Annual Report 2005

Library

Director’s Overview

2005 marked the beginning of the tenth year of operation of the Library as a single entity within ACU National. It was also our most successful year, with the positives easily outweighing the negatives and, as always, the many accomplishments were made possible by the staff who continued to provide an outstanding service to our University community.

The budget situation improved considerably and this enabled further progress in a number of key areas:

• Acquisitions expenditure was further increased and by year’s end the Library was well on target to reach its goal of a $2,000,000 acquisitions budget by 2007. Electronic serial titles continued to grow rapidly. For a second successive year expenditure on print monographs was well above the level of previous years and, when combined with the positive developments with regard to a standardisation of bibliographies in unit outlines, led to higher levels of client satisfaction with the collections. Loan activity held up surprisingly well but the trend is still very much towards the use of electronic resources.
• Further substantial funding was allocated to refurbishments, although not on the scale of 2004. Nonetheless significant improvements were made to the physical facilities in the Sydney, Canberra and Victorian libraries. Each Library had its own information commons although feedback from users still indicated that the number of computers was insufficient.
• Photocopying and printing facilities were significantly enhanced. However the decline in photocopying accelerated a trend that was mostly, but not wholly, balanced by an increase in printing activity.
• A content management system “The Learning Edge” was purchased in conjunction with ACUonline. Training and implementation commenced in the second half of the year.
• Staffing numbers remained largely unchanged but staff development continued to be a high priority for budget expenditure and Library staff were able to participate in a number of developmental activities including training, conference/workshop attendance, face-to-face meetings and support for study leave. Support for research activities was strengthened. A special grant was made to develop the print collection in Practical Theology and Pastoral Ministry across the University. The digitisation and cataloguing of ACU National theses continued and all theses produced since 2000 were on the web by the end of the year. Backlogs in the cataloguing of special collections were reduced, with the Nolan Collection finalised by December. The Library placed an emphasis on Information Literacy for researchers and cooperated closely with Research Services. A staff member participated in the URRTMC Research Modules Formulation Committee.

On the downside, lack of space remains a severe problem on several campuses especially where there has been strong growth in student numbers and the fact that financial resources were committed to refurbishment projects meant that those funds were not available elsewhere. For example, although expenditure still grew strongly, our collection remains well below what is needed to support research and still has weaknesses in some smaller subject disciplines.

Preparation of the Library Strategic Plan for 2006 – 2009 was a key goal for the year. The plan focuses on “One Library” as its main theme and sets the scene for a significant move forward in the provision of library services to ACU National. The accomplishments of 2005 provide a very firm foundation for those developments.

Chris Sheargold
Director, Libraries

The Library's Mission and Vision

 

The Library’s mission is to enable and enrich the teaching, learning and research endeavours of the University by delivering flexible access to extensive and relevant information resources and by providing quality services and facilities.

Our vision for the library service is to have:

• Resource provision and access that is coordinated and futures-oriented, and that finds integrated and innovative solutions to optimise the effectiveness of a limited resource base. 
• Stronger partnerships with the University’s teaching and learning community to enable a more direct contribution to the educational mission of ACU National.
• Staff members who, by building on their professional expertise, provide an exemplary service that demonstrates a commitment to meeting the individual and collective information needs of clients. 
• Management practices and operations that embody a commitment to Quality Assurance principles, and are attuned to the changing needs of the University.
• Technological and physical infrastructure developments that better enable the provision of flexible and responsive access to services and resources into the future.

 

The Library’s Core Values

 

The core values on which the Library bases its service are:

• Client focus: We are attentive to the individual learning and educational needs of our diverse and dispersed clientele.  We strive to provide equitable service to all clients.
• Ethical conduct: We commit ourselves to ethical behaviour, treating one another and our clients with respect, dignity and fairness.
• Quality: We evaluate what we do and strive for continuous improvement in service through the application of Quality Assurance systems and practices. We strive to deliver high quality services efficiently and cost effectively.
• Cooperation: We foster the spirit of cooperation and collaboration within the Library, within ACU National and beyond. We work collectively to achieve our goals, with each staff member taking personal responsibility for their role in the success of the team.
• Professional rigour: We set and attain high standards of professional performance. We ensure that all Library staff are enabled to fulfil their role.
• Education and learning: We value learning and, as professionals, contribute actively to ACU National’s educational mission.

Based on these values, the five major goals identified in the Library Strategic Plan (2003-2005) were:

• Provide access to information resources that better match the requirements of the University community.
• Provide a full range of services to meet the diverse needs of our clients in a timely manner.
• Plan and provide well-managed, highly regarded and cost-effective library services.
• Provide systems and facilities that match the changing needs of our clients.
• Contribute actively to sharing expertise and resources, and promote collaboration with other libraries and institutions at a local and national level.

About the Library

 

Clientele

The Library has a major presence on each of the University’s six campuses and serves a range of client groups with varying information and access requirements. These clients include:

• All students of Australian Catholic University, including those remotely located.
• All staff of Australian Catholic University.
• All students and staff of St Paul’s Theological College, Banyo.
• Staff and students from institutions with which ACU National libraries have reciprocal arrangements
• Members of the general public, who are welcome to use the libraries and for whom borrowing conditions are specified in Australian Catholic University Library's Circulation Policy.
• Other libraries through Inter-Library Loan and Document Delivery services in accordance with the Library's inter-library-lending policies.

Management

The Library’s management structure remained unchanged with six senior Library staff reporting to the Director:

• Library Manager, Banyo.
• Library Manager, Canberra.
• Library Manager, Sydney.
• Library Manager, Victoria.
• Library Manager, Electronic Services Unit.
• Library Manager, Infrastructure and Strategic Initiatives.

The Director formally reports to the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs), who also chairs the ACU National Library Committee. The Senior Library Forum (SLF), which is made up of the Director and the six Managers, is responsible for policy development, review and implementation. 

There are five Standing Committees, with broad internal representation. Standing Committee meetings deal with operational issues, allow information sharing and play a role in the formulation of policy recommendations that are then considered by the Senior Library Forum and, where appropriate, by the Library Committee.

The Standing Committees are:

• Circulation.
• Collection Development and Document Delivery.
• Information Services.
• Quality and Strategic Planning.
• Technical Services.

The ACU National Library Committee

The Library Committee has the following Terms of Reference:

• To approve policy directions for the Library and, where necessary, to make appropriate
• recommendations to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs).
• To provide an effective link between the Library and its stakeholders.
• To consider any matter referred to the Committee by the Vice-Chancellor or Academic Board.
• To give advice to the Core Planning Group on the budgetary needs of the Library.
• To receive and distribute the Annual Report of the Director, Libraries.

Its membership is:

• Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs) (Chair).
• Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and International).
• Director, Libraries.
• External University Librarian.
• Director of Information and Communication Services.
• Dean of Students.
• Dean’s nominee from each Faculty.
• Nominee(s) of Student Representative Councils (currently one undergraduate and one postgraduate student).

The Committee met four times in 2005.

External Relationships

The Library is a member of:

• CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians).
• QULOC (Queensland University Libraries Office of Cooperation).
• CAVAL (Cooperative Action by Victorian Academic Libraries).
• ACTUAL (ACT University and Academic Libraries).
• UNISON (University Librarians in the State of NSW).

Statistical Snapshot

The Library continued to develop its collections and services with the major trend being toward electronic and away from print resources. However, the decline in the use of print books, as opposed to paper journals, has been less pronounced with 2005 loans dropping back to their 2003 level. The major statistical highlights were:

Year	Total Loans
2003	272,871
2004	289,281
2005	272,523

So in spite of a significant increase in the use of electronic resources, borrowing books remained an important element in the provision of information resources.

Year	Inter Library Loans supplied	Inter Library Loans received
2003	2,978	2,648
2004	2,737	2,447
2005	2,414	1,963

ACU National remained a net lender but overall activity continued to decline.

Year	Serials expenditure	Monograph expenditure	Total
2003	$913,764	$536,661	$1,450,425
2004	$830,051	$644,544	$1,474,595
2005	$674,791	$1,022,489	$1,697,280

The growth in acquisitions expenditure outpaced inflation. Of more significance was the fact that serials expenditure fell while the number of serial titles rose (see below). This resulted from the strength of the Australian dollar and, more importantly, from the switch to electronic publications.

Year	Total Serials Titles
2003	7,759
2004	10,540
2005	25

The shift to aggregations of electronic titles has led to the very high level of growth in serial titles and the fact that so many titles are available via the web helps overcome the difficulties of servicing six different locations as well as the growing number of online students.

Year	Total Non-Serial Volumes
2003	460,903
2004	442,779
2005	459,133

The growth in the print collections has resumed following the statistical blimp in 2004 when a number of phantom records were removed from the catalogue. The increased expenditure on monographs (outlined above) helped improve the currency of the collection.

Standing Committees

Circulation Standing Committee

Membership:

Jim Graham, Banyo (Chair)
Francesca Higgins, Banyo
Sarah Ajaka, Mt St Mary
Janette Telford, MacKillop
Rachel Forrest, Aquinas
Karen Twelftree, St Patrick’s
Narelle Love, St Patrick’s
Jacqueline Smith, Signadou

Meetings

15 March 2005
24 May 2005
30 August 2005
10 November 2005

Principle matters attended to during the year:

Ariel

By the end of the year Ariel 4.1 was installed and operational on all campuses for Intercampus and Interlibrary Loans.

Receipt printers

Installed on the loans desk of all campus libraries.

Notices

Fine notices were introduced to supplement Overdue, Courtesy and Bill for Replacement notices. These emailed notices provide patrons with a clearer picture of their status with the Library.

Patron Loads

The PLIF (Patron Load Interface File) process which loads data from Student Administration’s BANNER system to UNILINC’s Aleph Library management system was monitored during the year. Problem patron records needed to be fixed each week. The advent of StudentConnect forced the University to alter when, in the enrolment process, it deemed an applicant to be a student. This now occurs when an “Offer of Admission” is accepted. This is much earlier in the enrolment process than had been the case previously. The PLIF load code was altered to reflect this change. Having student data loaded into the library system earlier in the process has been an improvement.

Claims Returned Procedure

A standardised procedure was developed and approved for use across all campus libraries.

Fees

The committee instituted a 50% discount for alumni enrolling as Community Borrowers at the library. A half yearly Community Borrower Fee was also approved.

Library Web Pages

The Circulation Policy and the Borrowing section on the Library website were edited a number of times during the year to ensure that they fully reflected current Library policy.

Patron Expiry Dates

Expiry dates were altered to cover Academic Regulations regarding lecturers giving students extensions to complete assessment.

Item Status Codes

A new item status code for DVDs was instituted to ensure that they could be distinguished from videos on the OPAC. DVDs have loan rules identical to those for videos. The committee liaised with the Technical Services Committee to rationalise the Item Status codes used within ACU Libraries. A number were able to be deleted.

Inter Campus Loans (ICLS)

The committee proposed a change to the eligibility requirements for ICLs. The Senior Library Forum approved the change to allow, from 2006, undergraduates to be able to request ICLs of journal articles and extracts and chapters of books.

E-reserve

In 2005 the committee took over responsibility for ereserve and the committee’s Terms of Reference were altered to reflect this. The committee lobbied academics to reduce the size of ereserve documents to allow easier printing.

Circulation Policy

The committee in conjunction with the SLF clarified its lending rules. Patrons have to be in good standing with all types of loans (standard, inter campus loan and inter library loan) before they can take out any type of loan. The relevant Library webpages were altered to reflect this clarification.

Jim Graham
Chair, Circulation Standing Committee

 

Collection Development and Document Delivery Standing Committee

Membership:

Nancy Clarke, Signadou (Chair)
Jim Graham, Banyo
Josephine Frawley, Manager Infrastructure and Strategic Initiatives
Heather Pearsall, Electronic Services Unit
Stuart Whelan, Victorian Campuses
Stephen Oakshott, Sydney Campuses

Meetings:

5 April 2005
3 May 2005
7 June 2005
23 August 2005

In addition there were informal meetings and discussions by email and telephone.

Principle matters attended to during the year:

Datasets and serials

Transfer of overall responsibility for selection of datasets and all new serials to the Collection Development Committee was an important milestone for 2005. A process for decision-making about new serials was developed, and subscriptions to a small number of additional campus-based print titles approved. In addition the Committee used information provided by the Electronic Services Manager and the Information Services Committee to determine new datasets subscriptions for 2006.

Work on transforming our approach to serials continued and was extended through 2005: for the first time payment for print serials was drawn from the Library’s central budget, though interaction with serials agents (renewal, invoicing and claims processes) remained with the campuses.  Print subscriptions to a further 77 titles (representing 87 subscriptions) were cancelled in 2005 to take effect in 2006. The majority of these had become available electronically through publishers’ aggregation to which the Library already subscribed or agreed to subscribe. The Committee also started work on transferring individual print subscriptions to electronic format. Swets, a major serials supplier, expressed interest in negotiating deals of this kind on our behalf, but progress proved slow and more complex than expected. However, agreement on the first cluster (from two publishers) was reached, and the process is expected to continue in 2006 and beyond. Through Swets, electronic access to a further seven titles was negotiated (on the basis of retaining existing print subscriptions while extending electronic access to all ACU students and staff).  Work also continued on gathering and recording centrally information about serial subscriptions. A wholly library-wide approach to serials will take some time, but the outcome should be a good one.

Distribution of Acquisitions Budget to the Campuses

Final EFTSL for academic areas on the campuses are used to distribute the acquisitions budget at campus level. In October the Manager of the University Statistics Unit advised that because of changes in the reporting requirements to DEST the final EFSTSL figures for 2005 would not be available until March 2006. In November the Chair received estimates of 2005 enrolments and distributed them to Library managers in the required format.

Electronic Resources Access Project (ERAP)

Use of SFX technology to generate and maintain catalogue entries for our electronic resources continued. A major undertaking early in the year deleted entries for titles no longer held at ACU National, and added several thousand new titles. A major development later in the year made use of a new Aleph product – MARCit - and provided fuller, more reliable data for many of the serial titles, and also made it possible to resolve some other technological problems that had emerged. By the end of the year there were 13,631 electronic journals in the ACU National Catalogue (of these there were still just over 1,000 with only limited bibliographic information in their records). Work on titles not able to be added to the catalogue through an automated process did not progress in 2005 – a decision was reached that as part of a realignment of duties, responsibility for this task would move in the course of 2006 to staff of the Electronic Services Unit.

Libraries Australia

The Library decided to provide full access to all ACU National staff and students to Libraries Australia, and the Collection Development Committee managed the work associated with this development.

Materials Availability Survey

As in the two previous years, a low-level Materials Availability Survey was held in all libraries in semester two. Again, data confirmed that the great majority of respondents seeking known items were able to access or borrow then when needed. 

Across the University 68% of respondents reported finding the sought item. Of the 32% not found, 33% of the respondents had not conducted the search correctly, indicating the importance of ongoing information literacy work.

Unit Outlines and References Cited

In May 2005 the University Teaching and Learning Committee endorsed the Guidelines for References in Current Unit Outlines developed by the Committee in 2004. These guidelines establish a common approach to references cited by lecturers, and provide an important quality control mechanism.  Application of the Guidelines by all lecturing staff appears likely to take some time but there has been steady progress in the extent to which students have direct and ready access to titles cited in unit outlines.

	2003	2004	2005
Unit outlines received in campus libraries	78.21%	85.84%	84.46%
References held in the campus library	72.27%	75.25%	77.18%
References held in one of the ACU libraries	84.87%	86.99%	88.06%

Cataloguing and Digitising ACU’s Theses

Work continued on this project, and the first of ACU National’s theses appeared on ADT in the course of the year.

Interlibrary Loans

The two major Interlibrary Loans events were the face-to-face meeting of interlibrary loans staff, and exploration of the Interlibrary Loan System developed by Ex Libris.

In mid-year Nancy Clarke and Narelle Love attended a two-day workshop on the newly released Interlibrary Loan System developed by Ex Libris. The Library agreed that this system offered great potential benefit to ACU National, automating many functions and providing very much improved control and reporting functionality, although much set-up work and trialling would be required.  McAuley at Banyo Library and Southern Cross University Library agreed to act as trial sites for UNILINC. Some progress was made in the remainder of the year.

In July eleven Interlibrary Loans (ILL) staff met for two days in Brisbane. This provided an opportunity for practical demonstrations of aspects of ILL delivery by staff from all campuses, agreement on a standard approach to such matters as use of Ariel for electronic delivery of documents and statistics keeping, a demonstration of the proposed Aleph ILL module, and much informal interchange. Francesca Higgins, Lending Services Librarian at Banyo and Trish D’Arcy were excellent hosts for this valuable occasion.

Direct electronic delivery of digitised documents direct to the requester was established across the University.

Late in the year it was agreed that convergence of interlibrary loan functions with circulation functions was likely to continue, particularly once the ILL system was introduced, and that responsibility for interlibrary loans would be transferred from the Collection Development and Document Delivery Committee to the Circulation Committee.

Nancy Clarke
Chair, Collection Development and Document Delivery Standing Committee

 

Information Services Standing Committee

Membership:

Heather Pearsall, Electronic Services Unit (Chair)
Rachael Bahl, Signadou
Peter Blake, Electronic Services Unit
Kate Bunker, Information Literacy Sub-Committee
Beth Crawter, Banyo
Liz Hartmann, Aquinas
Donna Laffan, Technical Advisor)
Ewa Lilpop, Electronic Services Unit
Leticia Medwell, Electronic Services Unit
Vera Pohl, St Patrick’s
Vicki Bourbous, Mt St Mary
Karen Crasto, MacKillop

Meetings:

Throughout 2005, the Information Services Committee met eight times to share information and make recommendations to the Senior Library Forum on a range of issues, including datasets services, information literacy programs, library publications, information technology services, web developments, and the Library’s strategic plan.

Principle matters attended to during the year:

Making Connections: Face-to-Face Meeting

The second face-to-face information services meeting was organised by the committee and held in Victoria on 29-31 March 2005. The meeting was held over three days. The first two days were at St Patrick’s Campus, Melbourne and the third day was at Aquinas Campus, Ballarat. The theme of the meeting was Making Connections to:

• Resources
• Clients
• Each other
• The future

It was a large meeting with seventeen information services librarians participating from across Australian Catholic University with representatives from every campus and the Electronic Services Unit. The Library Director also joined the meeting for an early morning session on day two.

Meeting in person provided information services staff with the opportunity to:

• Fast track the development of a national focus for information services
• Share information
• Transfer skills
• Challenge some of the way things are currently done and consider new methods for the future
• Strengthen networks between colleagues across the University.

It was a full agenda, and having learnt from experience, it was handled differently to the inaugural face-to-face meeting in 2003. Each campus took responsibility for presenting a session and for taking the minutes of another session. The standard of the presentations was extremely high.  Each of the presentations was informative, sometimes challenging, often innovative and always entertaining. 

As well as the official sessions the meeting included tours of both Victorian campuses and both libraries, a staff dinner and a bus trip to Ballarat courtesy of Marianne Kuyper, who kindly (and literally) put on a different hat and became our bus driver for the day.

The next face-to-face meeting is planned for Canberra in December 2006.

Information Literacy Sub-Committee

The Information Literacy (IL) Sub-Committee continued during 2005 as a forum for information sharing, discussion and planning across all campuses.  Major achievements of the Sub-Committee for 2005 were:

• The Library In Your Office (TLIYO) was introduced at each campus. Strathfield held a special launch and invited academic staff to attend.  Other campuses distributed the printed copies of the manual.
• The first issue of TLIYO newsletter was published. 
• The Web-ezy catalogue module was updated
• The Committee reviewed the IL recommendations of Christine Bruce (as per KRA 2 Priority E Strategy 1.1 of the Library's Strategic Plan) and submitted a report to the Senior Library Forum.
• The Library was invited to participate in the development of a series of online modules for higher degree research students.
• The Library was invited to participate in the training of staff teaching online. The IL Sub-Committee co-ordinated this training.
• A number of staff from ACU Libraries attended the ANZIIL symposium in Adelaide and one staff member attended the Dunedin symposium in New Zealand.

Focus Groups Working Party

In first semester 2005, to satisfy the requirements of the Library’s Strategic Plan, information services conducted a series of focus groups to determine the reference and electronic services needs of students and staff working off-campus. A working party made up of Liz Hartmann, Beth Crawter and Rachael Bahl formulated a series of questions to be used targeting undergraduate, higher degree students (ILL definition), and staff. A report was sent to the Senior Library Forum containing much useful information and feedback. It was decided that the focus groups be conducted every two years, on alternate years to the Rodski survey. 

Datasets Report

The Information Services Committee dedicated the meeting in July to reviewing the current datasets situation and assessing the large number of new databases being considered for 2006. The committee’s recommendations were passed to the Senior Library Forum to assist in the final decision making about renewals, cancellations and the purchase of new databases for 2006.

Heather Pearsall
Chair, Information Services Standing Committee

Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee

Membership:

Stephen Oakshott (Chair)
Nancy Clarke, Signadou
Jim Graham, Banyo
Heather Pearsall, Electronic Services Unit
Stuart Whelan, Victorian Campuses

Meetings:

The Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee did not meet in 2005. However the other Standing Committees, each of which was chaired by a member of the Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee, addressed quality issues relevant to their Terms of Reference. They logged progress electronically on the Library Strategic Implementation Plan, with a report being made to the University Quality Management Committee. The Senior Library Forum revised some elements of the Plan, particularly timelines, in the light of unforeseen developments.

The Strategic Implementation Plan formed the basis for many positive developments within the Library.

Preliminary work on the next Library Strategic Plan was begun in late 2005 under the leadership of Stuart Whelan.

The Library Disability Advisory Group

This is a subcommittee of the Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee.

Membership:

Francesca Higgins, Banyo (Chair)
Josephine Frawley, former Chair of Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee
Kim Gosling, Aquinas
Marianne Kuyper, St Patrick’s
Anthony McCall, Banyo
Heather Pearsall, Electronic Services Unit
Lara Rafferty, ACU National Disability Coordinator
Jacqueline Smith, Signadou
Janette Telford, MacKillop
Pam Trimmer, Mt St Mary

The advisory group oversaw the continued development of services to clients with disabilities

Stephen Oakshott
Chair, Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee

Technical Services Standing Committee

Membership:

Josephine Frawley, Chair
Nancy Clarke, Signadou
Jim Graham, Banyo (June 2004 – June 2005)
Freya Bruce, Banyo (June 2005 – ongoing)
Marianne Gration, Aquinas (June 2004 - ongoing)
Rebecca Henson, MacKillop
Margaret O’Cain, St Patrick’s (June 2004 – Dec 2005
Cecilia Tazzyman, Mt St Mary (June 2004 – Dec 2005)

Meetings:

3 November 2005 by videoconference

Serials Practitioners Group
6-8 June 2005, Sydney

Principle matters attended to during the year:

UNILINC and the CAUL Survey, March-May

In March, UNILINC began working with CSU, SCU and ACU National to write purpose-built reports that would provide accurate data about Library information resources. This was particularly aimed at providing better information for the annual CAUL statistics, which have been an ongoing problem in terms of consistency and accuracy.

Serials

A total of ten staff met in Sydney to resolve a number of issues, to share information and to attend training at UNILINC.

Staff reported an increased confidence in using the serials module as a result of the three days.

The other major project was to improve the serials display on the OPAC, which made it easier for clients to use.

Cataloguing

Collection codes were reviewed, rationalised (the number was almost halved) and standardised across the campuses, which led to a clearer, more consistent catalogue. A new code for DVDs was introduced. The call number display on the OPACs was standardised across the campuses. The guidelines for the cataloguing of electronic resources were refined.

Acquisitions

Acquisitions staff worked with UNILINC to build plain text versions of order, claims and cancellations notices. A procedure, originally developed at the Canberra Campus Library, for running Aleph Service Reports and converting them to Excel files was shared with other campuses, leading to facilitation in the provision of statistical data.

Josephine Frawley
Chair, Technical Services Standing Committee

Campus Libraries

Brisbane: Banyo Library

The Banyo Library serves the students and staff of both St Paul’s Theological College and Australian Catholic University

McAuley at Banyo

1. Location/Physical Facilities

Banyo Library operates from a purpose-built three-level building, which was constructed in preparation for the relocation of ACU National McAuley Campus from Mitchelton to Banyo. 2005 was the Library's third year of operation in the new building.

Shade structures and tables and chairs were erected late in the year in the piazza outside the library. These have proved to be very popular with students, especially as food and drink vending machines are also located in this area. Wireless LAN covers the piazza as well as 90% of the library thus allowing students to use their laptops both inside and outside the library. Our lending rules have had to be changed to allow students to take Course Reading materials outside the building for students to use while having informal tutorials with their laptops and coffee in the piazza.

2. Student and Academic Population

Student and staff populations on campus were static in 2005 at 1850 EFTSL. The numbers of international students on campus continues to increase.

3. Staffing

In January John Eliot was appointed Shifts Librarian replacing Peter Blake who had been promoted to a position in the Electronic Services Unit (ESU).  In June Jeanette Saviane retired.  The Technical Services Librarian position was advertised and Freya Bruce commenced duties in July. In August  Ewa Lilpop relocated from MacKillop Campus to Banyo Library. Ewa works for ACU Library’s Electronic Services Unit but is located within Banyo Library. Ewa spends half of her time cataloguing books from Banyo Library’s special Aquinas collection.

During the year staff attended the following staff development activities:

• QULOC seminar. New Communication Technologies in Libraries. Anne Edwards.
• QULOC seminar. E-topia revisited. Barbara Adamson, Freya Bruce.
• South Pacific User Services Conference, Griffith. Beth Crawter.
• Copyright Council training. October. Barbara Adamson.
• Evidence-based Librarianship conference. Jim Graham, Beth Crawter, Freya Bruce.
• NLA Libraries Australia training. Barbara Adamson, Trish D’Arcy, Francesca Higgins.
• QULOC seminar. Rodski and LibQUAL+. Francesca Higgins, Beth Crawter, Jim Graham.
• NEXT 2005 Library Technicians’ conference, Sydney. September. Troy Mason, Trish D’Arcy.
• UNILINC Cataloguing training, Sydney. Freya Bruce.
• CAVAL Cataloguing Serials training, Melbourne. Anne Edwards.
• CAVAL MARC21 for cataloguers, Melbourne. Anne Edwards.
• ANZTLA 2005, Perth. Carolyn Willadsen.
• NLA Searching Libraries Australia. Robin Turnley, Jeanette Saviane.
• Voice Care workshop. Beth Crawter, Barbara Adamson.

4. Collections

Highlights included:

• 7,237 items catalogued into the collection and 2,660 weeded from the collection.
• 2416 Aquinas collection items were catalogued and 1,191 Aquinas duplicates were disposed of responsibly. Substantial progress is being made towards completing the cataloguing of this valuable collection. Approximately 8,000 volumes still remain to be processed.
• The following rare and valuable items from the St Paul’s collection were catalogued during the year:
  • The unpublished personal papers used by Archbishop Francis Rush at the Second Vatican Council.
  • Patrilogiae cursus completus. Series Latina - vols. 1-217
  • Patrilogiae cursus completus. Series Graeca - vols 1-162
  • Concilium Tridentinum (Council of Trent) - 13 vols.
  • Annales ecclesiastici by Caesare Baronio.

5. Client Services

Circulation

Overall it was a busy year of consolidation and high quality service. The main highlights were:

ILL requested items down 31% to 671.
ILL supplied items down 11% to 884.
The decrease in ILL demand was no doubt a result of the massive increase in the availability of electronic journals in the last two years.

Patron visits up 2% to 167,125.
Inter-Campus-Loan (ICL) requests down 12% to 176.
ICL supplies up 4% to 451.
Loans down 3.6% to 70,590.
Course Reading Loans down 5% to 5,247.
E-Reserve items up 9% to 2,334 
Information Literacy

106 classes (an increase of 22%) were given in 2005 to 1,612 students (an increase of 42%) from all Schools.

6. IT Infrastructure

Usage of the Information Commons was heavy throughout the year. However, to date a booking system for PCs has not been necessary.  ITCS commissioned a Wireless LAN during the year. The coverage allows students to connect their laptops to the campus network in the Piazza outside of the Library; on levels B and C of the building and in 90% of Level A. This development was welcomed by students.

ITCS improved the way in which software on the PCs in the Information Commons is managed. PCs can now have their software reloaded and updated (reghosted) much more quickly. 

In 2005 the Library reconfigured its printers and photocopiers.  A Colour copier was moved from the Level A photocopier room to the Information Commons and converted to a dual purpose Colour/Black and White Printer/Copier. An extra copier in the Information Commons led to a reduction in queues at the printer and better use of equipment.

7. Local Collaboration/Community Engagement

• The Library manager travelled to the Divine Word University at Madang in Papua New Guinea and reported to the University President on progress in the development of its library in the last 12 months.
• The library was involved in Open Day activities with displays and a competition. 
• In June the Library ran a Fee-for-Service Course for Blue Care Nurses on resources for Continence.
• In November we hosted Field Experience Student – David Masel
• During the year the Library was involved with the following school groups:
• Year 12 Students Earnshaw College – Library visit and activity
• Corpus Christi College students – Library visit and activity
• Clontarf Beach State High School – Library visit and activity
• Brigidine College – Library visit
• St Margaret’s Anglican School – Library visit
• Clayfield College – Library visit
• Lourdes Hill College – Library visit

8. Highlights
During 2005 the Library continued to provide work experience placements for 2nd and 3rd year Field Placement students from the School of Business & Informatics.  These students work in the Information Commons providing help with such things as printer problems, scanning, document formatting, logons, etc. The students gained additional useful helpdesk experience, which they can add to their curriculum vitae and the library gained useful staff time.

Library opening hours were altered slightly. In response to student requests the Library now opens at 7.45am (15 minutes before the first lecture) during semesters. Students have made good use of this extra opening time.

Jim Graham
Library Manager (Brisbane)

Canberra: The Lewins Library

1. Location

The Lewins Library is located within the original Signadou Campus building at Watson in Canberra. With growing student numbers and changed learning patterns and expectations, space and facilities in the library have been under strain for a number of years. In 2005 a number of campus functions were moved to the recently acquired Blackfriars building, and this provided an opportunity to start redevelopment of the library.  A former lecture room was made available to the library in late 2004, and in January library staff transformed this space into a Teachers’ Resources Centre, housing curriculum resources, children’s literature, and other hands-on resources.

The area in the library freed by this move was set up quite informally as an open study area that proved immediately popular with students. This response, along with continuing requests for additional computing spaces for students encouraged us to proceed with the more ambitious library redevelopment project foreshadowed in late 2004. This undertaking became the major project for the library in 2005 (see highlights).

2. Student and Academic Population

Canberra remains the smallest campus of the University. Undergraduate degrees offered in 2005 were in Education (Primary and Secondary), Social Work, Justice Studies and Theology as well as a joint degree with the ANU. Other programs include Graduate Diploma courses and higher degrees by coursework and research in Theology, Education, Social Work, Youth Studies, and Religious Education. Many of the academic staff are also actively involved in research programs of their own.

For many years the Canberra campus has run programs using a variety of instructional modes, and these continue, along with increased use of online teaching. These all pose their own demands from library users.

3. Staffing

Library staff participated in a number of conferences and other training and development events. Kate Bunker was invited by QULOC to present a paper on “federated searching” at Brisbane; and Rachael Bahl and Jacqueline Smith presented a paper and assisted with organisation of a forum on interlibrary loans. Rachael also convened a forum on web accessibility through WANAU.  Staff took part in training programs offered by the University’s Organisational Learning and Development Unit.

Rachael Bahl and Kate Bunker completed the new format Certificate IV – in Workplace Training and Assessment. Jacinta Cloney completed her Diploma in Library and Information Management. 

Staff changes in 2004 included the appointment of Lindsey Ross to replace Vanessa Nuessler who was on Child Rearing Leave.

4. Collections

The local acquisitions budget was higher in 2005 than in any previous year, and we bought more with it (2,423 items from regular funding, compared with 1,503 in 2004), although the number of volumes removed from the collection also increased (from 523 to 1,155).  The outcome at the end of the year was a somewhat larger, but undoubtedly fresher looking collection with many replicated and aged items removed.

The accelerating move from print to electronic format with serials was well received by the now distinctly computer-literate student and staff body, and the constant enhancements in electronic access were well received.

5. Client Services

Loans activities declined somewhat (28,759 compared with 31,400 in 2004, but were a little higher than in 2003: 27, 693). 

Overall the loans activity was satisfactory and per capita loans on the campus remain relatively high.  As in all campus libraries there is a steady increase in the use of electronic resources by campus staff and students.

Interlibrary loans also declined in number – 258 items were supplied compared with 302 in 2004 – possibly a response to the increase in electronic resources, or perhaps simply because of different research activities. 

As in recent years an intensive introductory information literacy program was offered to all incoming students, with a high participation rate.  In addition, information literacy programs were offered throughout the year, with special programs provided for particular groups or with particular resources. There were more groups, but with slightly smaller overall numbers than in 2004. 

6. IT Infrastructure

Computers in the Library’s Online Centre continued to be very heavily used – students remained courteous about the inadequate numbers of computers, though with only eight computers for use by students, and steadily increasing uptake of WebCT by lecturers, some level of frustration was understandable. 

The Monitor printing and copying system continued to operate in a satisfactory manner. 

7. Local Collaboration/Community Engagement

The Library works closely with campus and other University staff, and with outside bodies. Some activities were:

• The Signadou Campus Library Advisory Committee (representing students, academic staff and library staff) met three times in 2005.
• Kate Bunker and Rachael Bahl regularly attended meetings of the ACTUAL ILL round table (with participants from the ANU, ADFA, University of Canberra, and ACU).  
• Nancy Clarke continued to serve as a member of the Library Advisory Committee of St Mark’s National Theological College.

8. Highlights

Undoubtedly the highlight of 2005 was commencement of the first stage of the redevelopment of the library. Throughout much of the year library staff worked with Cecilia Kugler, principal of CK Design International to develop a five-year master plan for the library. The brief covered better design and access, improved computing and study facilities, and additional and better space and facilities for the collection and library staff.  Late in the year funds became available to commence the first stage of the work, with the intention of completing this stage for the beginning of the 2006 academic year. 

Campus Operations staff were of invaluable assistance, providing project management and much practical assistance to library staff in the work.

By the end of the year designated walls had been removed and added, the cloister (corridor) adjacent to the library had been incorporated as part of the library (joined by 10 arched entrances), the entire collection had been reshelved and shrouded in plastic, and a new office created for the manager.  Redevelopment of the central area to create an Information Commons with an additional 20 PCs was also in place. We were well on track to meet our deadline.  Clients seemed happy to accept the noise, dust and inconvenience with the prospect of real enhancements for 2006.

Nancy Clarke
Library Manager (Canberra)

Sydney Libraries

1. Location/Physical Facilities

North Sydney refurbishment (Stage 1): Construction work on the upper (entrance) level of the Library was completed just prior to semester 1, 2005. One of the main features of the refurbished area is the incorporation of an Information Commons comprising clusters of PCs for individual and small group use. This facility became heavily patronized from the outset necessitating a booking system to try and maximize equitable access. Although the number of public access PCs increased from 11 to 32, it became clear as the year progressed that more workstations would be required to keep pace with demand as the number of electronic resources and students increase.

The redevelopment of the lower level of the Library was postponed to a later date. This second stage will incorporate an increase in the number of group study rooms from the current three to a planned nine. Space will also be set aside for up to 40 PCs spread throughout the floor. As a stopgap an area originally set aside for visiting lecturers was returned to the Library in late 2005 and converted, via the partial removal of a wall, to an open group study area accommodating around 30 students. Stage 2 also plans to remove the current lecture room, which will not only provide students with more study space, but will reduce noise levels associated with students coming and going from classes. The timing of a decision on Stage 2 is presently undecided.

Demountable acquisition, Strathfield Campus:The decision was made to allow the Library the use of a demountable accessible via the rear of level 1 (entrance level). At the end of 2005 the serials collection was moved into the demountable and the reference collection was moved to where the serials had been located. This freed up the main part of the upper level to make way for the installation of an Information Commons in 2006.

2. Student and Academic Population

The Sydney libraries supported an actual total student load for North Sydney Campus of 1,894 compared with 1,787 in 2004 (6% increase) whilst Strathfield supported 2,139 compared to 1,850 the previous year (15.6% increase). Academic staff numbers at North Sydney and Strathfield were 65 and 96 respectively, compared with 70 and 85 the previous year.

3. Staffing

Sadly Bob Lim, a member of the North Sydney staff, passed away in May. Bob commenced employment with the University in 1989, working in Finance before moving to the Library in 1992.

The following staff changes occurred during 2005 (The number of temporary staff members listed below in large part reflects the suspension of recruitment of permanent positions pending a review of the Sydney Library structure planned for 2006):

North Sydney

• Ewa Lilpop (Information Services Librarian-North Sydney) transferred to Brisbane to join the ESU
• Karen Crasto (Temporary Information Services Librarian-North Sydney) replaced Ewa Lilpop
• Francisco Marcial (Temporary Library Assistant-North Sydney) replaced Bob Lim
• Huy Nguyen (Temporary Library Assistant-North Sydney) replaced Mary Quinlan (extended leave)
• Boris Nazarov (Temporary Library Assistant-North Sydney) replaced Rhonda Roberts (resigned September)

Strathfield

• Katerina Kravtsova (Temporary Library Assistant-Strathfield) replaced Michelle Matek (maternity leave)
• Mini Parakka (Temporary Library Assistant-Strathfield)

Position Exchanges
A position exchange was initiated at Strathfield between Jurij Suchowerskyj (Technical Services Librarian) and Cecilia Tazzyman (Information Services Librarian) in May 2004. The purpose of such a programme is to allow staff to expand their skills base, gain an appreciation of their respective roles as well as provide an opportunity to offer a fresh perspective.

The exchange brought about significant improvements to work practices, especially in the area of Technical Services. Both participants opted to return to their previous positions following a formal review of arrangement in May 2005.

4. Collections (including donations)

The major activity associated with collection management was the transfer of the Exercise Science collection from North Sydney to Strathfield to support the move of the course. In addition to culling that took place in 2004 in preparation for this transfer, Strathfield staff carried out further culling in 2005, both to accommodate new resources and to replace some shelving with more student study and group activity spaces.

Some limited culling of the collection at North Sydney took place during 2005 to create space for new resources, especially the fast growing Business and Informatics section.

5. Client Services

Information Literacy
2005 saw strong demand for information services, especially for information literacy sessions for groups of students.

Sessions at North Sydney attracted 1,203 compared with around 1,000 in 2004, whilst 1,208 students attended sessions at Strathfield compared with 566 the previous year.

Loans activity
Total loan transactions have been gradually reducing between 2003 and 2005 at North Sydney (matching a trend experienced on interstate campuses) whereas Strathfield experienced an increase in 2005 despite a decline the previous year:

 2003
 2004
 2005
 
North Sydney
 59,487
 52,724
 50,610
 
Strathfield
 117,256
 114,607
 121,342
 

6. IT Infrastructure (including Online Centres)

Demand for public access PCs continues to grow and is being addressed through space planning initiatives and the introduction of the Information Commons concept described in section 1 above.

A major redesign of North Sydney Library has provided for some future expansion of PC facilities. The Strathfield Library building, however, has major structural constraints (e.g. floor loading limits, multiple levels and relatively narrow floor areas) that limit the capacity for any large scale increase in the number of workstations without a significant reduction in collection size. The situation has been exacerbated by restricted usage of the Library Online Centre. As mentioned in last year’s report, a policy of allowing the Centre to be booked by academic staff due to a shortage of PC labs on campus, meant that around 80% of PCs were unavailable to students at certain times during semester. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and International) agreed to examine the possibility of converting the Centre into a casual use facility once the new Edward Clancy complex was up and running in the first half of 2005, however this decision is now expected sometime in 2006 following an assessment of campus PC lab usage.

7. Local Collaboration/Community Engagement

CathLINK Australia (http://cathlink.acu.edu.au/) was originally developed by Strathfield Campus Library in 2001 to provide a gateway to Catholic libraries and information agencies across Australia, assisting individuals, researchers, groups and institutions to navigate their way through an increasingly diverse range of Catholic organizations. The site is well patronised by Australian as well as international users representing a major community engagement initiative in support of ACU’s Strategic Plan.

Due to funding limitations, a shortage of technical assistance, and competing priorities within the ACU Library, further development of the site was suspended in early 2004. Thus the site operated in limited way during 2005, with support limited to updating information to sites registered with the service and keeping links to related sites active.

8. Highlights

The completion of Stage 1 of the North Sydney Campus Library refurbishment and the decision to expand the Library into an adjacent demountable at Strathfield represent highlights for 2005.

Dr Stephen Oakshott
Library Manager (Sydney)

Victorian Libraries

The year 2005 was a busy year for both the Raheen Library in Melbourne and the Callinan Library in Ballarat.

Over the past couple of years we have been working to improve the physical environment of the libraries, the better to meet changing student usage patterns.  Renovations in Ballarat were completed and we concentrated on Melbourne, creating new public use spaces as well as relocating some of the office space.

New initiatives included the introduction of group computer workstations in Melbourne and a trial relaxation of the rules on eating and drinking in the libraries. Both of these have proved to be very successful.

Work on improving the collections has been a focus, as has the effort to process donations for inclusion.  Staff have continued to provide a high quality service and have actively contributed through committees to further the development of the ACU library as a whole.

1. Location/Physical Facilities

The Raheen Library is located in the main building of St Patrick’s campus, with easy access on the ground floor. On two levels, with the collections on the first floor and service points on the ground floor, the library provides both individual and group study areas. There are 58 public access computers as well as photocopying and audiovisual preview facilities.

The Callinan Library is located centrally on campus in an attractive older building and features a free standing mezzanine floor.  Forming an “L” shape, the library building has the collections and quiet study areas located on one side and the service points and group discussion area on the other. Access to electronic resources and the internet is provided with 18 computers available both in the Online Centre and on the library floor.  Audiovisual preview and photocopying facilities are also available.

After extensive works in Ballarat in 2004 it was the turn of the Melbourne library in 2005. We were able to take advantage of some additional space that was given to the library which enabled us to create extra office space to house three Information Services staff adjacent to the information desk area. The area that was vacated was opened up for six group study computer workstations. In addition the upstairs discussion room was converted, with the removal of a wall, into an audiovisual preview area.  New furniture was purchased to enable an expansion of the facilities. New computer benches were also installed on the ground floor.

2. Student and Academic Population

In 2005 the Melbourne library served a population 3,809 students, as well as 311 academic and general staff. The library supports both teaching and research on and off campus in the three Faculties of the University, specifically in the following Schools: Arts and Sciences, Nursing, Business and Informatics, Philosophy, Education, Psychology, Educational Leadership, Religious Education, Exercise Science and Theology

In Ballarat the library serves a campus population of 580 students and 50 staff.  The three Faculties of the University are represented on campus, with Education and Nursing being the major Schools on campus. Other Schools represented include Arts and Sciences, Educational Leadership, Religious Education and Theology.

3. Staffing

Staffing in both libraries remained relatively stable throughout 2005. In Melbourne we advertised late in the year for a library clerk to replace Cindy Parsons who resigned. In Ballarat one of our Information Services Librarians, Pauline Ferguson went on a twelve month secondment and Alex Bruty, who has worked with us on weekends for quite a number of years, resigned.

4. Collections

This year has seen an increase in the acquisitions budget for both libraries, which has allowed for more thorough collection building. In 2005 the library spent $250,286 on monograph acquisition and $61,887 on print serials in Melbourne, while in Ballarat $81,000 was spent on monographs and $22,842 on print serials.  The systematic checking of our holdings of books cited in the unit outlines for units taught on campus has continued along with purchase of cited items that we do not hold.

Collection maintenance continued throughout the year with the weeding of parts of the collections. This was accompanied by a re-organisation of the shelving sequences where required. Cataloguing of the Nolan Collection, one of our special collections in the area of children’s literature, was completed.

5. Client Services

The number of visits to the libraries continued to grow in 2005 with a 2% increase for each over the previous year. The 2003-2005 figures show an increase of 5.7% for Ballarat and 10.8% for Melbourne. The number of first loans was down by 6.5% in Melbourne and 10% in Ballarat. The number of Information desk queries remained steady in Ballarat at 2,394 for the year, though Melbourne showed a 6% decline from 12,260 in 2004 to 11,579 in 2005. The information literacy program is going from strength to strength, with another increase in activity in 2005 over the previous year. In Ballarat the number of sessions increased by 12 to 46 and the number of participants by 49 to 442. In Melbourne the number of sessions increased by 31 and the number of those attending rose by 212 to 2,112.

6. IT Infrastructure

There was continued heavy use of all of the library computers. The number of computers in the library in Ballarat would appear to be sufficient when viewed across the entire day. In Melbourne during most days for most of the year the usage rate was 100%.

During the year we were fortunate to receive the go-ahead to add another 26 computers in Melbourne. In conjunction with the MCSA we set up new workstation benches on the ground floor for twenty computers. Six group computer workstations were installed, with seating for four people at each computer. These have proved to be popular and are in constant use. But in spite of these advances there are still not enough computers for the students to use in the Raheen Library and we still regularly see people queuing.

Discussions were held with ITCS Infrastructure about the extension of wireless network coverage in the library. The plan is that this should be complete for the beginning of first semester 2006.

7. Local Collaboration/Community Engagement

The staff on both campuses have continued to work closely together, particularly on eReserve and in Technical Services. We are keen to see this develop further.

The project that we worked on with the Melbourne Campus Student Association to improve the number of computers in the Melbourne library is worth noting here and we gratefully acknowledge the funds that it made available for building the computer workstation benches.

The Raheen Library is still providing a library service for the Melbourne Diocese Catholic Education Office.

8. Highlights

The highlight for this year was the continued growth in library usage, even though the indicators for some activities were down. It has been a pleasure to see students making full use of the facilities and being supported with their work.

Other highlights have been the excellent work that staff are doing with information literacy and the work that they have been doing in strengthening our collections. I would like to thank them all for their efforts.

Stuart Whelan
Library Manager (Victoria)

Electronic Services Unit

1. Staff

Throughout 2005, the staff of the Electronic Services Unit (ESU) continued to support the Library’s mission by providing centralised, electronic information services for the University’s geographically dispersed and diverse client base. The year saw further staff changes with Ewa Lilpop relocating from MacKillop to McAuley at Banyo in August 2005 to work half-time with ESU.

2. Electronic Resources

2.1 Datasets
The Library’s datasets budget for 2005 increased by $60,000 to $520,000.  Eight new databases were added to the collection in 2005 with the most significant change being a subscription to Ebsco Mega File Premier as a replacement for Proquest 5000.

The new databases for 2005 were:

• ACER: An index of research theses in education from all Australian universities dating back to 1911.
• Cambridge University Press Journals: A collection of 177 scholarly, full text journals covering a broad range of subjects including social work, theology, arts and humanities, and environmental science.
• CCH Publications: Three CCH titles were purchased namely Human Resources Management, Australian Master Tax Guide, and Australian & New Zealand Equal Opportunity Law & Practice. 
  ChemEssentials Collection: Four chemistry and mathematics reference works from Knovel publications. 
• Ebsco Mega File Premier: A large aggregation of 24 databases including Academic Source Premier, Business Source Premier, Newspaper Source, Computer Source, Religion & Philosophy Collection, Health Source and Sociological Collection. Ebsco Mega File Premier contains over 8,000 full text titles. 
• Emerald Fulltext: Over 100 full text, scholarly, management journals with strong coverage of leadership.
• Factiva: Full text news and business information including all major Australian and international newspapers, business journals and wire services together with transcripts of major television and radio broadcasts.
• Gale Reference Library: First purchases from this growing collection of reference material were the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices and the Encyclopedia of Religion.

The following database subscriptions were cancelled or transferred in 2005:

• Proquest 5000 was replaced with Ebsco Mega File Premier.
• ABIX (Australian Business Index) was cancelled as it is covered by the Factiva collection.

3. Electronic Services

3.1 Ezproxy
Ezproxy was implemented in December 2004 for 2005 allowing remote access to the Library's electronic resources. The implementation was successful so that Ezproxy was also able to be used for ereserve and other library services requiring authentication. 

3.2 Learning Edge
As a joint project with ACUonline, Learning Edge was purchased primarily as a learning object management system but also for use as a content management system. ESU plan to use Learning Edge for a number of projects with the largest being the development of an eprint repository for ACU National. Two ESU staff did two days administrative training on Learning Edge in June 2005. 

3.3 go fetch
The implementation of SFX and go fetch (Metalib) is an ongoing process allowing the library to better manage databases and other electronic resources. Metalib was upgraded to version 3.13 and the SFX button was renamed Findit by Information Services staff. MARCit was purchased and used to create full ejournal records on the Library catalogue.

3.4 EndNote
Version 9 was implemented and an online copy was provided for staff and students to download. The EndNote section of the Library website was updated and modified so that it conformed to the design of the Library website. Online training material was developed for the new version and made available to all Library staff and face-to-face training was then provided to academic staff and students on demand. 

3.5 Library Web Site
The Information for New Students webpage was developed for use in 2006.  The Services for Researchers web page was updated to include information about alerts and cited reference searching. The Online Education Tools web pages were also updated to include information on Ezproxy, using the copyright database, deeplinking to articles, linking to web sites, and ‘some things to remember’. Pauline Ferguson from Ballarat Campus Library, completed a national project, compiling a list of publishers’ tutorials and help guides for using databases which was added to the Library web site. Barbara Adamson from Banyo Campus Library researched database licenses to determine whether interlibrary loans were allowed.

3.6 Ariel
ESU provided technical support to make the Ariel Patron Delivery system for the delivery of online interlibrary loan documents operational on the Library server.

3.7 Illinois Web Accessibility Wizard 
To improve accessibility to electronic information for people with disabilities, the Illinois Web Accessibility Wizard was purchased for use in the library and by ACUonline.

3.8 Library Server
DLibrary, the Library server, was migrated to a new server and the old server converted to DlibraryDev, a development server. A Business Continuity Plan was developed for the three library servers ie. dlibrary, dlibrary dev and ezproxy. The Service Level Agreement between ITCS and the Library was revised and approved by both units. 

3.9 Copyright Database
The copyright database was opened to ACU National staff for searching. 

Heather Pearsall
Manager, Electronic Services Unit

Monitor Copying and Printing Service

1. Enhancements to Services

New print release stations were installed on the Sydney and Brisbane campuses.
As part of the refurbishment projects at North Sydney, Canberra and Ballarat, the printing and photocopying services were relocated and/or upgraded.
Extra memory was installed in the 20 Ricoh AP3200 printers to cope with the demands of large power-point files.
Colour printing upgrades were available from first semester.
Printing facilities were installed for the new computer laboratory in the Clancy Building (Strathfield Campus). This involved relocating printers from the Library and replacing them with higher capacity models.
A pilot program for wireless printing was commenced towards the end of 2005 at Banyo Campus with a view to extending it University-wide.
In December, in cooperation with Liz Anderson, Manager, Equity and Disability, we completed a document titled ACU Disability Services Copying and Printing Card Management, which set out service levels for 2006.
Cash collection from the autoloaders and financial processes was streamlined.
In order to improve security, the Library worked in conjunction with ITCS to explore the feasibility of adding the library’s printer server to the ITCS server update service, and relocating it to the ITCS server room. At Brisbane, this was successfully implemented in November, and encourages us to explore this option with the other campus ITCS units.
Work continued with Monitor to improve the standard of web reports.

2. Pricing

With the introduction of colour printing, it was necessary to reduce the range of prices to fit the maximum number of paper tray configurations. A4 colour transparencies were reduced from $2.70 to $2.00, to bring them in line with A4 colour copies and prints. All other charges remained frozen at their 2003 level.

3. Independent Review of the Library Copying and Printing Service

In December, the Library contracted Pedro Sampaio of Jps Business Consultancy Pty Ltd to review our copying and printing service. We chose this business because it manages the copying and printing facilities for UWS, one of our consortium partners, and so is intimately acquainted with the Monitor Cost Recovery System (CRS) in the tertiary library environment.

Mr. Sampaio visited every campus and interviewed both library staff and Monitor facilities staff. He delivered his report at the end of January 2006.

4. University Copying and Printing Consortium

The University maintained its membership of the University Copying and Printing Consortium, which shared information amongst members and adopted a cooperative approach to copying and printing services were appropriate.

The Manager, Infrastructure and Strategic Initiatives chaired the group in 2005.

5. Statistics

Volume of Copying 

Year	No. of Copies
2003	2,788,935
2004	2,950,016
2005	2,869,030

 

2004 totals	2005 totals	Numeric difference	% Difference
1,399,325	1,184,284	215,041 less black and white  photocopies than in 2004	-15.37
7,261	4,088	3,173 less colour copies/prints than in 2004	-43.70
1,066,740	1,204,865	138,125 more library prints than in 2004	12.95
466,052	475,793	9,741 more lab prints than in 2004	2.09
2,939,378	2,869,030	70,348 less total copies than in 2004	-2.39

Printing continued to increase, while copying decreased, and our Consortium partners reported a similar trend. In 2006, our future focus will be on providing a better printing service at a lower cost if we can retain cost recovery and allow for re-investment. We will also explore ways of extending the Cost Recovery System to provide other services to our clients.

The total cash value of transactions flowing through the Monitor system was down 1.08%, from $1,018,655 to $1,007,658.

Outside of fines, and after costs, the system generated $31,656 in credit at the close of 2005. This is less in than the previous year, but still within the desirable aims of cost recovery, with money available for reinvestment. 

Our costs increased 10.65% from $280,814 to $310,725. Costs included reinvestment in the system. We purchased new equipment and software to improve service delivery and data retrieval.

 

	2004	2005	Numerical Difference	% Difference
Library fines	$88,993	$85,140	-$3,853	-4.33
Fines + other income	$445,965	$428,092	-$17,973	-4.01
Total expenditure	$295,685	$311,296	$15,611	5.28
Balance	150,280	116,796	-$33,484	-22.28

Josephine Frawley
Manager, Infrastructure and Strategic Initiatives