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National Round Table on Access to Overseas Monographs through Australian Libraries

28 August 1998, National Library of Australia


ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION

David Smiles

______________________________________

Introduction

I have two objectives in participating in this roundtable: I seek to

  1. Identify issues arising from the monograph study that help in Roundtable discussions, and
  2. Develop insights which might assist the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering help libraries maintain and enhance their provision of information in Australia.

Context

My view may be partial because my experience lies exclusively in areas of science and technology.

Libraries are experiencing increasing costs of acquisitions and decreasing public funding. As a result, they are reducing subscriptions, inter alia, in scientific and technological journals and monographs. Major gaps in some discipline areas are said to be emerging.

It is unclear to what extent scientific research and technology are prejudiced by these changes.

Response of physicists to the questionnaire suggests that while they don't like visiting other libraries, many remain relatively unconcerned about access to monographs. This reflects great professionalism of the libraries in adversity. This professionalism is necessary, but may be insufficient, for the future.

Issues, in general, have been recognized for at least 10 years with at least three reviews:

1. The Australian libraries summit of 1988. This meeting recognized the problems of the time, recommending, among other things, development of a Distributed National Collection [DNC].

The Australian vice-chancellor’s Committee and the Council of University Librarians broadly accept the concept. It was endorsed by following inquiries including the Ross report of 1990.

Infrastructure is in place to support the concept, but libraries need to agree on its implementation in collection policy.

2. The Ross review [Working party on library provision in higher education institutions, 1990]. This review dealt with institutional autonomy, focused funding, collaboration and general observation that libraries are not well linked to operations. Government did not respond.

3. Senate inquiry in the organization and funding of research in higher education. This sought money. Government rejected special treatment but supported the DNC concept.

Concerns expressed about monographs, together with actions of the National Library of Australia precipitated this Round Table.

Also the national library systems are exploring a system called JANUS, which will, I hope, be raised.

The Libraries

Australian libraries responsible for science and technology collections include:

1. The National Library of Australia which currently invests ~$4x106/a in new material [and also receives much free material from countries and libraries with whom it has reciprocal arrangements]. NLA is active in developing electronic means of cataloguing and information transfer for Australia.

2. The State Libraries. These libraries maintain historically important social collections and important sub-sets of the scientific literature. They no longer collect scientific or technical material.

3. The University libraries. These, collectively, represent the greatest national general holdings. Collection is necessarily parochial and coordination tends to be poor even between neighboring institutions. Collection of monographs is diminishing and periodical "runs" are often incomplete.

Collectively, university libraries invest ~$200x106/a in periodicals and monographs.

4. The CSIRO Library system. This is distributed across Australia. It shares idiosyncratic local collection depending on current research need and funding focus with universities. CSIRO has retreated from a de facto position of the 1960s where it tended to complement the NLA obligation in areas of science and technology, to a parochial position based in immediate internal need.

CSIRO invests ~6x106/a in scientific and technical periodicals and monographs. It is the largest single library specializing in scientific and technical material

Discussion and some conclusions

Concern about national scientific and technological holdings and bibliographic services seems to have come to a head when the NLA reconsidered its collection policies in 1996. Then, library then undertook to maintain collections of Australian material, but focused overseas collection in areas of specific expertise and opportunity. Collection of scientific and technological material from overseas was effectively terminated.

This action did not seriously affect the quality of the national collection of scientific and technical material. It did raise questions about that collection, its importance, its future and our access to it.

The central issue is one of information access, its speed, its cost, its reliability and library "pro-activeness" [in the sense that clients often imperfectly pose questions]. In this context, focus on national collections and their geographic characteristics may be a distraction; for libraries and for individuals, the accessible collection is already global.

The draft recommendations offered the Roundtable deal, inter alia, with monographs (i) in Australia and (i), those overseas. In each class, location, access and delivery performance are seen as critical. This is appropriate.

In relation to monographs in particular, however, it might be useful to consider an additional breakdown because of the way the material will be accessed. This would identify existing monograph [and periodical] collections; and future monograph collection.

1. Existing monograph [and periodical] collections. Much of this [historical] material may never be accessible to electronic transfer. Original sources must always remain the principal reference for scholarly work, however, so this class must be nurtured and classified as a national collection.

[In regard to these sources, I observe that abstracting services necessarily focus on recent work. This, together with increasing access to journals "on-line" appears to result in "derived", and often partial, referencing which results in increasing ignorance of the detail of past achievement.]

Primary access to this class will continue to be local and by national and international interlibrary loan; we may even need to visit other libraries. The draft recommendations for the workshop are appropriate to this class.

2. Future monograph collection. Material in this class increasingly will be accessible electronically. That access will depend on publisher perception of profitability, the bargaining ability of discipline societies and libraries. Overall, however, access will be global and increasingly customer focus will shift away from libraries, educational units and learned societies towards individuals. The draft recommendations do not deal with this issue.

In developing this roundtable we must recognize that functions of libraries in this area is evolving and the role and rationale of a national collection is changing as access and interrogation across the world becomes easier for individuals. At the same time historically important collections that are not so accessible, must be protected. Our library colleagues are familiar with the issues; I look forward to their advice and vision.


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Last Updated 11 October 1998