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To ensure that the selection,
acquisition, creation, cataloguing, storage and preservation of
scholarly information are in line with the needs and requirements
of the University community.
Provide prompt, seamless, reliable
and easy-to-use access to high quality scholarly information,
regardless of the location of the information or the user.
Evaluate,
select, acquire and license new materials (both print and electronic)
Acquiring and processing new materials
The 2008 collection budget of $16,550,365 was a 7.16% increase
from the 2007 budget expenditure of $15,444,755. The sudden decrease
in the value of the Australian dollar towards the end of 2008 is
expected to have an impact on the acquisition budget in 2009/2010.
In 2008 the expenditure on electronic resources was again greater
than the amount spent on printed resources, comprising 57.5% of
the budget.
Important collection development projects continued to extend
support for the graduate Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery
(MBBS) course in Gippsland, acquisition of materials to support
the new Bachelor of Architectural Design at the Caulfield campus.
Donations
The Library continues to benefit from the generosity of many donors.
Items of note received in 2008 from personal and institutional
donors included:
A set of the current handbooks and other publications issued by
the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE).
Institutional donations of Korean studies books, serials and
multimedia materials.
Personal donations relating to the Asialink Arts Program, the
Australian Asian Association, Australian children’s books and general
fiction, and a copy of the "Memoirs" of Sir John Monash's
grandfather, Bar Loebel Monasch, a publisher in Krotoschin in Poland.
The "Memoirs" have been edited, with an English translation,
and published in Poland in 2004 .
Provide access to and information about resources through the
catalogue and web pages
In addition to the 54,144 bibliographic records created for new
items, significant progress was made in addressing the backlog
of uncatalogued material, including material from the Victorian
Department of Infrastructure focused primarily on water resources
in Gippsland, a collection of art catalogues donated by the Department
of Art and Design and an Italian language collection donated by
the Italian Consulate.
The Library undertook a project using Library of Congress authorities
to improve the standard of Monash catalogue records.
Provide
resource discovery tools to enable access to electronic resources
including e-journals, e-books, databases, web sites and repositories
Resource discovery
Monash Library users can now search Google Scholar to access the
Library’s electronic resources, which appear in the search results
with a link to check for full text. This initiative was developed
as one strategy within the Library’s broader Resource Discovery
Framework, which aims to provide a seamless and comprehensive approach
to resource discovery through a range of discovery aids and systems
rather than the traditional focus on the Library catalogue as the
only means to access information.
e-books
In 2008 54,529 e-books were added to the collection, which now
has 318,432 e-books. A user driven process for the selection of
electronic books was trialled from October 2007 until April 2008.
This was very successful and the Library is continuing this model,
within budgetary limits.
Lectures Online system
upgraded
In collaboration with the Faculties of Law, Art and Design, and
Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences the Library led a trial of
Echo360 (Lectopia) software to capture both audio recordings and
the visual presentation component of lectures. As a result of the
trial the University endorsed the Lectopia software as the best
solution available to replace the existing Lectures Online software.
Progressive implementation of Lectopia will start in 2009.
SMS service
expanded
A review of the SMS notification service was completed in 2007
and a trial to extend SMS notifications to the class booking system
was put in place for 2009. The booking system will be reviewed
in 2009.
Provide
physical access to print collections held in branch libraries
Long term storage
strategy
As a long term storage strategy the University approved Monash’s
participation in CAVAL’s offsite store (CARM) development. This
is a collaborative project with the University of Melbourne and
RMIT University.
Offsite storage
109,000 volumes have been transferred to the CAVAL Store since
March 2006. Monash Library users can request items by putting a
hold on them as they would if the items were at any other branch.
Items can also be brought back into branches if course or research
requirements change. Most of the transfers to the CARM Store have
been from the Matheson Library, largely due to the collection management
project being undertaken in anticipation of refurbishment of this
branch.
The goal of achieving seamless access to materials in offsite
storage has been extended by allowing alumni and CAVAL borrowers
to place requests for these materials.
Promote and preserve the university's intellectual output
ARROW
For five years Monash University led the federally funded ARROW project (Australian Research Repositories Online to the World), which was funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under the banner of the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative (SII), a part of Backing Australia’s Ability – An Innovation Action Plan for the Future.
ARROW’s goal was to build a new repository management solution for Australian higher education, and to make the research material stored in those repositories discoverable both nationally and internationally. The original consortium comprised Monash University (lead institution), the National Library of Australia, the University of New South Wales, and Swinburne University of Technology.
An innovative aspect of the project was to combine an open source platform with a commercial search and management layer. ARROW worked with Fedora and VTLS Inc.to design and develop the VITAL software and to provide Open Source software for Fedora users.
ARROW funded a number of mini-projects which resulted in the production of a number of tools to help researchers manage their data. ARROW also hosted the PILIN project and its work on infrastructure for persistent identifiers.
In mid-2008 ARROW negotiated an arrangement with the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) to fund the establishment of the new CAUL Australian Institutional Repository Support Service (CAIRSS). CAIRSS will provide support to all Australian university repositories, regardless of the software being used.
Monash ARROW Repository.
The development and management of the Monash ARROW Repository is now the responsibility of the Library’s Information Resources Division. Federal Government funds were used to support the key goals of stabilising the software, building tools and adding content, and by the end of 2008 the ARROW Repository contained over 3,000 items, including musicological research, Faculty of Business and Economics Working papers, and Monash University theses from 2000 onwards. The University has mandated the electronic submission of future doctoral theses.
Monash University has become an active member of the Australian Digital Theses (ADT) Service and joins 40 other member universities in Australia and New Zealand. Monash is using its ARROW Repository to store theses and supply metadata records to the central ADT service.
Monash University was the first non-European and is the only Australian member of the Nereus Consortium of European economics research libraries. Currently 976 articles have been harvested in the Economists Online Portal from the ARROW Repository and these are available on open access to facilitate research in economics.
Following the discontinuation of the planned Research Quality Framework (RQF), the dedicated server was decommissioned and the data stored. Repository staff are now involved in preparations for capture of Higher Education Research (HERDC) publications and Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evidence.
Monash University ePress
A major review of the ePress was conducted during the year, with final reporting to take place in early 2009. The review, which involved extensive consultation with key stakeholders, delivered a range of recommendations including a proposed new business model. Implementation strategies will be developed in 2009.
New monographs published in 2008
- Australians in Italy: Contemporary Lives and Impressions, edited
by Bill Kent, Cynthia Troup and Ros Pesman
- Orb and Sceptre: Studies on British Imperialism and its Legacies,
in Honour of Norman Etherington, edited by Peter Limb
- Seize the Day: Australia, Exhibitions and the World, edited by
Richard Gillespie, Kate Darian-Smith, Caroline Jordan and Elizabeth Willis
- From Ferranti to Faculty: Information Technology at Monash University,
1960 to 1990, Sarah Rood
- Still Learning: A 50-Year History of Monash University Peninsula Campus, Fay
Woodhouse
Journals published in 2008
- History Australia
- The Bible and Critical Theory
- Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
- The Telecommunications Journal of Australia
- Monash Business Review. This journal is now discontinued.
Australian National Data Service (ANDS)
The Library, together with the Monash e-Research Centre and Information Technology Services, provided input into the establishment of ANDS. ANDS, which is funded as part of the NCRIS Platforms for Collaboration initiative, is led by Monash University in collaboration with the Australian National University and CSIRO. Through four programs – Frameworks, Utilities, Seeding the Commons and Building Capability – ANDS is intended to support Australia’s ability to undertake e-Research in a global, collaborative context. ANDS was initially funded through to 2011 with a budget of $21M.
Promote and preserve the University’s collections
Rare Books exhibitions
Fifty books from fifty years: celebrating a half century of collecting
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Monash University the Library organised an exhibition of fifty books chosen by Monash academics and researchers.The exhibition demonstrated the importance of the Monash University Library Rare Books. Professor Clive Probyn chose a pamphlet from 1733 that was written in response to one by Jonathan Swift and that Swift was reading in order to write his rebuttal. The pamphlet is Swift’s own copy, with annotations in his hand. The Dean of Arts, Professor Rae Frances, chose a group of late nineteenth-early twentieth century books on the problem of white slavery and narratives of sexual enslavement that she used in her latest book,
Selling sex: a hidden history of prostitution. The illustration used for the exhibition poster was taken from the title page of the artist Oskar Kokoschka’s
Die träumenden knaben (The Dreaming Boys) published in a limited edition in Vienna in 1908. This is an extremely rare and beautiful book and appears to be the only copy in Australia. Dr. John Gregory chose this item. Dr. Janine Burke, who is researching a book on Yoko Ono, chose some of Ono’s early exhibition catalogues. These are now quite rare and valuable, and are not widely held in Australia.
Southerly Busters: an exhibition of Australian Literature
This exhibition celebrated the completion and publication of the fourth and final volume of the
Bibliography of Australian Literature. The exhibition provided an overview of Australian literature in all its genres and featured items from the Rare Books Collection including well known classic works and many that are now forgotten.
Early Monash display at Matheson Library
As a further part of the University’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, material relating to the early years of Monash University was displayed in the Matheson Library. As well as photographs and programs from the opening of the University in 1961, the display included a mug made by Audrey Matheson, the wife of the first Vice-Chancellor Sir Louis Matheson, from the clay dug up when building began at Clayton, and the French champagne bottle used at the opening ceremony and signed by the official party.
Contribute to the University’s information management strategy
Significant progress was made towards positioning the University to manage its research data more effectively. A Data Management Coordinator position was created and filled. The DARE project has been established to enable a team of librarians to perform a range of outreach tasks to help researchers improve data management.
In November the Library hosted a seminar at which speakers from the Library, the Monash e-Research Centre and other areas of the University outlined policy developments, and the tools and services that are available to help researchers manage their data more effectively. Presentations also covered the Library’s increasing efforts to provide advice and information to researchers at the planning stage of their projects.
As part of the succession planning associated with the completion of the ARROW, ARCHER and DART projects, a number of tools and ongoing strategies were transferred to other service units across the University and the ANDS project, where they will be deployed, maintained or developed as required.
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Data management coordinator Sam Searle
discusses data storage with Associate Professor Ashley Buckle
Staff led by University Libarian Cathrine Harboe-Ree celebrate the success of the five year national ARROW project, which concluded in 2008.
Australians in Italy was published by the Monash University ePress in 2008
At the opening of the Fifty Books for fifty years exhibition: Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Adam Shoemaker (left) with the University Librarian and Richard Overell, Rare Books Librarian
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