SPECIAL LIBRARIES

Training news

Since expanding our program of training and support to librarians and information professionals across all sectors, the Information Skills Program has been liaising with many different organisations around the country. These have included finance libraries, health libraries, Commonwealth, State and Local government libraries, government agency learning and development areas, and many other areas.

The following are a few of the organisations that have benefited from our training and information sessions: KMPG in Victoria and NSW; the Department of Local Government in Nowra, the NSW Department of Environment, Utility and Sustainability, NSW Government Business Education Network; the Australian Customs Service, Treasury, Australian National Audit Office, Australian Electoral Commission, Attorney-General's Department, & Australian Public Service Commission in the ACT, as well as Qld Health Epidemiologists, Qld Transport, Tourism and Local Government, Qld Spatial Information Council, Community Information South Australia, and many others.

If you are interested in discussing your ABS information needs with us contact the ISP National Manager.

With the upcoming release of Census 2006 data, Census information sessions for ISP clients are being planned in each state and territory. Check the Census web pages for further information over the next few months.


How to use a shorter URL for ABS products

Would you like to be able to refer to ABS products through a meaningful URL (Uniform Resource Locator)?

Do your clients access the same statistical products on a regular basis and need a shortcut to get to the latest release?

There is an alternative, shorter URL that can be used to access the latest statistical releases. These URLs can be created by following the pattern below, where only the catalogue number will need to be changed to access different products.

www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/xxxx.y (where xxxx.y is the ABS catalogue number)

Example of a shortened URL:
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0

Note: This shortened URL will always access the latest release of the product, and will not work for previous releases. Previous releases can easily be accessed via the "Past and Future Releases" tab once you have accessed the latest release.

A new Help document, outlining this process in more detail, has been released to our web site, see: Help: Use a shorter URL to access statistics.

Forthcoming releases

Housing and Infrastructure in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, Australia (cat. no. 4710.0) To be released 29 March 2007.
This release provides summary results from the 2006 Community Housing and Infrastructure Needs Survey (CHINS). It includes a wide range of topics, including details of current housing stock, management practices and financial arrangements of Indigenous organisations that provide housing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; and details of housing and related infrastructure. Also details other facilities available in discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities such as transport, communication, education, sport and health services.

The Health and Wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women: A snapshot (cat. no. 4722.0.55.001) To be released 10 April 2007.
This snapshot presents an overview of the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Information for this article is drawn from the 2004-05 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, and a range of other relevant ABS collections. Topics include health status, long-term health conditions, mortality, health risk factors, exposure to violence, social and emotional wellbeing, health-related actions and health screening and contraception.

Hint: For more information on Indigenous statistics, visit the Indigenous theme page

Characteristics of Small Business, Australia (cat. no. 8127.0) To be released 20 April 2007.
Contains details of the June 2005 supplementary survey of households looking at the characteristics of small business operators and their businesses. Provides data on age, sex, ethnicity and hours worked as well as the length of operation of the business, number of operators per business and the use of computers and the Internet by small businesses. Where data are available, comparisons are drawn with previous survey results. Businesses based at home are also examined.

These titles are a selection of what the ABS is currently releasing this quarter. They are available free on the ABS web site. Keep up to date by subscribing to the free ABS Email Notification Service.