Goal 5: Partnership Services

In 2003 the library worked to align with the university's defining themes of innovation, engagement, internationalisation and global development to support the wider Monash community and improve services through cooperative arrangements.

Supporting Monash health sciences students and staff in hospitals and other teaching locations

Providing resources and expertise

Providing quality library services to the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences staff and students is one of the more complicated challenges for the library due to the scattered locations and ever increasing number of hospitals involved in the faculty's teaching program. Currently the library supplies funding for resources and/or staffing for library services in all of the faculty's major teaching hospitals, including:

• The Alfred Hospital;
• Monash Medical Centre;
• Box Hill Hospital; and
• Latrobe Regional Hospital.

In 2003 the library provided funding to three more teaching hospitals in Gippsland (Sale, Bairnsdale and Warragul), and has been involved in discussions with the Bendigo Hospital librarian concerning financial support for the faculty's rapidly expanding program in Bendigo.

Monash students and staff in hospitals can also access electronic resources to support their teaching and learning.

To facilitate the coordination of library services provided by the hospital libraries to Monash University staff and students, the Director Client Services-Science, Health, Engineering, convenes the Hospital Librarians Committee, which meets three times a year.

Library staff from the Faculty Team for Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences regularly present information literacy tutorials for Monash University staff and students located in the hospitals, and represent the university on hospital library committees such as the Southern Health Library Network Committee, The Ian Potter Advisory Committee and The Ian Potter Management Committee.

A formal agreement for the provision of library services was finalised in 2003 between The Ian Potter Library and Monash University Library. The amalgamation of the four library services at The Alfred Hospital has resulted in savings for all the institutions, including a savings of approximately 20 per cent for the Monash University Library during 2003. The development of agreements with the other Monash University affiliated teaching hospitals is currently being considered.

Supporting overseas campuses and partnerships

Collaborating with Monash University Malaysia

Since the establishment of the Monash University Malaysia campus, the library has been conducting training programs for Monash University Malaysia librarians. This year, Monash University Malaysia sent four librarians to attend the training program from 9-15 November 2003. The program provided the participants with an understanding of the Monash University Library system and the opportunity to meet with Monash University Library staff and discuss issues from their respective areas of responsibility.

The library has been working with the Chief Librarian, Monash University Malaysia in the development of a library plan for the new Monash University Malaysia campus.

Providing access to online resources for Malaysia and South Africa campuses

Monash campuses in Malaysia and South Africa were included wherever possible in new and renewed licences for access to electronic resources. Programs were written, and database and electronic journal records in the library catalogue were updated with relevant information, to generate electronic journals and databases pages for Monash South Africa. Restrictions on loading these pages to the library server in South Africa are being resolved to enable these new services to be launched in 2004.

Participating in a range of other collaborative endeavours

Collaborating to provide improved assistance with IT issues

The Information Technology Services (ITS) service desk was relocated from the Clayton campus union building to the Matheson Library and opened for business in mid-December 2003. The service desk, located in the Matheson Library Annexe, provides students with assistance for IT issues such as passwords and computer accounts. The ITS service desk provides Clayton students with a 'one-stop-shop' service.

Engaging with the community through Friends of Monash University Library

Friends of the Monash University Library activities for 2003 included the openings of the Magazines, Australian Fiction and Tourism in Australia exhibitions, a panel discussion on "Research on Australian fiction", and on "Cole of the Book Arcade."

The Friends also purchased four rare books for the library.

Developing the Japanese language education collection and service

The Melbourne Centre for Japanese Language Education continues to fund a separate collection of resources for the use of Monash staff and students and teachers of the Japanese language in Melbourne's secondary school systems.

Collaborating with Melbourne-based Asian research libraries

As participants in the Melbourne Asian Research Libraries Consortium (MARLC), Monash University's Asian Studies Research Collection librarians undertook a number of collaborative and resource sharing projects with the University of Melbourne Library. Monash provided extensive support for a University of Melbourne undergraduate subject in Asian architecture through a semester long loan of books and videos from the Monash University Korean collection, the preparation of web pages on Asian architecture resources and an information literacy class conducted at Melbourne by the Monash Korean Studies Librarian. In collaboration with the Working Group on Multicultural Library Services and the University of Melbourne Library a project to expand information available from the MARLC web page was completed. This project is a survey of Asian language resources in Victorian academic and public libraries.

Participating in campus activities

Membership on a range of university committees and participation in consultative activities ensured that the library was engaged in campus development.

The ITS service desk, in the Matheson Library Annexe, opened for business on 15 December, 2003.