Collection Management
The electronic ordering system EDIFACT (Electronic
Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport) was used to
transmit orders directly from Voyager to YBP book suppliers and other
major suppliers. This
increased the efficiency of the orders process and has reduced delivery
times. The contract between
VARLAC (Victorian Academic and Research Libraries Acquisitions Consortium)
and YBP Library Services and James Bennett suppliers was extended for two
more years.
Early English Books Online, which includes all books
published in English before 1700, was a major acquisition.
The Library is now spending more than 30% of its acquisitions
budget on electronic resources. Increasingly electronic books as well as journals are being
acquired and are enjoying considerable levels of use.
Collection development policies for all faculties,
departments and schools were added to the Library's website at www.lib.monash.edu.au/collections/cdp/
The move from print to electronic journals is
reflected in the reduced expenditure on print serials and the increased
expenditure on electronic resources.
In 1999, 43.69% of the acquisitions budget was spent on print
serials. In 2001, this figure
was 34.64%. In the same
period expenditure on electronic resources increased from 9.75% to 33.22%.
Cataloguing Initiatives
A retrospective project to remove references in
Voyager and Kinetica to holdings of more than 1,200 serial titles
previously transferred to the CAVAL Archival and Research Materials (CARM)
Centre from the Hargrave-Andrew and Matheson libraries was completed. Records were also updated for monographs which had been
transferred to CARM. Records
for closed Pharmacy serials were upgraded and the Pharmacy annual report
collection was catalogued. The
important Rare Book Travers collection was catalogued and the Yiddish
backlog substantially reduced. Approximately
36,000 records were loaded for the Eighteenth Century microfilm titles.
Cataloguing backlogs in French, German and Italian were practically
eliminated and the large music score backlog was substantially reduced.
Numerous corrections were made to the catalogue through the OPAC
error detection methodology in place.
Technical Services ordered 29,114 monographs and received and
processed more than 41,000 physical items in 2001.
Programming for all types of transactions required by
the Kinetica batch link service was completed.
Holdings and bibliographic records processed in Voyager since
January 1999 were added to the national database.
This amounted to 23,854 new bibliographic records and approximately
110,000 new holdings. Bibliographic
and holdings data are now being updated regularly.
MONINFO (Corporate Services)
MONINFO achieved a reasonable profit in 2001 and
survived the year relatively unscathed despite the general slowing of the
economy, the pervading talk of an international recession following the
disaster of 11 September, and the pre federal election business jitters.
During the year, MONINFO was contracted by a major client to
undertake the largest project in its history.
Other significant achievements included:
- Compilation of the Australian Business Source Book
for publication, and contribution of a chapter on MONINFO to the ASLIB
publication "Making a charge for library and information services" to
be published in 2002
- Provision of tours and education literacy programs
for Monash International short courses
- Consultancy to the Monash International Language
Centre on its new facility
- A promotional drive to local high tech industries,
resulting in an increase in corporate membership.
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