The Children’s Book Council of Australia act branch

3 Access

3.1 AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature

The Lu Rees Archives (the University of Canberra) is a partner in the AustLit project, along with nine other tertiary institutions and the National Library of Australia. This national project provides access to a web-based index of over 526,000 records of works (books, articles, reviews, criticisms etc) and more than 90,000 records of agents (authors, illustrators, publishers, reviewers etc), all relating to Australian literature (October 2006 figures). Each institution adds and maintains their own records, and each institution is responsible for particular publications. The Lu Rees Archives is responsible for the children’s literature section, and so indexes some of the journals that relate to this.

In 2001, 20 author and illustrator profiles were created to enhance AustLit records. In 2006, Workshops were held on October 9-11, for three hours per day with the aim of creating or updating 20 AustLit biographical profiles. There were eight volunteers who spent 47 hours creating 22 profiles. This time includes the creation of material for the workshop, gathering biographical sources, files and other material and replacing these upon conclusion of the workshop.

3.2 Adding Records to AustLit

The Administrative Officer undertook AustLit indexing training each week during February and March 2006. Approximately five hours a week are usually spent adding and amending records on AustLit.

Below is a table outlining which journals have been indexed since February 2006.

Journal	Vol & Iss
Classroom	25 (4)
Dromkeen Bulletin	6 (4), 9 (3-4), 10 (4), 11 (3)
English in Australia	142 (Autumn 2005), 143 (Spring 2005), 144 (Summer 2005), 41 (1) 2006
Magpies	20 (3-5)
The Newsletter of the Australian Centre for Youth Literature	3, Oct 2004; 1, May 2005; 2, July 2005; 3, Nov 2005
Papers	15 (1)

In addition to the journals, other relevant works such as theses and reports are also indexed.

It is part of the Administrative Assistant’s role to index the new books of the Archives once they have been catalogued.

Between February and October 2006, Gaynor Evans added or amended: 20 agents and 324 works.

3.3 Facilities

The Library has generously provided a new printer for the Lu Rees Archives, for which we are most grateful.

The Library is scheduled for renovations in the near future. The location and space for the Lu Rees Archives remains the same, with the exception that our two storage rooms, presently opposite the Lu Rees suite of rooms, will now be located in the basement of the Library. Material will be housed, along with the Library’s own records, in secure storage with environmental controls. We are pleased that the Archives is included in the Library’s plans for renovations, and view this as a natural consequence of our 25-year valuable relationship with the Library. Renovations are likely to result in some of the collection being stored during the period of renovation.

4 Services to Clients

4.1 Clients

There has been a steady flow of visitors to the Lu Rees Archives this year, including authors, illustrators, donors, students, researchers, valuers, relatives, an indexer and a biographer.

As the Archives was not officially staffed from 9^th December 2005 until 13^th February 2006, there were no face to face visits during this time. During these weeks email and telephone requests were either dealt with as soon as practicable, or were deferred until the Administrative Officer and the Collections Development Manager resumed duties.

In March Dr Jessie Huang, an academic from National Yulin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan spent two weeks in the Archives conducting research on ways to promote cross-cultural knowledge of Australia, with particular reference to Australian picture books.

Author Nadia Wheatley was the 2006 May Gibbs Fellow and visited the Archives in March, as did author Jackie French.

Illustrator Gaye Chapman visited in April.

In May students from the ‘Writing for Young People’ course at UC visited, as did journalist and author Patricia Clarke. Patricia is writing an article on Lu Rees for the Australian Dictionary of Biography and came to the Archives to conduct research for this project.

Brendan Dahl, Education Officer at the National Library of Australia, visited in June to talk with Belle about possible collaborative projects. Also in June, author Jeri Kroll visited from South Australia.

Artist Caroline Magerl and her husband Mark visited in August, and we were lucky enough to view some drafts of a project she is working on. Also in August, authors Maureen McCarthy, Prue Mason, Hazel Edwards, Scot Gardner, Anne Bell and Katie (KJ) Taylor were all in Canberra as part of the ACT Writers Festival. These writers, along with approximately 45 members of the community, attended the Lu Rees Archives Open Afternoon which was held on 25^th August.

August was a particularly busy month for visitors. The Archives also conducted a tour for a group of students who were visiting from the Aichi Shukutoku University in Japan. They were accompanied by Robyn Keech, University of Canberra lecturer from the School of Languages, International Studies and Tourism.

In September approximately 20 students and their teacher from the Children’s Literature course at Hawker College, ACT, visited and were given a tour of the Archives. They were able to view manuscripts and artworks, and learn something of the process of creating a picture book, and of the collaboration between author, illustrator, editor and publisher.

Also in September author Paul Collins visited.

In October we were surprised and delighted when David Rees, a grandson of Lu Rees, arrived at the Archives for a quick and unannounced visit. He had never been before, and was genuinely delighted at the manner in which Lu’s vision was still being carried out today.

In addition to these rather special face to face visits, there have been frequent ad-hoc visits by staff, students and the general public researching for study or for personal interest. In all, face to face visits for the twelve months to October this year have totalled 91, including groups. There have been 32 email requests for information, and 4 research enquiries by telephone.

Headings for the table ‘Services to Clients’ as included in Appendix 4 are explained below:

Month/Year - Month and year the request was received

Format of Request: - the medium by which the Archives received the request

• 
  Form - Client filled out a ‘Closed Access Form’ available from the Information Desk at the Library;
  
• 
  Visit - Undertook research work at the Lu Rees Archives while Lu Rees staff was present.
  
• 
  Telephone or post – Query received either by telephone or post
  
• 
  E-mail - E-mailed the archives when visiting the Lu Rees Archives homepage.
  

Nature of Request - was the request for study, research or personal.

Clients - persons using the Lu Rees Archives.

• 
  Affiliation: Whether the clients are local, national or international, and from what institution, if any.
  
• 
  Number: How many times the client came to the Lu Rees Archives.
  

Time/Hrs - How much time was spent completing request (expressed in hours and minutes)

Material Used - What resources were used to complete request.