(23 Feb 2021) Facebook Inc. reached a deal with the Australian government to restore news pages to the social media company’s platform, following a five-day suspension because of a disagreement over payment for content. Facebook removed news from its platform in Australia last week, as legislation that would effectively require Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to pay traditional…
Google is fighting against Australian legislation to pay news publishers while signing an agreement to pay French publishers. What’s the difference? (26 Jan 2021) Search Engine Journal has been reporting on the ongoing fight between Google and Australia regarding the News Media Bargaining Code. Confusion ensued when Google continued to disagree with pending legislation that would force…
(12 Jan 2021) CRRC Corporation Limited, one of the world’s largest rail transportation equipment companies, has delivered more than 575 non-fiction books that introduce China from various aspects to Melbourne in Australia last December. The delivery marks the kickoff of CRRC’s China Bookshelf project (China Bookshelf), which aims to promote cultural exchanges between China and Australia and to create an inclusive community with…
(23 Nov 2020) A new project at the University of Melbourne is trying to save old Australian books from being lost to history, by bringing together authors and libraries to create digital ebook versions of older works. In what could be a world-first, the project will also contribute to data collection that will allow…
(30 Oct 2020) From an announcement of ALIA: ALIA is saddened to learn that RMIT has informed its students of plans to close its Master of Information Management course. This course has been highly regarded in Australia, producing quality graduates who have contributed considerably to the library and information services sector, and to academic…
(27 October 2020) The Fairfield local government area is hoping to introduce the Libraries After Dark program, first trialled in Victoria, to its communities. Marie Saliba from Core Community Services, which operates in south-west Sydney and represents the local communities in the area said: “There aren’t as many options for families that are away…
(6 Oct 2020) From ALIA: Tonight’s federal budget, as anticipated, provided an unprecedented level of government spending aimed at jobs and recovery. By putting money into businesses and cash into people’s pockets, the government is banking on Australia emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic in better shape than other national economies. While there remain…
(8 Sept 2020) International Literacy Day today marks the launch of the first ever comprehensive study of school library resourcing and staffing. Commissioned by the School Library Association of SA (SLASA), the School Libraries in South Australia 2019 Census surveyed South Australia’s public, private and Catholic schools to better understand the links between library programs and critical skills…
(12 Aug 2020) From Guardian: When Melbourne’s Yarra Plenty regional libraries first went into lockdown in March, shut the doors and left the remaining unborrowed books on their shelves, staff were sent home with a phone… So the library staff pulled from their database the phone number of every library member over the age of…
(29 Jul 2020) More than 600 academics from 36 Australian universities and members of the academic community have signed an open letter to federal and state education ministers calling for a return to a more democratic, cost-effective and functional structure for Australia’s universities. Australian universities are in crisis. Large-scale redundancies are announced almost daily, with estimates of up to 21,000…