Initiatives to reach users in an electronic world: The National Library of Australia

Citation

Ruthven, T. (2003), "Initiatives to reach users in an electronic world: The National Library of Australia", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2003.12231aab.001

Initiatives to reach users in an electronic world: The National Library of Australia

Editors note: ILDS asked a number of national libraries how they saw the future for the delivery of their services to remote users. We publish below a selection of the responses. Our next issue will carry the remainder together with an overview by Maurice Line.

Initiatives to reach users in an electronic world: The National Library of Australia

The advent of the Internet and the digital world assists the National Library of Australia (2002) to fulfil its vision of providing users with fast and convenient access to library collections and services. In particular, it enables the National Library to reach remote users more easily and bring its rich and diverse collections and specific services to new audiences.

Australia is a large country with 98 per cent of Australians living more than 100km from the National Library, and many living in remote areas[1] without easy access to any library services. In order to meet its charter to "make … the most advantageous use of [its] collection in the national interest" (National Library Act, 1960), the National Library has always invested in services which deliver to remote users. The take up by Australians of the Internet in ever increasing numbers[2] provides new opportunities to reach remote users and at their place of choice: at work, at home, at school or at their local library, as well as providing the same services to users who come to the reading rooms of the National Library.

Traditionally, the services to remote users have meant providing loans and copies through the user's own library and providing mail and telephone reference services. However, the National Library recognised early on that the Internet and the digital world opened up new opportunities through digitisation and online services.

Digitisation commenced over six years ago with newly acquired pictures being digitised routinely, making over 45,000 images available through the National Library's catalogue (National Library of Australia, n.d.) by the middle of last year. A total of 65 per cent of requests for loans and copies material from the National Library's collections are received over the Internet (mainly using the Kinetica[3] service) and 55 per cent of copies are delivered electronically. The PictureAustralia service (www.pictureaustralia.org/), developed and run by the National Library, combines the digitised pictures of 18 cultural organisations into one easy to use, Web-based, find-and-get service. Reference enquiries by e-mail have been encouraged and received for many years, more recently using an online Web form. The National Library also has a very active program to acquire Australian electronic publications with its PANDORA service (www.pandora.nla.gov.au/) in order to provide ongoing access to information which often disappears from the Internet.

Over the next few years, the National Library will expand on these services and develop new services. Six key developmental areas are described below. Each program has a focus on providing services directly to people and most involve working cooperatively with other cultural organisations. Some involve combining the traditional, conventional processes with new electronic ones, others convert existing services into the electronic world, whilst some are only possible using electronic means to provide new and enhanced methods to access the National Library collections.

1. 1.

   Direct access to the collection by users

   A new service, Copies Direct (www.nla.gov.au/dss/copiesdir/), will allow anyone to order a copy of most items held by the National Library using an online Web form. Electronic delivery of the copies is an integral part of the service but mailing copies will still be an option for users. It extends the National Library's effective Document Delivery Service beyond libraries to individuals.

   On a second front, planning is well underway for a trial to allow free direct access by people to a range of electronic information resources. A portal will be developed to provide one search interface to the resources. The trial is being undertaken in collaboration with four public libraries for their users. Free document backup will be provided, including loans, for any item a user finds that is not available in full text online. The resources include Australia's national union catalogue of library collections, indexes to the top 200 Australian journals and biographical files, and PictureAustralia.

   Both these initiatives are based on key findings of the Australian Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Benchmarking Study (National Library of Australia, 2001a), which showed that the effectiveness of a service and its efficiency is improved by reducing the number of steps in the process and automating all aspects of the document delivery cycle, i.e. direct and automated access.

2. 2.

   Digitisation program

   Last year the National Library embarked on a major program to digitise key parts of its collections (National Library of Australia, 2001b). A total of 20,000 pictures, 3,000 pieces of sheet music and 1,000 maps will be digitised each year, and one manuscript collection at a time. The program is concentrating on Australian material that is of high research value and is original or unique. The vast majority of this material will be available through the National Library's catalogue (National Library of Australia, n.d.) for free and can be found by users of Kinetica (www.nla.gov.au/kinetical).

3. 3.

   Collaborative delivery of digital and electronic content

   In addition to providing links from its own catalogue and library union catalogues, the National Library seeks other ways to match how people find and get information. Of most interest are services that bring together the information resources of a broad range of cultural institutions, of which libraries are but one part, in order to break down the barriers for users and make all the collections available to them easily.

   As mentioned above, a significant success story has been the PictureAustralia service, with 35,000 visits each month and each visitor being able to choose from the 600,000 images in 18 libraries, art galleries and museums.

   MusicAustralia presents another facet of collaborative service delivery to users. It is in its development phase with an overarching aim to make resources and information on Australian music widely accessible through one Web site. The resources and information will be drawn from many cultural institutions, covering music in all its formats, across styles and genres, heritage and contemporary. A pilot site (www.musicaustralia.org/) was released in August this year to test one aspect of the proposed service: a single search service to digital and electronic resources. The pilot is testing the linking of digitised sheet music to sound recordings and the delivery electronic manuscript scores and multimedia presentations.

   A further collaborative project is AustraliaDancing, involving a major redevelopment of the current electronic directory (www.nla.gov.au/ausdance). This joint project with Ausdance, the peak industry body for dance in Australia, will open up Australian resources related to dance: oral histories, photographs, posters, programs and personal papers. In the new directory, users will be able to browse people, dance companies and events to view biographical details, historical notes, online research materials and links to search services. There will also be a capability to search for specific subjects or resources. The new directory will be released early next year.

4. 4.

   Equitable access to information

   Commercial electronic information is available to many people through their own organisations and libraries. However, a gap exists in providing all Australians with access to a core set of electronic resources in the same way that they can access printed material in their local public library. The National Library is acquiring access to these resources in a consortium (www.caslconsortium.org/) with the State and Territory libraries. The plan is to extend the consortium to public libraries, and ultimately to utilise the full capabilities of the Internet to provide access to people in their homes.

5. 5.

   Collecting electronic material for now and the future

   The Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 had an official Web site but is no longer online. There were also many unofficial sites but very few remain. The National Library is committed to collecting this type of material in the same way that it collects, stores, maintains and provides access to printed material. The PANDORA service is a key component of this effort. It is an archive of 2,700 online Australian publications, copied with the publisher's permission. Software developed by the National Library gathers titles from a publisher's site, streamlines the quality checking and manages any access restrictions. The selection of sites and other components of the gathering process are undertaken in collaboration with State and Territory libraries and ScreenSound Australia.

   You can still see the Olympic's official Web site on the PANDORA site[4]. In fact, you can see how it looked every day of the Olympics, who won, who lost, stories and medal tallies, and all of the links work.

   Currently, the National Library is examining the feasibility of capturing the whole of the Australian Internet domain.

6. 6.

   Related developments

   A live, interactive chat reference service, AskNow! (http://asknow.gov.au), began in August this year. People can chat online, in real time, with a reference librarian. As with other electronic and digital services described in this article, it is a collaborative effort. AskNow! involves the State and Territory libraries as well as some public libraries. It assists people to find the information and material they want. The reference staff member can "push" Web pages to the user, "co-browse" with the user, or direct them to services such as Copies Direct to order copies.

Tom RuthvenDirector, Interlending Services and Digitisation Project, National Library of Australia

Notes

1. 1.

   The furthest person who can drive to the National Library must travel 4,800 kilometres.

2. 2.

   A total of 72 per cent of Australians had access to the Internet in September 2001, (National Office for the Information Economy (2002)) The Current State of Play, available at: www.noie.gov.au/Projects/information_economy/research&analysis/ie_stats/CSOP_April2002/CSOP_April2002.pdf

3. 3.

   Kinetica is an online Internet based service which provides access to Australia's union catalogue of library collections, the National Bibliographic Database. Home page: www.nla.gov.au/kinetica/

4. 4.

   Sydney 2000 Olympic Games official home pages on PANDORA, available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-10194.