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Annual Users' Meeting

8-9 August 2002

Report to the Annual Users’ Meeting 2002


1. Executive Summary    5.4 Authorities
2. Results    5.5 Australian Libraries Collections Task Force

    2.1 Access to collections and databases

   5.6 Z39.50 developments
   2.2 Database searches 6. Supporting our customers
   2.3 Quality of National Bibliographic Database    6.1 Help desk
   2.4 Customer base    6.2 Training
   2.5 Interlibrary lending    6.3 Documentation
3. Kinetica CJK service    6.4 Kinetica-l
4. Customer projects    6.5 Marketing
   4.1 Customer survey    6.6 Directories
   4.2 Consultation: Resource Sharing Interface Workshop    6.7 Kinetica User Agreement
5. Improving access and contribution to Kinetica    6.8 Kinetica products
   5.1 Kinetica Client 7. Your advice to Kinetica
   5.2 KineticaWeb    7.1 User meetings / site visits
   5.3 Expert Advisory Group on Cataloguing of Electronic Resources    7.2 Kinetica Advisory Committee

1. Executive Summary

The National Bibliographic Database (NBD) celebrates its 21st birthday this year. The existence of such a valuable resource is a tribute to the commitment and considerable investment of the Australian library community and the National Library. The NBD is at the heart of the services supporting resource sharing between Australian libraries and access to the nation’s collections.

This year has seen a significant focus on national resource sharing and a range of Kinetica services have been developed to improve the efficiency of Australian libraries. The meeting of representatives of peak library organisations held by the National Library in February highlighted the need for resource sharing, and sets a context for discussions over the coming year. Kinetica customers and users are encouraged to participate in discussions at a National Resource Sharing Forum to be held on 11 November 2002 at the National Library of Australia.

The contexts for key developments in Kinetica during 2001–2002, in which discussions can take place are as follows:

  • a focus on the development of services that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Australian libraries;
  • acknowledgment that the NBD is a significant asset for Australian libraries—a study undertaken in early 2002 found that for a range of libraries, 80% of titles were catalogued using records from the NBD, with another 5% catalogued using other databases available through Kinetica; and
  • the need to raise awareness that the quality of the NBD depends upon both quality records from contributors and continuing work on data quality.

Kinetica charges were reviewed. Consideration was given to the barriers to contributing records to the NBD. A strategic decision was taken to eliminate Kinetica charges for all contribution mechanisms to the NBD, resulting in the abolition of the charge for use of Batch*Link. A small increase in charges for Kinetica searching and an increase for Kinetica Document Delivery Payment Service were made, after careful review of all Kinetica expenses, and selected reductions in expenditure planned for the 2002–2003. A commitment has been made to review Kinetica pricing and investigate alternative funding sources and models. The Kinetica Advisory Committee (KAC) established a Pricing Working Group, comprising Doreen Parker, Trevor Wakely and Maxine Brodie, to review and evaluate issues of funding and pricing. Kinetica operations continue to be focused on increasing its cost effectiveness and taking on continuous improvement and cost reduction wherever possible.

This year Kinetica’s achievements include:

  • a new service, E-Collection Sets, that enables libraries to purchase MARC records for electronic full text collections, including quarterly updates;
  • three new databases available via KineticaWeb: OCLC WorldCat, CURL (Consortium of University Research Libraries in the UK) and the National Library of New Zealand’s Te Puna; these major databases provide access to over 79 million bibliographic records complementing the existing databases available through Kinetica;
  • significant work on the quality of the NBD including refinement of the Kinetica match/merge program, orphan headings programs, changes to records to reflect amendments to AACR2 and duplicate resolution; all Kinetica contributors are encouraged to contribute quality cataloguing data and to ensure that additional records are not added through inconsistencies in records;
  • expansion of the NBD coverage with a number of new libraries using the Batch*Link service and an increase in the variety of data formats that can be accepted: Kinetica has acquired software that enables files of metadata in a variety of non-MARC formats to be converted into MARC 21; conversion and loading of data supplied in Dublin Core and XML MARC formats has also been trialled; and
  • implementation of a new KineticaWeb interface which enables simple, complex and advanced searching and implements the majority of the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group on Reference and End User Services.

The Kinetica Document Delivery (KDD) system also provides an essential service supporting interlibrary lending and document delivery. The Inter Library (ILL) Lending Benchmarking Study identified the use of union catalogues and automated ILL systems as two of the five key efficiency criteria. The NBD was the most heavily used national union catalogue identified in this study, with, commensurately, the greatest impact on libraries. A survey of the administrative costs associated with different payment methods for ILL has been undertaken with two libraries—the National Library and the University of South Australia Library. The study found that the KDD payments scheme for an organisation, as both a requester and as a supplier, was significantly more cost effective than other methods of payment.

The challenges for the future are to address the major factors, which will contribute to the efficiency of Kinetica customers. Some of the most significant projects targeted for 2002–2003 are as follows:

  • seek options for improving the performance of Kinetica for all customers through completion of an extensive investigation of response time issues, finalisation of a trial of the AARNet line for traffic and review of software performance issues;
  • create a new focus on the developments required for Kinetica products and services, working with all customers to develop a statement of and prioritise future enhancements and priorities for development through a new expert advisory group;
  • identify projects to improve the quality and coverage of the NBD, in particular to review the whole NBD to detect and remove duplicates, further enhance the match/merge process to ensure less duplicates are added and to work with customers to identify the causes of duplicate data and encourage best practice in cataloguing to reduce the addition of duplicate or low quality records;
  • review the Kinetica pricing structure and identify options (including costs and benefits) to contribute to the review of Kinetica charges through the Pricing Working Group; and
  • seek to constantly improve the software used by customers (KDD, KineticaWeb, Kinetica Cataloguing Client) and by Kinetica staff by implementing new versions of the software and encouraging the development of, or developing, better products to support resource sharing.

2. Results 2001–2002

2.1 Access to collections and databases

NBD size as at 30 June 2002

 

2001–2002

2000–2001

1999–2000

Bibliographic records

13,015,628

12,149,739

11,082,765

Authority records

1,593,228

1,591,630

1,589,682

Holdings

35,015,248

33,213,340

31,447,220

NBD contribution

ACTIVITY

2001–2002

2000–2001

1999–2000

Holdings added

2.74m

3.23 m

1.46 m

Original cataloguing (online & batch)

499,874

659,906

154,843

Authorities in 2001–2002 were contributed as follows:

  • new — 2,208
  • changed — 7,806
  • deleted — 627

The decrease in contribution rates for bibliographic and holdings data compared with 2000–2001 is due to the unusually large number of retrospective files that were processed in 2000–2001.

Holdings contribution

The top ten contributors of holdings: –

Monash University

336,640

Deakin University

318,916

Flinders University

211,702

Metropolitan Public Libraries Association NSW

168,428

Australian National University

148,005

UNILINC Ltd

112,997

University of Sydney

92,248

National Library of Australia

87,566

Curtin University of Technology

64,507

University of Melbourne

51,217

Online original cataloguing contribution

The top ten contributors of online original catalogue records:–

National Library of Australia

51,791

State Library of New South Wales

8,993

CAVAL Collaborative Solutions

6,331

University of New South Wales

4,691

State Library of Western Australia
3,514
Brisbane City Council Library Service

2,947

University of Newcastle
2,598

State Library of South Australia

2,110

ACT Library and Information Service
2,011

Victoria University of Technology

1,676

Overall there has been considerable growth in the NBD, which confirms a continuing commitment by Australian libraries to resource sharing.

2.2 Database searches

Three databases were added to Kinetica in 2001–2002. The National Library of New Zealand’s Te Puna database was added to the service in September. OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) WorldCat and CURL (Consortium of University Research Libraries in the UK) were added in April. WorldCat database is available to special, school and public libraries that are registered members of Kinetica. The database contains 47 million catalogue records. The Te Puna database contains records of New Zealand publications and resources held in New Zealand libraries. The database contains over 10.3 million records. CURL covers 21 large research based university libraries in the UK and Ireland. It contains over 22 million records.

All overseas databases can be searched at the standard Kinetica search charge, a considerable discount made possible through negotiation by Kinetica on behalf of Australian libraries.

By database

 

2001–2002

2000–2001

NBD

5,787,514

5,913,788

CJK

3,934*

11,480

RLG

126,233

179,470

WorldCat

3,652

-

CURL

3,628

-

Te Puna

4,932

-

TOTAL

5,929,823

6,104,738

* This figure represents searches of the CJK database through KineticaWeb only.

NBD searches by method of access

 

2001–2002

2000–2001

KineticaWeb

3,313,675

3,669,800

Z39.50 from local systems

1,385,642

1,036,320

Cataloguing client

1,075,883

1,036,320

The NBD is the most heavily used database. KineticaWeb is the most commonly used interface to the NBD. An increasing number of libraries are using their own OPACinterface to interrogate Kinetica databases using Z39.50.

2.3 Quality of the National Bibliographic Database

Quality of the NBD is a top priority for Kinetica. Work in 2001–2002 has focused on refinement of the match/merge program and projects to improve the quality of existing records. More developments are planned in 2002–2003 in particular on the match/merge algorithm.

One of the critical issues in database quality is control of duplicate records. The key solution to minimise duplicate records is through developments to minimise the addition of duplications through improvement of the match/merge process, for which significant advances were made year. Since implementation, there have been a number of improvements made to the program. Kinetica staff identified a number of areas where further improvements may be possible. Improvements were made from December 2001 to June 2002. Kinetica staff will continue to investigate further options for refinement of the matching process. All Kinetica users are reminded that the high level description of Batch*Link including the match/merge algorithm was published at batchlinkprocess.html earlier this year.

A major ongoing project is the removal of headings with no links. A total of 67,000 orphan headings were removed from the NBD this financial year as part of the data quality program. Orphan headings have no references, authorities, or documents attached.

  • Significant improvements in NBD data quality were also achieved through the following:Correcting the general material designation (gmd) in over 48,000 records by changes reflecting the new terminology employed in Chapter 9 of the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed. (AACR2) Amendments 2001. Terms such as ‘computer file’ (and other variants) were changed to the new general material designation ‘electronic resource’.
  • Correcting the gmd in a further 86,000 records by changes reflecting the new terminology employed in Chapter 3 of the Anglo American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed. (AACR2) Amendments 2001. The terms ‘map’ and ‘globe’ (and their variants) was changed to the new general material designation ‘cartographic material’.
  • Resolving 2,264 duplicate reports during the period. This brings the total number of duplicates processed since the introduction of electronic submission forms to 3,563.

Libraries were able to achieve major changes to accurately reflect their holdings through the Global Holdings Update service, with 68'> separate updates performed affecting over 1,242,000 '> holdings on the NBD.

Data contribution

Records are contributed to Kinetica through two methods: cataloguing online using the Kinetica Cataloguing Client or Web Input Form or by contribution through sending information in files.

  • Online contribution: The rate of original cataloguing contributed online has remained steady throughout the year.
  • Offline contribution: The Batch*Link Gateway was further developed to provide users with automated delivery of file processing reports and reject record files. The review of tentative matches continues to be a manual process and for 2001–2002, 2.5% of all incoming full MARC records were sent for human review.

The number of records contributed via the Batch*Link service has grown strongly during the year as more libraries use the service. Over 2.5 million records were processed in 2001–2002, with more than 2 million detected as duplicates enabling holdings to be merged and records improved. There are now 45 libraries regularly contributing via the service, this is an increase of 17 libraries compared with the same time last year.

Some major records sets were added to the NBD, notably more than 108,000 bibliographic records for the Eighteenth Century microform collection were loaded in September.

2.4 Customer base

                                                

Organisations

Individuals

New customers

26

21

Cancellations

39

0

Net growth/reduction

-13

21

Total customers

1030

Library closure is by far the biggest reason for cancellations. For the smaller libraries who ceased their subscriptions to Kinetica, most indicated that they would use the service through ILANET.

2.5 Interlibrary lending

 

2001–2002

2000–2001

1999–2000

ILL requests

250,888

229,380

177,470

ILL payments

197,044 (79%)

177,067 (77%)

145,942 (82%)

Participants

Parent organisations

Total organisations

418

539

365

596

326

471

The Interlending Benchmarking study published in 2002 found that the use of automated interlending systems and union cataloguers were two of five key factors for efficient interlending. Release of the report and development of training programs has promoted the use of Kinetica services for efficiencies in interlending.

A survey of the administrative costs associated with different payment methods for inter library lending has been undertaken with two libraries—the National Library and the University of South Australia. A simple cost methodology was used, based on direct staff costs for processing the payment and any charges incurred in the process. The study found that the KDD Payments Scheme for anorganisation , as both a requester and as a supplier, was significantly more cost effective than the use of invoice (cheque and bank draft) and credit card, per transaction. A detailed report of this study can be found in the March 2002 Kinetica Advisory Committee papers (index.htmlkac/papers200203.html).

Enhancements

The VDX software, on which the KDD service runs, was upgraded to version 2.2.2.2 in June 2001. Kinetica staff has been working with Fretwell Downing to identify issues in VDX 2.2.7 (various patches). Considerable resources have been invested in testing the software. There were two major reviews of milestones. It is anticipated that the software development will be finalised in July and that the next version can be installed, tested in the National Library, and implemented early in 2002–2003. The current planned implementation is for a release of the new version of VDX in KDD production environment in late 2002.

3. Kinetica CJK Service

This year’s activities within Kinetica’s Chinese Japanese Korean (CJK) Team has focussed on implementing many of the recommendations arising from the Final Report on the Review of the Australian National Chinese Japanese Korean (CJK) Service). Twenty-two libraries currently use the service.

Coverage of the CJK Database

In July 2002, the database contained more than 1,388,000 bibliographic records and 425,000 location records. This compares well with the 1,298,000 bibliographic and 391,000 holdings records listed in July last year (an increase of 90,000 bibs and 34,000 holdings). A total of 154,000 Library of Congress CJK authority records were also loaded to the CJK database in April 2002.

Records for 2001–2002 were sourced as follows:

Library of Congress

224,800

Library of Congress Authorities

154,699

RLIN

9,900

National Diet Library

82,000

Members on-line contributions

7,790

Members off-line contributions (file loads)

13,900

To extend the coverage of the CJK database, staff commenced file testing with City of Sydney Library. Preparation is occurring for the uploading of records for Chinese language materials held in the library’s collection.

More than 20,000 duplicate records were removed from the Pinyin database. Emphasis was also placed on upgrading brief or corrupted records with better quality records from the Library of Congress and RLIN.

To align the Pinyin romanisation of the Chinese geographical names in bibliographic records and headings, 120,000 Pinyin Chinese records from the Library of Congress were reloaded to the CJK system.

System Development

A Unicode interface is now available to the CJK database and members have been encouraged to use this interface, particularly in conjunction with Internet Explorer and Microsoft Input Method Editors.

Several major software upgrades were successfully implemented this year, to enable libraries to benefit from the efficiencies of online real-time copy cataloguing from the Research Libraries Group (RLG), and replace batch uploading procedures with a Z39.50 gateway from within the Australian CJK Service.

To establish the Z39.50 gateway, the National Library acquired and installed two additional modules on to the existing Innopac software; specifically Z39.50 gateway software was installed on the CJK Web OPAC in October 2001 to establish a Z39.50 search gateway from the CJK system to other systems. This was followed by the release of the Millennium Cataloguing Client (MilCAT) in November 2001 in order to facilitate real-time importing of records from other systems directly into the CJK database.

The Z39.50 gateway, through both the web and MilCAT client, offer access to the following databases:

RLIN
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong Baptist University
Lingnan University (Hong Kong)
Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts
Academia Sinica (Taiwan)
National University of Singapore
Library of Congress (Endeavor)
Waseda University.

AnzioWin software, a telnet program that supports the input and display of CCCII/EACC coded characters, was also assessed, tested and publicised. Initial testing and use suggests that it will be a reliable and viable alternative to the more cumbersome xMASS software.

In an effort to move forward with the migration of the CJK database to the same system platform as the NBD, priorities for the development of the AMICUS software were reviewed and formal advice on the National Library’s requirements was forwarded to EliAS. Kinetica has been actively engaged in dialogue with EliAS on their plans for the implementation of Unicode support.

4. Customer projects

4. 1 Customer survey

An independent contractor undertook a survey of users and chief librarians during April and May 2002. The methodology for measuring user satisfaction was the same as the 2000 survey of Kinetica customers and different from that used in 2001.

The key findings from the 2002 surveys are as follows:

  • overall satisfaction rates were
  • for stakeholders 75% (satisfied or very satisfied), representing a 29% increase on the results in 2000
  • for customers 81% (satisfied or very satisfied), a 23% increase on 2000
  • significant improvement was achieved in the satisfaction level of Kinetica communication with customers—87% (satisfied or very satisfied), a 30% increase
  • over half the stakeholders indicated they would increase their use of Kinetica (over the next 5 years) to add holdings to the NBD, obtain MARC records and request inter library loans; a much lower number indicated they would decrease the use of Kinetica services to request inter library loans, use Kinetica clients and obtain MARC records;
  • two new questions were asked: one on the web input form—80% indicated the form was either very easy or easy to use; and another on searching with local Z39.50 systems– 80% found it either very easy or easy to use; and
  • KDD ease was found to be high– 81% of users found it very easy or easy to use.

Respondents provided very useful comments on the system, and suggested many improvements. The high satisfaction rates with Kinetica and its management confirmed that the service is now well established as a core infrastructure for Australian libraries.

4.2 Consultation: Resource Sharing Interface Workshop

A workshop was held on 5 February at the Melbourne Convention Centre to discuss catalogue record workflow issues with libraries, system vendors, book and serial suppliers and Kinetica. The workshop was a follow-up to the Interfaces seminar held in1998. It was convened by the National Library on the recommendation of the Kinetica Advisory Committee and was attended by 41 participants. The workshop was organised to provide an opportunity to discuss how library services are provided and how workflows have changed and are expected to change over the coming years.

Kinetica has responded to the issues identified at the workshop by agreeing to do the following:

  • promote discussion of technical services workflows that demonstrate best practice and encourage cataloguers to address these issues;
  • investigate the extent of user demand for support of the ‘pass through’ workflow model;
  • investigate the use of XML to support the exchange of bibliographic and order data between libraries, book and serial suppliers, and Kinetica; and
  • continue to investigate the use of Z39.50 extended services to update the NBD.

Work has commenced on the review of technical service workflows and a report and update of documentation on the Kinetica web site will be made available shortly.

5. Improving access and contribution to Kinetica

5.1 Kinetica Client

Kinetica will assess the latest release of the Amicus software (version 3.4) later in 2002 to determine whether it will provide significant improvements in functionality, and will consider its implementation in 2003. Kinetica has provided input into Elias’ proposed development of a web-based cataloguing interface and development of Unicode support.

5.2 KineticaWeb

Interface changes

The most significant development in 2001–2002 was the launch of the new KineticaWeb interface, implementing many of the recommendations of the Kinetica Expert Advisory Group on Reference and End User Services. Some of the enhancements provided by the new interface include:

  • creating more meaningful error messages;
  • ‘go to’" function to enable users to view a specific record number in the hit list;
  • simple search screen;
  • advanced search: limiting number of indexes available to meet the needs of serious end users and the bulk of searching by library staff;
  • expert search screen using Common Command Language;
  • support for nesting of search terms;
  • saved records kept beyond the current session;
  • stored queries kept beyond the current session;
  • accessibility improved by limiting graphics and improving tabbing; and
  • use of ‘enter’ to initiate a search in advanced search.

Feedback provided by Kinetica customers on the network preview days and since implementation has been most useful. Some recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group could not be implemented with this release. Kinetica staff has been reviewing the extent that they can be developed and have followed up with the software vendor and IBM GSA on the status of these enhancement requests.

Web Input interface

The new Web Input interface to support the creation of brief bibliographic records on the NBD via KineticaWeb was launched last year. It has now been in operation for almost 12 months and a considerable number of libraries have trialled contribution of records through this method. In all 728 new bibliographic records and 666 holdings were added through the interface. A number of libraries have expressed interest in using the interface to add records for material on order, and then to upgrade these records after material is received. Customers are encouraged to report material on order through the web form to encourage resource sharing in collection planning and to enable early information on material to be available on the NBD.

Kinetica customers are also encouraged to report electronic materials and records of resources, including resources on order, to enhance the NBD. Customers are reminded that all records added via the Web Input form are required to meet NBD record standards.

5.3 Expert Advisory Group on Cataloguing of Electronic Resources

This Expert Advisory Group (EAG) was established to develop and promote guidelines that will support the reporting of bibliographic records and holdings for electronic resources to the NBD. It met via teleconference from February to July. The current EAG membership consists of the following representatives:

Ann Huthwaite

Queensland University of Technology

Jan Maslen

La Trobe University

Anne Beaumont/Jill Wilson

State Library of Victoria

Marjory Taylor

WA Dept of Health

Julie Whiting

National Library

Bemal Rajapatirana

Kinetica

Rob Walls

Kinetica

The EAG drafted a set of guidelines for cataloguing electronic resources onto the NBD. The draft entitled Guidelines for cataloguing electronic resources was released for comment via the National Library web site (dg_cer.html) during June and promoted via Kinetica-l. The final version of the guidelines will be available shortly.

The EAG also developed a survey to gauge Kinetica users preferences for the support of electronic locations and access data (MARC field 856) in Kinetica services and products. The survey was made available via the web during April. The response to this survey will be used to develop proposals for future development of the Kinetica software and the new electronic collections data sets service.

In summary the responses (a total of 40 including State, national, TAFE, public, special and academic libraries) reveal the following:

·        85% of respondents want Kinetica to support the inclusion of institution record products;

·        50% wish to be able to add institution specific 856 data to the NBD; most of these wish to be able to add and edit this data online;

·        47% said that it is important to use standard MARC coding for electronic location and access data;

·        40% said that it is important to be able to choose to receive only their own 856 data in Kinetica MARC record products;

·        30% said that it is important for all Kinetica users to be able to view all 856 data in the NBD; and

·        30% wish to be able to batch load their own institution specific 856 data to the NBD.

5.4 Authorities

Expert Advisory Group on Authority Record Delivery

This EAG was established in 2001 to provide advice to the Library on matters relating to the delivery of authority records to Kinetica customers. Its membership currently consists of the following representatives:

Glenda Henderson

Library support sector

Deirdre Kiorgaard

National Library

Nancy Li

University of New South Wales (CJK representative)

Elisabeth McDonald

Australian Film, Television and Radio School

Susanne Moir

State Library of New South Wales (State Library sector)

Liz Neumann

University of Melbourne (University sector)

Patricia Scott

University of South Australia (Kinetica Advisory Committee)

Margaret Kennedy

National Library of Australia (Kinetica – Secretary)

The group met regularly during the year and its final report, available online, covers a number of issues including the following:

  • the place of authority records in library systems;
  • the importance of Australian authorities, including flagging Australian authority records;
  • customer needs and practices, data from User Survey, and local workflows;
    includes workflows, efficiencies, cost, technical capabilities and standards, data availability and quality, avoiding duplication etc, local practices, other thesauri;
  • local system technical capability to handle authority data, from Vendor survey covered in vendor survey results;
  • current availability of authority data from Kinetica;
  • factors hindering the potential of Kinetica as a source of authority data
    includes other sources, technical issues, local system and Kinetica (including client), contribution to NBD and data quality issues, interconnectivity issues, limitations of current Kinetica services and products, training, overall awareness of what is available, other sources;
  • options and recommendations for future delivery; includes a range of real-time and batch options, alternative business models, resourcing and cost of options, training implications; and
  • CJK, lack of Z39.50 access to CJK authorities; other CJK specific issues.

The Kinetica Advisory Committee will consider the report and a program of actions.

Subject Heading Review Panel (SHRP)

The Subject Heading Review Panel (SHRP) was reactivated to address issues relating to subject authority control. The panel consists of five members:

Bemal Rajapatirana

N– Kinetica (Chair)

Joan Moncreiff

Deakin University

Deirdre Kiorgaard

National Library of Australia

Jenny Kerry

AIATSIS

Judith Purser

University of Melbourne

The panel focused on the following issues:

  • proposals to the Library of Congress for new and changed subject headings, in particular Aboriginal language names;
  • correction of filing indicators and preceding blanks in title and subject headings; and
  • correction of name/title headings and authorities.

5.5 Australian Library Collections Task Force

A number of papers on Kinetica and resource sharing were presented to the Australian Library Collections Task Force in February 2002. The Task Force continued to express interest in the development of the Kinetica service to enable more Australians to locate and request the material held in the collections of Australian libraries. Copies of the papers presented to the Task Force are available online at http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/alctf/meetings.html

5.6 Z39.50 developments

Kinetica customers are increasingly using their local library systems to search the NBD and the Kinetica Authorities database for efficient workflows and processing. A greatly expanded Kinetica Z39.50 Configuration Guide (manuals/laz3950.html) was produced to assist Kinetica customers who use Z39.50 client software. The new version of the Z39.50 guide provides the detailed technical information needed by Z39.50 client users to successfully access the Kinetica Z39.50 server. It offers comprehensive information on Z39.50 services supported by the Kinetica server, database access, which Bib-1 attributes are supported, server default values, details of the scan service and searching tips.

There has still not been widespread uptake of the Z39.50 Union Catalogue Profile by library system vendors. This standard would enable simultaneous updating of individual library catalogues, and union catalogues. The National Library continues to raise this issue with system vendors and other library networks.

6. Supporting our customers

6.1 Help desk

The help desk dealt with 8,154 requests this year compared with 10,131 last year. Of these 98% of requests were answered within the service level. 64% of requests came by telephone, and 36% by email. The 19.5% decline in use suggests that Kinetica users’ have become more skilled and Kinetica updates are more consistent with previous versions.

6.2 Training

Kinetica Training Agents conducted a number of courses in all States and territories:

Course

Number

Trainees

KineticaWeb seminar

1

3

KineticaWeb Online

28

75

Kinetica Client

14

52

Kinetica Document Delivery

13

62

There has been a decrease in the demand for training courses as many customers were trained in the two previous years. Kinetica training is being reviewed and a survey of Kinetica Trainer Service Providers has been undertaken.

6.3 Documentation

Documentation has been regularly revised to reflect system changes. New guides produced this year include the following:

  • KDD made simple: A self-instruction manual;
  • Kinetica Document Delivery: At a glance;
  • Searching the OCLC WorldCat database; and
  • Searching the CURL Union Catalogue.

All documentation was updated to reflect the changes from the implementation of the new KineticaWeb interface.

6.4 Kinetica-l

The Kinetica email list continues to be well used for communication with approximately 30 messages a month. A new list was launched for Kinetica Document Delivery service users (kdd-l@nla.gov.au), which enable messages relating to document delivery to be posted to this specific group. All Kinetica customers are encouraged to use the lists to discuss issues relating to Kinetica. Information on subscribing to the lists is available on the Kinetica web site. An archive of messages posted to the Kinetica list is available online at http://www.nla.gov.au/list-archives/kinetica-l/

6.5 Marketing

Kinetica has achieved a very high level of market coverage in Australian libraries. Because of the perceived saturation of the market any marketing and promotion activities have focused on developing knowledge of new products and supporting customer enquiries through the help desk. Kinetica has concentrated marketing activity in trade stands and to communicate with customers through participation at the National Public Libraries Conference (November 2001), VA(February 2002) and ALIA National Conference (May 2002). Kinetica was also represented at the Queensland Public Libraries Association and New South Wales Country Public Libraries conferences. New brochures have been produced to provide more relevant and timely information.

6.6 Directories

The Australian Libraries Gateway (ALG) and the Australian Interlibrary Resource Sharing (ILRS) Directory support resource sharing in Australian libraries. In 2002 an assessment was undertaken of the  ALG to consider what developments were required to ensure that it continues to provide an effective up to date service. The survey of ALG users in 2001 identified a number of areas where the service could be improved. The two priority issues are keeping entries in the library directory up to date and improving the arrangement and number of non-library link pages. Now that the ILRS is well established it was opportune to review the relationship between these two services. The ALG and the ILRS directories are well used with approximately 467,499 searches and visits to content pages in 2001—2002.

Work is proceeding to improve the content and management of ALG in several stages and to update links and information to create a more relevant service. The maintenance of entries in the directory will be improved by the automatic creation and dispatch of email reminders to contributors who have not updated their entries within a specified timeframe. Specifications have been written and it is anticipated that it will be launched in the forthcoming year. The coverage of Australian publishers and booksellers has been identified as an area for further consideration and discussed with industry groups to identify the best means of providing a cost effective up-to-date information service covering this sector.

6.7 Kinetica User Agreement

The Kinetica User Agreement was amended in the year to reflect requirements for recipient created tax invoicing and changes to Kinetica charging. Thanks to customers for completing the agreements and returning them promptly to Kinetica.

6.8 Kinetica products

Kine files for customer libraries. They included the following:

  • Electronic Collection Sets. A new Kinetica service enabling libraries to purchase MARC records for electronic full text collections was launched in February. This service provides an easy way to acquire bibliographic data for electronic resources, improved access to electronic resources and automatic quarterly update files. Bibliographic records for the following E-Collection Sets are currently available: AGIS Plus Text, APA Full Text, AusStats, MediText, Pandora and ScienceDirect.
  • Special products. Kinetica also produces a range of special products, such as the Recent Australian Publications lists, library catalogues on CD-ROM and individual products designed to assist consortia in providing improved access to their collections.

7. Your advice to Kinetica

7.1 User meetings/site visits

Kinetica User Groups have met in all States and discussed a wide range of issues. As well Kinetica staff have given presentations to User Groups in all States and territories. They have also attended meetings of professional groups, such as One Person Australian Libraries (OPAL), ALIA Cataloguers, Library Technician, Health Library and Special Libraries groups. Visits have been made to several regional centres. All 20 top contributors have received site visits from Resource Sharing Division staff.

7.2 Kinetica Advisory Committee

The Kinetica Advisory Committee met three times during the year. Key agenda items were a Vision for the Future of Kinetica, the Kinetica Operational Plan 2001–2003, Charges, National Bibliographic Database Quality Issues, Table of Contents Services, End User Survey, Administrative Costs of Processing ILL Payments, Electronic Resources, Stakeholder Analysis, Resource Sharing Interfaces Workshop and the survey of stakeholders and customers.

Three new members joined the committee: Craig Anderson replaced Meredith Wallace as public libraries representative; May Priddle replaced Dale Chatwin as government libraries representative; and Maxine Brodie joined as member at large.

Helen Livingston retired as chair and Jan Maslen has agreed to chair the committee for the rest of her current term.

On behalf of all Kinetica customers and staff a special thanks goes to Helen for her enormous contribution to the development of resource sharing services and Kinetica in her role as chair of the Kinetica Advisory Committee since its inception and previously as chair of the ABN Network Committee from 1997 to1998.

Kinetica Advisory Committee Membership 2001–2002

Chair

 

Helen Livingston

Deakin University (to May 2002)

Jan Maslen

La Trobe University (from June 2002)

Members

 

Craig Anderson

Yarra Plenty Regional Library (from October 2001)

Maxine Brodie

Macquarie University (from October 2001)

Dale Chatwin

Australian Bureau of Statistics (to December 2001)

Pam Gatenby

National Library of Australia

Kaye Hill

Library and Information Service of Western Australia

Doreen Parker

Victoria University of Technology

May Priddle

Department of the Treasury (from March 2002)

Sherrey Quinn

Libraries Alive! Pty Ltd

Patricia Scott

University of Adelaide

David Toll

National Library of Australia

Trevor Wakely

National Meteorological Library, Bureau of Meteorology

Meredith Wallace

Waverley Council (to August 2002)