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Looking historically at Australia, the people have been early adopters of technology when it has seemed to make sense, hence the excellent coverage for telephony in a relatively short span of time. More recently, Australia has ranked telecommunications as a high priority for development, given its importance as a major economic resource in the business world. The country has really taken networking to heart in a very practical way.
Australians tend to be user (service)-oriented, which has lead to a large number of joint ventures between libraries and experts, e.g. academic staff in universities. Visitors from overseas often comment that, at least in the case of academic institutions, Australian libraries are more the "Web instigators" than in the US, where IT departments have tended to lead the way.
Given its relative geographic isolation and the fact that so many of its inhabitants have ancestry "offshore", there is very much a global view regarding resources. This has accelerated the development of a unified national network: Telstra Internet (formerly AARNet or the Australian Academic Research Network).
With the recognition of the necessity to meet the needs of a population with a wide geographical spread as well as to be a player in the Pacific Rim region, the Australian government has encouraged distance learning initiatives. This has led to a large quantity of coursework provided via the Internet. At the same time serious discussions have started on the feasibility of implementing the concept of the "virtual university", whereby whole courses/programs can be delivered via the World Wide Web.
The Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA) has just commissioned a study on the role of major media in education as part of the strong focus in the educational sector on multimedia and the Web. DEETYA has provided some major funding to the Australian [University] Vice-Chancellors' Committee over the past few years, which has led to a number of worthwhile initiatives.
On the one hand, in the area of electronic publishing, the Australian Humanities Review is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary electronic journal published every ten weeks. On the other hand, the JEDDS (Joint Electronic Document Delivery Software) Project has undertaken ground breaking work in identifying and developing international standards relevant to electronic document delivery.
As readers will observe in the following articles, libraries in Australia are very keen to be at the forefront of technological developments.
Readers may find it useful to consult a map of Australia which indicates the states and major cities mentioned in the following articles.
EPICentre - The Electronic Publishing Innovations Centre
Focuses on the innovative work being done in investigating document models and document-type definitions for electronic publishing.
Establishing a Regional Electronic Library System on the North Coast of New South Wales
Focuses on the challenges of bringing a variety of networked resources to a large geographical region.
Electronic Information Services for a Developing University : Local, State and National Initiatives
Not only looks at some interesting initiatives at USQ but also provides a perspective for the national context.
"Connecting a Continent," First Netcom Daily E-Mail, v. 2 (5): 21 Jan 1997
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