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Jess Burke, Reference Services Manager, Library, Queensland University of Technology
The burgeoning of the Internet and other electronic resources has led to revision of the RLG Conspectus definitions in order to renovate Conspectus as a viable collection evaluation instrument for the digital era. Queensland University of Technology Library has developed and documented a continuing Applied Conspectus which already incorporated an awareness of electronic resources. QUT, therefore, undertook to test the revised Western Library Network (WLN) collection level indicators now being adopted into the Australian Conspectus. This paper outlines issues raised by the revisions in the context of QUT practice.
It has been asserted that Conspectus is dead. A database search for the topic "Conspectus" by publication dates appears confirmatory as the table below indicates:
| Database | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 |
| AUSTROM : AEI & ALISA | 2 | 5 | 7 | 20 | 8 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Library Lit | 15 | 17 | 14 | 13 | 23 | 4 | 18 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| LISA | 15 | 28 | 16 | 21 | 25 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| QUT Catalogue | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 34 | 53 | 37 | 56 | 58 | 27 | 38 | 13 | 10 | 0 |
Why? As originally conceived, conspectus analysed print-based collections, focussed on ownership, required great investment in time and energy and produced results whose value often rested primarily on the concept of a contributory, cooperative, Distributed National Collection.
The world has moved on, however, and the work done under the auspices of the Western Library Network and the National Library of Australia is bringing conspectus with it. Witness the formation of the Working Group of conspectus users in 1997 and the growing wealth of material available from the NLAs website for conspectus.
Conspectus is also alive and well at Queensland University of Technology where a practice of Applied Conspectus has developed, with the encouragement and periodic financial support of the Universitys Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research & Advancement). It was in the context of this continuing activity that QUT undertook to test the impact of the WLN revisions.
Conspectus was first undertaken at QUT in 1991-1993. In 1991, Janice Rickards, then an Associate University Librarian, evaluated the collections supporting the new University Research Centres. An Assessment of the whole collection was then completed, using standard subdivisions and prescribed methodologies. In the early stages of the activity the amalgamation between the Brisbane College of Advanced Education Northern Campuses and the original QIT/QUT was still new, the libraries virtually had separate systems and the staff were still learning to work together. Much of the checking was done manually and coordinated treatment of cross-campus collections such as Business was valiantly attempted but difficult. The resulting suite of conspectus reports shows some evidence of the problems of existing methodology. However, the exercise provided a valuable tool for understanding collection strengths and weaknesses. Conspectus was immediately given practical application. It was used to direct purchasing of resources for the newly amalgamated university library.
We have come a long way since then.
One of the major challenges for the new university was perceived to be making the transition from college/institute culture to that of a true university. An important component of the shift was the establishment of a research support infrastructure, including an appropriate level of Library resourcing. The case for additional funding for the Library to support research was based on conspectus reports.
From 1991 onwards the Library was proactive in promoting conspectus as a systematic way of evaluating its collection. Since conspectus had already produced much needed additional funding, it had to be ongoing, to assess the effects of that funding. Unfortunately, standard conspectus subdivisions did not coincide with QUTs Faculty and School subject divisions. The Library proposed to the PVC (R & A) that a suite of reports be done on Dewey ranges selected according to the interests of the ten University Research Centres, thereby updating the original Rickards efforts. Funding was provided by the PVC (R & A) for the purpose.
Following that exercise, in 1994, reports were completed for a sample of eight Schools at the request of the PVC (R & A) and in 1995 that office provided funding of $90,000 of Quality funds to the Library to undertake conspectus of the Collections as they supported School Research Centres and Research Concentrations.
Again there was a practical application: the findings were used to identify collection weaknesses on which liaison librarians then focussed selection.
Most recently, in 1997, those University Research Centre collections which had been assessed in 1994 at less than Level 3b, were reexamined to determine whether the extra funding provided in the interim had been sufficient to bridge the gap.
Thus, conspectus had become identified as a methodology, to be applied to resource assessment at large, rather than as a single project. Further, it was recognised that, to be really useful at QUT, the subject classes had to match local interests rather than standard divisions and deficiencies had to be translatable into dollars. Thus "Applied Conspectus" was born. The methodology was extended or applied even further in the preparation of Library Impact Statements relating to proposed new and modified courses. It has become an effective instrument in resourcing academic programs and has even spawned a local manual.
Methodology has remained true to the original principles of the Australian Conspectus Manual but specific measures have been adapted to make use of the electronic options now available. Individual reports will vary but the following elements are constant:
However, the most important characteristic of QUTs Applied Conspectus is its invariable link to funding. Except in the rare instances where a collection is deemed fully adequate, every report includes a section headed "Quantification of Needs" in which the librarian is required to translate into dollar terms the gap between where that part of the collection is, and where it ought to be, to satisfy the requirements of the clients. The section tends to cause them more headaches than all the rest of the report put together, but it is genuinely used in determining funding allocations and has produced a number of extra grants. It has also been significant in the course accreditation/course quality assurance process.
The process of conspectus evaluation has remained valid and consistent with the Australian Conspectus Manual: the link to funding is the logical extension of subject application, and the justification for continued conspectus activity at QUT. The significance of the funding attributed to Applied Conspectus is shown in the table below:
| 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | Total |
| $86,500 | $791,329 | $234,046 | $514,325 | $401,000 | $400,000 | $400,000 | $2,827,200 |
The electronic dimension had already entered QUT conspectus writing before the advent of the WLN revisions. It should be noted that QUT reports are written against a template consisting of sectional headings, guidelines and optional quantities of generic text. The reports written in 1994 included passing references to the internet along with discussion of online services. By the 1995-96 reports on School Research Centres and Concentrations, an "Electronic Resources" heading had found its way into the template, along with sample text and an increasing amount of general attention.
Like other libraries, QUT has been involved in the access/ownership debate: our Library Resources Plan 1998-2002 embraces a move from print towards a combination of 30% electronic resources and document delivery by the year 2000; we have assorted ejournal subscriptions and search/fulltext document retrieval services; our Bookvote has become our Library Resource Allocation and our academics are permitted, nay encouraged, to spend some of their facultys library allocation on document delivery. Faculty by faculty we are trading off print subscriptions for a combination of electronic resources and Document Delivery. Our conspectus writers complain about the inadequacy of an exclusively ownership-and-print-focussed set of parameters to describe the real extent of resources.
As a member of the NLAs Working Party on Conspectus, I undertook to test the WLN Revisions on conspectus reports on which I was working 1997. I had thought of working directly against the new Indicators but was requested to work to the old for reasons of comparability. In the long run, this has proved beneficial since the same data has been examined against both standards.
How do the new Collection Depth Indicators affect comparability of assessments over time?
The most obvious distinction is the acceptance of Level 3C. This reduces a major problem for libraries such as QUT which aim to support research but cannot, nor wish to, aspire to Level 4 with its requirements of ephemera, historical extent and foreign language holdings. Indeed, the ready availability of translation services and indexing in English reduce the relevance of the foreign language requirement applied to a collection in English. The emphasis on foreign language holdings as a criterion for Level 4 remains a source of frustration to research libraries where the primary language is English, the international language of publication.
For a collection which was previously assessed as being at Level 3a, the leap to Level 3c may appear wider than is actually the case, by virtue of skipping a level. Which introduces the second question following from the first: how do the levels equate?
In real terms Levels 3a and 3b appear diminished by the new indicators. Most significantly, the old Level 3b stated: "The collection is adequate to support all undergraduate and most postgraduate coursework ..." whereas the new states "This collection supports upper division undergraduate courses and professional education programs". In American parlance, "postgraduate coursework" may be equivalent to a "professional education program" but in Australia, the latter term is more likely to equate to a Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate, post-Registration qualification or Continuing Education program. A coursework Masters degree is at a substantially higher level and might not be supported by Level 3b under the new terms. Still less could a Masters Research, Ph D or Post-Doctoral Fellowship. The points of division within Level 3 are improved but still present some difficulties.
This discussion has focussed on level 3 indicators because they are the ones of most subtle distinction and critical interest to an Australian university library. Levels 1 and 2 supply some more precise definition: for example "students in basic courses" gives way to "students through the first two years of college" (level 2b). There is some diminution, "students enrolled in introductory level courses" is replaced by "students through high school" (2a) so that similar questions of comparability would apply.
Of the individual criteria for each level, the specific provisions concerning electronic resources are the most significant change. Important terms, notably "defined access" are explained early in the document. Unfortunately, some issues remain difficult.
The issues discussed arose from, and informed, the examination of the 1997 QUT reports against the WLN Revisions. What was discovered, forms the conclusion to this paper.
For QUT, the principal impact of the revisions lies in designated levels, both for overall collections reported and for individual "lines" and Dewey ranges within the collections. Several areas and collections currently assessed at Level 3b would translate to Level 3c. The implied diminution of other revised levels would also result in upgrades. This means that the problems of comparability over time are real. Retrospective conversion of old reports is neither realistic nor appropriate but readers of current reports would be assisted by guidelines linking the two sets of indicators.
The introduction of indicators for electronic resources legitimises a direction in which QUT was already moving and provides some guidance in resolving issues already identified by other practitioners and ourselves.
Above all, while the value of conspectus as a tool for the DNC may have been diminished by the move to access, electronic consortia and the like, it is alive and well as a means of systematic "collection" evaluation. It helps us to grasp how or whether in real terms, we are improving the level of accessible information resources needed to support the teaching and research needs of clients. It presents a convincing rationale in lobbying for funds. In its applied form, therefore, it has a very healthy future and the WLN revisions provide an excellent shot of vitamins.
Australian Conspectus Manual : Amendment : Collection Depth Indicators. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1997.
Burke, J. Conspectus Manual : A Guide to Conspectus Methodology and its Applications in the QUT Library. Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology Library, 1997.
Gaskell, Carolyn. Applying Conspectus at QUT Library. Paper presented at ALIA State Conference, Rockhampton, July 1995.
Henty, Margaret. Australian Conspectus Manual : a collection assessment guide. Rev. ed. Canberra: Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services, 1992.
Jess Burke has been Reference Services Manager at the Kelvin Grove Campus of the Queensland University of Technology since 1993. Previously, she held the corresponding position at the Kedron Park Campus. She is a member of the QUT Librarys Information Resource Management Committee and has been involved in QUTs Conspectus activity since 1991, both writing and reviewing conspectus reports as well as contributing to the development of conspectus methodology and templates as Applied at QUT. In 1997 she produced a Conspectus Manual for use in the QUT context. She was a member of the National Library of Australias Working Party of Conspectus users, formed to consider the proposed Western Library Network (WLN) revisions to Collection Depth Indicators for incorporation into the Australian Conspectus. As part of this commitment she undertook to test the revisions at QUT Library.
Last modified: August 18 2004.
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