2003 News Archive


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25/11/03 - Redevelopment of the Kinetica System

The National Library is undertaking a project to develop a new Kinetica system. The Library aims to introduce the new system in January 2006, at the expiry of the Library's contract with IBM GSA for the support of the current system. More information can be found here


16/10/03 - KDD Presentations and Questions

The powerpoint slides for the Kinetica Document Delivery workshop that was presented at the Kinetica Annual Users' Meeting are now available here

The answers to 'Questions without notice' relating to Kinetica Document Delivery that were tabled at the Kinetica Annual Users' Meeting are now available from here


19/08/03 - 2003 Authority Survey

In June 2003 a survey was conducted to ascertain the level of authority work being undertaken in local library systems, but not included in the National Bibliographic Database. The findings of the survey clearly illustrate the significant quantity of authority work carried out on local systems only, and therefore lost to the NBD and to other Australian libraries. The survey results are consistent with statistics derived from the Kinetica Amicus database.

The Report on the 2003 Authority Survey can be found at http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/cataloguing/authsurvey.html


11/08/03 - Have you ever been billed the Kinetica minimum charge adjustment?

If you have been billed the minimum charge adjustment then you may like to consider our new invoicing offer allowing you to spread your usage over 12 months rather than the current 3 month arrangement.

How will it work?

If you would like to receive an annual minimum charge invoice in October 2003, please contact the Help Desk for your billing arrangements to be changed. Customers wanting to monitor their Kinetica usage, can have year-to-date usage reports emailed each month - please indicate if you would like to receive this service.

If you would like to discuss this change or require any clarification of your current billing arrangements please phone the Kinetica Help Desk toll free on 1800 026 155.


19/06/03 - ISO ILL Protocol

KDD can now operate with other ILL systems. For more information see the ISO ILL Protocol


19/06/03 - New Documentation available

Searching the Deutsche Bibliothek Database

As with other databases accessible from KineticaWeb, we have tried to configure the DBD to be consistent with search strategies used in searching other databases. However, a number of differences are inevitable, given the variation in the way each database has been set up.


13/06/03 - New Documentation available

How to find your requests on KDD

The purpose of this document is to assist ILL staff in finding requests in various statuses on KDD. Please forward any comments on this document to the Kinetica Help Desk.


27/05/03 - CJK is now Available to KDD users

The Kinetica Chinese Japanese Korean (CJK) Database is now available to KDD users for searching and requesting. The Kinetica CJK Service provides database access to Chinese, Japanese and Korean material held in Australian libraries.

With contributions from Australian universities, public libraries and bibliographic agencies, the Kinetica CJK database is an invaluable tool for CJK librarians and researchers.

Currently, the Kinetcia CJK Service holds:
1,385,228 Bibliographic Records
420,734 Locations Information and
154,874 Authority Records
For more information on the CJK database see:
http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/databases.html


27/05/03 - Billing

The CJK database is available to search free of charge, however, delivery charges and charges for using the Kinetica Payments Service still apply.


23/05/03 - Access for end users via the new Public Library Portal

The National Library of Australia is working with a group of public libraries to create better access to Australian full text and printed resources. A strong vision of the National Library is to increase access for all Australians to resources, particularly online information. The new Public Library Portal is the initiative of the Library's Resource Sharing Division and aims to provide, direct to end users, access to various online databases and services that have been traditionally mediated by library staff on their behalf.

The Public Library Portal is a website that will bring together a host of information services making them available from a single entry point. In this way the Portal will use the Internet to extend access to the National Bibliographic Database (currently accessed via Kinetica), including PictureAustralia, Ozlife, Australian Journals Online, the, Ozlife (Australian biography and book review index) and Australian Public Affairs Full Text (APAFT), and other online full text databases. In addition, the very popular Australian Libraries Gateway site will be incorporated into the Portal.

A feature of the service will be its ability to carry out a search across all databases listed on the Portal homepage simultaneously via a Z39.50 broadcast search. A series of Subject Trails will be developed featuring collection highlights on a range of popular topics. Additional links to other online information resources will also be incorporated into the site.

The Pilot project will be trailed in four libraries based on their location, size and service infrastructure. The participating libraries are the Brisbane City Council, Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service, Yarra Melbourne Regional Library Service and Northern Regional Libraries (Moree, NSW). It is envisaged that the Pilot project will be up and running later this year and an all-day workshop has already been held on 31 March at the National Library to discuss the implementation details of the Pilot.

The National Library is committed to providing quality information services that are relevant and accessible for all Australians and it is envisaged that the Public Library Portal project can help to achieve this aim through enhancing public library access to these resource discovery services.


09/04/03 - Wind up of Expert Advisory Group on Enhancements

Made up of representatives from various library sectors, the Expert Advisory Group on Enhancements was established late last year as a means to investigate and act upon Kinetica customer proposals to enhance Kinetica services. The Advisory Group was also mandated to review the status of enhancements previously recommended in 1999 by the Expert Advisory Group on Reference and End User Services and the Expert Advisory Group on Kinetica Document Delivery.

This Expert Advisory Group - the most recent of seven that the National Library's Resource Sharing Division has facilitated over the past four years - has now disbanded after delivering their final report to the Kinetica Advisory Committee at a meeting earlier this month. This report will now be used to inform the National Library's ongoing task of providing and improving the suite of Kinetica services for libraries and their users.

After an initial meeting by teleconference in October 2002, the Group swiftly set out to solicit, gather and prioritise enhancement proposals from Kinetica users across the country. This was achieved by supporting and facilitating workshops through the existing Kinetica state and territory User Groups, which were well publicised through the Kinetica website and Kinetica discussion lists. The workshops were conducted over November and December 2002 and a high rate of attendance was followed by a record number of enhancement proposals, numbering close to 300 once collated.

The final report, which is based on this large list of proposals was ratified at the last Kinetica Advisory Committee. The report draws out and comments upon the substantive enhancement proposals in relation to Kinetica Web, the Z3950 service, Kinetica Client, Kinetica Document Delivery, the National Bibliographic Database and Electronic Collection Sets. Several of the recommendations reflect the importance of tapping into the constructive views of Kinetica customers in order to maintain Kinetica as a relevant and practical service to its users. Other recommendations were:

It is likely that the model of consultation used by the Expert Advisory Group on Enhancements will be used by the Resource Sharing Division of the National Library in the future to gather further information and feedback from Kinetica customers.


20/03/03 - Kinetica Document Delivery Upgrade

The Kinetica Document Delivery system has been successfully upgraded and is now fully functional. The upgrade to KDD supports the ISO Interlibrary loan protocol, the new Australian Service Level Codes, has reduced "clicking" through several screens to create and ship requests and includes functionality to select and sort individual locations for the rota.

New documentation, including a workbook - Learn Kinetica Document Delivery, and manual - Kinetica Document Delivery Manual 6th edition, can be found online on the Kinetica Documentation web page.