It was very interesting to be in a library whose function was so different to my own library experiences, both professionally as a TL in a school library, but also as a masters student whose entire interaction with the library has been online. The most obvious differentiating features of the MV library compared to a school library was the unique nature of its clientele, its glaring lack of fiction, its confined accessibility and limited borrow-ability, and its method of warehousing its collection. Whilst the MV library appeared to effectively service the needs of its users, the very limited range of eResources and lack of headway for introducing them to users amounted to a real deficit in an otherwise brilliant institution. For an organisation that prides itself on being progressive, this was startling, and more so in light of the fact that MV is dealing with limited space issues. The digitisation of its collection and the embracing of eBooks and ePeriodicals is a matter of urgency for MV. The ability to utilise credible websites and online databases and digitised materials is a matter of priority for any 21st century information agency if it means to embrace new and emerging ways of collecting, disseminating and engaging with information, and I felt that the MV library needed to move in this direction. Otherwise, this was an inspiring and eternally fascinating information agency to be a part of. As an educator I found the MMDC’s hands-on learning opportunities in particular a really powerful way to arouse the curiosity of patrons of all ages. Where the library was closed, the Discovery Centre was open and engaged purposefully with the public. Curious patrons could engage with the exhibits, read books and magazines from the Distributed Collection, and have learning conversations with Discovery staff who were entomologists and palaeontologists among other things. I was also pleasantly surprised by the level of older museum goers who visited the Discovery Centre. Whilst many were accompanying parents who surprised themselves by becoming even more engaged in the exhibits than their kids, many older patrons came in especially, knowing that this was a point of contact with museum experts. In this sense, the MMDC became a place for dialogue between experts rather than just place for children to learn and discover. These kinds of interactions made the MV experience unique; the Discovery Centre gave the Museum a human face and, by way of its experts, offered patrons really valuable human resources. This was one aspect of the information agency that I felt I could take back to the school library and consider implementing. References: Museum Victoria. (2014). Retrieved from Museum Victoria: http://museumvictoria.com.au/ National Museum Copenhagan. (2014). Retrieved from The Children's Museum: http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/childrens-museum-at-the-national-museum-gdk443624