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In addition to the opportunities provided to staff
for development and training through funding provided directly to
divisions, the Staff Development Committee continued to allocate
centralised funding to support library-wide initiatives such as:
engaging external consultants to provide training; assisting job
exchange arrangements; and sending staff to specific courses and
conferences. Staff are
advised regularly of opportunities for personal and professional
development in the Staff Development News and on the Library's staff
development website.
Staff Training
Library staff were given the opportunity to attend 22
talks on campus during 2001 organised by the Staff Development Committee.
Most sessions were conducted by current library staff to inform
other staff of projects being undertaken and conferences attended.
University personnel from Information Technology Services, Student
and Staff Services, University Research, and the Transition program also
presented sessions.
A staff development day held by Matheson Library was
devoted to sharing information and demonstrating new technologies used in
the workplace. Following
these sessions, an outside facilitator focused on cross-cultural issues in
service provision.
Law Library staff attended numerous faculty events
including lectures and seminars run by the Law School Foundation, the
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, and the Centre for Law in the Digital
Economy; the Law faculty retreat; and Law faculty committee meetings.
During February and March, Lisa Smith, Law Librarian,
completed a consultancy at the new Victorian Law Reform Commission,
advising the Commission on its electronic and print library.
Judy Hopley and Lisa Smith were seconded during the
first half of 2001 to work on the Olympic Games Knowledge Services project
for the University, a joint venture with the International Olympic
Committee.
Five staff were granted study leave for 2001.
Conferences and meetings attended included:
Australian Map Circle Conference
Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand
Conference
CRIG seminars
Information Online 2001
Kinetica Annual Users Meeting
National Cataloguers Conference
National Library Technicians Conference
RAISS Conference
Rare Books and Special Collections Conference
Special, Health and Law Libraries Conference
Winning Government Business Seminar
Training opportunities included:
Career planning
CCH training
Databases and Dialog training
FrontPage and SILAS FTP training
IT training including Microsoft 2000 and Novell
Learning and Managing Program (residential AVCC
program)
Leadership and Management
Managing Upwards
Manual Handling
OHS courses
SAP
TSISL (Teaching Skills for Information Skills
Librarians) program at the University of NSW
WebCT
Staff Awards
Under the Library's Performance Recognition Scheme,
awards were made to the following staff.
Individual
Awards
Leayne Alden - for technological initiative in the introduction of web delivery of
requested documents to the patron's electronic desktop.
Peter Alexiou - for innovation and exceptional performance in the improved
installation of Ghost Images for student PCs and installation and
maintenance of Debian and other library servers.
Claudia
DeSalvo - for initiative and excellence in communication in changing
work practices to allow for the implementation of GST requirements,
Kinetica and Voyager into Document Delivery.
Grace Giannini
- for initiative and excellence in communication in expanding the
information literacy program for postgraduate students.
Lynette Hinton - for innovation, training of others, implementation of workflow
improvements and excellence in communication in relation to Voyager and
SAP systems.
Xandria Hughes - for technological innovation and improved work practices resulting
from the development and production of complex and varied reports
including missing item reports with scannable barcodes, etc.
Nik Hock - for innovation in improving access for students to the electronic
reserve subject pages and excellence in communication in promoting this
service with students and academics.
Peter Lausch - for exceptional cooperation in achieving business plan outcomes during
the renovation and relocation of much of the Caulfield Library collection
and service points.
Glenn Martin - for exceptional cooperation in achieving business plan outcomes by
assisting in the completion of the Matheson Annexe.
Wayne Myors - for exceptional cooperation in achieving business plan outcomes during
the renovation and relocation of much of the Caulfield Library collection
and service points.
Kay Tucker - for innovation, excellence in communication and exceptional
cooperation including creation of "Hot Topics" and other new areas of
the high profile Law Library website and negotiations with database
vendors.
Bob Walshe-Howling - for excellence in communication and exceptional cooperation with
library staff, academic staff and students.
Tracey Whyte - for innovation and implementation of improved workflows including
introduction of a new invoicing system and introduction of a system for
processing Alumni library membership applications.
Team Awards
Document
Delivery Unit - for exceptional cooperation by a team in achieving
business plan outcomes by improvements to turnaround times and services to
clients.
MONINFO - for exceptional cooperation by a team in achieving business plan
outcomes by gaining new contracts resulting in improving revenue and
establishing expert research capabilities.
Peninsula
Information Services - for exceptional cooperation in achieving
business plan outcomes during staff changes requiring the team to assume
new responsibilities.
Account
Section, Technical Services - for exceptional cooperation in
achieving business plan outcomes during the transition to Voyager, SAP,
GST and the increased usage of credit card accounts.
Staff Opinion Survey
An online staff opinion survey administered by Rodski
Behavioural Research Group was held in August 2001. Of the 300 eligible staff, 198 (66%) completed the survey
statements and provided additional comments.
The survey results were compared with those of up to 200
Australasian organisations including about 25 educational institutions in
the Rodski database. Overall
the Library performed in the first quartile based on the best practice
framework of the Australian Quality Council.
It performed most strongly in variables relating to "Customer and
Market Focus" and "Business Results".
Following the survey, feedback sessions were held at
three sites. These sessions
gave all staff an opportunity to comment on survey results and for
Management Committee to receive informal input on issues of concern.
Some site-specific problems were addressed immediately and follow
up on other library-wide concerns will occur in 2002. Issues perceived by staff to be of most concern related to
"Retaining valued employees" and "Valuing staff in Monash University
Library".
Work Practices
After much planning by the Technical Services
Reorganisation Group, an extensive reorganisation of the division
consolidated some teams which had previously been divided on a functional
basis, making Technical Services more reflective of the Faculty and
Discipline Based (FADIB) structure. The
flow of materials was streamlined with more processing done at the receipt
stage resulting in shorter processing times.
Technical Services staff benefited from participation in
information services duties at Matheson, Law and Peninsula Libraries and
in the Systems Support Unit.
Manual Handling Project
A major Manual Handling project was undertaken across
all Victorian site libraries to address an increase in manual handling
incidents and to assess our compliance with the Manual Handling Regulation
(1999). The project was
conducted jointly by OHSE, David Caple and Associates, and the Library in
three phases:
- Identification of manual handling risks/hazards:
a review of incident data; a staff survey; group discussions
- Assessment of the risks:
conducting risk assessments as identified; loading risk assessments
on to the OHSE database
- Control measures:
conducting manual handling training; providing recommendations for
physical changes in priority order allowing future budget planning.
A number of high risk activities were identified.
Focus groups were established to work towards strategies to reduce
or remove the risk, and training was conducted for the majority of staff
(216).
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