Flinders University Library
Annual Report 2003
Review by the University
Librarian
It was a very busy but productive year, with some
useful outcomes.
Quality assurance was a major focus of our activities.
Two senior members of library staff were designated Library
Quality Officers with responsibility for co-ordinating all
library quality policies and procedures. The framework for a
comprehensive Library Quality Plan was developed. The
Library was a major participant in the Student Learning
Support Services Audit, and provided a large amount of
information for inclusion in the University's quality
database. It was pleasing to note the positive comments
about library services in the Audit Report. Flinders was
rated in the top quartile in the 2003 Rodski national
benchmarking survey of library customer satisfaction. We
were also the highest rated library in the IRUA library
group, and in South Australia. It was particularly pleasing
to note that our 2003 survey results were an improvement on
our 2002 results. The trend is positive.
A number of library services were re-structured to
improve efficiency and service delivery. The Document
Delivery and Flexible Delivery Sections were re-engineered
to form a new combined central unit, the Document Services
Section. This has resulted in a more focused and
cost-effective service .
Budget management within an environment of declining
resources and increasing demand for library resources and
services continued to be a challenge. It was pleasing to
record a positive budget result with a small surplus. An
important contributory factor was the completion of a
successful subscriptions cancellation program which held
subscriptions within budget.
The Library continued to develop a wide range of
collaborative arrangements. Flinders was a major participant
in the Law libraries Weblaw internet project. The University
of South Australia became a full partner with Flinders and
Adelaide in the Universities Research Repository. The three
South Australian university libraries presented an
exhibition of 'library treasures' at the David Jones city
store. The three South Australian university libraries also
agreed to establish a monograph purchasing consortium, and
to jointly purchase common document delivery software. Joint
working groups continued to address recommendations from the
Schmidt review of collaboration between the three South
Australian university libraries. The Innovative Research
Universities Australia group of libraries also established a
number of joint working groups to explore collaborative
options.
Library services were successfully provided to students
and staff of the Australian Science and Mathematics
School.
Library staff continued to demonstrate their commitment
to the provision of high quality library services , their
flexibility and their expertise. The University Librarian
made a series of presentations to library staff throughout
the year on the library strategic plan, and in particular
the relationship between the library plan and the Flinders
Strategic Priorities and Future Directions. Many library
staff participated in the Library's very active staff
development program.
Library Resources
Key Performance Indicators
- 100% of new course books catalogued within 24
hours
- 100% of new journal issues processed within 24
hours
- 84% of loans reshelved within 24 hours
- 90% of document delivery requests processed within 24
hours
- 90% of flexible delivery requests processed within 24
hours.
- 19 volumes catalogued per staff member per day
(average)
- 7 weeks supply-time for book orders from major
suppliers (average)
Key Statistics
- 11,025 monograph volumes acquired (excluding
electronic below)
- 1,145 electronic book titles
- 6,020 journal titles acquired (excluding electronic
below)
- 15,750 electronic journal titles
- 38,030 new serials issues receipted
- 17,810 documents/loans requested from other libraries
to support researchers
- 4,770 documents/loans supplied to other
libraries
- 4,270 documents/loans supplied to students studying
externally
- 375 public and staff workstations supported
- 8,200 web pages maintained (public and intranet)
- 26,250 requests per day (average) for library web
pages excluding Voyager
- 17 servers managed
- 8,174 items supplied from the Universities' Research
Repository South Australia (URRSA)
- 415,600 volumes reshelved (Central Library)
In total, over 530,000 physical information resources
were throughput by staff in the Resource Management Division
in 2003.
Significant Acquisitions
With the support of University research funds, the
Library collaborated with the University of Adelaide Library
and the South Australian Health Sciences Library Consortium
to acquire Elsevier's Science Direct Psychology backfile,
providing online access to 43 titles.
The Library purchased its first electronic book
collection, Lippincott's Clinical Choice, comprising 42
medical titles.
As a member of the ISI/AVCC Consortium, the Library
acquired the Web of Science backfile covering 1992-1996. The
file was funded nationally by a Systemic Infrastructure
Initiative grant. The files complement the Consortium's
earlier purchase with coverage from 1997 to the present. In
addition, the Library contributed funding to purchase the
backfile covering the period 1987-1991. The WOS, which
incorporates ISI's Current Contents, Citation Indexes and
Journal Citation Reports will be an invaluable resource for
researchers across most disciplines.
The acquisition and use of electronic resources continued
to grow in 2003. All Elsevier titles, with the exception of
The Lancet, are now held in electronic format exclusively
and online subscriptions are preferred for new titles. The
percentage increase in the number of full text articles
downloaded from key databases between 2002 to 2003 is as
follows:
- Wiley Interscience: 65%
- Proquest: 44%
- Expanded Academic ASAP: 42%
- American Chemical Society: 77%
- Blackwell Synergy: 251%
- Scifinder Scholar had a 40% increase in the number
of searches performed.
Donations
There were several donations to the Library's collections
in 2003 including a number of collections from retired or
deceased members of the University community. Gifts of books
and journals are gratefully received and enhance the
Library's collections.
In addition, the Library gratefully acknowledges the
contribution of funding to supplement the acquisitions
budget. Financial support in 2003 came from the University
Research Fund, Clinicians' Special Purpose Fund, FMC
Research Foundation and the Nurses' Education and Research
Fund. The Jim Main and Hutchison bequests also enabled the
Library to purchase valuable antiquarian and rare books for
the Special Collections.
With the consent of the donor, the Library acknowledges
donations of print materials with a bookplate inscribed with
the donor's name. To acknowledge donors who support
electronic subscriptions, a five second screen flash
indicates the donor's name whenever a user accesses a
donated electronic resource via Voyager.
Purchasing Power
- the Australian dollar rose approximately 28% against
the US dollar and 20% against Sterling
- the international inflation rate for books was
6%
- the international inflation rate for print journals
was 14%
- the average purchase price per book was $85
- the average purchase price per journal was $729
Special Projects
The Information Technology Librarian, Ian Brown, was
awarded a $1500 grant by Endeavor Information Systems to
attend the Voyager Annual User Meeting in Chicago. Ian
presented a paper titled 'Demerits vs fines, or the merits
of demerits' which described the software that was developed
by Endeavor using specifications provided by SAGULSA. The
software enables Voyager libraries to levy demerit points
instead of fines for overdue books.
While in the U.S. Ian visited several libraries in the
Research Libraries Group (RLG) to investigate their
Inter-Library Loans management software. On his return he
recommended its purchase to the Document Delivery
Subcommittee of UniLibraries SA. The software, to be
installed in 2004, will replace the Library's Tracker
software which was developed in-house as an interim measure
to manage document delivery requests.
The majority of student PC's within the Library were
replaced during 2003. New PC's were installed in the
Central, Medical, Law and Sturt libraries. The Library also
assumed responsibility for the management of a student
computer laboratory on the Sturt campus, located adjacent to
the Library. The facility was upgraded with new PC's and
printing facilities by the Library's IT staff.
The Voyager software was upgraded to the latest version
in the mid-year break.
The deployment of printers based upon the new generation
of digital copiers boosted the reliability of the Library's
printing service.
Wireless networking was installed in the Sturt, Central
and Medical Libraries late in 2003.
IT staff completed the digitisation of the University's
examination papers to the end of 2003. These are accessible
to users from the Library's website.
Despite an extensive cancellation project in 2002,
another major journals cancellation project was conducted
during 2003 to balance the Library's subscription budget,
over-committed due to continuing high rates of publisher
inflation. Following extensive consultation, 490 titles
totalling over $330,000 were nominated for cancellation by
the faculties. In addition, the faculties took the
opportunity to review the mode of delivery for some titles,
nominating 109 titles for conversion from print to
electronic access.
A major achievement was the successful transfer of all
serials data, including financial, licencing and binding
details, from Dynix to Voyager. This was an extremely
intensive and complex project involving the transfer and
restructure of >7,500 records in the serials database.
Other time consuming projects involved record changes for
>5,100 items transferred between Central, Sturt, Medical
and URRSA and >3,500 volumes withdrawn from the
collections.
In 2003, the Staff Development Unit within the University
donated a significant part of their collection to the
Library for improved access. These items have been
catalogued and can be located in the Library using
Voyager.
Following a highly successful booksale in 2000, the
Library conducted another sale of superseded textbooks in
2003. The sale proved to be extremely popular with the
university community and generated revenue of more than
$3,600. As agreed by Library Advisory Committee, the
proceeds are being used to supplement the Library's book
budget.
In early November 2003, liaison librarians in all
branches commenced a project to weed unwanted older multiple
copy sets from the shelves in order to improve the currency
and appearance of the collection. Decisions for withdrawal
or retention were based upon reports generated from Voyager
detailing usage statistics. Factors such as teaching needs
and physical condition were also taken into account. Last
copies will remain on the shelves pending a future project
to transfer to URRSA in keeping with the Library's
Collection Development Policy. By the end of the year, over
3,000 copies were removed from all branches. This work will
continue in the lead-up to first semester and resume later
in 2004.
A significant achievement for the Bibliographic Services
Section was to be acknowledged as one of the top ten
contributors of records to the Kinetica database. Kinetica
is the national bibliographic database managed by the
National Library. It underpins the Australian cooperative
cataloguing and document delivery services, a resource
sharing initiative that delivers substantial savings to
member libraries. All newly acquired course materials
continued to be processed to the New Book Display shelves
within 24 hours of receipt.
Access to information was substantially improved in 2003
via the acquisition and load of new bibliographic records to
Voyager. Records for 870 documents were obtained from the
National Library for items in the Australian Joint Copying
Project collection. Records were also added to Voyager for
over 500 classic works of literature. Access to these titles
was made available by arrangement with the 'eBooks@Adelaide'
initiative of the University of Adelaide Library.
By arrangement with the Research Office, the Library
accommodates research publications produced by Flinders
University staff and students. The publications which are
collected as part of DEST requirements, are housed in the
Special Collections and accessible via Voyager. In 2003, 480
Flinders research publications were acquired and catalogued
in this way.
The Associate Librarian (Resource Management) was
responsible with the Law Librarian, for documenting the
Library's quality assurance program preparatory to a trial
audit of Student Services conducted by the University in
October 2003. After reviewing suitable methodologies, a
comprehensive spreadsheet was compiled which will be used as
a source document when preparing the Library's contribution
to the forthcoming AUQA audit.
Flinders University Library participated in a
cross-library sector promotional campaign 2003@yourlibrary.
The campaign consisted of a series of themed promotional
events with supporting advertisements. The Library
participated in the sections entitled Just Ask, Doing
Business, Treasures and Your Future. Details of the
Treasures exhibition are set out under Special
Collections.
Buildings and Space Management
The stack areas on level 3 of the Sturt Library were
re-carpeted. All carpet on level 3 has now been renewed.
FMC Maintenance renewed the tubes in the lights in the
Medical Library, significantly improving conditions for
users.
Over 5,100 volumes were transferred between the Flinders
libraries, including URRSA in 2003.
There were 8,600 requests from users for the supply of
items held in URRSA. 1,600 items were supplied to Flinders
users and a further 7,000 items went to requesters from the
University of Adelaide.
Exhibitions
In 2003, Special Collections staff mounted several
displays using material from the Collections. Selections
from these displays were further displayed in the Sturt and
Medical Libraries. In addition, the foyer was used for
displays by university organisations, including the Pagan
Association, Environmental Action Group, Green Transport,
The Students' Union, Clubs & Societies, and outside
organisations including Amnesty International.
Support for Education
Key Performance Indicators
- Total General Circulation - 332, 308
- Total Reserve Circulation - 92, 314
- Total Attendance - 758, 713
- Orientation Tours - 134
- Special Programmes, eg. Using email - 123
- Course based sessions - 636
Opening Hours
The Library maintained excellent hours similar to the
previous year. Unfortunately, information from CAUL to allow
these hours to be benchmarked was not available at the time
of writing.
Lending Services
The improvements to public printing and student
workstations that were made in the early part of the year
gave the Library confidence that the printing system could
cope with extra pressure. In the light of this, it was felt
that students would be advantaged rather than potentially
disadvantaged by, copyright permitting, a full transition to
eReserve. Academic staff were notified of this decision in
the annual 'instructor letters'.
EReserve across the Library now comprises 3343 scanned
items and 336 stable URLs linking to items in e-journals,
ie. a total of 3679 items. These items are linked to 291
topics taught across the University. The server sustained
approximately 421,000 hits on the 3343 scanned articles and
on the very large collection of digitised exam papers and
lecture notes that also form part of eReserve. The busiest
time of the week is 3.00pm on Saturday afternoon which
underlines the contribution of eReserve to flexibility for
students. It is also clear that a large proportion of the
hits on eReserve are coming from off campus.
Progress with the conversion to eReserve has varied
according to the situation in each branch library. In the
Central Library new readings go to eReserve and we try to
convert lists as they are updated. At peak times we will not
be able to keep this up. EReserve doubled in 2003 and
conversion will be completed at the end of 2004 or early
2005. Central Library progress slowed in the latter part of
the year as material from the Sturt and Medical Libraries
took up scanning time in the Central Library.
In the Medical Library e-reserve has grown by a factor of
10 during 2003 and is about 30% completed. All items should
be converted in 2004. It is now used to support 73
topics.
At Sturt about half of all Nursing topics are converted
and work is progressing on the rest of these and the
Education topics. Conversion will be completed at the end of
2004 or early in 2005.
In Law progress has been slower because of our perception
that residual printing problems remained. Three senior
topics have 31 items done. Work will accelerate now that
printing and scanning are to be improved.
Conversion is limited by copyright and a considerable
amount of paper will remain as whole books, multiple
extracts from books and multiple articles from issues of
journals.
Customer Surveys
1. Library Customer Survey 2003
In October, the Library undertook a second round of the
survey of customer satisfaction, as supplied to Council of
Australian University Librarians (CAUL) member libraries by
the Rodski Company. In 2002, the Library scored well on this
survey, getting into the top quartile of University
Libraries on the main variables that Rodski measures. In
2003 there was a modest improvement in the ratings for
service quality, service delivery, facilities and equipment
and staff skills. There was a small decline in the area of
communication based upon the response to a new question
about the degree to which the library is successful in
providing information to users about new developments. We
will address this area in 2004.
In 2002 four issues were identified by users as having a
significant gap between their needs and the Library's
provision of services. They were whether:
- Photocopying facilities are adequate.
- Number of computer workstations is adequate.
- Computer facilities and electronic equipment are
adequate,
- Prompt corrective action is taken regarding missing
books and journals.
Steps taken in 2003 to correct these gaps seem to have
met with the approval of users, as all of the gaps fell
markedly except for that relating to the number of computer
workstations. In this case, our actions resulted in a boost
to the standard of computer equipment but not the absolute
numbers as old equipment had to be retired. Funding received
late in 2003 will boost absolute numbers of computer
equipment in 2004. The Rodski survey did not identify any
new gaps in services.
2. CAUL Materials Availability Survey 2003
This survey, conducted in October, was designed to
ascertain if users could find the materials they were
seeking in the Library. The results indicated that 74% of
items sought were available immediately on the shelves. A
further 6% of items were on loan, 3% located at a different
branch, 7% not in the collection and 5% unable to be
located. The remaining 5% were not found due to user errors
in searching the catalogue or the shelves. The survey
indicated that materials availability had increased 10% over
2002. This pleasing result may be attributed to improvements
made to signage in the stacks and to the location
descriptions on records in Voyager.
Information Literacy
Subject Liaison Librarians and Information Literacy
Training
As well as their contributions to the developments in web
delivered training mentioned above, liaison librarians from
across the Library conducted a large programme of training
in the use of Library resources in sessions, ranging from
introductory lectures to booked one-on-one sessions. The
overwhelming majority of these sessions were conducted in
time released by topic and course controllers and we thank
them for their support. Training sessions were again
conducted at the Lincoln Marine Science Centre.
Library staff again conducted successful sessions as part
of the Staff Development and Training Unit's programme.
These sessions focused on electronic journals, Current
Contents and citation indexes and academic use of the
internet. This proved to be an effective way of reaching
academic staff and higher degree students.
As part of its participation in the Start Smart Scheme
the Library provided orientation tours attended by 1016
students and a range of basic introductory sessions
including:
- Finding your way around the University Web Site (186
attendees)
- Introduction to student e-mail (278 attendees)
- Introduction to Voyager (412 attendees)
- Introduction to Library computer facilities (160
attendees)
- Introduction to WebCT (164 attendees)
All of these activities were pitched at a basic level
aiming to give students sufficient skills to get going, to
allay fears and to show that help was available.
The reference collection has dwindled in size as material
has increasingly become available electronically. Following
a detailed review by liaison librarians the collection in
the Central Library was again reduced substantially to both
maintain the currency of the collection and to free prime
space for other purposes. Material of ongoing value was
transferred to URRSA.
The Undergraduate Library Assignment
The assignment, delivered via a WebCT quiz, again
operated very successfully and was completed by 2443
students, a 17% increase on 2002.
A major assessment of the assignment was conducted late
in first semester when approximately 750 students from large
topics in Social Sciences, EHLT and Health Sciences were
asked to complete an electronic survey. We received
responses from 156, or approximately 20%. This survey
focussed on the usefulness, relevance and ease of completion
of the assignment and sought to elicit comments on whether
the assignment should be a compulsory graded part of their
topic. The results of this were overwhelmingly positive. For
example:
- 87% found it useful in introducing library concepts
and skills;
- 86% did not have difficulty understanding the
instructions and content of the questions; and
- 78% did not have difficulty with technical aspects of
completing the assignment (eg. computer access, software
problems).
The students favour the assignment being a compulsory
(78%), unassessed (53%) component of their topics. There was
also scope for comments and many were made giving us
valuable feedback, which we have been able to use in
redeveloping the assignment for 2004. The feedback has
validated the exercise, encouraged the staff involved and
been used to encourage academic staff to stay with or commit
to the process. It is also a useful component of our quality
management processes.
A version of the Library Assignment focused on the
resources and services available to students studying
remotely has been developed for deployment in 2004.
EnRoute - An Online Tutorial Generator
Late in 2002, Ian McBain and Miranda Morfey received a
grant from the University to develop an online tutorial
generator to be used with databases and other library
electronic resources. This piece of software will allow
Library staff with moderate computer skill levels to create
interactive simulations of databases used in teaching and
research, (such as Biosis), and to package these with
instructional materials. Resulting training packages should
be web accessible and able to be incorporated into WebCT
topics as learning objects. They would also be interactive,
able to be used by large numbers of students concurrently
and able to created and maintained economically by a range
of staff. This software was successfully developed during
2003 and named EnRoute. Late in the year, liaison librarians
commenced the development of training packages based upon
EnRoute for databases such as Biosis and PsychInfo; for full
text sources such as Journals at Ovid and for web searching
via Google. We have agreement with a range of academics from
across the University to deploy these training packages
within their WebCT topics in first semester 2004.
The Return to Online Study Programme
John Lawrence from the Centre for Ageing Studies
discussed with the Library and other University units a
'Return to Online Study' programme that he was seeking to
develop for commencing postgraduate students in gerontology.
The Library agreed to support this initiative with a
deployment of the remote student's version of the Library
Assignment, and with web-searching training based upon
Google and produced using EnRoute. The Library was also able
to purchase a software package called Camtasia and use this
to create a web-delivered version of the WebCT training it
provides to on-campus students. This programme will run for
the first time in first semester 2004.
Multimedia Services
Nine new digital photocopiers were installed. Six units
were replacements for existing copiers and three will
function solely as printers and will replace existing laser
printers. A new high volume stand-alone printer was
installed late in the year and functioned extremely well.
All of these machines have bins of toner rather than
expensive printer cartridges and sheet based service
contracts that control operating costs. They represent an
increase in the quality of printers and provide a boost in
the standard of service that we can offer users.
Two new film and fiche scanner /printers were
installed.
As in previous years the transition from photocopying to
printing continued with a decline in the former and an
increase in the latter.
A total of 9,400 ID cards were produced during the year
and the system continued to operate well.
There was a slight decrease in usage of the Photographic
Service during the year. The decrease was evenly spread
across most services offered, although there was a
significant increase in requests that were handled using
digital capture.
Services for Users with a Disability
The Library continued to provide two core services to
students with disabilities. They are:
- to make adaptations to, and provide assistance with
its services to enable all staff and students to access
information that the Library holds; and
- to manage, on behalf of the University, adaptive
technology to assist students with disabilities.
An increasing number of students expressed interest in
'Dragon Dictate' and were provided with basic training. This
software enables students to speak to a computer that
outputs their speech as a word-processing file. Once basic
training has been undertaken, students must 'train' the
software by correcting the output. Few of those who
undertake the basic training see sufficient potential
benefit in the software to commit the considerable amount of
time needed to 'train' it and actual use of 'Dragon Dictate'
remains low.
Facilities to conduct exams for students with
disabilities have been provided by the Library. In 2003, the
demand for seating areas outgrew the Library's facilities
and was transferred out of the Library. The demand for
access to computers to allow exams to be typed also grew and
resulted in the booking out of the Library's Computer
training laboratory for this purpose. A printer was
installed in this room to enable the completed examinations
to be output.
Support for Research
Document Services
Following a review conducted in 2002, the Document
Delivery Service and the Flexible Delivery Service, (which
reported formerly to the Reader Services Division), were
merged with the Subscriptions Section to create the
Subscriptions & Document Services Section. The new
Section took effect in January 2003 and reports through the
Resource Management Division. The aim of the restructure is
to better inform decisions regarding the most cost-effective
way to acquire journal literature, either by the purchase of
a subscription or by the purchase of individual articles
upon request through the Document Delivery Service. As part
of the restructure, the Special Collections Section now
reports to the Reader Services Division.
In 2003, Document Services automated requesting
procedures via the design, development and implementation of
the Tracker database. The system uses Filemaker software to
record the receipt and processing of requests submitted by
Flinders patrons. In addition, online requesting via the
web-page became the preferred method with web requests
imported into Tracker. Requests for supply from other
institutions have also been centralised and are forwarded to
branch staff as appropriate for supply. Electronic delivery
of requests to patrons is also now preferred and print is
only provided when specifically requested.
Because of continuing journal cancellations, the quota on
document delivery requests was removed in 2003, resulting in
a predictable increase in the overall volume of requests.
The 40% increase in requests was excessive at first but
steadied as the year progressed. In addition, the cost per
article beyond which patrons are charged for supply was
increased from $18.00 to $26.00. It was evident that the
cancellation of the subscription to the IDEAL electronic
collection at the end of 2002 generated nearly 300 requests
from titles previously accessible from that collection.
Flinders participation in the CAUL CISTI deal introduced
a 20% discount on all document requests from CISTI. CISTI, a
major Canadian supplier with consistent high quality
performance, specialises in medicine, science and technology
and is a preferred supplier of Document Services. The use of
other document delivery suppliers was rationalised to ensure
a more efficient and streamlined service.
A Rights Management web-page was established to enable
Document Services staff to ascertain if the licence
associated with an electronic resource permits the supply of
documents to other libraries, and if so, in which format,
print or electronic. The web-page also records access rights
for walk-in users, FMC, e-Reserve and archiving.
Special Collections
The collection was enhanced greatly when the personal
library of Don Dunstan was received to be added to the
Dunstan Collection. A large collection of South Australian
historical material belonging to Mr Keith Borrow was
received to be held in store pending its donation by Mr
Borrow's Trustees. At the same time a collection of
Australian historical books and other material belonging to
Mr Borrow's late wife, E.M. Yelland, was donated to the
library. Our thanks go to the donors and those who have
assisted us in gaining these valuable resources.
As well as routine cataloguing and sorting, access to the
collection has been enhanced in a number of ways. These
include:
- A special project to catalogue the Dunstan Collection
books took place from October to December, with casual
staff employed for the purpose. More than 1800 books were
added to the collection in the course of this project. A
small number of books remain to be catalogued.
- A special project to begin cataloguing the monographs
in the Yelland Collection was undertaken.
- Work continued on the acid-free photocopying and
indexing of the Bannon Collection press clippings.
- New additions to the Eros Collection were sorted as
they arrive.
- Work continued on the cataloguing of the Research
Publications for1997 to 2002. As a result of the
increasing amount of material available in this
collection, its level of use in 2003 was up on the 2002
figure by about 20%.
The Library's support of the Auslit project continued
with the Special Collections Librarian spending half a day
per week undertaking indexing.
The 'Fridays at the Library' programme continued
successfully with five events in 2003. They were:
- 14 March - Hilarie Lindsay, author of "The
Washerwoman's Dream".
- 4 April - Mark Staniforth - "Material Culture"
- 20 June - Bloomsday
- 5 September - Richard Bentham - Microbiology
- 17 October - Orwell Centenary
The audience for these events is growing on each
occasion, and a solid base of regular attendees, especially
among retired people in the local community, is being
established. These events have been enhanced by co-ordinated
displays.
As part of the 2003@Your Library promotion the Library
participated, with the libraries of the University of
Adelaide and the University of South Australia, in a major
display event entitled 'Treasures at DJs'. Held at David
Jones Gallery in May and June it was a very successful
event, attracting 1405 attendees. Flinders displayed items
from the Flinders, Evatt, Dunstan, and Heap Mannum
Collections.
The resources and services offered by the Special
Collection have been promoted to the University Community
and to the wider community in a number of ways. These
include:
- An article on the Dunstan Collection was written by
the Special Collections Librarian for inclusion in the
Dunstan Foundation newsletter.
- The Special Collections Librarian gave a talk on
Matthew Flinders at the Lyceum Club in Leigh Street. This
was relating to her work editing Flinders's private
journal for publication.
- A Special Collections feature has been included in
each issue of the Library Newsletter for academic
staff.
Support for International
Programmes
Flexible Delivery
The Flexible Delivery Service introduced a new
eligibility policy based on residential postcode in 2003.
This policy is easier for staff to administer and any
existing patrons who would have become ineligible were
exempted. A registration process for the Flexible Delivery
Service was also introduced, plus proactive promotion via
emails introducing the service to eligible patrons. Over 100
new patrons registered as a result of this initiative. The
Flexible Delivery Collection was also assessed and weeded to
ensure its relevance to academic needs.
WebCT Student Help Desk
A large part of the queries answered by the desk relate
to difficulties with logins and passwords for e-mail and
WebCT. The situation for students was greatly improved when
the University adopted a single sign-on regime based upon
LDAP. The Library fell in behind this regime using LDAP
based authentication for electronic resource access and for
internet access in the Library. Following these changes
there was a reduction in confusion and anxiety about logins
and passwords. From the point of view of the desk, the
excellent utilities to support account maintenance that were
provided by ISD facilitated providing assistance to students
in a timely manner.
As part of the Web Presence in Every Topic process, the
Library assumed responsibility for the pages that appear
behind the 'Help and Support' button on all WebCT topics.
This suite of pages was developed in 2002 and feedback from
students and comments from Faculties through the Design
Advisory Group were used as the basis for the first annual
review which took place as scheduled in October.
Branch Libraries
Law Library
Law Library staff again made a major contribution to the
Information Literacy of students of all levels. The
cornerstone of this remains the Library's involvement with
the first year Law topic, Legal Method.
Major developments were made in Information Literacy
provision to the students of Australian Legal System. This
is a first year topic delivered by the discipline of Legal
Studies to students of the Bachelor of Justice and Society
and the B.A. It also operates as a service course to other
disciplines including Forensic Chemistry, Environmental
Health and Cultural Tourism. There is an enrolment of three
hundred students. For the first time, as well as the
standard introductory sessions in March, we also provided a
second series of workshops in class time in May to look at
researching an essay topic. A WebCT tutorial on case law and
legislation was also created for these students. It was a
compulsory exercise and students were assessed on
completion. The nature of the questions meant that students
had to physically go to the reports and legislation shelves
to check some answers. Feedback from the students indicated
that they appreciated the hands-on experience with the
material and had more confidence to conduct the research
required later in Semester 1.
The Law Library webpage has been revamped this year,
particular attention being paid to the Information Resources
area. Caselaw Online and Legislation and Legislative
Materials Online have been extended due to the emergence
over the last several years of reputable, archived sources
from government or parliamentary sites. Additionally the
free public legal electronic information services AUSTLLI
(Australian Legal Literature Index) has now been joined by
WORLDLLI, BAILLI(British and Irish) and CANLLI (Canadian).
Information from these free services is brought together
with that from paid resources to which the Library
subscribes to form Caselaw Online and Legislation and
Legislative Materials Online, thus forming a jurisdictional
approach to legal primary resources in electronic format
which is a significant aid to legal research.
A Current Legal Issues service has also been added to the
webpage. This is a collection of topical legal resources
chosen by Law Library staff, plus links to other legal news
and current awareness services.
The Law Library subscribed to 4 modules of the Australian
legal database Butterworths Online. This provides online
access to key services which had formerly only been
available on CD-Rom or in print format. Now Law Library
patrons have the advantages of remote access to a
co-ordinated research package which includes an
encyclopaedia (Halsbury's Laws of Australia), a case citator
(Casebase), Unreported Judgments of principal Australian
courts, and the SA lawyers' indispensible manual for working
in SA courts, Lunn's Civil Procedure, South Australia
Formal liaison with academic staff was conducted through
Dr. Margaret Davies and Dr. Mark Israel (Law) and Dr.
Francis Reagan (Legal Studies).
Gus Fraenkel Medical Library
Information Literacy Training continued to be a major
focus of activity in the Gus Fraenkel Medical Library. There
was an emphasis on making sessions available at times and in
places that suited users and focusing on immediate practical
relevance. This resulted in a 14% increase in attendance at
booked sessions over 2002. Sessions were provided for class
groups from across medicine and allied health. In addition
12 sessions were run for FMC staff from various units and in
training programs such as the Registered Nurses Re-Entry
Program. There was a further increase in the focus on
Evidence Based Practice coming from units across Health
Sciences.
The Library's engagement with the Australian Centre for
Evidence Based Clinical Practice continued. Jess Tyndall and
Miranda Morfey were involved as facilitators in the workshop
held four times per annum by the Centre. These workshops,
entitled "Locating the Evidence", are hands-on sessions
where intensive training is given in the use of
Evidence-Based medical databases. Jan Badcock from the Sturt
Library also acted as a trainer at two of these workshops.
Jess and Miranda presented a plenary session entitled
"Finding Evidence to Support Clinical Decision Making".
Items from the collection continued to be sent to
Parallel Rural Community Curriculum students in the
Riverland and Greater Green triangle, to NT Clinical School
and Out of Alice program students, to Grad Dip in Remote
Health students working in remote areas and to 4th years
doing their 6 week rural clinical placements. Increasingly
this task is carried out electronically and there was a 30%
decrease in the number of photocopies sent over the past two
years reflecting the growth of eReserve.
Two presentations were made to the School of Medicine
EdIT Seminar series.
Jess and Miranda presented a seminar entitled "Getting
the most out of the Medical Library". Ian McBain and David
Green, from the Staff Development and Training Unit,
presented a seminar on reusable learning objects. Each of
these sessions was attended by over 50 staff.
Jess Tyndall visited the Centre for Remote Health Alice
Springs presenting a 1 day hands-on workshop for staff
focusing on the use of on-line databases.
A backlog of serials donations in the Medical Library was
cleared in 2003, with 40 new serials titles catalogued and
added to the collection. New shelves were added to the
periodical collection in December, and the entire collection
was moved to allow 5 years growth for all active titles.
Sturt Library
The Computer Laboratory, room S311, which adjoins the
Sturt Library, was transferred from the management of the
University's Information Services Division to the Library.
Funds were provided as part of this transfer to re-equip the
room and to supplement the Sturt Library staff to enable
them to support students using the facility. Older computers
and printers within the Library were also replaced and taken
together these changes provided a much-enhanced level of
services to students.
The adequacy of the Sturt collections were criticised by
respondents to the 2003 customer satisfaction survey and
further pressure was put on the collections by increasing
enrolments. A targeted allocation of funds allowed a number
of steps to be taken to improve the situation. These
included ordering extra copies of key texts, actively
seeking recommendations from academic staff and the liaison
librarians stepping up their ordering. The extra materials
purchased for the Teaching Resources Collection over recent
years and the weeding work undertaken also rendered this
collection more useable. We will continue to monitor user
comments and usage of these collections.
A strong user education program conducted by the liaison
librarians continued in 2003 with the increasing focus of
the sessions being the use of electronic resources, both
locally and remotely. A program, begun in 2000, for mature
age students who were hesitant in the use of information
technology was discontinued in 2003 because it had resulted
in many students becoming dependant upon high levels of
support rather than learning how to do it themselves. In
place of this programme, support was provided through the
Information Desk on a one-on-one basis. This support focused
on students gaining the skills needed to become independent
IT users and was found to be a much more effective way of
assisting these students. Some postgraduate research
seminars were also held after-hours in a bid to reach as
many students as possible. Postgraduate students in the
School of Education requested and received a greater level
of induction to their courses. As part of this process, the
Library provided more in depth training sessions.
An exhibition of educational resources was arranged with
the educational publishers' distributors Select and
Dominie.
The Bachelor of Nursing course conducted in the Riverland
by the Flinders University Remote Clinical School (FURCS)
continued in 2003. To support students undertaking this
course the Library has developed a collection of all first
and second year texts as well as a growing number of other
high demand titles. These were initially located at Berri
Library and Information Centre. At the request of the
school, these were relocated to the school's premises in
Renmark. Circulation of these materials will be managed
using the Library's Voyager system. As well as the required
readings which would normally be placed on eReserve, the
recommended readings for topics taught by the School were
also added to eReserve enhancing access for students. In
February and again in August Jan Badcock, Liasion Librarian
for Nursing, visited the school to conduct CINAHL and
Voyager training and to offer support to students. Meg Apsey
attended the official opening of FURCS in October.
Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS)
Unfortunately there was no progress with the substantive
Service Level Agreement (SLA) governing the joint use of the
Sturt Library by the staff and students of the Australian
Science and Mathematics School (ASMS). An informal agreement
was made April to allow the students to borrow in the
interim. An Interim Agreement was signed in November 2003
allowing the accumulated ASMS library resources to be
catalogued and processed with the school accepting the
principle of cost recovery by the Library.
The ASMS teacher librarian, Pauline Crawford, was
appointed in January 2003 but due to a lack of a SLA, lack
of resources and heavy teaching commitments was unable to
provide the anticipated library service. Her office in the
Sturt library was built during first term but not completely
fitted out until fourth term. She moved in fully at the end
of fourth term once the Interim Agreement was signed. Her
Sturt Library duties will consist of a proportionate amount
of time vis a vis the number of students in the school, in
2003 that equated to 0.2 FTE Information Desk Duty and 0.5
design and support of Resource Based Learning.
In February Meg Apsey and Pauline Crawford travelled to
Bendigo to visit the Senior Secondary School Resource Centre
and meet with staff. The visit was valuable in terms of
catching up with the latest trends in senior school
libraries. It differed greatly from the type of collection
and service the ASMS up until now have said they wanted. The
differences were mainly in the number of professional staff
available to help students, the size and current nature of
the collection, the number of inhouse indexes and files
compiled and provided and the number of classes taught
within the library.
Staff Development
Publications and Presentations
Brown, I. 2003, Demerits vs fines, or the merits of
demerits, paper presented at the Voyager Annual User
Meeting, Chicago, April.
Culshaw, H. 2003, 'Flinders Law Library: The first ten
years', Flinders Journal of Law Reform, vol. 6, no.
2, pp. 285-295.
Dooley, G. (ed. and comp.) 2003, From a Tiny Corner in
the House of Fiction: Conversations with Iris Murdoch,
University of South Carolina Press, Columbia.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'A definition of the writing self: The
enigma of arrival,' in V.S. Naipaul: An Anthology of
Recent Criticism, ed. Purabi Panwar, Maya Publications,
New Delhi.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'The horizon conquerors: Post-war London
through colonial eyes,' New Literatures Review, no.
39, Summer, pp.75-88.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'Alien and adrift: The diasporic
sensibility in V.S. Naipaul's Half a Life and J.M.
Coetzee's Youth,' New Literatures Review, No.
40, winter, pp. ??
Dooley, G. 2003, 'Alien and adrift: The diasporic
sensibility in V.S. Naipaul's Half a Life and J.M.
Coetzee's Youth', The Regenerative Spirit,
vol. 1, eds Syd Harrex, Susan Hosking & Nena Bierbaum,
Centre for Research in the New Literatures in English,
Flinders University, Adelaide.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'Doris Pilkington Nugi Garimara: Under
the wintamarra tree', JAS Review of Books,
[Online], issue 15, May, Available:
http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/reviews/jrbview.cgi?n=0702233080&issue=15.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'Marion Halligan: The point', JAS
Review of Books, [Online], issue 15, May,
Available:
http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/reviews/jrbview.cgi?n=1741140072.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'Floating away: Alienation and distance
in Doris Lessing's space fiction,' New York Review of
Science Fiction, February.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'Review of HOLDEN, Robert, The Devil
and the Deep Blue Sea', Australian Book Review
no. 253, pp. 29.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'Review of WILLIAMSON, Kristin, Women
on the Rocks', Australian Book Review no 256,
2003, p. 50.
Dooley, G. 2003, 'Review of WOOLFE, Sue, The Secret
Cure', Australian Book Review no. 255, pp.43.
Henderson, U., Sergeant, K., Sinclair, K. & Ellard,
R. 2003, 'Opportunities for the New Generation: The
formation of a networking group', The Vital Link 3:
Staffing in Library and Information Services in the 21st
Century: Proceedings of the Third National Library Staffing
Conference, ed. M. Fraser, University of South
Australia, 2002 November 29-30, University of South
Australia Library, Adelaide, pp. 68-73.
Henderson, U., Sergeant, K., Sinclair, K. & Ellard,
R. 2003, 'Opportunities for the New Generation: The
formation of a networking group', Australian Library
Journal, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 261-267.
Johnson, A, Sandford, J. & Tyndall, J. 2004, 'Written
and verbal information versus verbal information only for
patients being discharged from acute hospital settings to
home' (Cochrane Review), Cochrane Library Issue
1.
McBain, I., Burford, S. & Haggis, J. 2003, Using
electronic literature in online learning and teaching, paper
presented at EDUCAUSE in Australasia, Adelaide, 6-9 May.
Morfey, M. 2003, Academic use of the Internet, paper
presented at a Staff Development Session, Flinders
University, Adelaide, 8th July & 17th November.
Morfey, M. & Tyndall, J. 2003, Finding evidence to
support clinical decision making, plenary session for the
Australian Council for Evidence Based Clinical Practice,
Adelaide, 11th November.
Sigston, A. 2003, What a difference distance makes: How
information services can overcome the tyranny of distance
with a dose of smart technology, paper presented at the
Regional Librarians Symposium, Mt Gambier, October.
Sinclair, K. 2003, Presenting your first conference
paper, paper presented at the New Librarians' Symposium 1.5,
Brisbane, December.
Sinclair, K. 2003, "Furor" and "Pietas" in the Aeneid IV,
lecture delivered at Adelaide University for Language Day,
July 2003.
Sinclair, K. 2003, Building New Generation Networks in
Australia: A Personal Experience [Online],
LIScareer.com, Available: http://liscareer.com/sinclair_salin.htm
Sinclair, K. (to be published in 2004), 'Click to
connect: Successful online communication', in The
Librarian's Career Guidebook, ed. Priscilla K. Shontz,
Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD.
Tyndall, J. 2003, Haynes and Evidence Based Medicine,
paper presented at Royal Adelaide Hospital, 24 August.
Walden, R. 2003, Three university libraries: The history
and future of library cooperation between the University of
Adelaide, Flinders University and UNISA, paper presented at
the Kinetica Annual User Meeting, Glenelg, August.
Collaborative Alliances
Academic and Research Libraries Acquisitions Consortium
(ARLAC)
ARLAC was established in 2003 in order to identify book
suppliers offering the best value for money based on a
combination of price, quality of service and the scope for
efficiency gains through greater integration of operating
processes between the supplier and the member libraries.
Consortium members include ten Victorian and South
Australian university libraries plus the State Library of
Victoria. An RFP was prepared and advertised for the supply
of English language books and ancillary services and
attracted six tenders. There was an exhaustive evaluation
program following which agreements were concluded with YBP
Library Services for overseas supply and James Bennett
Library Services for Australian supply. Details of the terms
of the agreements are confidential, but significant benefits
will accrue to the Flinders Library. The contracts were
signed in December for the period 2003-2006.
Adelaide College of Divinity (ACD)
Since 1998 the Library has provided OPAC, acquisitions,
cataloguing and information technology services to ACD on a
contractual basis. The income derived from the supply of
these services helps to support contract staffing in the
Division. An additional benefit of the MOA entitles users
from both institutions to reciprocal borrowing privileges at
each other's libraries. There were 2,566 volumes processed
on behalf of the ACD Library in 2003.
Australian School of Science and Mathematics (ASMS)
The ASMS commenced classes in February 2003 following its
construction on the Flinders campus by agreement with the
S.A. Department of Education. Following negotiations, the
Library drafted and signed an MOA with the ASMS for the
provision of library services, including contract
cataloguing of books purchased by ASMS to support its
courses. Over 300 texts were catalogued onto Voyager and are
now housed in the Sturt Library for use by ASMS students and
staff.
AARLIN (Australian Academic Research Libraries
Information Network)
The Flinders Library continued as a participant in this
ARC/DEST funded project. The aim is to provide university
staff and research students with seamless access to the
information resources required to support Australian
research. AARLIN will allow researchers to access a wide
range of Australian and overseas information resources from
their desktop computers and to create a customised 'portal'
to provide access to catalogues, inter-library loans,
subject gateways and full text serial, monograph and image
database resources. The Network Librarian has been involved
with the configuration of the software in this second stage
of the project.
Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL)
The Library is a participant in CEIRC, the CAUL
Electronic Information Resources Consortium. This consortium
seeks to increase access to scholarly information in
Australian universities by brokering collaborative
purchasing agreements with publishers. Taking advantage of
the additional market leverage gained through CEIRC, the
Library commenced subscriptions to the following electronic
services in 2003: Oxford University Press Online (160
titles), Kluwer (650 titles), Springer (205 titles) and
Blackwell Science (350 titles). Access at both the
collection level and the journal title level is available
via the Library's web-page and from records in Voyager.
Australian Vice Chancellors Committee (AVCC)
As a member of the ISI/AVCC Consortium, the Library
gained a licence to the Web of Science backfile covering
1992-1996. The file was funded nationally by a Systemic
Infrastructure Initiative grant. The files complement the
Consortium's earlier purchase with coverage from 1997 to the
present. In addition, the Library contributed funding to
purchase the backfile covering the period 1987-1991. The
WOS, which incorporates ISI's Current Contents, Citation
Indexes and Journal Citation Reports will be an invaluable
resource for researchers across most disciplines.
Systems Advisory Group, UniLibraries SA (SAGULSA)
Representatives from the three S.A. university libraries
collaborated to bring an American expert to Adelaide for
training in Voyager add-on software. The Group also
organised demonstrations of the latest versions of Voyager's
ENCompass software and 3M's Self-Check system. In addition,
members shared experience and expertise while upgrading
their Voyager software during the mid-year break.
Document Delivery Subcommittee, UniLibraries SA
Representatives from the three S.A. university libraries
cooperated to analyse, select and purchase the ILL Manager
software from the American Research Libraries Group. This
initiative will further cement the cooperative and
reciprocal nature of the document delivery services that the
three libraries share. In addition, a review of reciprocal
service policies and procedures resulted in a formal MOA
between members and the introduction of a new charging
schedule.
Universities' Research Repository South Australia
(URRSA)
An MOA to govern URRSA was negotiated and drafted with
the Libraries of the University of Adelaide and the
University of South Australia. The MOA, which was signed by
the respective Vice Chancellors in June, established a
partnership between the three Libraries and defines the
storage rights, management, services and business model for
the operation of URRSA. The Repository is located on the
Flinders campus, and is under the management of the
Associate Librarian (Resource Management).
In order to accommodate the growing space requirements of
the three Libraries, a Project Committee with
representatives from each institution was established to
oversee the construction of a third stack for URRSA. Tenders
were invited, builders commissioned and construction
undertaken during 2003. The $1.8 million facility will house
approximately 500,000 volumes and is scheduled for
completion in March 2004.
Ariel scanning software was purchased and installed in
URRSA and is currently being trialed by Flinders' staff and
postgraduates. Users may place requests for the supply of
scanned documents by following links from the relevant
record in the Voyager catalogue. In addition, software was
developed to link the user to the Library's copyright
compliance forms.
Indonesian Acquisitions Project
For over a decade, the Library has participated in this
collaborative project which is sponsored by the National
Library of Australia to acquire material published in
Indonesia. In consultation with the Asian Studies
Department, the Library maintains a selection profile at the
Australian Embassy in Jakarta and receives regular
consignments of Indonesian material up to an agreed amount
each year. In 2003, 240 books and 19 journal titles were
acquired for the collection through this program.
Statistics 2003
|
Total Staff
|
86.99 (FTE)
|
|
Total Loans
|
424, 622
|
|
Total Non-Serial Volumes
|
684, 842
|
|
Total Serial Volumes
|
473, 724
|
|
Total Current Serial Titles
|
20, 249
|
|
Total Expenditure on Non-Serial Items
|
$783, 000
|
|
Total Expenditure on Serial Subscriptions
|
$2, 583, 000
|
For more statistics see the CAUL
statistics website.
|
