Goal 2: Applying and advancing knowledge
Readings and reserve service
The recommendations of the 2001 reserve services review were implemented
during 2002. Library staff members now provide a service that transfers
an individual course reading list into a web page accessed through
the Voyager catalogue, thereby maximising the amount of reading
material available to students electronically. The electronic reading
lists now link to full text articles sourced from an electronic
journal or database, scanned items prepared by the digitisation
centre, the library catalogue showing the loan status of a book
and web addresses supplied by the course lecturer. Students and
academic staff have responded enthusiastically to the concept of
electronic reading lists. The library continues to monitor developments
and has established a working party to ensure that the library's
student reading support meets the needs of staff and students.
Digitisation centre
On 14 December 2001, data had been lost from the image server
that delivers Portable Document File (PDF) documents scanned by
the library's Digitisation Centre for lecture material delivered
via the web. This loss of data occurred during a routine upgrade
of the operating system software.
In response to this occurrence, library management immediately
established a Digitised Data Recovery Task Force. Library staff
urgently undertook the recovery of the lost items before the start
of first semester 2002. The library undertook not only to replace
items previously scanned, but also to make available additional
items requested by lecturers for first semester 2002. By early
March, more than 90 per cent of the missing files had been recovered
and were again available online. The remaining files were either
recovered during 2002 or were not required for teaching again.
A review of backup procedures was subsequently undertaken in conjunction
with Information Technology Services to ensure that the data for
all of the library's digital services is fully backed up and is
immediately recoverable in the event of any future incident.
In November the library started using a new Sun Fire 280 server
for the web delivery of the digitised images, replacing the old
server, which had been causing problems all year. The new server
is a state-of-the-art web server that uses new technology to provide
a huge amount of disk space for the PDF images. The disks holding
the PDF files are held separately in a Storage Access Network (SAN),
which will give flexibility in terms of disk space as the size
of the collection grows.
Cataloguing of electronic resources
Access to full text online journals, electronic books and quality
websites was significantly improved through cooperative initiatives
of cataloguing and information systems staff. The library catalogue
now provides direct links to a wide range of full text internet
resources, including 17,909 e-journals, 6062 e-books and 3543 other
electronic resources. A further 125,000 books are accessible through
Early English Books Online, and plans are under development to
add catalogue links for these in the future.
New programs were developed for the bulk loading of vendor-supplied
records to the library catalogue, enabling the loading of 3500
records for electronic books available through NetLibrary. The
same programs are being used to load records for other resources
licensed for use by Monash University students and staff. There
is now a regular schedule for updating information on the content
of aggregated databases and other full text collections, such as
Proquest, LexisNexis, Infotrac, Science Direct, Hein Online, and
Westlaw. This ensures that information about titles included is
current.
New programs have been trialled and implemented for detection
of broken internet links in the catalogue and there is now an ongoing
program to rectify problems. A new target of 95 per cent accuracy
has been set and will be monitored monthly.
Selected free internet sites evaluated as relevant to library
users are included in the library catalogue. A new online form
has been developed to enable subject librarians to input details
which are automatically converted to catalogue records. This should
improve the speed with which new websites are added and made accessible.
The library provides access to electronic resources via the Voyager
catalogue, the Monash University Library databases page
and the electronic
journals page on the website. Improved integration of these
pathways has been achieved by the development of programs which
use the Voyager catalogue record to generate the other listings.
There is now an electronic journals page for all faculties except
Pharmacy and Science. Weekly lists of new
resources for all faculties are also generated from the Voyager
catalogue.
The first set of electronic journal records was loaded to the
South Africa campus catalogue in 2002. During the visit of the
South Africa Campus Librarian this year, new strategies were developed
for provision of catalogue access to electronic resources for South
Africa. It is planned to establish a default Voyager view that
allows searching of electronic resources only via the Australian
catalogue. It may then not be necessary to load and maintain electronic
resource records in the South Africa catalogue.
'Voyager' library catalogue
In order to accommodate the installation and implementation of
a major new software release, it was necessary to upgrade and expand
the current Voyager hardware platform. A new server was purchased
in December with an additional 438 gigabytes of disk space. The
purchase of this server enabled the library to move towards the
implementation of a disaster recovery plan, which will take place
in 2003.
The Voyager software upgrade included new functionality such as
the ability to save searches, set up preferences, change download
formats and the addition of a "renew loans" button. During
2002, the number of searches made on Voyager increased by 25.7
per cent (to 19,989,730) and there was also an increase of 24.3
per cent in the number of requests for patron information (to 465,590).
Electronic print repository
The library started trialling an electronic print repository in
late 2002. The repository is part of a new initiative identified
in the library's strategic plan "to improve access to Monash
University research publications." Monash University Library
is keen to capture the intellectual output of the university community
and provide a tool to increase access, dissemination and recognition
for this research. The e-print repository will provide an opportunity
for the research community to post work for online discussion and
information, and to provide recognition of work in the research
environment.
The purpose of the trial is to determine the feasibility of, and
demand for, an e-print repository. The first phase of the trial
has included the implementation and customisation of free e-print
software. The working papers of the Faculty of Business and Economics'
Department of Management have been identified for deposit in the
e-print repository. The depositing of papers started in late 2002
and will continue into 2003. The second phase of the trial will
require a complete revision of the submission page and extensive
usability testing with academic staff, with the aim of achieving
an acceptable self-submission process. The trial will be reviewed
in June 2003, to determine the feasibility of committing resources
to an e-print repository for use by all academic staff and researchers.
Electronic press
In 2002 a development plan by an external consultant for the creation
of an electronic press for Monash University was completed. The
university has accepted the report and the project will commence
in early 2003.
The press will concentrate in the first instance on electronic
journals associated with Monash University, and may be extended
to include monographs, conference proceedings and material from
other sources. The first two years will be a trial of the project.
Portal project
Monash University Library trialled portal software from March
to August 2002. After assessing the software and the results of
the trial a decision was made on 30 August 2002 to discontinue
the project, essentially because the software was not yet fully
functional. The experience gained in the trial is being used to
help with Monash University Library's participation in the Australian
Academic and Research Library Network (AARLIN) portal project,
which will see the library implementing a new multi-database search
portal during 2003, with full access to be made available in 2004.
'CoolCampus' initiative
The library became a member of the CoolCampus Steering Group,
which was set up by the Faculty of Information Technology with
the aim of investigating the form, function and role of pervasive
computing environments involving advanced technologies (for example,
wireless communication, wearable and handheld computers, and 'smart
spaces') in empowering university students and staff in their day
to day activities.
The library participated in the development of a demonstrator
application to locate an item at the Caulfield Library. The application
provides real-time directions within the library to find a particular
item using a handheld device and the wireless network. The CoolCampus
concept and library demonstrator application was launched to a
number of senior library and Faculty of Information Technology
staff in December.
Online lectures
Monash Lectures Online (MLO), continues to record lectures and
make the audio recordings available to students via the internet.
In 2002 MLO expanded operations to include eight additional lecture
theatres; six in the Science precinct of Clayton campus, and two
at Caulfield campus. This is in addition to established theatres
at Berwick, Gippsland, Peninsula campuses and elsewhere at Clayton.
New theatres will be brought into full service in 2003, and will
bring the overall number of theatres kept operational and streaming
audio to 33.
The number of subjects being handled increased to almost 130 per
semester, compared to approximately 100 subjects per semester in
2001. This involved more than 5000 hours of audio recordings. There
was also increased student usage of the service. An overall total
of 270,556 live audio streams were delivered via the internet for
the year 2002, compared with 190,004 in 2001, and 163,746 in 2000.
Supporting overseas campuses
The library's role in support of the overseas campuses is advisory
and supportive. In October, two library staff from Monash University
Malaysia came to Melbourne for an intensive week-long professional
development program. In November, the librarian from Monash South
Africa came for a similar staff development program.
The University Librarian and the Director, Corporate Services
and International Development made a brief visit to Malaysia and
Singapore to meet with staff responsible for providing library
services to Monash students. |
