2000 in review
The year 2000 has been a particularly challenging
year for staff who coped with the multitude of changes and balanced
ever-increasing work demands. Staff
managed to take all the changes in their stride, and continued to focus on
the provision of a quality information service to support the
University's goals for learning, teaching and research.
In the context of the familiar decline in funding by
the Federal Government to universities, and the consequent reduction in
funding for library operations, rationalisation of resources continued
during the year. The weak
Australian dollar compounded the problems associated with an already
depleted number of serials titles forced upon us by exorbitant rises in
subscriptions and surcharges. The
dollar and the impact of GST on the price of local publications were
negative factors in expenditure of the library budget which remained at
similar level to 1999. For serials, invoices from agents who charge in Australian
dollars and supply journals published overseas reflected the greatest
price rises.
The Library continued to tailor its information
services to match the University's changing student profile and its
emphasis on flexible learning programs. Off campus access to library services has been aided by the
tremendous advances in technology. Further
tutorials were developed for the Virtual Librarian to assist users off
campus, the Library's web site was redeveloped with the focus on
services provided across the various libraries rather than the previous
site specific approach. Additional web subject pages were developed, links were added
to Voyager catalogue to enable direct access to full text online journals
and more publishers' holdings of serials were acquired, notably Elsevier
ScienceDirect. Monash entered
into a consortium arrangement with four other Australian university
libraries to gain electronic access to journal titles published by
Elsevier until 2002. The
agreement allows Monash students and staff electronic access to the full
text of around 750 journal titles going back to 1995. Of these titles, about 400 were previously unavailable at Monash.
Evidence of the Library's strong commitment to the
provision of digital information is revealed in the following statistics
as at December 2000:
- 176 online databases
- 121 CD-ROM databases (networked and non-networked)
- 54,379 full text holdings of ejournals and journals
within databases.
Usage of electronic resources for the year was
2,832,124, a huge increase of 146.2% on the reported 1,150,568 accesses for
1999. These usage figures are
obtained in a variety of ways and are becoming more readily obtainable
directly from suppliers. Some
figures need to be extracted from information supplied while others are
obtained from another site to which directions are provided.
The Library has been developing a channel in the
University's my.monash Portal. It
is intended that the Portal will be heavily used by undergraduate students
in particular as a one-step access point for relevant university and
library resources. The Portal
will be able to identify the user's needs based on enrolment and subject
information able to be accessed from the University's student and staff
database. Similarly, Monash
University Library is participating in a consortium which was successful
in obtaining an ARC Research Infrastructure - Equipment and Facilities (RIEF)
Grant to research, design and test a way to implement a national portal
access framework to the Australian research library system.
Along with the increased usage and availability of
electronic resources, there was a slight decline from 1999 in use of
library facilities. Despite
the 10.6% decrease in visits to the Library, 2,359,852 patrons took
advantage of the physical collections and services available from the
various sites. Although
circulation figures of items borrowed were marginally reduced - 1,000,462 compared with 1,114,873 in 1999
- this decrease was offset by
an increased number of renewals, due mainly to patrons taking advantage of
the online renewal facility in Voyager.
Global initiatives of the University ensured that the
Library extended its range of services and licenses to overseas campuses
in Malaysia and South Africa. Staff
visits and exchange of information were made between the Malaysian and
Clayton campuses. Planning of
the South African campus library was done throughout 2000 and all was in
readiness for the opening of the library in January 2001.
The Library is always mindful of its duty to provide
quality, relevant services to the Monash community it serves. In September 2000, a highly successful web-based Customer Survey
was undertaken to which over 1,700 completed responses were received. Detailed analysis of results for various user groups and sites has
been undertaken since the survey in order to further improve services to
users.
Staff from different units worked to streamline and
improve access to library collections by undertaking three successful
pilot projects, and by the end of the year library users were able to take
advantage of the following additional service options:
- An intercampus loan service of monographs from any of
the Monash libraries for all Monash staff and students
- An intercampus photocopy service for undergraduates
with a flat handling fee of $2.50 per article
- An electronic inquiries service, e-Query, for Monash
and non-Monash users.
These initiatives have extended the range of library
resources and services to Monash staff and students regardless of their
location.
Early in 2000, senior library staff met to plan the
directions and strategies for the Library's activities during the year. The objectives and tasks needed to accomplish them were developed
and subsequently refined following a series of forums involving most
library staff. The resulting
document Leading the Way Monash 2020: Monash University Library Operational Plan, 2000-2004 was linked closely with the key themes of the University's planning
documents. University Audit
and Risk Management staff conducted a session with senior library staff in
which the strategies in the Library Plan were analysed and associated
risks identified.
Planning and preparation for the integration of the
Pharmacy Library into the Monash University Library system took place
throughout the year. Technical
services and document delivery functions were centralised at Clayton and
arrangements made for the Pharmacy Library to be integrated into the
Monash University Library committee structure. The full project will be completed by the start of 2001.
In May, the Working Party on Flexible Library
Services undertook a review of lending services with a brief to enhance
access to library resources. Positive
outcomes of the work of the Working Party included agreement on policy
changes to better support the diversity of clientele, specifically
liberalisation of loans policies and strategies to improve off campus
access to digital resources. In
November, the brief was extended to include the new course delivery
framework that had been approved by Academic Board.
In November, twenty senior library staff participated
in an off campus retreat to set the strategic directions for Monash
University Library into the future. The
main objectives of the retreat were to
- Re-align the Library's Operational Plan with the
University's Support Services Strategic Directions
- Explore the environment that we will be working in
for the next five years
- Develop strategies to allow the Library to meet the
challenges of the next five years.
The strategies that were
developed are designed to transform the Library into a 21st Century organization by
- Establishing the infrastructure that will enable the
delivery of integrated print and digital information resources
- Reclaiming the Library's position as the
intellectual heart of the University by providing value added services,
through active promotion and communication with our users and by
delivering a quality customer service
- Creating people-focused learning spaces in all the
libraries to support the objectives of Monash 2020 and the Learning and
Teaching Plan
- Extending the global service reach of the Library
through the provision of 24x7 services across the network
- Creating strong global and national alliances to
strengthen the Library as a "virtual learning and knowledge
organization"
- Developing self-reliance through an active program of
fund raising.
In all of the above, we will rely on our core
resource, the staff of the Library, to help us achieve the desired
outcome.
With the University set to introduce Activity Based
Costing in 2003, the Library must further identify the factors which best
convey the true cost of library services. New ways of satisfying the requirements of students who may never
come on campus, who demand a more professional and complete library
service must be devised. Library
staff must be flexible and keen to move in new directions to remain
relevant in an environment which will be more fickle and more competitive,
both within and outside the University.
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