4147.4.55.001 - Culture and Recreation News, Jan 2001  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/02/2001   
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A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Happy new year! At the National Centre for Culture and Recreation Statistics, we are looking forward to an exciting year, with a number of key activities taking place and new publications being released. But before I give you a glimpse into the future from the NCCRS perspective, let me first review some of the highlights of the past year.

The year 2000 has been a year of many changes for NCCRS. First of all, Barry Haydon left NCCRS to work in another section of the ABS. Barry was instrumental in establishing NCCRS in 1991 and in the intervening years, worked tirelessly to transform the Centre into a nationally recognised centre of statistical leadership in the areas of culture, sport and recreation. As the new director, I am working hard to try to fill his shoes!

Also in 2000, the internal review of NCCRS was completed. This review reported very favourably on the work and activities of NCCRS. At the same time, it encouraged us to expand our efforts in a number of areas, with an emphasis on two:

  • develop an information model and follow this up with an information plan. An information model will provide the basis for determining how culture and recreation information could and should be structured, as well as assist in identifying where further data collection and analysis are required. Work on the information model began in late 2000 and will continue throughout 2001. (We plan to provide more details about information models in our next newsletter.)
  • increase our coordination role for culture and recreation statistics. Since its inception, NCCRS has played a key role in terms of coordinating culture and recreation information. NCCRS has now been encouraged to further develop its work in this area (see page 3 for details of our activities in this area).

In addition to our work on the tasks noted above, 2001 will see the publication of a directory of ABS statistics of relevance to culture and leisure (a first for NCCRS); the release of the Australian Culture and Leisure Classifications (a set of three classifications that will become the basis for future collections of culture and leisure data) (another first for NCCRS); the publication of updated statistics on paid and unpaid work in culture and in sporting activities; the release of data from the 1999-2000 Book Publishers Survey; and the creation of a culture and sport/recreation theme page on the ABS web site (another first). Furthermore, yet another first was the release on January 18th of ABS data on activities children undertake during their free time (see page 2).

Finally, as those of you who have read this newsletter in the past may have noticed, NCCRS has changed the look of its newsletter. Not only have we added more colour (for those of you reading the electronic version of this newsletter, just believe me, it is very pretty), we have given ourselves more space in which to keep readers informed of our activities. Our aim is to make this newsletter as useful as possible to you, the reader. In turn, any comments and suggestions that you have about our newsletter are welcome.

Adriana Vanden Heuvel
a.vandenheuvel@abs.gov.au