Goal 5: Quality Management
In 2005 the library aimed to achieve best
practice in service provision, resource and staff management and
financial and administrative accountability in an environment where
staff have an engagement with the university and library’s vision.
Leading and supporting the university’s information management
strategies
Assisting university staff and students in the management of their
copyright responsibilities
The responsibility for many of the copyright compliance tasks formerly
undertaken by CeLTs has moved under the library’s banner. The Director
of Corporate Services was designated the Copyright Compliance Officer
for the University and the position of Copyright Adviser was also
moved to the library.
In its new role, the
library managed the 2005-2006 Copyright Agency Limited Sampling Survey
in co-operation with the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, the
Copyright Agency Limited and AC Nielsen. Covering four campuses and
two hospital sites, this involved staff from eight faculties and
nearly one hundred departments, and included the Matheson, Law,
Hargrave-Andrew, Gippsland, Caulfield and Pharmacy Libraries.
Providing a planning and continuing improvement framework for
activities and services
Collecting statistics
The objectives and methodology for collecting
statistics were reviewed across the library in 2005. This included
the collection of online services, resource, inter-campus loans, and
inquiry statistics. The review was necessary to ensure that the
statistics are collected in a way that minimises effort and maximises
relevance, consistency and accuracy across branches and that they meet
agreed objectives. The review was also in response to changing
technology and the way searches, robots, streaming and downloads are
counted. As a result of the review, online services and resource
statistics now count downloads where possible. We have also developed
new methods of recording inquiry service statistics (to be implemented
in 2006) that will provide a better understanding of patterns of work
and allow us to monitor and identify service trends.
Improving IT Help Desk services
The Information Systems Division
implemented a help desk management system in late 2005, allowing staff
to register their IT and help queries over the phone and online via a
web form. Improvements included:
- Staff
are able to enter, monitor, close and add notes to their own job/s.
- Progress reports by IT support staff are available.
- Better monitoring, the
ability to assign jobs to specialist staff and improvement in the
collection of data have all been introduced.
- The analysis of trends and
identification of training needs and areas that may need improving.
Providing an energised, innovative work environment
Scoring positively in Monash Staff Attitude Survey
Library staff satisfaction levels were recorded
as higher than the average score for Monash staff across the
university and 1.5% higher than in 2003, according to the results of a
survey conducted by the OSA Group on behalf of the university in
November.
Of the 30 areas surveyed the library’s overall
staff satisfaction score was fifth highest at 70.8%. Library staff
satisfaction levels were last recorded at 68.9% in the Rodski survey
in 2003.
Responses were scored on a number of different
topics and results were broken down into five high level work areas,
but the survey was not designed to capture data by demographics such
as classification levels and other individual work units or areas. A
more detailed library only survey will be carried out by the OSA Group
in 2006 to explore specific areas for focus that emerged from the
results.
Managing resources in a cost-effective manner
During 2005 the library continued to pursue
efficiencies in resource management and adopted financial strategies
to protect the purchasing power of available resources.
The library continually seeks to extend the
purchasing power of the collection acquisitions budget by negotiating
the best possible terms with service providers and vendors and by
collaborating with other libraries.
ARLAC consortium
Monash University Library is a leading member of
the Academic and Research Libraries Acquisitions Consortium (ARLAC), a
collaboration between 11 academic and research libraries in Victoria
and South Australia. In late 2003 ARLAC released a joint Request For
Proposal for the supply of overseas and Australian books and ancillary
services for 2004 to 2006. Under contracts signed with selected
providers Monash University has received very favourable terms of
trade, in return for an agreed level of business. The library
exceeded its agreed level of expenditure with both service providers,
and was satisfied with the operation of the agreements.
Collaborative purchasing of electronic resources
As in previous years the library was able to
participate in a number of consortium purchases of electronic
resources co-ordinated by CAUL (Council of Australian University
Libraries) and the Group of Eight (Go8) libraries. These arrangements
enabled the library to purchase major databases and archival access to
electronic journal packages at deeply discounted prices. Significant
acquisitions this year were the Online Journal Archive from Springer
(Go8), Biomed Protocols and Alexander Street Press databases (CAUL).
CAUL also co-ordinated a national site licence for JSTOR (an
archive of important scholarly journals, which offers researchers the
ability to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues
and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated)
funded through the federal government Department of Education, Science
and Training.
Managing financial risk
The following strategies were implemented to
manage two key areas of financial risk:
- With the Australian dollar showing signs of weakness
against other major currencies, the library undertook a program of
forward purchasing overseas currencies to provide a buffer against
unfavourable currency movements. Utilising the advice of the
university’s Corporate Finance Division, the program has locked in an
exchange rate for a significant portion of collection purchases
payable in overseas currency, providing certainty in planning and
protection against unforeseen adverse currency fluctuations. The
library is well positioned in 2006 as a result of currency purchases
made in 2005, and will continue to strategically utilise the hedging
program to manage resources into the future.
- Due to ongoing concern about the financial stability of
a major journal subscription provider, a risk reduction strategy was
implemented to cover a significant portion of serial subscription
pre-payments.
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