14 Berwick Campus Library
Access was provided to the Casey Institute of TAFE library catalogue system.
This means that students are now able to find out whether a book is available
before they go to that library. It currently works through a modem system but it
is hoped to have a permanent access point in future. Video on demand was made
available to the library.
Electronic Reserve. A number of book publishers granted
permission to scan in requested titles. Previously the entire book had to be
scanned, making it difficult to navigate and use. A system was devised whereby
each chapter was scanned and links provided from a central home page for the
book. These books are readily accessible from the Berwick campus home page and
from WWW SESAME2. There are about 1,000 documents in the electronic reserve
collection. Accesses to the electronic reserve increased from 1,504 in 1996 to
5,274 in 1997.
A total of 23 sessions with 244 participants were held, most involving
instruction on the use of e-reserve and SESAME2 on the Web. Advanced classes
involved instructions on CD-ROM's, in particular OVID. Sessions were also run on
the use of the Internet.
With a doubling of student numbers, space and PC's were scarce at certain times
of the day. There will be even more demand in 1998 as student numbers increase
to over 1000. In line with user demands, plans are under way to extend the
Library so that provision will be made for the more traditional analogue
materials.
Reuters was made available in the library. Leisure, Recreation and Tourism
Abstracts on CD-ROM was purchased, making a valuable abstracting service
available to Tourism students. Also purchased were Melways on CD-ROM and the
Australian telephone directory on CD-ROM.
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