1. Introduction
1995 was the year when the Internet became the "killer" application
of computing and communications, and ceased to be the arcane domain of the
computer expert. With the wide availability of Web browsers like Netscape and
Mosaic, and their user friendly graphical interfaces, the number of users on the
Internet increased by leaps and bounds, fuelled by all the hype and excitement
generated by the media. For a number of years, the Library, with the support of
the Computer Centre, had maintained the University's Campus Wide Information
Service (CWIS), based first on Gopher and subsequently on the World Wide Web.
The increasing importance of the CWIS as a means of disseminating University
wide information and promoting the University's teaching and research
activities, as well as its strategic importance for scholarly communication and
the provision of a flexible learning environment made the University realise
that a more formal mechanism for managing the CWIS was required. As a result it
was placed under the responsibility of the newly established Vice-Chancellor's
Advisory Board on Communications and Multimedia, chaired by Professor Greg Egan.
A number of developments in 1995 showed that while the Library needed to
re-engineer itself to meet the promise of the electronic age (when information,
it was believed, would be accessed without the constraints of time and space),
it also had to meet the demands generated by the continuing need to provide
services focussed on its print-based collections. In fact, despite the
possibility of accessing a number of resources and services remotely, the
various branches had more than 3.27 million visits in 1995.
Some key developments included:
- The completion of the Information Services Building.
- The decision by the University to fund new library buildings on the
Gippsland and Peninsula campuses.
- The completion of the Library's Strategic and Quality Plans
- Virtual library service developments.
- The restructuring of document delivery services.
- The Berwick campus library development.
1.1 Information Service Building
The move to the newly completed Information Services Building began in early
1995, and had to be undertaken in stages. The additional space allowed the
Library to enhance its services to researchers, academic staff, undergraduates
and postgraduate students by providing additional facilities, such as the new
Postgraduate Room, the Asian Studies Research Library, the Laura and Israel
Kipen Judaica collection, and Music and Multimedia services. It also permitted
the Technical Services Division, which had been integrated since the merger with
the Chisholm Institute of Technology, to finally bring all its staff on to a
single location. An expanded Rare Books and Exhibition area gave the Library a
useful vehicle to promote its unique collections and also attract donors.
1.2 New Library Buildings
The decision to approve funding for new library buildings at the Gippsland and
Peninsula campuses was a recognition of the need of these campuses for
additional library space to meet their expanded teaching and research needs.
Both the Gippsland Library and the Peninsula Library had been struggling with
space constraints for a number of years. Architectural briefs were completed for
each of the new buildings in consultation with library staff and users from the
respective campuses. These have been submitted to the architects, and
preliminary drawings have been prepared. It is expected that the drawings will
be finalised in the first half of 1996, and that tenders for the construction of
these buildings will be called shortly thereafter.
1.3 Strategic and Quality Assurance Management Plans
The Library began the process of developing its strategic plan for the period
1996-2000 by producing a discussion paper. This paper was circulated both to
library and academic staff, and discussions with various focus groups comprising
various members of the University community were held. The draft Strategic Plan
was prepared.
The Quality Assurance Management Plan was developed after extensive
consultation with staff. This plan positions the strategic plan and the
individual departmental business plans within a quality framework. The Quality
Plan endeavours to define a quality library service as one "where the
Library succeeds in matching the information needs of its users with the
relevant resources, wherever those resources are located, in a timely and
efficient way." It lists a number of performance indicators, measurements
and benchmarks that will be used to measure the quality of the services provided
by the Library.
As part of the quality assurance plan, the Library organised a workshop on
costings and one on quality accreditation under ISO 9000, with a view to
familiarising senior staff on methodologies, procedures and processes. It also
carried out a "General Satisfaction Survey" of its users, using the
questionnaire developed by Nancy Van House et al (Measuring Academic
Library Performance. Chicago: American Library Association, 1990). The
questionnaire has been trialed extensively among university libraries in the
USA, and is one of a series of questionnaires designed to measure various
aspects of academic library performance. For example, other measurements include
materials availability and use, facilities and library use and the quality of
information services.
One major advantage of the Van House methodology is that it is simple and
cheap to administer. However, it is important to note that the survey was
intended to provide a picture of clients who actually used library services and
facilities during the period of the survey. In particular, it sought to find out
how successful they were in their use of the library services and facilities,
the reasons for their visit and the degree of their satisfaction. The survey was
conducted over a one week period in May, when 2200 questionnaires were
distributed among all the libraries of the Monash University Library system, in
proportion to the number of potential clientele served by each branch library.
There was a 94% response rate. Despite the generality of the survey, much useful
information was gleaned from it.
A summaryof some of the findings is provided below:
- 60% of the users were very satisfied or satisfied with Monash Library as a
whole, 25% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and 15% were
dissatisfied.
- Users were asked to indicate their satisfaction rate on a scale of 1 to 5.
The average rate of satisfaction ranged from 3.5 for Gippsland to 4.6 for
the Alfred, which is quite a good result. (See Fig. 1)
- 65% found the Library to be very easy or easy to use, 23% neither easy or
difficult, and 12% not easy to use. The average rate for "ease of
use" ranged from 3.4 to 4.4.
- Clients visited a library for a number of purposes. 56% looked for books;
54.2% for studying; 42.1% undertook literature searches, including online
searching; 34.4% browsed; 18.3% asked reference enquiries; and 32.5%
returned books.
- Details of individual branch library results are provided in the fuller
report.
- 1158 comments were received, and in the report they have been grouped into
the following categories: environmental issues, resources, services, and
staffing. In general, there were positive as well as negative comments on
these matters. An outline of some the issues commented upon is provided
below:
- Environmental issues mainly related to the air conditioning system and
noise levels (2.5% commented that the library was noisy, while 3.2% of
the respondents perceived the libraries to be quiet!)
- Resources. 7.9% of the respondents commented on this. The primary
concern related to insufficient number of copies of recommended texts.
- Services. A large proportion commented favourably on the services of
the library and the behaviour of library staff. However, there were
comments relating to the difficulty of locating information, and of the
need for longer library opening hours. A very small proportion wanted
the period of loan and the number of loan entitlements to be increased.
- Staffing. The majority of the comments were positive, while a small
proportion commented on the lack of staff at service points.
- The survey provided some insights as to how and why people used Monash
libraries. It is pleasing that there was general satisfaction with the
services provided by the Library. A further survey is planned in 1996 to
find out why the rate of dissatisfaction at Gippsland and Peninsula is
higher than in the other branch or campus libraries.
1.4 Virtual Library Service Developments
The long term strategy of Monash University Library is to create a virtual
library service which will be a combination of print and electronic resources
available for research and teaching. In the coming years, an increasing amount
of information resources will be available online, or if they continue to be
paper-based, they will be delivered electronically, where possible, through the
newly restructured document delivery service.
It is important to note that Monash Library has never equated the virtual
library with a purely digital or electronic library, but instead has defined the
"virtual library" as a range of services and collections (both
analogue and digital) linked together and made accessible to users through
electronic networks, and as a parallel library which includes a finely balanced
mix of print, multimedia and electronic information resources.
Some of the increasing electronic information resources provided by the
Library are:
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1.4.1 CD-ROM and Diskette Databases
The Library has for a number of years offered a variety of databases on
CD-ROM and diskettes, a number of which are networked.
Caulfield Library has a 10 terminal public access network currently
holding 13 databases and a further 27 databases can be used on standalone
terminals. Additions in 1995 included The Age, AGSM Annual Report File,
Art Right Now, Australian Family Resources on CD-ROM, Boston Spa
Conferences, Cinemania, Computer Library, DiskROM, Australian Electronics
Data System, and Scientific American Index.
On the Clayton campus the CD-ROM network is available in all branches of
the Library. In 1995, access was extended to student computer laboratories
and to staff PCs on the CCS1 and ITS-MENZ servers. Improvements to the
network were made with the migration from Optinet to SCSI Express.
Two useful additions to the networked databases were Sesame2 on CD,
a backup to the Library's online catalogue and SIAL, Serials in
Australian Libraries. Usage statistics showed that the latter was the fifth
most popular database after Medline, ABI/Inform Global, PsycLIT and Biological
Abstracts.
The Law Library's databases are accessible from the laboratory in the Law
Library and all other PCs on the Law server. The number of databases
available to Law Library users more than doubled in 1995.
The Peninsula campus has a network with six public access terminals in
the Library and standalone workstations. In 1995, additional CD-ROMs were
acquired, including Art Right Now, Applied Science and Technology Index,
Business Australia, DiskROM, General Sciences Index, HealthROM, PAIS and
Social Sciences Index.
The Gippsland Library was provided with quality funds to replace ROMOTE,
its remote access CD-ROM service, with GILBERT (the GIppsland LiBrary
Electronic Research Tool) which offers a wide range of databases accessible
by both distance and on-campus users. The new system currently provides for
16 simultaneous accesses, as well as multiple simultaneous access to
selected databases. There are 8 workstations in the Library from which the
network can be accessed. In addition, it can be accessed from outside the
Library via modem or the Internet. Unlike ROMOTE, the user does not require
special software, but only a communications program which supports VT 100
emulation.
The following databases were made available on Gilbert in 1995: Applied
Science Abstracts, ERIC, General Science Abstracts, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Wilson
Business Abstracts and Sesame2 on CD-ROM. Additional databases,
including Austrom, Art Index and Sociofile, will be added in
1996.
1.4.2 General Online Services
During the year under review, the Library subscribed to a number of online
services which were accessible from all campuses. These included:
- ABS Time Series Service. From May 1995, Monash staff and
students were able to access online data from the Australian Bureau of
Statistics, including Reserve Bank of Australia data. Use of the
Netscape WWW browser linked with the Excel spreadsheet package allowed
on screen viewing and saving of tables of data.
- Current Contents. Since January 1995 the Current Contents
service has been provided by the OVID Australia Service which offers a
simple user-friendly interface with flexible search, print and download
options. Coverage is from 1993 to present.
- CoolCat. The cooperative catalogue of Victorian academic
libraries has been available from dedicated terminals in each branch of
the Library. In 1995, it was possible to access CoolCat via Sesame2.
- OCLC FirstSearch. OCLC's online service has expanded to include
51 databases covering a wide range of disciplines. The addition of
FastDoc, a subset of the ArticleFirst database, has enhanced access to
document ordering. Most of the articles cited can be ordered for online
viewing or one- hour fax delivery. Two other new databases, PapersFirst
and ProceedingsFirst, contain citations of papers and publications of
worldwide meetings, conferences, expositions, workshops, congresses and
symposia.
- LEXIS/NEXIS. The NEXIS full-text service has always been very
popular at Monash University, offering access to more than 2300
publications. Unfortunately, however, Fairfax titles including The
Age were dropped at the end of July 1995.
The Law Library made available LEXIS, the full-text legal service, to all
staff and students of the Faculty of Law in 1995.
1.4.3 Library Home Page
In 1995, there was a great expansion in effort by various departments to
develop Home Pages on the University's Web server. Many of the Library's
online services were made available through the Library's Home Page, and
each branch was encouraged to develop its own Home Page.
1.4.4 Sesame2
A number of new features introduced during the year enhanced the ability of
the Library's automated system to provide access to other online services
through Sesame2. For example, use of the set host command allowed
telnet connections to a selection of other Victorian university library
catalogues, the ALLI legal database, and CoolCat. Users have also noted
increased stability of the system with better processing rates.
1.4.5 CAUL Database Trials
During 1995, Monash participated in a number of trials coordinated by CAUL
(Council of Australian University Librarians) using funding provided by
DEET.
The ALDIS SilverPlatter trial started on 24 July and finished on 24
November. 20 databases ranging across all disciplines were accessible for
this period and in each month a new set of "rolling" databases was
offered, enabling trial of the ERL (Electronic Reference Library)
client/server technology. As the server holding the databases is located in
St Kilda, Monash University has generally been experiencing excellent
response rates via AARNet.
The ABI/Inform trial, on the same system as CAUL Current Contents,
started on 3 July and ended on 31 October. This business information
database provides abstract and index coverage from 1982, and includes
full-text to many of the publications from 1991 onwards. As this database is
also networked at Clayton and Caulfield branches of the Library, and on
standalone at Peninsula, a major advantage of the service being trialed was
the ability to access it from off campus and at times when the University
was closed.
The LEXIS/NEXIS trial ran from 1 July until 31 October. This included
access to LEXIS, a full-text legal, legislative and regulatory information
database, previously available only to the Law Faculty as a Law Library
subscription, to all Monash University users.
The IAC (Information Access Company) trial offered access to Expanded
Academic Index/ASAP, from 1 July until 31 September. This covers arts,
education, history, literature, geography, popular science, psychology,
sociology and economics, and includes full ASCII text for over 300 journals.
This database is well suited to undergraduate needs but lack of telnet
access for this group has precluded its participation in the trial.
1.4.6 Electronic Reference Service
After a trial period in 1994, the Library decided to introduce a full
fledged electronic reference service in 1995. Each branch of the Library now
has an email address for simple reference queries. These are also accessible
from the web pages of the Library.
1.5 Document Delivery Service
Another major initiative in 1995 was the restructuring of document delivery
services, leading to the establishment of a one stop document delivery service
combining the services of interlibrary loan, inter-campus loan and hospital
loans. The objective was to maximise the use of technological innovation to
provide Monash primary clientele located across all campuses with an efficient
and effective streamlined service. From the second semester, all Monash academic
and postgraduate students had the added option of sending their requests for
interlibrary loans and inter-campus loans electronically. The document delivery
service provided users with a choice of delivery options including fax to
personal fax machines, internal mail within the University campuses or Australia
Post to home address. The enhanced document delivery service was implemented in
phases throughout 1995, and will be fully operational on all campuses in 1996.
The new electronic request system was very popular, and within a month of
operation, more than 400 patrons had registered to use the electronic request
form, and about 539 requests were made electronically.
1.6 Berwick Campus Library Developments
From the initial planning stage, Monash decided not to establish a conventional
campus with the traditional teaching infrastructure, but instead to establish a
campus where a lot of teaching would be delivered from other campuses to
students at Berwick, using the latest communication and information
technologies. Monash Library's challenge was to develop a model library at
Berwick to be called the virtual library service, which would mirror as far as
possible the teaching and learning model that was being introduced at Berwick.
Although Monash did not build a conventional library at its Berwick campus,
it was clear from the beginning that for some time to come, it would be
necessary to provide a range of books to meet the needs of staff and students,
partly because most of the major monographs and textbooks still exist only in
print form. Negotiations were accordingly conducted with the Casey Institute of
TAFE to allow Monash to house the print collection in the Berwick TAFE Library,
with Monash providing some funding for staff, the purchase of books and some
equipment. On the Berwick campus itself, space has been allocated for the
"electronic library", which will be equipped with workstations to
provide students with access to a range of online information resources.
One of the major planks of the electronic library at Berwick was the
electronic reserve system which would deliver recommended readings
electronically.
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