7 Technical Services
The staff of the Division displayed great resourcefulness in an environment
of continuing and constant change. The achievements and projects of the year
were guided by the Divisional Business Plan which reflects the overall Library
Strategic Plan
7.1.1 A Working Party was established in February to advise Library
Management on restructuring options in the light of staff losses in Customer
Services and Serials at the Gippsland Library. The solution accepted was the
transfer of the Gippsland Technical Services operation to Clayton and job
redesign for the Gippsland Technical Services staff to take on new
responsibilities at Gippsland. This was accomplished by the end of the year with
an enormous amount of cooperation from all involved in the implementation.
7.1.2 1997 saw the implementation of plans developed in 1996 to
integrate into Technical Services the Serials Unit of the Humanities and Social
Sciences Library following a study of workflow relationships and overlapping
responsibilities. The move was implemented in July and involved a number of
organisational changes, physical relocations and new roles for staff. A Serials
Processing Unit was created which combined Humanities and Social Sciences
Library serials processing with Library wide serials orders responsibilities.
Also created was a new unit responsible for Binding and Materials Handling.
7.1.3 The Division also restructured to allow the loss of a number of
staff through early retirements and Monash Package departures. The losses
represented over 100 years of accumulated experience and amounted to an 11%
reduction in staff numbers. These included the Deputy Technical Services
Librarian position which was responsible, amongst other briefs, for book vote
matters. This responsibility was appropriately assumed by the Collection
Management Librarian who, with his staff, joined the Technical Services
Division.
The restructuring referred to above was designed to improve the flow of
materials through the Division. This involved a further attack on double
handling of materials and means that the bulk of monograph materials are now
handled only twice between unpacking and dispatch to the Libraries. In the past
there were six intervening steps. The first step towards simplification was the
shift in 1996 to downloading bibliographic records from ABN (Australian
Bibliographic Network) at the order point rather than the conduct of a pre
cataloguing search on receipt of materials. 1997 saw a number of subsequent
improvements: end processing was incorporated into the initial handling of most
materials; some PALS programming was funded to allow individual cataloguers to
transfer and input item data at the point of cataloguing whereas in the past
this was a separate task for cataloguing support. Remaining cataloguing support
staff were redeployed within the Department to backlog points or to cover for
other staff losses. Cataloguers were also provided with individual printers
which allow them to print call number labels which they attach to the items.
Most items are now ready for the shelf when they leave the cataloguer and are
available more promptly to Library users.
The purpose of Technical Services is to deliver to Library users the collections
required, in both analog and digital format, and to provide intellectual access
and retrieval through the Library catalogue. This requires that the catalogue is
inclusive, current and that the catalogue records meet requisite standards for
retrieval.
7.3.1 Currency of the catalogue was improved in 1997 to the point
where PALS, the current Library system, was pushed to its limits. Apart from the
improvements resulting from the workflow changes described above, a number of
changes to data processing were made in conjunction with Library Systems. A
major improvement is overnight indexing of the database. Secondly, in the past
any changes required to bibliographic records were made on ABN and received on
bibliographic change tapes from the National Library. The processing of
bibliographic change tapes was disruptive of other data processing and
consequently infrequent, which meant that it could be more than a year before
the benefits of cataloguing changes were available locally. Bibliographic change
tapes were abandoned and cataloguing changes are made on the local system where
they provide immediate benefit to catalogue users. These changes involved some
pain for the cataloguers, particularly around procedures for original
cataloguing and upgrading of interim records which remain an ABN activity, but
by the end of the year the procedural problems were resolved.
7.3.2 Quality. The improvement of the retrospective quality of the
catalogue records for the research collections remains a leading long term
objective of the Division. A successful application was made for RIF funding and
$115,000 was received. This will allow completion of retrospective conversion of
serials records by the end of 1998. 7,699 serial records were upgraded in 1997
with 5,000 remaining. The work was achieved through a combination of effort from
Serials Cataloguing staff with support from casual staff and external
contractors. Monograph records also received attention. Approximately 20% of the
monograph collections have no record in the online catalogue or a very
substandard record. This is due to the fact that when the online catalogue was
created, the only electronic records available were sub standard circulation
inventory records. 4,500 monograph records were upgraded in 1997, completing the
Dewey range 809.933 - 829.9 which is one area where retrospective use of
materials is relatively high.
New approaches were taken to the quality control of current cataloguing. An
annual quality review check instituted in 1996 was repeated in 1997 using a
refined methodology. Feedback was provided to all cataloguers and the results
will be compared on an annual basis.
7.3.3 The inclusiveness of the catalogue was improved, particularly
for special research collections which are often acquired by gift. It is
axiomatic that unless resources are made accessible through the catalogue their
research potential will not be exploited. As proposed in the Technical Services
Business plan, funds were directed to further processing of the Lindsay Shaw
donated research collection of children's literature. 585 items were catalogued.
7.3.4 Ho Chooi-Hon, Associate University Librarian, completed her
responsibility as Chairperson of the National CJK (Chinese Japanese and Korean)
Technical Committee with the successful implementation of the National CJK
System. The availability of the National CJK system improved the ease and
productivity of CJK cataloguing. Asian Studies Research Library staff catalogued
almost 2,300 CJK titles in 1997.
7.4.1 The growth in electronic resources to which the Library provides
access continued exponentially. Our clients can now find some hundreds of full
text journals and books in electronic format through our catalogues. At all
times our efforts are guided by the need to widen and deepen access to all our
clients on all campuses and beyond. Until recently electronic publication was
dominated by not-for-profit publishers which, though they included government
and some other institutional bodies, tended to exclude many of the traditional
commercial and society research publishers. This situation has been transformed
with most major academic journal publishers and an increasing trickle of book
publishers offering electronic editions with a bewildering range of pricing and
access policies. We now must choose not only between electronic and print forms
and combinations of these but also must weigh up different ways of buying access
to the same electronic texts.
7.4.2 Arrangements to shift staff resources in Technical Services
towards virtual library developments continued. A library technician position
was redesigned as Electronic Resources Officer with responsibility for the
regular maintenance of the Electronic Resources Directory
(http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/er/) This is an extension of the Library catalogue
which provides one stop access to electronic resources. Secondment of a senior
cataloguer continued in 1997 to concentrate on cataloguing Internet resources
and the Cataloguing Standards issues which surround this, as well as dedicating
time to the retrospective work required to bring all catalogue records for
electronic resources into the Electronic Resources Directory. Monash is to the
fore in applying cataloguing standards to Internet resources and Monash staff
were able to give a well received workshop on this topic at the National
Cataloguers Conference in Canberra in September 1997. Technical Services is also
monitoring closely the development of metadata standards for WWW documents and
participating in the Monash Library Web Developers Group consideration of this
issue.
7.4.3 In addition to developing the virtual library for users, an aim
of the Technical Services Business Plan is to take advantage of virtual
developments for acquisitions and cataloguing processes. A promising trend is
the growth of Internet bookshops, such as Amazon (http://www.amazon.com), which
have been of assistance with urgently required items not locally available. The
acquisition of out of print books was greatly improved through such Web services
as http://www.interloc.com/ and http://www.bibliofind.com/ The speed of
acquisition through these services led to a closer working relationship between
Technical Services and Document Delivery. Some out of print works were
identified and delivered through these services within seven days which can make
them in some cases more effective than inter library loan and adds a sought work
to the collections.
Cataloguers continued to develop their Homepage and to rely on networked
tools. DDC21 was acquired in the Dewey for Windows version and not in the
traditional print format. The reliance on Internet resources and networked tools
does, however, alert us to some of the frustration's users of the virtual
library may experience!
An item in the Technical Services Business Plan was to trial teleworking, which
has been facilitated by these virtual developments. A teleworking trial was
conducted and a report submitted by the 0.2 FTE cataloguer concerned, who worked
alternate weeks from home. The report made a number of recommendations,
particularly on the technology conditions and skills required by potential
teleworkers. An initial problem was the two hour time restriction on the Monash
HomeNet but the University has since extended this. Despite such difficulties
the report indicated a 32% increase in output from home, mainly due to absence
of interruption.
The shift of resources towards the virtual library and the reduction of staff
required review of some existing programs. A small committee was established to
review the program of acquisition by exchange. This program has grown over the
years and requires periodic review. Some Branch libraries agreed that up to 70%
of titles received on exchange are no longer relevant.
7.7.1 Closer cooperation was initiated with the Monash University
Bookshop in the ordering of copies of textbooks and recommended reading. Both
Library and Bookshop in the past ordered independently but using, to a large
degree, the same information.
7.7.2 Monash was invited to participate in a trial with the National
Library and a local supplier of the delivery of MARC records with books. The
supply of the catalogue record via the National Library is triggered by the
supplier when they receive our book orders. The current Monash procedure, in
which available catalogue records are downloaded at the order point, is very
efficient. The downloaded record is used to create the order and is available
for cataloguing purposes when the books arrive. Within this framework there is
no advantage in the procedures under trial and some disadvantages. There may be
potential benefits. Such an arrangement makes most sense where libraries have
large on-approval plans with suppliers. Such plans are very limited at Monash.
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