Status Report - State Library of Victoria
Presentation by Jill Wilson and Derek Whitehead at the National Consultative Meeting on the Management of Australian Physical-Format Digital Publications, National Library of Australia, October 27-28 1997
The State Library of Victorias electronic service delivery can be classified in the following way, based on the administrative division of a wide range of services.
- VICNET and Network Services
- Multimedia
- The Electronic Library
- Acquisition, Access and Preservation: Electronic Publications
1 VICNET and Network Services
VICNET is the State Librarys electronic network, which operates with two principal goals: (1) Maximising the access of Victorians to networked information resources; (2) Maximising the Victorian information resources which are available through electronic networks. VICNETs mission is to make the Internet as accessible as possible to the widest possible range of people in the Victorian community. It forms part of the Network Services Division, which is headed by Gary Hardy.
VICNET assists the Victorian public library system to provide public access to the Internet. As of November, 181 out of 245 public library branches provided such access, with all library services networked by Networking Victoria Day on 3rd December. There are about 300-400 terminals available for public use. A wide range of training, support, and supply of goods and services support this network. In addition to the public library network, VICNET administers the Victorian Governments Skills.net service, which will fund 110 regional Skills.net centres, with the goal of providing free or low cost training and access to resources. VICNET is at http://www.vicnet.net.au/ and Skills.net at http://www.skills.net.au/.
VICNET also provides assistance to community organisations to publish on the Internet. Currently, approximately 2000 organisations use the Web site cited above to do so. They are provided with free space and introductory training, and the assistance of VICNET staff and volunteers.
A consultancy is currently being undertaken for the Library to explore the possibility of providing access to personal electronic mail for all Victorians through the public library system. The consultancy is being conducted by STM Consulting.
The State Library of Victoria has an active Web site at http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/. This provides a means of communication with the library, and a means of communicating with its staff and services. The Multimedia Unit is headed by Indra Kurzeme, Manager, Multimedia; Catherine Herman is the Web Administrator; and Priscilla Warr heads the Multimedia Access Team.
In addition, the Library has an active program to digitise its resources, particularly original materials of Australian interest. These are accessible through the Multimedia Catalogue, and form a database of digitised images and records, The Multimedia Source. Currently, approximately 120,000 fully-indexed images are available through the Librarys Web site. Ongoing digitising is carried out by the Multimedia Access Team, and this will be extended to the staff of special collections. The Multimedia Catalogue uses WebPAC, Ameritechs WWW retrieval interface for the Dynix bibliographical system.
The Multimedia Unit focuses on a range of other programs as well, including online exhibitions, and a program to digitise the images from a number of 19th century plate books Drawing the Antipodes: Printed Images of Australia and the Pacific 1788-1900. The Librarys policy is now to digitise all exhibitions and to provide access to digital copies of the images through its Web site. The Library collaborates with a number of commercial publishers and funded projects, including the Museum of Victorias Waypoint 1. More information is provided in an article in Ariadne, issue 9, by Indra Kurzeme and Catherine Herman.
The State Library co-convenes, with the Museum of Victoria, the Arts Victoria Multimedia Group. This brings together the Victorian cultural institutions, eMerge, Cinemedia and Multimedia Victoria to collaborate on matters of common interest. Its sub-committee COMDIG (Cultural Organisations Metadata, Digitisation and Interoperability Group) deals with a wide range of technical matters. The group held a one-day conference on 31st October, Cultural Organisations and Multimedia.
The Electronic Resources Unit was created in 1996, and headed until November 1997 by Deidre Lowe. It is responsible for a range of programs aimed at enhancing the ability of the State Library and other Victorian libraries to provide access to electronic information resources for their users.
The State Librarys Trescowthick Information Centre, opened in March 1997, provides about fifty multimedia PCs, which give one-step access through a common user interface to the library catalogue, the CD-ROM network and stand alone CD-ROMs, the Internet, the Multimedia Source, and networked electronic resources such as EBSCOHost. A pilot program to network electronic information resources to public libraries began in late 1997. This is administered cooperatively with Victorian public libraries through SWAGGER.
The Electronic Resources Manager was appointed in September 1996 to implement, coordinate and organise the use of electronic resources at the State Library of Victoria.
A consultancy is currently being undertaken to Cutler and Company to explore ways in which the resources of the Victorian library network might be leveraged to provide an enhanced overall level of service provision, greater access to new technological developments, and significant mutual benefits.
4. Acquisition, Access and Preservation: Electronic Publications
Since 1988 legal deposit legislation in Victoria has covered electronic formats. The definition of a publication used in the Libraries act is, in part,
"Any film (including a microfilm and a microfiche), negative, tape, disc, sound track and any other device in which one or more visual images, sounds or other data are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other equipment) of being reproduced from it"
Although the Library has always accepted electronic publications deposited by publishers it did not start to seek them actively until the early 1990s due to staff resourcing implications. Currently we claim all titles we become aware of regardless of format, including computer discs, CD-ROMs, videos, and music CDs. Compliance by publishers has been good, although there have been some notable exceptions.
Organisation and Access
Our approach is to integrate electronic products into the collections as far as possible. They are acquired and catalogued by the same staff who process printed materials, and as far as possible are housed with related printed materials. We have developed specialised packaging to facilitate integrated shelving.
Many of the items received on legal deposit are not automatically loaded for use. Each is assessed to decide whether it should be loaded onto the library network, loaded onto one of the standalone PCs, or loaded on demand. In the latter case we undertake to make the item available within 48 hours. Occasionally an item is received which will not run on existing library software or hardware, but no attempt is made to reformat it for use.
Licensing
Most products are deposited without any license agreement. When the terms of a license agreement preclude the type of use we wish to make of the product we contact the publisher and try to reach a satisfactory agreement.
For example, some publishers are pleased to comply with provision of a standalone copy of a CD-ROM, but not for it to be networked. In such cases we have negotiated arrangements where the library pays a subscription to allow networking. This may be less than or the same as the normal network fee.
Strategic Objective
To acquire, catalogue and provide access to those electronic publications in physical format which are published in Victoria, and to ensure their long-term preservation for future use.
Initiatives
- Active claiming of these items under legal deposit provisions.
- Integration of these formats with printed materials. This includes integration into normal acquisitions and cataloguing procedures, as well as housing them in the relevant collections in an integrated way.
- Development of quality packaging to prevent physical loss and deterioration, and to facilitate integrated housing.
- Significant improvements to the public accessibility of physical format publications already in the collection through implementation of new procedures.
Return to the National Consultative Meeting
Last updated 6 January 1998
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