Letter from the Director

Greetings,

Welcome to the first issue of the Informit Bulletin for 2011. In many parts of the region it has been a most traumatic quarter year. Cyclone Yasi hit Northern Queensland, many parts of Australia suffered severe flooding, and powerful and devastating earthquakes hit New Zealand and Japan. Many RMIT staff responded by contributing to charitable causes and RMIT Publishing has made a small but practical contribution to New Zealand’s University of Canterbury whereby we are providing free access to Informit databases so students and academics can still use relevant resources whilst the library is recovering. We wish everyone affected by these events our heartfelt best wishes.

January is a holiday for most Australians, but business continued as usual in our office. Early February saw us attending the Information Online conference in Sydney where we had the opportunity to meet many customers and delegates. The mood was upbeat, the weather was perfect, and since then we’ve been busy following up on various meetings.

Earlier this year, RMIT Publishing became the first electronic publisher to be connected to the Australian Access Federation and attain Shibboleth compliance for the Informit databases (more details below). This is in keeping with our strategy to increase ease of access for end users.

As announced in the last issue, RMIT Publishing scored another first when we partnered with the Australian Council for the Arts to digitise back issues of key Australian literary magazines and journals. We have succeeded since then in acquiring the rights for several of these titles and will be making more progress announcements in the coming months. Our strategy remains to be the natural home for local content that is not easily available elsewhere – supporting content providers within Australia and the surrounding region by exposing their research materials to the rest of the world.

Recently, my colleague Katherine Jones, Stakeholder Relations Executive, and I visited several university librarians around Australia. We appreciated the direct feedback received on ‘the state of the nation’ for each institution as well as feedback on RMIT Publishing’s strategies. We continue to engage as closely as possible with our customers and content providers to ensure we are aligned with all market sectors and encourage you to contact us with any ideas or suggestions to improve our services and product offerings.

As I write this, I am preparing to leave for the UK to attend the UK Serials Group Conference in Harrogate, 1-4 April. This is a major industry conference which attracts global speakers and delegates, and my attendance is part of our strategy to find new ways to engage in markets further afield.

I’d like to welcome a new staff member, Sebastiaan van Drongelen as our new Marketing Executive following Non Jenkins’ departure to a managerial role in a different industry. Non was instrumental in creating our new image and collateral. Sebastiaan joins us from various publishing houses in the Netherlands and is excited to be living in this glorious city.

In March, we farewelled two long-serving members of staff, Tina Argyros, Sales Executive and Deborah Ellis, Customer Service Officer. On behalf of all at RMIT Publishing, I thank them for their past work and wish them both much success in their new ventures.

Best regards,
Heather Crosbie
Director

Informit Collections update

Since our December issue we’ve added 47 distinct new resources to the Informit Collections, 18 of which were new journals for the Families & Society Collection. A selection of new titles are listed below – we will continue adding to these lists, shaping our Collections into even more valuable resources for the hardworking researchers at your organisations and institutions.

New Informit Families & Society Collection
    * » Australian Ageing Agenda (Intermedia Group)
    * » Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (Australian Academic Press)
    * » Communities, Children and Families Australia (Australian College for Child and Family Protection Practioners Inc.)
    * » Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand (Australia and New Zealand Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers)

Informit Health Collection
    * » ACORN Journal - A Journal of Perioperative Nursing in Australia (Cambridge Publishing)
    * » Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health, The (eContent Management Pty Ltd)
    * » Australian Health Review (CSIRO Publishing)
    * » Australian Journal of Primary Health (CSIRO Publishing)

Informit Humanities & Social Sciences Collection
    * » Early Education (Auckland University of Technology)
    * » Queensland History Journal (Royal Historical Society of Queensland)
    * » Social Work Review (Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers)

Informit Engineering Collection
    * » Australian Journal of Agricultural Engineering (Southern Cross Publishers)

Informit New Zealand Collection
    * » Social Work Review (Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers)

Informit TVNews
    * » 6.30pm with George Negus (Channel 10)

What's new?

Informit Shibboleth authentication went live in February. This allows for remote access using a single sign-on, making it easy for authenticated users of subscribing organisations to access Informit wherever they are and whatever device they may be using.

Heath Marks, Manager of the Australian Access Federation (AAF), which funded the project has been proud to announce that "Informit joins a growing list of valuable services available to AAF subscribers

Please note that this new site not only includes updated content from the previous Informit site, but also brings across all the content from the rmitpublishing.com.au website in order to make all product, partner and user support available from one convenient location. All links previously associated with the RMIT Publishing site have been redirected to the relevant pages on this new Informit site.

RMIT Publishing is delighted that four universities are already actively using this new feature. The addition of Shibboleth reinforces our commitment to offering more authentication methods for Informit while also keeping costs manageable and prices reasonable.

To find out more about Shibboleth authentication for Informit, visit http://www.informit.com.au/shibboleth.html

Do you have feedback? Let us know so we can continue to make Informit as useful and efficient as it can be: mailto:marketing@rmitpublishing.com.au

RMIT Publishing partners with the Australian Council for the Arts to preserve Australia's literary history

RMIT Publishing is partnering with the Australia Council for the Arts to digitise the archive of Australia's key literary magazines and journals. From poetry and prose to arts and public commentary these publications represent the memory of a nation. Covering many of the watershed issues in Australian society over the past 70 years, each has made a valuable contribution to Australian public discourse. Yet, in some cases, few print editions remain. RMIT Publishing will preserve these rare gems enabling future generations to benefit from their historical perspective.

Bringing together over 1,800 distinct issues coming from Australia's iconic literary publications from 1939 to 2011 and onwards, this valuable collection of primary resources will enable students and researchers across the world to access a definitive archive of Australian literary publishing.

RMIT Publishing is working with individual publishers to put in place the relevant licence agreements to make this possible. Confirmed participants include Quadrant, Island and Wet Ink as well as Meanjin (completed in 2010). This unique resource is expected to be available for worldwide sale in 2012. Watch this space for future updates on this project.

 

Informit Media & eBook surveys

RMIT Publishing would like to thank everyone who took part in our recent Informit Media and eBook surveys. Valuable information was gathered from the responses, and these will be used to further develop and improve our products and services.

Participants were offered the chance to win a gourmet hamper courtesy of RMIT Publishing. Congratulations to Rebecca Henson at ACU who won the Media survey prize, and Majella Pugh at the University of Queensland who won the eBook survey prize.

Missed out on the surveys, but have feedback on Informit products and services? We'd love to hear from you:mailto:marketing@rmitpublishing.com.au

A running start on 2011 events

Our 2011 calendar highlights our efforts to not only look after our existing relationships with customers, but seek new markets and raise the profile of Australasian research around the world.

ALIA Online in Sydney gave us the opportunity to meet with many familiar and new customers and delegates. In April and May we will be attending the AVETRA and TAFE Victoria conferences in Melbourne to highlight the value of our 100% full text databases, particularly TVNews, for TAFE students and teachers.

We have also been seeking out new markets internationally. Most recently, we sponsored the ANZSANA conference in Texas, USA, which brought together academics from all over the country whose focus lies in Australian and New Zealand research.

Following our partnership with Informatics India in 2010 to help raise our profile in India, in February we followed up leads by meeting with key decision makers at a number of universities and professional institutions, to offer presentations and discuss the benefits of Southern hemisphere research for the country.

Similarly, since teaming up with World Wide Information Services (WWIS) in South Africa, we have secured a customer base and will be attending the SANLiC conference in May to further strengthen our profile.

Currently, our Director Heather Crosbie is attending the UKSG conference in Harrogate to meet with delegates in the UK.

The Asia Pacific Online conference in Hong Kong presented us with the opportunity to further cultivate relationships in South East Asia, and highlight the value of contributing to the Collections of a reputable aggregator of Australasian research.

In June we will be promoting our Engineering Collection at IATUL, the largest Engineering conference in the world, which will be held this year in Poland.

Are you going to any of these conferences? Drop by our stand or set up a meeting with one of our staff: sales@rmitpublishing.com.au

See our full events calendar

Promoting Informit – Ideas Bank

We're here to help maximise usage of Informit databases so that you can get the most out of your subscription. Following our mail out of promotional packs to universities to support Orientation Week, we were delighted to receive so many requests for additional, free promotional materials – posters, flyers, search guides, bookmarks, web banners, and more.

A great idea!
Emma Shepheard-Walwyn, librarian at the Victoria University of Wellington, has included Informit Health bookmarks with all text packs that were mailed out to distance education students at the beginning of this year.

Do you have a great promotional idea that has helped drive usage at your library? Share it with us and we'll add it to our Ideas Bank: marketing@rmitpublishing.com.au

Another way we have been helping to drive usage of Informit is by helping our partners promote their content on Informit. By creating custom ad banners and articles for publications including HLA News, AJP: Australian Journal of Pharmacy, and the Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, we have continued to highlight the value of Informit resources for their readers and how easily they can be accessed.

Find out more about Training & Promotion, or request promotional materials for your library: marketing@rmitpublishing.com.au

RMIT English Worldwide – English language services for students & professionals

RMIT English Worldwide (REW), RMIT Publishing's sister company, is among Australia's most reputable English language centres. Established in 1968, it provides English language services for academic, business and industry purposes in Melbourne and through partner institutions around the globe. In addition to English for Academic Purposes, REW also delivers the RMIT Aviation English program and testing systems for pilots and air traffic controllers – a test endorsed by 23 nations.

Most recently, REW has welcomed two scholarship students from East Timor. Ms Joanita De Fatima and Ms. Gizela De Carvalho were awarded tuition scholarships to study REW's English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program in Melbourne. Both have come to REW under an agreement with the RMIT Globalism Research Centre as part of our engagement with RMIT University and its goals. The purpose of the scholarships is to enable East Timorese women to contribute in a more effective way to their communities as a result of enhanced understanding of English.

Find out more about REW's English language programs