The author looks at the decision by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to terminate many print publications, such as state and territory yearbooks, now that their strategy is to go 'all-electronic'

Weaver, Belinda

University of Queensland eSpace

4Online Currents -  Vol 17 No (5) June 2002
YEARBOOKS RIP                       by Belinda Weaver
The online availability of Australian Bureau of Statistics
data via the AusStats initiative is a wonderful asset for
libraries and for members of the public who want to find
and use statistical data.  If the print publication ‘walked’ or
got reshelved in the wrong box or folder, having as back-
up the option of printing out from the Web-based version
was of considerable relief to both librarian and customer.
But does the benefit of ‘always available online’ outweigh
the disadvantages of the loss of print?  I don’t think so.
ABS’s termination of print publications, a seemingly natural
consequence of their ‘all-electronic from 2002’ publishing
strategy, is not a good news story – for libraries, for anyone. 
From now on, all ABS publications will need to be
accessed online (at http://www.abs.gov.au).  This pushes 
a lot of extra work – time taken to connect, search time,
document download time – on to computer networks,
especially for libraries that are heavy
users of AusStats.  It also increases the
range of skills needed to see and use
publications.  Working from the ABS
catalogue, most library staff can locate 
a print publication by number.  Finding
the identical publication online is not 
as straightforward. 
You have to know how best to get in,
and it can take a few false starts to find
the easy pathway – locating the online catalogue 
of publications, and going through to the numbered 
series from there. 
Once there, it takes more than one or two clicks to get 
to the desired publication.  Another obstacle is their
availability only in Portable Document Format (PDF).  
Most librarians have got to grips with the Adobe Acrobat
software by now, having met it all over the place, but not
every customer will be as knowledgeable.  Sure, they can
go to the Adobe web site and pick up a free copy to
download, but how easy is that for people who are 
not very tech savvy? 
Some of the time series data is in spreadsheet or table
format – again, the onus is on the consumer to have, or 
be prepared to get, the necessary software on his or her
own computer to be able to use the data.  This is fine for
the free Adobe Acrobat program, not so good with Excel
spreadsheets, which are part of Microsoft’s suite of
expensive Office programs.  In addition, these are not 
the only formats required by ABS.  
It is possible to search for data online at ABS, but returns
are not always as successful as they might be.  When
looking for Labour Force, a named publication, I found
results from the ABS Annual Report and other materials
grouped under Themes before finding Labour Force, the
publication, around the mid-twenties mark in the results.
There were more than 100 hits for that phrase.  Confusing?
Definitely.  It really is easier to use the print publication to
find the catalogue number of the desired publication first
and then go to that online. 
Now many of the state yearbooks have fallen victim to 
the ABS axe, and this is a much more serious issue for
libraries.  When Labour Force morphed into an electronic
publication, it was still the same thing.  You had to pay 
to print it out yourself, but it looked like the print one.  
It could be used in the same way.  The data it contained
was the same, so like could be compared to like. 
However, that won’t happen with the yearbooks.  ABS 
did a lot of work compiling the state yearbooks.  Data was
gathered from a range of sources and put together in one
publication.  Now that work has been deemed too costly,
and only New South Wales and Victoria will be lucky
enough to get state yearbooks in print this year. 
Queensland’s yearbook was cancelled
earlier this year, after a production
history dating back to 1937 in its present
format, and even earlier as Queensland
annual statistics.  Poor sales for the 2001
edition were blamed for the cancellation,
according to an ABS spokeswoman 
who also said that “the information
contained in the Queensland Year Book
was still available, but scattered across about 40
government agencies.” 
And that’s the problem.  The yearbooks provided the
invaluable service of gathering, sorting and presenting
data from a range of sources.  Who will be expected to
do that work now?  The customer?  The librarian?  It’s one
thing to pass on the cost of printing to end users – it is
something else again to expect them to be analytic
statisticians as well. 
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie criticised the yearbook’s
cancellation in February as “absolutely outrageous” and
said he would protest to ABS.  Peter Spearritt, Director of
the Brisbane Institute and author of the 1971 study, Sydney
at the Census: a Social Atlas, also slammed the move in 
an opinion piece, New Year, No Yearbook, issued by the
Institute on 20 February (http://www.brisinst.org.au/
resources/spearritt_peter_ yearbook.html ).
He said: “The primary motive for posting the statistics on
the Web is understandable and apparently sensible.  It is
much cheaper than print and paper, and much easier to
change.  The drawback is that many sites, from ABS to the
Tax Office, are now loaded with statistics, but creating the
summary tables, explanatory comments and analytical
treatments at the heart of Commonwealth and state
yearbooks looks like becoming a relic of the 20th century.”  
While the ABS does present some data in new ways, for
example, city social atlases based on figures from the five-
yearly census collections, other statistical analyses must be
6Online Currents -  Vol 17 No (5) June 2002
paid for, despite the fact that ABS already has the data on
file and has the staff with the knowhow to manipulate it.
Librarians don’t have those skills.  However, increasingly
we may be expected to help users find statistics that we
could once have pointed to in a book across an array of
agencies and departments.   
It’s worthy lobbying about. 
Belinda Weaver is a librarian and author, whose book
Catch the Wave, on finding good quality information 
on the Internet, will be published in 2002.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I’m a big fan of Online Currents and often glean great bits
of information - especially news on Web sites that I can
often incorporate into our Intranet.  Today I was reading
your (Jonathan Jermey’s) Internet Chat article with
interest, especially the Hermes Chat as I thought maybe it
could have applications within our organisation.  I typed
in the URL you gave and started reading the Instructions,
but when I started reading the “Last 20 lines of current
chat” - looks like it was dated 13/5/02 around 5.00pm, I
was horrified and embarrassed with what I read (or tried
not to read) - I’ve never been to a sex chat room before!
Disappointment!  I thought I can’t really risk telling my
Intranet users about this site now if that’s the type of
content they might see – it doesn’t look very business
like!  I guess you can’t predict what level of language will
be used on these things, and it just takes a few stupid
people to spoil it all for the rest of us - as you were
saying, it has potential for business use without the need
for extra software or joining Yahoo, so I was keen to have
a look at it.
Oh well - just thought you might like to know my
experience.  Depending on when you read this message,
and if and when you next logon to Hermes, you may not
see the same conversation I saw on Hermes Chat - if so
you’ll be one of the fortunate ones!
Michele Ritchie
Library & Information Resources Manager
AGAL
Jonathan Jermey’s
reply:
I’ve never encountered sex chat on the Hermes Web site,
but I’m not too surprised. Public facilities are inherently
uncontrollable. The philosophy behind the Internet was 
to make a network on which everyone would have 
equal access and equal rights, whether what they wanted
to do was high-minded and altruistic or frivolous and 
self-serving. There have been several privately operated
networks, with stringent rules and restrictions, which 
set out to compete with the Internet. None of them 
have succeeded. Open access is a precondition for
vigorous growth, strong debate and individual liberty. 
In other words, Internet porn is cross-subsidising your
business e-mail.
I actually find it cheering that a high-tech system built
with military funding and designed for scientific purposes
should have been subverted to the pursuit of money,
laughter and sex. It shows the indomitableness of human
nature. But as I mentioned in my article, private chat
systems are relatively easy to set up - although not always
to control.       
Jon Jermey
BARANI WEB SITE OF SYDNEY’S
ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
The City of Sydney has developed the Barani Web site
(http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/barani) to
showcase the Aboriginal history of the city.  Barani,
meaning “yesterday”, is an Aboriginal word of the Eora
people, the original inhabitants of the Sydney region.
A prototype of the site was created in 2000.  It has
now been redeveloped using the colours and
textures of the Harbour and local rock carvings as
the inspiration for the design.  The Web site
contains text, images and audio features, a time line, and
a glossary with an interactive map of place names in the
city.  The site also includes a database of source material
on the history of Sydney’s Aboriginal people, accessible
by person, organization or theme.
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SUPER SEARCHING BUSINESS BOOK
The tenth title in Information Today’s Super Searchers
series has recently been published.  Entitled Super
Searchers Make it on their Own: Top Independent
Information Professionals Share Their Secrets for
Starting and Running a Research Business, the book is
by Suzanne Sabroski (ISBN: 0-910965-59-5).  The
author interviewed 11 successful research
entrepreneurs for the book, asking them to share
their strategies for getting started in business,
developing a niche, finding clients, doing the
research, networking with peers, and staying up to date
with Web resources and technologies.  Readers who are
inspired to look at a career in information broking after
reading Liz Edol’s recent article, Swimming Not Sinking,
should find this interesting reading.
N
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Yearbooks RIP

http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:10649/bw_olc_17_5_02.pdf

Yearbooks RIP

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