| Promoting the rare books collection
In 2003 the rare books librarian continued to highlight the collections using the display and exhibition space in the information services building. Popular exhibitions included Australian fiction and Australian tourism.
Liaising with faculty members about services and collections
Providing forums for communication with faculty members
The library's faculty advisory committees continued to act as the major formal forum for exchanging information between faculty members and the library. Meetings are noted in the appendix of this report.
Working in faculty teams
Groups of librarians with subject expertise relevant to particular faculties continued to work in faculty teams under the leadership of a faculty team leader. All team leaders attended faculty board meetings for their faculties. The team leader for Pharmacy reconstituted the Pharmacy Library Users' Group with new terms of reference in 2003.
Developing a co-ordinated approach to induction of new academic staff
In late 2003 library staff developed a co-ordinated approach to introducing new academic staff to library services and facilities. The goal of the coordinated approach is to ensure a basic knowledge of library services and provide an opportunity for the development of one-to-one relationships between library staff and academic staff. The process will be implemented from 2004.
Providing information literacy services
Orientation and information literacy activities
Information literacy sessions, including 261 orientation tours, 357 basic instruction sessions and 637 advanced instruction sessions, were held for 19,425 students in all branches of the library in 2003 - a decrease of 1074 participants compared to the previous year.
Co-ordinating a focus on information literacy
One of the key objectives of the library's 2003 Strategic Plan was to provide a more coordinated focus on information literacy and reference services. To this end an Information Literacy and Reference Librarian was appointed in mid-2003 and undertook the following:
- extensive liaison with university groups, and membership on the University's Graduate Attributes Working Party and the Council of Australian University Librarians Information Literacy Working Group (CAUL ILWG);
- chairing the annual CAVAL Reference Interest Group Information Literacy Seminar;
- proposing the national project to identify the characteristics of information literacy programs that illustrate best practice in Australian tertiary institutions soon to be undertaken by a CAUL ILWG project group;
- participating in another CAUL ILWG project investigating the educative role of librarians;
- investigating tertiary students' understanding of information literacy in a digital age with three staff members of the Monash University School of Information Management and Systems; and
- organising the Information Services Committee, which met for the first time in July. This group is responsible for the coordination of reference and information literacy services across the Monash University Library branches, and recommending reference and information literacy policies and strategies to ensure that consistent quality services are offered on all sites.
Highlights of information literacy activities for the year included:
- All first year Theory of Art & Design students (100 Fine Art students and 180 Design students) received a session on basic library skills in their lecture times.
- A working party of the Education Committee comprising representatives of the faculty, Language and Learning and the library identified two opportunities for enhancing the information literacy skills of students. The first, a six-hour orientation, has been developed as a pilot for the 2004 orientation period. This will be used to collect data and make further recommendations to the faculty. A second option, a thirty-nine hour elective, is still under development. The outcomes of these developments may be extended to other campuses.
- Law Library and faculty staff developed an online and face-to-face teaching program, Advanced Legal Research which is a component of the Law Faculty's Skills, Ethics and Research Program. Piloted during the summer semester 2003, the program will be fully implemented in 2004.
Embedding information literacy in the curriculum
A key goal for the university and the library is to embed information literacy activities in the curriculum. An audit of library-led information literacy activities was conducted to determine the current levels of integrated and embedded activities.
Twenty-two of the 68 reported activities were associated with some form of assessment, either as a unit hurdle or attracting credit points. Eight instances were reported for the Faculty of Arts, one for the Faculty of Education, four for Faculty of Engineering, two for Faculty of Information Technology, one for Faculty of Law, five for Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and one for Faculty of Pharmacy. Eight respondents reported involvement in curriculum planning.
In 2004 details of information literacy activities will be centrally recorded on the library's intranet site to facilitate analysis of progress towards greater alignment of information literacy with the curriculum.
Library representation in the Graduate Attributes Working Group in 2003 has ensured that the significance of information literacy will be recognised across disciplines when the revised Graduate Attributes Policy is released in 2004.
An Information Literacy Planning Day was arranged in 2003 at which Faculty Teams began work on their information literacy plans. These will also be coordinated via the intranet site in 2004 so that materials can be more easily accessed and shared.
Forty-seven librarians attended workshops on student centred teaching in 2003. Further workshops will be conducted in 2004 to ensure the effectiveness of information literacy classes.
Providing print and electronic guides to services and collections
Audit of printed publications and guides
An audit of publications produced by the library was carried out in May. The purpose of the audit was to take a snapshot of all publications produced by the library for library users, in order to identify common themes of information and investigate possible avenues for communicating information in a clearer and more professional manner. The audit involved library staff completing an online form, developed by Information Systems, for each publication available in the branch library. 847 responses were entered as print publications by library staff. Preliminary analysis of the data revealed approximately 306 unique publications produced by the library in total. Information gathered in the audit will inform further streamlining of printed publications and guides.
Redeveloped print publications
The library's suite of offset-printed publications was redeveloped as a result of findings from the audit. The existing suite was redeveloped into more concise and user-friendly formats. Arrangements were made with Student and Staff Services Division and the university's enrolments unit to distribute the key library publication - the 'Library User's Guide' -
with newly issued staff and student identity cards in 2004.The full range of items in the new publication suite will also be made available to library users in 2004. |
