9 Matheson Library
1998 was a mixed year for the Matheson Library. The disruption to services
caused by the construction of the new front entrance in 1997 had interrupted the
upward trend for loan figures that has continued for the last 10 years. This
appears to have corrected itself as in 1998 the loans figures (excluding
renewals) were 22,052 higher than 1997, which is almost identical to the 1996
figures. The figures would have been higher but for two factors:
- The introduction of two week loans for undergraduates
- The crash and continuing instability of the PALS system over a four week
period in April. The problem was traced to an annex box and only affected
the Library. The result was significant problems with loans, the CD-ROM
network, and reshelving resulting in the lowest loan figures for April
(the busiest time of the year) for 5 years.
It is clear also that services were increasingly moving away from print to
electronic delivery. Examples included the increase in electronic subscriptions,
the greater use of email for reference inquiries (double the figures for 1997),
the proliferation of electronic forms (reserve, DocDel, Library impact
statements), the popularity of AoD as opposed to loans of taped lectures and the
use of the web for renewals. However none of these have actually lessened the
in-person demand for library services on this site. Demand in other areas also
showed growth. In particular, the Music and Multimedia section with its wide
variety of services was heavily used during the year. Staff continued to offer
introductory sessions and tours to specialised groups over and above normal
Information Literacy sessions. A total of 465 students visited the Library with
groups such as International Students, MAPS (Mature Age and Part-time Students),
Elicos, EAP, Enhancement students, Victorian Japanese teachers, schools and
TAFEs.
The reshelving backlog crisis generated by the PALS crash persisted despite
efforts of all Matheson staff and assistance from Technical Services and the Law
Library. In order to address the ongoing problems Management Committee requested
a review of the role of the Attendants, the outcome of which it was agreed that
Matheson would be able to employ two additional attendants to offset the loss of
4 attendants in 1997.
Most of the business plan objectives were achieved during the year. Projects
such as weeding the undergraduate collection proved a bonus for the Library as
these books formed the bulk of the successful book sale of discarded stock.
Other projects such as the duplication of barcodes, in preparation for
self-charging, progressed slowly due too scarce staffing resources. The direct
urgent ordering through the University bookshop project was revised and should
substantially reduce delays in receipt of urgently needed material. Gippsland
are keen to trial a similar project on that campus. AoD was trialed and proved
extremely popular with students, particularly when it became available from
home.
Funds were made available to spruce up the surroundings on the ground floor
specifically by painting and improving signage. Barrier carpet was laid at the
front entrance to provide protection against the amount of dirt being tracked in
and the alternative colour was effectively used to reinforce signage. Another
popular area for students was the West Reading Room where additional lap top
access workstations were installed bringing the total number up to 52. The
rearranged, modernised reference area proved highly functional and was heavily
used, while the current serials and new books displays were successfully
integrated into the ground floor area and also proved popular with users.
The restructuring of the Library and establishment of faculty teams early in
1998 meant a refocus in some areas. The major urgent concern to be addressed by
the faculty teams was the viability of the book and serial budget. Increases in
the cost of serials together with the fall in value of the dollar meant that the
teams had to organise a serials review with the objective of cutting serial
subscriptions by 20% over a very short period of time. The seriousness of the
situation was clear to all and with the cooperation of the academics the
Education and Arts Faculties were able to meet their targets in the time set. A
webpage was successfully used to keep academics and other Universities informed
of progress. Serial cancellations were as follows:
| Faculty/General Fund |
No. of titles |
Amount |
| Arts |
363 |
$98,847 |
| Education |
127 |
$21,165 |
| - transferred to SIMS |
23 |
$2,063 |
| H&SS Library |
68 |
$25,439 |
| TOTAL |
581 |
$147,514 |
A welcome injection of funds to support the purchase of material came from a
successful joint application from the Library, Arts and Business and Economics
to the Strategic Innovations Fund. $144,000 was allocated to purchase material
at Berwick and Gippsland in the areas of Tourism, Journalism, Electronic
Commerce and Communications. Funds also went to extend the electronic reserve to
Gippsland and the installation of AoD facilities on those campuses. Another
large amount received was $20,000 from the Nippon Foundation to purchase
material for the Melbourne Centre of Japanese Language Education. This was
double the amount received in 1997 and was a result of positive reports from
Victorian teachers of Japanese. Other funds resulted from a successful
consortium bid with some other university libraries for an ARC grant to acquire
or create catalogue records for microform material. Matheson Library has a large
and rich microform collection and will benefit from any moves to catalogue the
collection.
As the Book and Serial funds were now monitored on faculty lines the Deans of
Arts and Education agreed to set up internal faculty library committees to
discuss the budgets and decide on the overall percentage to be spent on serials
within the new faculty budget and what funding categories should the Library use
for monitoring and reporting purposes. The Arts committee met and agreed on:
- maintaining the serials expenditure within the range of 30-40%
- with the introduction of the new library system (Voyager) to reduce the
number of funding codes to 13 (instead of 74) to cover the new schools
that resulted from the restructure of Arts.
Funds will be allocated to schools only, not campuses or departments.
Sub-codes will be used to monitor expenditure in these areas. All book purchases
will be made on the basis of where courses are located and taught not campus or
site driven. The Education committee is still to meet to make its decisions on
the same matters.
The Library's Arts and Education faculty teams have been working through
portfolio distribution to bring the Matheson Library into line with the new Arts
schools structure. In December the two faculty teams attended a combined Arts
and Education Information Literacy workshop with the objective of team building
and sharing of ideas. The guest speaker was Kathy Lynch, from Education, who
spoke on an academic's perspective of the library's role in flexible learning.
Questions generated at the workshop resulted in Library Management recognising
the need to develop an all sites, all faculties information literacy plan that
incorporated the Virtual Librarian. Another topic was the development of drop-in
sessions, an innovation that grew out of requests from postgraduates. Student
evaluation of these sessions has been very positive and the arrangement makes
better use of limited staff resources. Marie Pernat and Grace Giannini have
submitted papers for publication on current trends in information services and
user education.
Staff have worked extremely hard in 1998 to overcome problems resulting from
staff shortages within the Matheson Library. The Attendants in particular had
insufficient staff and have struggled all year to manage the collections,
photocopying service and buildings to standards previously achieved. A positive
factor has been the success of their multiskilling project and rostering on the
Loans and Reserve desks. Subject librarians were also under pressure as three
full time staff were moved to other sections and not replaced. Changes in the
HECE award meant a welcome opportunity to offer permanent appointments to some
contract staff, but overall staffing resources were under a great deal of
stress. This revealed itself in Matheson staff responses to the staff perception
survey.
Staff attended many training and staff development sessions during the year and
were involved in a great many new developments in 1998. The most important was
preparation for the introduction of Voyager. Many staff across the Library were
involved in Voyager selection and preparation but Christine Cooze as Lending
Services Librarian had a particularly significant and demanding role, while
Marie Pernat also had substantial involvement. Staff involved in other staff
development and training are too numerous to mention, but they include - the
secondment of Marie Pernat part-time to Library Administration to act as minute
secretary for CODIL and General Library Committee; the major role of Andrew
Harrison and Georgina Binns in the AoD project and the co-written paper Georgina
presented at VALA on the Video on Demand project
The Asian Studies Research Library has had a long-standing cooperative
arrangement with Melbourne University. The Melbourne Asian Research Libraries
Consortium was formed in 1993 to enhance access to the Asian materials held in
Monash University and Melbourne University. A publicity leaflet has been
produced and the initiative will be officially launched in early 1999.
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