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Annual Report 2006

Library

Director’s Overview

Many aspects of the Library’s operations had a real element of the “wow” factor about them in 2006. Following the priorities set out in the Library Strategic Plan 2006 – 2009 our collections were strengthened, more facilities upgraded, services broadened, staff skills enhanced and a greater emphasis placed on access to information and client support. This significant progress was underpinned by the growing financial strength of Australian Catholic University but nonetheless was only made possible by the commitment and service focus of our staff and because of the support given to the Library by the senior management of the University, in particular the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs), Professor Gabrielle McMullen.

The Rodski Survey
Our third Rodski Library Client Survey was undertaken in May 2006 (following earlier surveys in May 2004 and May 2002) and for the first time ACU National scored above the median result (for the 34 Australian universities that participated) in overall client perception of the Library’s performance. Looking at the individual categories we were above the median in “Communication”, “Service Delivery”, “Service Quality”, “Facilities and Equipment” and “Virtual Library”, while exactly on the median in “Library Staff”. The Library staff were highly valued while the weakest performing areas were related to the provision of computing facilities. A full summary of the results is available on the Library website.

Key Highlights of 2006
Improving the collections and further developing our physical facilities continued to be priorities:

The acquisitions budget was initially increased by just over 10 percent, which was quite satisfying in that it built upon the very solid growth in previous years and, when combined with the strengthening of the Australian dollar, did much to improve our purchasing power. The main developments were:
- The trend towards an increasing use of electronic resources accelerated with the purchase of our first ebook collection as well as new serial titles.
- It was particularly pleasing to see more resources being put into acquiring material that was relevant to the smaller academic areas.
- Supporting the ACU National’s expanding research activities continued to be a priority, especially in the purchase of backruns of electronic journals as well as some more specialist titles or aggregations.
- The initial 10% increase was further supplemented from the Library’s share of University’s mid-year funding distribution much of which was put into the acquisitions budget particularly to establish a foundation print collection for the new Bachelor of Nursing to be offered in Canberra from 2007.
In 2006 the refurbishment projects were continued albeit at a slower pace, with the focus being on adapting and upgrading existing space to accommodate more student computing facilities, which were provided from the University’s central funds.

The major upgrade took place in Canberra where the Library was largely transformed, particularly with a view to preparing for the new nursing course, and at Strathfield where the entrance and ground floor were extensively renovated. There were some smaller scale improvements on the other campuses, with client reaction to all the changes being very enthusiastic.

These changes will mark the last of the Library-funded renovations for the foreseeable future as our resources will now be put into further strengthening collections and services.

Other positive developments in 2006 included:

The increasing popularity of the information commons was evident. In a related development the use of photocopying continued to decline, which was more than balanced by a jump in the use of printing facilities.
A number of Library policies were reviewed and improved, especially in the lending services areas.
Furthermore, the new University policy on Bibliographies in unit outlines, which was approved by the Teaching and Learning Committee, is enabling the Library to target its acquisitions spending more effectively.
Further progress was made with regard to special collections. Not only were more donations received, the cataloguing backlogs were also greatly reduced.
In this regard it is particularly important to note that the project to complete processing of the Aquinas Collection (held in the Banyo Library on permanent loan from the Archdiocese of Brisbane), a task that was begun in the early 1990’s, is now in its final stages.
The libraries generally were more heavily used with gate counts continuing to rise and most statistics (other than loans) showing solid gains.
The Learning Federation (a collection of education resources in digital form) and the Past Exam Paper Database were configured on Equella (Learning Edge), which was linked with Blackboard and rolled out for use by ACU students and staff. The groundwork was laid to establish Research Connect (the University’s eprint archive) with a view to it being launched in 2007.
The ongoing emphasis on staff development continued to pay dividends in enhancing the skills and performance of the Library staff.

Major Challenges
The Library faced a number of important challenges as it moved into 2007:

Services to fully online students are still in a very embryonic state and it will take a considerable effort to bring them up to an acceptable standard.
The Library’s management and staffing structure will have to be reviewed in coming years to improve their match with broader academic and other developments within the University. This will include providing better career paths for our staff.
The recent extensive changes to the University’s personnel relations policies are posing significant challenges to the Library’s operations in these areas and will cause a major rethink in our approach.
Lack of space remains an issue on most campuses.
Given the considerable increase in student numbers, which will continue for some time yet, the workload of Library staff at all levels is growing.

These challenges notwithstanding, the Library is making strong progress across the board and there is every reason to be confident that this will continue for at least the next two to three years.

Chris Sheargold
Director of 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 a 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.

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 the Australian Catholic University Library's Loans Policy.
Staff of the Catholic Education Office, Melbourne.
Other libraries through Inter-Library Loan and Document Delivery services in accordance with the Library's interlibrary lending policies.

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

Library Manager (Brisbane)
Library Manager (Canberra)
Library Manager (Sydney)
Library Manager (Victoria)
Library Manager (Electronic Services)
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:

Collection Development
Communications
Information Service
Lending Services
Quality and Strategic Planning
Technical Services

The ACU National Library Committee
The Library Committee met four times in 2006 and 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 of Libraries
External university librarian
Director of Information Technology
Dean of Students
Dean’s nominee from each Faculty
Nominee(s) of Student Representative Councils (currently one undergraduate and one postgraduate student)

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. The major statistical highlights were:

Year	Total Loans
2003	N/A
2004	308,432
2005	294,569
2006	274,245

The figures for 2003 are not included as we introduced a new method of calculating total loans for 2004 (to be consistent with sector-wide benchmarking). Given the strong growth in student numbers the rate of decline in loans was more pronounced than first appears in these figures but, nonetheless, printed books obviously remain an important element in meeting the information needs of students and staff.

Year	Inter Library Loans supplied	Inter Library Loans received
2003	2,978	2,648
2004	2,737	2,447
2005	2,414	1,963
2006	2,878	1,986

ACU National continued to be a net lender and, interestingly, by a considerably wider margin than in previous years. Overall figures were up reversing the trend of the last few years.

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
2006	$1,056,156	$833,776	$1,889,932

The growth in acquisitions expenditure continued to outpace inflation. Serials expenditure rose partially as a result of the purchase of some backsets of electronic journals. Expenditure on monographs (overwhelmingly print) declined but still remains strongly above historic levels. There was an element of “catch up” in 2005 as we tried to overcome deficiencies in the collection identified in the 2004 Rodski Survey and was not required in 2006.

Year	Total serial titles
2003	7,759
2004	10,540
2005	25,028
2006	26,795

The rapid growth in serial titles has now reached something of a plateau with only small aggregations and individual titles being added to the collection.

Year	Total non-serial volumes
2003	460,903
2004	442,779
2005	459,133
2006	479,505

Growth continued to be strong and the above figures do not include 28,000 electronic titles added through the purchase of Ebrary (some of which would be duplicated in the print collection).

Standing Committees

Lending Services Standing Committee

Membership

Jim Graham, Brisbane (Chair)
Francesca Higgins, Brisbane
Sarah Ajaka, Strathfield
Janette Telford, North Sydney
Rachel Forrest, Ballarat
Corene Jones, Ballarat
Karen Twelftree, Melbourne
Narelle Love, Melbourne
Jacinta Cloney, Canberra
Rachael Bahl, Canberra
Marlene Smith, Strathfield
Jooae Park, North Sydney
Peter Blake, ESU
Donna Laffan, ESU

Meetings

17 March 2006
17 May 2006
11 July 2006
6 September 2006
3 October 2006
15 November 2006

Principle Matters Attended to during the Year
Terms of Reference: at the beginning of 2006 this committee had its name changed from Circulation Standing Committee to Lending Service Standing Committee (LSSC) and its terms of reference altered to incorporate responsibility for Inter-Library Loans (ILL). The size of the committee was increased to include ILL staff. Committee meetings are structured to allow ILL staff to attend those parts of the meeting that are relevant to them.

Patron Loads: the PLIF process which loads data from Student Administration’s BANNER system to UNILINC’s Aleph Library management system needed constant monitoring and liaison with ITCS and UNILINC. Problem patron records were fixed each week. Adjustments were made to the code to cover such things as the new loan conditions, introduction of new online campus codes within BANNER, etc.

Online/External/Off-campus Students: the Committee prepared totally new loan conditions for this category of student. The new conditions were accepted by the Senior Library Forum and approved by the Library Committee to start in 2007.

Library Web Pages: the Loans Policy and the borrowing sections of the old Library website were edited a number of times during the year to ensure that they fully reflected current Library policy. Content in a new layout was prepared for the revamped Library Website, which was commissioned over the Christmas/New Year break.

Loans Policy: during the year the Committee prepared a total revision of the loan conditions of students, staff and community borrowers. The new policy was accepted by the SLF and approved by the Library Committee for implementation in 2007. Academic staff were informed of the changes via notices in two different issues of the TLIYO newsletter. The more generous loan conditions for students were published on the library website and individual campus libraries prepared brochures publicising the changes.

Recommendations to Other Committees: the Committee made successful recommendations to the Information Services Committee on the following matters:

Alterations to the ILL forms on the Library Webpage
Addition of an ILL option in the “Find It” pop up box in SFX
Alterations to improve the clarity of the sign-on procedures in the OPAC

Bill for Replacement (BRF) procedures: the Committee produced standardised BFR procedures for use across all libraries.

Service to Online Units: in October 2006 the Library moved its scanning and linking service for online units from the Electronic Services Unit to the campus libraries. The LSSC took on the role of supporting campus library staff providing this service. The committee prepared standardised procedures for the work and a special meeting was held in October to train relevant staff in use of the Copyright Database. It is anticipated that this work will expand rapidly in the future. The size of the committee had to be expanded to incorporate campus and ESU staff involved in these activities. Service to online units has been made a standing agenda item for committee meetings.

Notices: the Committee updated and clarified the wording of the following:
Overdue Notices, Notices to Staff and Community Borrowers, Holds Notices and Printed Receipts.

Jim Graham
Chair, Lending Services Standing Committee

Collection Development Standing Committee

Membership:

Nancy Clarke (Chair) (Canberra)
Jim Graham (Brisbane)
Heather Pearsall (Electronic Services Unit)
Stuart Whelan (Victorian campuses)
Stephen Oakshott (Sydney campuses)

Meetings:

24 March 2006
12 May 2006
12 July 2006
21/22 August 2006
16 October 2006

In addition there were less formal meetings and discussions by email and telephone.

Principle Matters Attended to during the Year
Collection Development Policy: the Collection Development Policy was reviewed and revised. The major area of change in the revised policy relates to serials, and defines the Library’s policy for subscription and retention. The retention policy is an important development that will guide the Library to a more rational and consistent approach to managing these essential University resources.

The revised policy includes also a large number of minor corrections that bring it up-to-date in many areas, such as current nomenclature and organisational matters.

The Library Committee approved the policy at its meeting of 14 November 2006.

Datasets and Serials: a great deal of work was done on our online resources, including datasets, and the conversion of our print serials to online format throughout the year. The Manager, Electronic Services, and the Chair of the Collection Development Standing Committee worked closely together on both these projects.

A major new venture was the Library’s decision to subscribe to Ebrary, a very large aggregation of ebooks (some 30,000) in the middle of 2006. A highly advantageous price was offered and accepted, bringing to the Library its first very large collection of ebooks.

A large number of new databases was investigated and trialled, and reviewed by members of the Information Services Standing Committee. An extensive list of possibilities was submitted to the Collection Development Standing Committee for decision.

The comparatively low level start in 2005 to the conversion to online format of our print serials was followed by a full-scale project for 2006. After several months of very intensive work with Swets, a major serials agent, a proposal to convert 91 titles to online subscriptions was developed for the Collection Development Committee’s consideration. In addition a number of titles currently with campus print subscriptions became available in online format through other mechanisms, including CAUL deals, enabling these to be put forward for conversion to electronic form in this way.

Academic staff were invited to propose new serial titles for subscription, and a number took advantage of this opportunity.

At its meeting on 21/22 August the Committee considered all these proposals and recommended:

An upgrade of our subscription to one of our major aggregations (from Gale) to a new product, Academic Onefile
Subscription via password for University alumni to Academic Onefile
Transfer of a number of our current subscriptions to other platforms (e.g. from Ovid to Ebsco, from Silver Platter to Ovid)
Subscription to important new individual or collected ejournals in a range of subject areas – IT in Education, Nursing (several major collections), current affairs, Education and Exercise Science.
Major reference works and collections – general and specialist encyclopaedias, dictionaries and directories, online tools for library staff, and some collections of major works. Subject areas covered many areas: Islam, Ancient Greek and Latin, Australian taxation, Pharmacology, general Australian reference
An online collection of newspapers, with special relevance to south east Asia
Two image databases – one medical, one of works of art
Collections of ebooks in the areas of Nursing, Philosophy and Religion
Backfiles of journals in the areas of Arts and Sciences (JSTOR)
Exploration of a Philosophy database
Conversion to online subscriptions of over 100 titles either through the Swets Econversion project or through other processes including CAUL deals
Campus subscriptions to a small number of new titles (not available online)

The Director of Libraries endorsed the Committee’s recommendations. Follow-up to activate these decisions took the remainder of the year.

The outcome is a further major enhancement of the Library’s online resources for 2007, and a good step towards the rationalisation of our serials collection.

For the future efficient management of our online resources, new staff and new systems are now needed. Early in 2007 many of the operational tasks performed to date by the Chair, Collection Development Standing Committee, and the Manager, Electronic Services will be transferred to the newly created position of Librarian (Electronic Services) with responsibility for acquisitions. In addition, it has become clear that the library requires an Electronic Resources Management System (ERMS) to manage its ever-increasing online resources. Demonstrations of the Ex Libris ERMS (Verde) strongly suggest that this would be a product that would lead us forward and enable us to proceed with our online developments efficiently and responsibly.

Acquisitions budget: the acquisitions budget approved for 2007 (2006 in brackets) was:

Print Books	$827,000	($843,000)	Distributed to campuses for local ordering and housing.
Print Serials	$160,000	($220,000)	Ordered and located at campuses. Paid centrally.
Electronic Serials	$830,000	($540,000)	Ordered through ESU. Available to all ACU students and staff.
Electronic Books	$145,000	($15,000)	Ordered through ESU. Available to all ACU students and staff.
Research Initiatives	$100,000	($100,000)	Identified in consultation with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and International) and the URRTMC.
Total Acquisitions	$2,062,000	($1,718,000)

Distribution of Acquisitions Budget to the Campuses: enrolment figures for subject areas in the University for 2006 were supplied by the University Statistics Unit to the Committee Chair, who distributed funds to Library managers in the agreed format.

Electronic Resources Access Project (ERAP): use of open URL-resolver technology to generate and maintain catalogue entries for our electronic resources continued. The Library catalogue (OPAC) was updated three times in the course of the year using this process. The need to extend this process to cover the increasing number of ebooks as well as ejournals became evident as the Library extended its coverage of online books and reference works. In June responsibility for this project was transferred from the Committee to the Electronic Services Unit (Leticia Medwell).

Materials Availability Survey: for a third year, a low-level Materials Availability Survey was conducted in all campus libraries in semester two. As with the previous surveys, the data confirmed that the great majority of respondents seeking known items were able to access or borrow them when they were needed. Across the University 72 percent of respondents reported finding the sought item (68 percent in 2005). Of the 28 percent not found, 30 percent of the respondents had not conducted the search correctly (33 percent in 2005), indicating the importance of ongoing information literacy work.

Unit Outlines and References Cited: during the year, the Guidelines for References in Current Unit Outlines were revised to cover fully online units (in summary, readings for online units must be available online). The Guidelines were approved by the University Teaching and Learning Committee on 31 October 2006. The Guidelines assist the University to demonstrate that students are readily able to obtain access to the readings needed for their courses, and also help the Library ensure that it makes available to students the references they require. An extract from these Guidelines has been included in the 2006 revision of the University’s Assessment Policy and Procedures. Library staff on each campus continued to check unit outlines against library holdings and placed orders for titles cited but not held. Progress towards general adherence to the Guidelines continues.

All ACU Campus Libraries – References in Unit Outlines	2006	2005	2004
References cited: Number	26624	30021	28031
In local campus library*	20967	23171	21094
Percentage of references cited in local campus library	78.75%	77.18%	75.25%
Not in local campus library but in ACU library	2701	3308	3291
Percentage of references cited not in campus but in ACU library	10.14%	11.02%	11.74%
Not in ACU library	2752	3586	3646
Percentage of references cited not in ACU Library	10.34%	11.94%	13.01%

* or in book of readings, on Ereserve etc

Cataloguing and Digitising ACU National’s Theses, and Interlibrary Loans matters: responsibility for these areas was transferred to the new Communications Standing Committee and the Lending Services Standing Committee, respectively, for 2006.

Nancy Clarke
Chair, Collection Development Standing Committee

Information Services Standing Committee

Membership
The Membership of the Information Services Standing Committee (ISC) was reduced in 2006 to include one representative from each campus as well as one representative from ESU. The position of Chair was allocated to a campus representative who was to facilitate communication to the SLF through the Director of Libraries.
The Information Literacy sub-committee was absorbed back into the ISC.

Elizabeth Hartmann: Ballarat (Chair)
Leticia Medwell: ESU
Kate Bunker: Canberra
Colleen Hutchison: North Sydney
Vicki Bourbous: Strathfield
Beth Crawter: Brisbane

Meetings
The Information Services Standing Committee met 8 times throughout 2006 to share information and make recommendations to the SLF on matters concerning delivery of Information Services, Information literacy programs, datasets and resources.

Principle Matters Attended to during the Year
RefTracker: this system was purchased for testing and implementation during 2006. The server is located at the vendor with supervisory functions allocated to Leticia Medwell and Liz Hartmann and general access allocated to all Information and Circulation Desk staff. Face-to-face training was conducted at each campus and the DeskStats module was initiated in Semester 2. The Committee developed categories for campus-wide consistency of data collection, which was approved by the SLF; statistical data is downloaded from the system and transferred in to Excel on a monthly basis by the Committee Chair. The Ask your Librarian function was tested during this time; the Committee drafted a roster and developed a program to ensure that this service met its agreed benchmarks of answering all enquiries within two working days. Committee terms of reference were also drafted and approved.

The Ask your Librarian module is to be activated at the commencement of Semester 1 2007 to coincide with the Library webpage redevelopment.

Face-to-Face meeting: the third ISC face to face meeting was held in Canberra to facilitate inter-campus communication and to serve the dual purpose of allowing Information Services staff to see the renovations and to allow Canberra staff to showcase the same.

Face-to-face meetings are valued by this Committee as they allow an opportunity to get to know colleagues on a personal as well as a professional level. This particular meeting focussed on Information Literacy programs and resources provided for Nursing students as Canberra is expecting its first intake of Nursing students in 2007. Members each presented a database specifically aimed at these students, and Beth Crawter (Brisbane) reported on the program for first year nursing students that ran at Brisbane at the commencement in Semester 1 2006. This pilot program was developed collaboratively by the Library, ITCS and academic skills; WebCT was used as the online platform, which was supplemented by face-to-face sessions from each of the three key areas. It was loosely linked to the first year “Context of Nursing” unit and focussed on skills the students needed to complete an assignment “from go to woe”.

Datasets: the ISC reviewed current and recommended datasets for provision in 2007; these recommendations were forwarded to the SLF.

Liz Hartmann
Chair, Information Services Standing Committee

Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee

The Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee did not meet in 2006. However, the other standing committees addressed quality issues relevant to their terms of reference.

Under the oversight of the Director of Libraries, the Library Strategic Plan 2006 – 2009 was finalised and approved by the Library Committee at its first meeting of 2006 and the Strategic Implementation Plan was subsequently developed and approved by the Library Committee at its third meeting of 2006.

The Library Disability Advisory Group

This is a subcommittee of the Quality and Strategic Planning Standing Committee with the following membership:

Francesca Higgins, Brisbane (Chair)
Kim Gosling, Ballarat
Marianne Kuyper, Melbourne
Anthony McCall, Brisbane
Heather Pearsall, Electronic Services Unit
Lara Rafferty, ACU National Disability Coordinator
Jacqueline Smith, Canberra
Janette Telford, North Sydney
Pam Trimmer, Strathfield

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

Chris Sheargold
Director of Libraries

Technical Services Standing Committee

Membership

Josephine Frawley, Chair
Nancy Clarke, Signadou
Freya Bruce, Banyo
Marianne Gration, Aquinas
Rebecca Henson, MacKillop
Fiona Gibson, St Patrick’s
Jurij Suchowerskyj, Mount St Mary

Meetings

16 March, Videoconference
1-2 June, Brisbane Campus, Banyo Library
26 September, Videoconference
21 November, Videoconference

Principle Matters Attended to during the Year
Acquisitions
Cross-campus Requests. In early 2006 the Library received a request from a Dean to purchase certain resources and make them available from several campuses. Anticipating that such requests would increase as the University developed more national Schools, centres and institutes, the Committee developed an interim procedure, which was approved by the Senior Library Forum. However, the Committee recognised that this development raised further issues, such as the need for a national online acquisition form that would accommodate both campus-based and multi-campus acquisitions.

Parent Budget
This was implemented at the Victorian and Sydney libraries, to operate in 2006. This function of the Library’s management system enables Technical Service Supervisors to run budget reports for multiple libraries.

Central Budgets and Campus Budgets
The Director of Libraries accepted the Committee’s recommendation that, after 2006, grants for campus-specific resources would be allocated to campus budgets and not to a central budget. This would reflect the campus-based purchasing process in place for monograph acquisitions, and avoid time-consuming manual intervention. It is worth noting that in 2006 the Library employed three purchasing models:

Central purchasing allocated to a central budget. The ESU applied this model to the acquisition of nationally accessed web-based journals and books that are purchased via subscription.
Campus-initiated purchasing allocated to a central budget. Print journals and campus-specific electronic subscriptions were acquired using this model.
Campus-initiated purchasing allocated to campus budgets. The campus budget was then sub-divided into School budgets. This traditional model continued to be used to purchase monographic resources, print and electronic. Such resources remained an essential part of the Library collection, but occupied an increasingly smaller part of the Library’s total acquisitions budget.

Vendor Agreements
In March 2006, the Director of Libraries accepted an offer from James Bennett Pty Ltd to apply common conditions of purchase to all our sites, replacing its state-by-state approach. Continuation of this agreement would depend on the level of sales. James Bennett was not our major supplier, but this initiative was one the Library could pursue with other vendors, if we took a national approach to acquiring our non-electronic resources.

Cataloguing

Item Status Codes. At the Brisbane meeting, the Committee agreed on the removal of another 10 codes, deemed redundant. This work is ongoing.
Collection codes. Two new codes were added: code 30 translates in the OPAC as ‘Campus access only’, and is applied to those electronic titles that are campus-specific subscriptions; code 11 translates as ACU Thesis Archive, and applies to titles in the online repository of ACU Electronic Theses, catalogued and managed by St. Patrick’s Campus staff.
Web Dewey. The Committee requested a subscription to Web Dewey for 2007, giving access to each campus TS unit. Web Dewey offers easy-to-use, World Wide Web-based access to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and related information. The request was successful, and may lead to ACU cataloguers using this instead of the bulky multi-volume hard print copies. Because we do original cataloguing from our six sites, we required six licenses.
Global Books In Print. ACU’s Technical Services and Electronic Services units worked with UNILINC and the GBIP vendor to make this database another searchable source of bibliographic records in the Aleph cataloguing client.
Editing Holdings in Libraries Australia. In November 2005, the National Library upgraded its Internet based national service system, and changed the name from Kinetica to Libraries Australia (LA). In 2006, the Committee ensured that all ACU logins to the LA database were updated, and that campus cataloguers knew how to access the LA database, and edit their library’s holdings, if this was urgently required.
Editing Campus Library Entries in Libraries Australia Gateway. At UNILINC’s request, the Committee Chair obtained an ACU login to the LA Gateway, and updated the links from the Gateway to the campus catalogues.
Australian Committee on Cataloguing September 2006. One of the Committee members reported that the Perth meeting of this committee had discussed the transition from traditional cataloguing rules to Resource Description and Access, a model that is being developed to accommodate the new resource format better.
Libraries Australia Forum November 2006. The Chair attended this forum, which focussed on the future of the catalogue in a digital resource environment. Electronic resources accessed via the Internet have impacted deeply on traditional library practices, and the change is ongoing.

Serials
Training Courses. In August, a total of five staff from Ballarat, Melbourne and Strathfield attended a basic training course at UNILINC offices in Sydney. In September, UNILINC ran an advanced course for eight staff from our six libraries. The serials module remains the most complex of the Aleph applications. It offers increasingly detailed information to library users via the web catalogue, and this requires more input from Library staff.

Collaboration with other Standing Committees/Library Units
The Committee worked with ESU staff to:

Develop and promote a procedure for linking bibliographic references in WebCT reading lists directly to the library catalogue (completed).
Develop a national online acquisitions form (ongoing).

The Committee worked with the Lending Services Committee to:

Add a photocopy request option to individual issues of print journals. This will allow library users to request, from the OPAC, a photocopy of an article in a particular issue of a journal. UNILINC will set up this function, and then campus technical services staff will maintain it (ongoing).
New Version of the Library Management System. UNILINC installed the Aleph version 18 in December 2006. In preparation for this upgrade, several ACU staff attended an information day in Sydney on 24 November. The new version allows extra functionality to the User ID Request option. In 2006 it was possible to tag an order with a requestor’s User ID. On being marked ‘arrived’, the acquisitions system would then email a notice to the requestor. In version 18, Library staff are able to activate or suppress the email function, while having the ability to run reports filtered by User ID. This would mean the Library system could generate acquisitions reports by budget code, order group or individual requestor.

Future directions
Serials. In 2005, electronic databases became the primary source of journal literature for library users, superseding the print collection. This forced the Library to rationalise its serials collection by reducing the duplication between print and electronic subscriptions. The only efficient way to do this was to locate responsibility for selection and cancellation with one manager, in this case the Chair of the Collection Development Committee, and to establish a central serials budget. This remained the status quo in 2006. But the need to train and retrain campus staff suggests that we should also consider the option of centralising the acquisitions and cataloguing of serials.

Books. 2006 saw further growth in the delivery of nationally based academic courses, and a demand for a central contact point to manage the acquisition of books and other monographic resources to support such courses. Purchasing centrally and directing vendors to deliver to campuses would meet this demand, and would open up opportunities for further efficiencies and improved service delivery. It also became apparent that the electronic medium would increase its impact on book publishing. In mid-2006 the Library made its first large investment in this format when the ESU subscribed to Ebrary. This database provided 30,000 book titles for less than a dollar a book. The subscription must be renewed annually, but gives the opportunity to update the collection regularly without the considerable cost of weeding and discarding required of print resources.

Library Structure. In October 2006, the Director of Libraries supported a staffing restructure of the Sydney libraries, which eliminated the positions of Technical Service Supervisor, subsuming that role to into liaison librarian positions.

The forces for change are undeniable.

Josephine Frawley,
Chair, Technical Services Standing Committee

Campus Libraries

Brisbane: Banyo Library

Banyo Library serves the students and staff of Australian Catholic University’s campus, McAuley at Banyo, and St Paul's Theological College.

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. 2006 was the Library's fourth year of operation in the new building.

2. Student and Academic Population
Student population on campus grew slightly in 2006 from 1,850 EFTSL to 1,898. Staff numbered 184 FTE and international students were static at 150 EFTSL.

3. Staffing
In 2006 Robin Turnley took maternity leave. While she was away Gary Wallace, Troy Mason, Justin Royes and Trish D’Arcy had their hours increased to cover the gap. Barbara Adamson took a nine-month secondment to work at the University of Queensland. John Eliot replaced Barbara as Liaison Librarian and Tony McCall replaced John as Shifts Librarian. Ewa Lilpop from ACU Library’s Electronic Services Unit returned to Sydney late in the year. In July Jim Graham commenced a two-year term as Convenor of the Queensland University Libraries’ Office of Cooperation (QULOC).

During the year staff attended the following staff development activities:

ALIA Conference, Perth. J. Graham, B. Adamson
SPUSC conference, Penrith. B. Crawter
CAVAL seminar, Day with Nancy Pearl, Brisbane. D Utz, S Geary
CAVAL seminar, Web resources for cataloguers, Brisbane. D.Utz, S. Geary
CAVAL seminar, Cataloguing eResources, Brisbane. F. Bruce
Resource Options. LSCH/Dewey DDC, Brisbane. F. Bruce
QULOC seminar, Selling the Library message, Brisbane. A. Edwards, J. Royes, G. Wallace, K. Suvorovs, T. Mason, S. Geary, E. Mortimer, D. Utz, B. Crawter
Copyright Council, Copyright for educational institutions. Brisbane. K. Suvorovs, F. Higgins
QULOC seminar, How to write that report, Brisbane. F. Higgins
QULOC seminar, Workforce planning, Brisbane. J Graham, B. Crawter
Round Table on Information Access for People with Print disabilities, Brisbane. A.McCall
ANZTLA conference, Adelaide. C.Willadsen
CTS Training, Excel, Brisbane. A.Edwards

4. Collections
Highlights included:

7,725 items catalogued into the collection.
2,229 Aquinas collection items were catalogued and 2,279 Aquinas duplicates were disposed of responsibly. Only a small collection of foreign language material is still to be catalogued in this valuable collection.
The 20 rare and valuable items from the St Paul’s collection were catalogued during the year. These included:
- Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language. 1837.
- Morals on Job. 1844.
- Livingstone’s Missionary Travels in South Africa. 1857.
- Catholicism in Queensland. 1910.

5. Client Services
(i) Circulation
Overall it was a busy year of consolidation and high quality service. The main highlights were:

ILL requested items up 4% to 701.
ILL supplied items up 37% to 1,209.
Patron visits down 6% to 157,458.
ICL requests up 65% to 291.
ICL supplies up 9% to 492.
Loans down 17% to 58,635.
Course Reading Loans down 2.8% to 4,049.
E Reserve items down 6.5% to 2,182

(ii) Information Literacy
102 classes (a decrease of 4) were given in 2006 to 1,623 students (an increase of 11) 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. The Wireless LAN worked well during the year. Students have a choice of connecting their laptops to the network either via docking or via the Wireless LAN.

In 2006 additional computers were purchased to ensure that every group study room in the library now has a PC.

7. Local Collaboration/Community Engagement

In November the Library Manager, travelled to the Divine Word University in Madang in Papua New Guinea and reported to the University President on progress in the development of its library in the last 12 months.
Banyo Library continued its collaboration with the Brisbane College of Theology with Carolyn Willadsen, the Liaison Librarian for Theology, meeting regularly with colleagues from St Francis and Trinity Theological College Libraries at BCT Library Committee meetings.
Banyo Library was involved in Open Day activities with displays and a competition.
In February the Library hosted a Japanese exchange student.
In June Banyo Library had two Library students, Peter Weybourne and Kerrie Coombs, on field work experience.
Library staff ran two breakfasts to raise money for the Salesian missions in East Timor.
The Library sold daffodils for the Queensland Cancer Fund and poppies for the RSL.
The Library had a morning tea for Weemala staff.
Banyo Library in collaboration with ITCS and Academic Skills ran a university orientation program entitled “From go to WOW!”
During the year the Library was involved with the following school groups.
- Earnshaw College – Library visit and activity
- Clontarf Beach State High School – Library visit and activity
- Brigidine College – Library visit and activity

8. Highlights
2006 was a year of consolidation of services to our clients. Students and staff were able to make use of a large increase in the number, depth and variety of electronic resources available to them. With Barbara Adamson on secondment to University of Queensland and Robin Turnley on maternity leave seven staff were able to be appointed to higher duties and/or increased hours to cover the absences. These were very useful staff development opportunities for the people concerned. In July Jim Graham took on a two-year term as Convenor of QULOC. This will be a useful staff development opportunity for Jim and it will help raise the profile of ACU within the university library community.

Jim Graham
Library Manager (Brisbane)

Canberra: The Lewins Library

1. Location
The Lewins Library is located within the Signadou Campus building at Watson in Canberra. In 2006 new spaces made available to the library in late 2005 were updated and fitted out, providing a pleasant modern space for the collection, library staff and clients.

Other work on the library space continued throughout 2006, without disruption of library service, and with very positive comments from staff and students (see highlights).

2. Student and Academic Population
Undergraduate degrees offered at Signadou Campus in 2006 were in Primary Education, Social Work, Justice Studies and Theology as well as a joint undergraduate degree with the ANU. Other programs included Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma courses and higher degrees by coursework and research in Theology, Education, Social Work, Youth Studies, and Religious Education. The Institute of Child Protection Studies (a joint venture between ACU National and the ACT Government) is on the campus, and staff of the Institute were actively engaged in a wide range of research projects.

Announcement in mid-2006 of the extension of the University’s Bachelor of Nursing undergraduate degree to the campus (to commence in 2007) was widely welcomed (see highlights).

The rapidly growing online programs of the University mean that many students are enrolled as campus-based students in some units, and as online students in other units. In addition students resident in the ACT region but enrolled in fully online mode use the campus library as a base library. The Library’s current focus as One Library is directly relevant to these changes in enrolment patterns and calls for service. As in the past the Canberra campus also continues to run its programs in a variety of face-to-face modes (at weekends, in summer and winter, and as intensive programs).

3. Staffing
As always library staff took part in a range of conferences, study and other training and development programs.

Conferences attended included the ANZTLA conference, the ALIA biennial conference, the ATEM conference on Change Management (two staff members), and Information Seeking in Context.

Workshops and training included a course in managing ejournals, Libraries Australia workshops for two staff members (searching, and using Libraries Australia Document Delivery) and a Web Access workshop.
Members of staff participated in training programs provided through ACU in Canberra and Melbourne (Negotiating and Influencing, Training for Supervisors, and Focus on Service workshops) and training conducted by UNILINC (managing serials – advanced, including cataloguing).

Kate Bunker commenced study (as a University-sponsored student) in ACU National’s new online Graduate Certificate in Higher Education.

Canberra hosted the face-to-face meeting of the ACU information services librarians in October, and arranged a series of excellent visits to other Canberra libraries.

Staff changes in 2006 included the appointment of Jacinta Cloney as Lending Services Coordinator (replacing Jacqueline Smith – maternity leave); Jacinta Anderson in lieu of Jacinta Cloney and, at the very end of the year, Josephine McGill replaced Rachael Bahl as Access Librarian (maternity leave).

4. Collections
The 2006 local acquisitions budget was less than in 2005, but augmented mid-year by a $50,000 special allocation to establish the Nursing Collection (see highlights).

In 2006 the campus library acquired just over 2,200 individual items (637 of which were for Nursing), spending a total of $123,000 (of which $50,000 was for Nursing). In addition just over 300 donations were received.

The ongoing conversion of campus-based print serials to online subscriptions was reflected in a further small reduction of paid print serials received on campus, from 179 in 2005 to 166 in 2006. This reduction will continue in future.

5. Client Services
Loans activities declined again in 2006 (from 29,800 to 26,900), more dramatically than in previous years (down by 10%from 2005). This is a pattern that applies across the whole university sector. To balance this, there is a strong evidence of steady growth in the use of online resources across ACU, although this can be measured for individual campuses only by observation. Regular use of online resources was observed at Signadou Campus, with excellent use of the computing facilities and assistance from library staff noted.

Interlibrary loans (loans between libraries) fluctuate somewhat each year: in 2006 traffic both ways increased: the number supplied was 311 – a little higher than in 2004, and a good deal higher than in 2005. For the first time the number of intercampus loans (loans or copies between campuses) was approximately the same number as interlibrary loans, suggesting that this is a service likely to increase further.

As in recent years an intensive introductory information literacy program was offered to all incoming students. Communicating to new (and overburdened) students the value of participation in what may seem an unnecessary additional class is a challenge, so the library welcomes the University’s commitment to a new program being developed for incoming students.

6. IT Infrastructure
Computers for use by students in the library underwent a total transformation in 2006. A major focus of the redevelopment of the library was to improve access to, and space for computers for student use. An Information Commons was created in the central part of the library, the library cloister was fitted out for group study (including study areas with PCs), and three computers were set up in a quiet study area on the upper level of the library. The number of student computers was increased from eight to 31, including two specially set up for use by students with a disability. The increase in numbers, and the new range of study options proved extremely popular with students, although even with this increase there were occasions when all computers were in use.

In addition to the new setup for computers a new space was created for the networked photocopying and printing service. This provided a convenient and pleasant area for this essential service, and it too was much appreciated.

7. Local Collaboration/Community Engagement
Because of the small size of the campus, a sense of community involving the whole campus is vital. The library works well with campus and University staff, and with outside bodies. Some activities in 2006 were:

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 as well as the ALIA URLs Committee.
Library staff participated fully in campus activities – Open Day, Orientation, Graduation, and many other events.

8. Highlights
There were two major highlights in 2006: the highly successful redevelopment of the library, and planning for the introduction of the Bachelor of Nursing to the campus.

Library Redevelopment: Work had commenced on the redevelopment of the library in late 2005. It continued throughout the summer, and as planned, the new facilities were (more or less) ready for the start of semester one.

The project continued in three stages throughout 2006. During the summer of 2005/2006 the new public areas were created and made available for use. The central area of the library had been opened up and a new Information Commons created, a long section of the outside cloister had been incorporated into the library and very attractive group study areas created there, further study spaces had been reconfigured, the whole library collection was arranged in a more rational and convenient manner and the manager’s office had been transferred to a new location as the first stage of the new areas for library staff. Wonderful new colour schemes, and a sophisticated carpet design enhanced the redesigned areas. The new layout and improved facilities, particularly the much enhanced computing facilities, delighted all returning students.

In the middle of the year the next phase (improved facilities for library staff, and planning for permanent furniture for the cloister) took place. This has created an integrated library staff area with new furniture for most library staff, and with the librarians’ offices collocated adjacent to the work area for other library staff. The library meeting room was enhanced by having plywood walls replaced by glass walls. A new glass door replaced the heavy wooden door, and a wooden deck was created outside the library entrance to the Rose Garden. Purpose designed group workstations were installed in response to clear student needs for group study spaces with computers.

The final stage (end of 2006) comprised a range of finishing activities, including redesign of the remainder of the library work area, with much improved access and attractive finishes.

Between late 2005 and the end of 2006, the library had been completely transformed. Spaces were added and opened, the entire collection rationalised and reshelved, computing space and facilities created and fitted out, and new and much enhanced work areas for library staff developed - a complete functional and visual transformation had taken place. Although the constant work throughout the year made many demands on library staff the overall effect has been quite wonderful.

Introduction of Nursing: In late July 2006 the University was advised that 50 new places for the Bachelor of Nursing (to start in 2007) had been allocated to the Canberra Campus. These places were designated for enrolled nurses to upgrade to registered nurses: thus, after completing a bridging course at Canberra Institute of Technology they would enter into the second year of the Nursing degree at Signadou Campus in semester 1, 2007.

The Director of Libraries immediately provided an establishment grant of $100,000 ($50,000 to be spent in 2006, $50,000 in 2007) to develop a campus nursing collection.

An initial assessment showed that online resources for Nursing available across the whole University were already very good (nursing has been a focus for online content across the Library for a number of years) but could be further strengthened. The Collection Development Committee determined that the subject area of nursing would be a major focus for 2007, agreeing to new online subscriptions (journals, reference works and ebooks) in the nursing area. As a result it was agreed that no subscriptions to print journals would be taken out for the campus, unless exceptional circumstances required this.

Campus-held content (books etc) for Nursing was deemed very limited although some overlap with existing campus courses was identified (especially in the areas of sociology and spirituality). The aim was to identify and obtain relevant, current publications in time for the start of the course. A process was established and followed through successfully. By the end of the year a total of 630 items (books and DVDs) had been received in the campus library at a cost of just over $50,000. As they arrived, titles were catalogued and made shelf-ready.

The quality of the new collection as well as the online resources was commended by the ACT Nursing and Midwifery Board in its accreditation visit.

Nancy Clarke
Library Manager (Canberra)

The Sydney Libraries

1. Location/Physical Facilities
The Strathfield Library underwent a major refurbishment of the ground floor during 2006. The designer, Odile Chauvet, transformed the run-down interior through the use of a contemporary range of colours, highlighted by stripped feature walls and brightly coloured ‘umbilical cord’ workstation-to-ceiling cable ducting, together with stylish furniture and lighting, giving the library a light and welcoming atmosphere. The centerpiece of this new space is the Information Commons. Based on the North Sydney model, this facility comprises clusters of public access PCs for individual and group use (See section 6).

2. Student and Academic Population
In 2006 the two Sydney campus libraries together supported an actual student load of 4,396.45 EFTSL, an increase of 12.9 percent over the previous year.

Broken down by campus, this translates into 2,109.50 EFTSL compared with 1,893.74 EFTSL in 2005 (11.4% increase) at North Sydney, whilst Strathfield supported 2,286.95 students compared with 2,138.53 in 2005 (6.9% increase). In addition there was a total of 131.5 EFT academic staff based at North Sydney in 2006, compared with 122.1 in 2005, and at Strathfield there were 119.8 EFT and 121.2, respectively.

3. Staffing
Re-structure
A review of staffing structures in Sydney occurred during 2006, the first major review undertaken since 1997. The objectives of the review were to:

Align Sydney staffing structures more closely with the University’s educational priorities and activities, especially student-centred learning objectives
Create a structure with clear lines of authority and accountability
Ensure that tasks assigned to positions equate with appropriate work level guidelines
Create roles that can better adapt to changing workplace requirements
Establish a structure that fosters greater levels of cooperation and mutual respect in line with the University’s mission and values
Create a structure that approximates the existing staffing budget for Sydney libraries

Extensive consultation with Library staff occurred throughout the review process in line with the University’s change management policy.

The key recommendations flowing from the review included a more efficient and responsive management structure, more targeted support for special cohorts (e.g. international, Indigenous, and research students and students with disabilities), a modified staffing model that eliminates the traditional division between Technical Services and Information Services by combining both sets of functions into single positions and/or teams, and the conversion of librarian positions into Liaison Librarians to service the information needs of each academic School and equivalent academic units.

The review was approved by the Vice-Chancellor in late 2006 to allow for implementation to be completed by Semester 1, 2007. A decision was made subsequently to delay the roll-out due to a need to clarify certain aspects of the review in light of the parallel release of new PREOD policies and to allow time to undertake a further investigation of the impact of the proposed staffing model on the Library as a whole, particularly in relation to the roles of managers and supervisors. As a result the new staffing model is now expected to be fully implemented by mid-2007.

Staff Development Activities
The major activity for 2006 was the Restructure Transition Workshop held on 27 November. This event, attended by all staff from both Sydney campus libraries, set out strategies for responding positively to change as well as mapping out a timetable for moving to a new staffing model.

Other highlights included contribution by the following staff to professional bodies:

Vicki Bourbous (Liaison Librarian – Strathfield) was on the organizing committee for the Australian Library and Information Associations’ New Librarians’ Symposium held at UNSW on 1 and 2 December, 2006.
Janette Telford, (Loans Coordinator – North Sydney) delivered a paper at the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Conference in Wellington on 8-11 October, 2006. Janette’s paper was titled ‘Treasure hunting: information literacy for international nursing students’.

4. Collections (including donations)
6,979 non-serial items were catalogued into the two Sydney collections during 2006, a 15 percent increase on the previous year.

An archival collection was received via the Chancellor, Br Julian McDonald, cfc AO of the papers, monographs, photographs and other assorted material of the late Kenrick Scully, who was a journalist (including executive editor) with The Catholic Weekly for 27 years. Mr Scully was also a poet (listed in two editions of the International Who’s Who of Poetry), and produced histories of Kincumber district churches among other publications. The donation was professionally organized by an archival agency, The History Company, and now resides in the Strathfield library to be accessed upon request.

5. Client Services (including Info Lit, feedback, etc)
Information Literacy
Demand for information literacy classes for groups of students on the Sydney campuses continued in 2006. 1,808 students attended sessions at North Sydney compared to 1,203 in 2005 and 1000 in 2004. 1,848 students attended classes at Strathfield in 2006, compared with 1,208 in 2005 and 566 in 2004.

Loans Activity
Elsewhere within ACU there has been a general trend towards a decline on loans figures due in large part to an increase in the availability of electronic sources. Sydney went against this trend to some extent over the 2005-2006 period. In terms of total loan transactions, Strathfield figures jumped markedly in 2005 and North Sydney’s increased slightly in 2006.

	2003	2004	2005	2006
North Sydney	70,788	52,724	50,313	53,972
Strathfield	117,256	114,607	120,070	111,257

Inter-library Loans
A total of 755 items were requested by other libraries from both Sydney campuses compared with 727 in 2005. 436 items were received by Sydney libraries in 2006 compared with 520 in 2005.

6. IT Infrastructure (including Online Centres)
Following on from the introduction of an Information Commons at North Sydney in 2005, Strathfield underwent a major refurbishment in 2006 which incorporated a similar facility for its students. This effectively doubled the number of PCs, with 65 units available to students as of semester 1, 2006. An additional 18 public access PCs were also added to the North Sydney Information Commons in 2006.

7. Local Collaboration/Community Engagement
CathLINK Australia 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.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the site is well patronised by Australian as well as international users, however no actual data are available due to usage statistics software support being withdrawn in 2004. As a result of funding limitations, a shortage of technical assistance, and competing priorities within the ACU Library, further development of the site was suspended in early 2004. The site operated in limited way during 2006, with no new information agency profiles added. Some profiles may have been updated, but as this is done by the agencies themselves, and in the absence of a usage statistical program, no data are available.

7. Highlights
The refurbishment of the ground floor at Strathfield represents the highlight for the Sydney campus libraries in 2006.

Stephen Oakshott,
Library Manager (Sydney)

The Victorian Libraries

It was another busy year for both the Raheen Library in Melbourne and the Callinan Library in Ballarat. Both libraries continue to be well used and are central to the life and work of the campuses which they serve. Results from the ACU Library client survey reflect a high level of satisfaction with the service.

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 71 public access computers as well as photocopying and audiovisual equipment.

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 in both the Online Centre and on the library floor. Audiovisual equipment, photocopying and printing facilities are also available. The sale of snack foods from the Loans Desk continues to be a popular service.

2. Student and Academic Population
In 2006 the Melbourne library served a population 3,792 students, as well as 272 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 2006 the Ballarat library served a campus population of 538 students and 55 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 2006. In Ballarat we employed two new library assistants who work both during the week as well as the weekend. At the end of the year Pauline Ferguson left the library after 13 years of service to take up a position with ACUonline. In Melbourne Maureen Cornish, our shelver, left to move to Queensland and one of our Library Technicians, Vicki Tyson left to go to another job.

4. Collections
The acquisitions budget for both libraries was less than in the previous year with at total of $273,000 being spent. The systematic checking of unit outlines has continued, 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. In Ballarat we began a project to improve the audiovisual collection with the acquisition of a wide range of DVDs and CDs. During the year some of the reference shelving from Melbourne was re-located to Ballarat and this has proved to be popular with regular users of the collection.

During the year we were pleased to receive a substantial donation of music scores, books and recordings from the estate of Dr. Peter Davies. We are grateful to his wife, Claire, for her generosity.

5. Client Services
The number of visits to the libraries continued to grow in 2006 with a 12 percent increase in both libraries over the previous year. The number of first loans was down by 5% in Melbourne and 9 percent in Ballarat. The number of Information Desk queries remained steady in Ballarat at 2,514 for the year. The number of inquiries in Melbourne was 10,025. The information literacy program continues to be a vital part of the work in both libraries. In Ballarat there were 23 sessions which 325 students attended. In Melbourne 2,226 people attended 161 sessions.

6. IT Infrastructure
Use of the computers in both of the libraries continues at a high level. Even though an extra 26 computers were added in Melbourne last year queues of students wanting access still form during the day.

As part of the effort to address this issue an extra five computers have been acquired and designated as “express” computers. These are located on the benches which used to house five of our OPAC computers. Being standing access only, it is intended that students will only spend five to ten minutes at a computer. This should mean that there is one group of computers with a reasonably high user turnover. The reduction in the number of dedicated OPACs on the ground floor does not appear to have been an issue.

As well as the express computers another 8 computers were added to the Information Commons bringing the total in that area to 39.

During the year two adjustable height workstations were purchased for both libraries for the use of students with disabilities. Two new computers have also been purchased. These have flatbed scanners attached for use with the Kurzweil and JAWS software.

7. Local Collaboration/Community Engagement
The staff on both campuses have continued to work closely together, particularly on eReserve and in Technical Services. The Raheen Library is still providing a library service for the Diocese Catholic Education Office, Melbourne.

8. Highlights
The highlight for this year was the continued growth in library usage and the increasing satisfaction rating as measured by the Rodski Survey.

The library staff on both campuses have continued to work to provide a high level of service and I would like to thank them all for their efforts.

Stuart Whelan
Library Manager (Victoria)

Electronic Services Unit

The Electronic Services Unit (ESU) significantly expanded its operations again with a large increase in electronic resources and an expansion in services to improve access to the collections. The major highlights for 2006 were:

1. Staff Meeting
A face-to-face meeting of ESU staff was held at the Brisbane campus on 15 - 17 June 2006. The Library Manager (Canberra) joined the meeting to hand over responsibility for the cataloguing of electronic resources and using SFX to populate the Library catalogue.

2. Datasets
In 2006 the Library continued to expand its collection of electronic resources, acquiring several new resources including full text journal collections and full text or abstract and indexing databases. 2006 also saw the acquisition of our first major collection of electronic books, Ebrary Academic Complete, which contains almost 30,000 titles. The new datasets for 2006 were:

Ebooks.

Ebrary Academic Complete – multi-disciplinary collection of almost 30,000 electronic books.

Full text electronic journal collections.

Project Muse (standard collection) – 300 high quality humanities, arts and social sciences journals from 60 scholarly publishers
Springer/Kluwer – more than 1,200 peer-reviewed, full-text journals in science, technology and medicine
Brill Academic Publishers – over 100 scholarly, full-text journals covering a range of subjects with particular strengths in history, biblical and religious studies
Science Direct – our remaining print titles from this publisher were converted to electronic form

Databases.

Catholic Periodical and Literature Index (via Ebsco) – abstracting index for articles published in Catholic periodicals, Papal documents, church promulgations and books about the Catholic faith.
Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (via Ebsco) – provides indexing & abstracts for more than 600 journals, books, reports and conference proceedings in the area of library, information science and technology.
LegalTrac – indexes over 875 titles including major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals and international legal journals. 109 titles are full-text.
Expanded Academic ASAP – subscription was upgraded from 10 users to unlimited access.
Libraries Australia - enables searching across the combined catalogues of Australian libraries - national, state, public, university, TAFE and government - with one search.

3. Research Training Connect
ESU cooperated with local campus staff to develop the Library Module of this information literacy program, which will be compulsory for all research students. It was developed as an online course using Blackboard. ESU staff were also responsible for converting and loading all nine Research Training Connect modules in liaison with academic staff and with the assistance of ACUonline staff who helped design style sheets and graphics. The modules, including the Library Module, were approved by the Research Training Committee, which is a sub-committee of the University research and Research Training Committee (URRMTC) for use in second semester 2007.

4. Training for Staff Teaching Online Courses
ESU staff collaborated with IATL staff to develop a library training program for lecturers responsible for fully online courses. In 2006 the training program was conducted twice across ACU National. The first program was presented by ESU staff and the second program by Campus Library staff.

5. Walk-in Access
Walk-in-access for non-members of Australian Catholic University was investigated and tested ready for implementation in 2007.

6. Ezproxy
Ezproxy was upgraded in September from operating as proxy by port to proxy by hostname, significantly improving remote access. An outdated staff PC was recycled in order to run Ezproxy in High Availability mode to ensure a continuous provision of service.

7. Equella (Learning Edge)
The Learning Federation and the Past Exam Paper Database were configured on Equella, which was linked with Blackboard and rolled out for use by ACU National students and staff. ESU staff collaborated with University of Adelaide library staff and Dytech to develop a copyright database, which will operate on Equella and be available in mid-2007.

8. Research Connect
Following liaison with the relevant stakeholders, specifications for ACU National’s eprint archive, Research Connect, were drawn up by ESU staff and approved by the URRMTC. ESU staff started configuring the service on Equella for completion in mid-2007.

ESU staff are supervising a Banyo Information Systems student who started a 140 hour professional experience placement with ESU in December 2006. The student worked on Equella to help in the early configuring of Research Connect.

9. Ariel
Document delivery using Ariel was set up via the Library server to deliver documents requested on interlibrary loan directly to staff and students by email.

10. Copyright Database
The copyright database was opened to ACU National staff for searching. Responsibility for populating the database was transferred from ESU to local campuses providing a more personal and responsive service.

11. Presentations and Meetings
Peter Blake ran two hands-on wiki creation sessions at a QULOC workshop at QUT on 28 August 2006. Peter also presented a paper at the ALIA New Librarians’ Symposium held in Sydney on 1-2 December 2006. The title of the paper was "Using a wiki for information services: principles and practicalities."

Leticia Medwell was appointed as chair of the CAVAL Digital Resources Advisory Group.

Heather Pearsall
Library Manager (Electronic Services)

Copying and Printing Service

In 2006 the Library entered its fourth year of the successful partnership with Monitor Business machines as the external facilities manager of our copying and printing services.

1. Enhancements to Services

Colour prices – reduced in February. This lead to a significant increase in colour copying and printing, beginning in February and increasing exponentially each month.
Equipment upgrades – 512 MB RAM added to each Library printer server in February.
New equipment – Larger capacity BLACK AND WHITE printer (Ricoh AP4510) purchased for St. Patrick’s Campus library in August; Print release PC purchased for the iMac lab at Strathfield in December.
Duplex printing – configured at Strathfield in May, and at Brisbane in August.
Enhanced server failure warning system – all Monitor servers were added to the ITCS Roysys system in May. This system checks whether the server is up or down. If down the system sends an SMS and/or an email to the Library’s administrator to notify her of the problem.
Food and drink sales – made available to Ballarat students using their Monitor account and the POS Monitor terminal at the Library Loans Desk. The Library Manager introduced this service at the end of 2005, and it became an established and valued service in 2006.
Stationery sales to students – Introduced at the Strathfield Library in August 2006, using the Monitor POS terminal.

2. Efficiencies Introduced

Autoloader denominations reduced - 5c and 10c pieces were taken off the autoloader menu in June. This brought ACU into line with the practice of our consortium partners, and reduced the number of cash collections required.
Cash collections/costs reduced – with the coin reduction, all Monitor staff were directed that autoloaders should not be cleared until they held a minimum of $2,000. In August this was revised to $1,600 for the small sites where a single person collects the money, thus observing OHS regulations. Cash collected in 2006 increased by $37,965, but cash handling costs decreased by $2,500.
Cash Web site created – Monitor created this web site in June, and it allows all cash collectors to see at a glance how much money is in an autoloader, and so judge whether a collection is required.
Web reports upgraded – in August, Monitor web online reports were upgraded and made directly accessible to the Library Manager (Infrastructure and Strategic Initiatives). Improved access allowed a timely collection of statistics, and the Manager was able to establish a consistent suite of reports, improving the reliability of the data.
Improved tracking of cash collection deposits - beginning October, ACU Finance (Sydney) received the monthly spreadsheet of Monitor Cash Collections and Deposits, and were given access to the Monitor Web cash receipts. Both sources improved their ability to identify deposits in the ACU account, and their understanding of the Monitor system. Staff changes at ACU Finance had disrupted previous communication practices, causing us to overlook a delay in deposits of cash collected at the end of 2005. Co-operation between the Library, ACU Finance and Monitor Accounts restored and streamlined our communications.

Several of the above changes addressed recommendations made in the January 2006 Cost Recovery Services Report, commissioned by the Library in December 2005.

3. University Copying and Printing Consortium (UCPC)
The UCPC Committee - membership remained stable during 2006. The ACU representative continued to chair the meetings and record the minutes.
Meetings – were held in February, May, August and November. The May meeting was held at UWS Campbelltown, so that members could observe an E-pay Kiosk in operation. The other meetings were at UNSW. Library representatives held a teleconference in December.

The Consortium remained focussed on improvements to service delivery, while Monitor was concerned with expanding the Monitor Cost recovery system to include other campus based services, such as canteen sales. Both libraries and Monitor agreed on the need to introduce E-pay stations, and reduce our reliance on cash deposits into Autoloaders.

4. Statistics
Volume of Copying

2004 totals	2005 totals	2006 totals	Numeric difference 2006 -2005	% Difference
1,399,325	1,184,284	1,085,516	98,768 less black and white photocopies than in 2005	-8
7,261	4,088	21,756	17,688 more colour prints/copies than in 2005	432
1,532,792	1,680,658	2,006,241	325,583 more library and lab prints than in 2005	19
2,939,378	2,869,030	3,113,513	244,483 more total copies and prints than in 2005	8.5

In 2006, colour print and copy volumes increased significantly in response to the reduction in prices introduced prior to the commencement of the academic year. The demand for black and white printing continued to increase, and the overall increase slightly exceeded the reduction in photocopying. The Melbourne campus continued to generate the second highest level of activity, after North Sydney, and it became essential to bring its facilities up to the same standard. It may become necessary in 2007 to install a second large printer in these two libraries.

Cash flow

	2004	2005	2006	Difference 2006-2005	% Difference
Library fines	$88,993	$85,140	$93,428	$8,288	9.7
Total income (Fines + other income)	$445,965	$428,092	$474,025	$45,933	10.7
Total expenditure	$295,685	$311,296	$294,368	-$16,928	-5.4
Balance	$150,280	$116,796	$179,657	$62,861	54

Outside of fines, and after costs, the system generated $86,229 in credit at the close of 2006. However, an estimated $36,000 of this income was in fact generated in the final quarter of 2005 (the Melbourne cash collections from September to December 2005 were not deposited until 2006). Redistribution of that amount would bring the total income and final balance figures for those two years into closer alignment. Expenditure decreased slightly.

5. Summary, and future directions
Students gave an improved rating to the printing services in the 2006 Rodski Survey, and their increased demand for such services reflects the growth in student population at each site. However, through Monitor Inquiry Forms, they continued to register a dismaying level of frustration with the poor response to printer failures in the computer labs at all sites. A significant number also found the Autoloader instructions too complicated, and had problems adding money to accounts or buying a card. To remedy this, and so continue to improve the quality of our service, the Library will need to:

Replace some printers with larger, faster ones
Introduce E-pay options
Work more closely with ITCS to provide service to the lab printers

Josephine Frawley,
Library Manager (Infrastructure and Strategic Initiatives)

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