Networked Services Project
Request for Tender for NLA Networked
Services
The Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) is a key Library service assisting libraries to meet the information needs of their users through resource sharing activities. ABN depends on a large database of information, the National Bibliographic Database (NBD), describing library materials in a variety of formats, including published books, journals, sound recordings and maps. The database includes information on where these items are held in Australian libraries. The record of national holdings forms a subset of the ABN database which operates as a national union catalogue.
ABN is used, primarily by libraries, to assist with cataloguing, for information retrieval, and for requesting loans or copies of documents from other libraries. Catalogue records are provided in a variety of formats for adding into local library systems. ABN includes an interlibrary loan subsystem which allows users to exchange requests for library material and to track the progress of the requests.
Libraries using ABN do so on a voluntary and cooperative basis. ABN's financial management is geared towards cost recovery. Operations and policies are strongly influenced by input from users through representative committees and user groups. The new services will be developed in close liaison with user representatives.
Most ABN users pay monthly service charges, plus a fee for each chargeable command. Many major users moved in 1996 to subscription based charging.
ABN is the major bibliographic information service used by the Australian library community. Since its establishment in 1981, ABN has assisted over 1400 libraries in the management of their collections, and in the support of interlibrary loan and document delivery.
The original impetus for ABN was to enable Australian libraries to eliminate the duplication of original cataloguing, a costly and time consuming operation, and to deliver cataloguing data to local library systems in a variety of formats. However, ABN also provides online access to a national database containing more than 24 million locations for books and other library materials, and supports interlibrary loan messaging and management.
See Appendix B: Current Technical Environment
ABN's core applications software is the Western Library Network (WLN) software, including the Inquiry, Input/Edit, Batch, Interlibrary Loans and Billing Subsystems. The WLN software has had major enhancements including the Downline Loading enhancement for real time electronic transfer of bibliographic records to Australian libraries. Many other small enhancements have been made.
Supersearch, an alternative to the ABN Inquiry subsystem, uses STAIRS indexes and the STAIRS user interface to provide information-retrieval style searching of ABN data. A menu-driven interface to this, called SOFI (Supersearch Ozline Friendly Interface), and a link from SOFI to the ABN ILL Subsystem, have also been developed by the Library.
| Bibliographic records: | 12,371,789 |
| Holdings records: | 24,940,584 |
| Authority records: | 1,489,868 |
Data sources
For selected samples of data formats see Appendix C.
Database growth
| Bibliographic records added 1995/96 | 649,980 |
| Holdings statements added 1995/96 | 1,593,418 |
Full Service 281
| Search and Products | 525 |
| Search Only | 489 |
| Products Only | 68 |
| Total | 1363 |
Access through Internet, leased lines and dial-up.
| Output via downline loading 1995/96 | 1,700,256 |
| Batch 1995/96 | 5,580,951 |
| Total 1995/96 (downline loading and batch) | 7,281,207 |
A.1.7 Further Information: http://www.nla.gov.au/2/abn/
Dec Alpha-2000 model 4/200 with Digital Unix (OSF/1); 128 Mbytes RAM; 12 Gbytes disk storage; 16 Gbytes DAT tape drive.
Telnet address: cjk.nla.gov.au
INNOPAC Release 10: OPAC, Cataloguing modules with CJK support and ftp.
On user workstations for input and display of CJK characters:
"Wade-Giles Database": Over 500,000 bibliographic records; over 200,000 holdings records; less than 100 authority records.
"Pinyin Database": Over 500,000 bibliographic records; over 200,000 holdings records; less than 100 authority records.
Conversion between the two databases occurs through C software developed in-house.
16 "Full Service" libraries and 2 "Search and Holdings" libraries; all in Australia.
Via the Internet.
http://www.nla.gov.au/1/asian/ncjk/cjkhome.html
The Library currently offers a hosted database service, Ozline, comprising 33 databases from 25 Database Providers. Covering a range of areas in science, engineering, social sciences and humanities, these databases range from 200 to 230,000 records per database, and occupy a total of 2.5 Gbytes of space on the current MVS/CICS/STAIRS based platform. Additional databases are added from time to time.
The records in the databases also vary widely in both average length and in the number of fields, ranging from 300 to 2000 bytes and from 7 to 31 fields per record respectively. The sizes of raw data range from 300 Kbytes to 110 Mbytes. The current STAIRS based searching facilities involve choosing an individual database and searching on any of the fields within that database, with facilities for saved searches. Data update frequency ranges from fortnightly to annual, with the update volumes ranging from around 100-2000 records per update.
Ozline support services include management of customer registration and passwords; data loading, including data validation/quality assurance component; liaison with Database Providers, and information logging on update profiles and vendor profiles as a decision support tool towards ongoing administration of the data updates.
The following table lists databases currently hosted on Ozline.
| Database Name | No. of records at March 1997 |
| Australian Bibliography of Agriculture | 73,379 |
| Australian Federal Police Digest | 6,226 |
| Attorney-General's Information Service | 70,458 |
| Australian Historic Records Register | 3,514 |
| Australian Literary Periodicals Database | 447 |
| Australasian Medical Index (indexed by the National Library of Australia) | 69,954 |
| Australian Public Affairs Information Service (indexed by the National Library of Australia) | 233,093 |
| Australian Architecture Database | 16,696 |
| Australian Sport Index | 18,694 |
| Agriculture Victoria Library Catalogue | 40,925 |
| Australian Criminology Database | 33,038 |
| Australian Conferences (Past) | 3,177 |
| Australian Conferences (Current) | 185 |
| Australiann Education Index | 59,878 |
| CSIRO Index | 79,638 |
| ADCA Alcohol and Other Drugs Database | 25,783 |
| Australian Engineering Database | 22,498 |
| Australian Family and Society Abstracts | 30,900 |
| Australian Family and Society Full Text | 349 |
| CSIRO Films | 369 |
| Health Education and Promotion System | 3,968 |
| Heritage Australia Information System | 26,692 |
| Interlibrary Resource Sharing Directory | 2,139 |
| Australian Industrial Relations Database | 15,354 |
| Multicultural Aust and Immigration Studies | 29,990 |
| National Information Communication Awareness Network | 4,226 |
| Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Province | 12,101 |
| Road and Road Transport Information | 107,189 |
| ROAD Research In Progress | 2,065 |
| Australian Rural Research In Progress | 5,155 |
| Science And Geography Education | 20,048 |
| Management and Science Policy | 20,049 |
| Translations Database | 1,162 |
| US Energy Research In Progress | 5,922 |
| Streamline: Australia's Natural Resources Database | 38,041 |
The Library's World Wide Web Server is a medium for the communication of information about the Library's collections and services and a source of directory information to assist End Users find information on the Internet. The WWW Server can be accessed at: http://www.nla.gov.au/. Current use averages 1300 accesses per day.
The WWW Server is used to meet internal and external needs. Internal uses include:
External use of the WWW Server includes:
HTML documents on the server can be indexed using Harvest. The Library is undertaking research in metasearch engines, allowing End Users to send a request to a number of search engines and information spaces, eg Alta Vista and the 'gov.au' domain.
The Library's online public access catalogue can be accessed through the WWW Server, although this is achieved through a Telnet connection. A Web interface to the OPAC through use of Dynix's WebPAC product is currently being tested (this uses Z39.50 Version 2). The Library intends to offer Web access as the primary means of OPAC access for End Users.
There is a strong history of cooperation and support in the Australian library community for interlibrary loan. The Australian ILL system is based on reciprocal resource sharing facilitated by the current ABN ILL Subsystem supplemented by other local, regional and sectoral networks. However, the restructuring of library services across all sectors and resource constraints, coupled with increasing costs of library materials and the impact of technology are leading to changes in the way libraries provide access to documents. Today there is an expanding range of alternatives for obtaining documents from overseas and through commercial suppliers, as well as from Australian libraries, including the National Library. Document supply is regulated by the Copyright Act, 1968 which is currently under review. These developments will continue to affect the patterns of resource sharing and document supply in Australia.
The Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS) has an Interlending Code which aims to facilitate efficient and equitable sharing of the resources of all participating libraries and organisations. ACLIS publishes the Australian Guide to Interlending and Document Delivery, which is a procedure manual for people working in interlibrary loans and document supply.
Libraries contribute their holdings to the National Union Catalogue (NUC) which is part of the National Bibliographic Database on the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN). Libraries are identified by a NUC symbol, assigned by the Library and recorded in the Interlibrary Resource Sharing Directory (ILRS Directory). The ILRS Directory also contains addresses, telephone number, charges, lending policies, interlibrary loan administrative requirements etc about each library. The ILRS is available in printed and online form.
Most of the current interlibrary loan traffic is between libraries. Libraries typically only request these services on behalf of individual clients who are part of their local user community. This is now changing with the introduction of charged services like the Library's Supply 1 service which supplies businesses and individuals as well as libraries with copies from the Library's own collection and various other organisations around the world. Some libraries also offer commercial services for external clients.
ACLIS has a recommended schedule of charges for core service, Fast Track service and Premium Track service to which most libraries adhere. There are also various cooperative networks in Australia, both formal and informal, in which libraries supply each other free of charge or at reduced cost under various conditions. Users of the ABN ILL system can use a centralised payments scheme where requesters are debited and suppliers are credited for each request automatically. Another method of payment is by libraries exchanging vouchers supplied by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA).
The current ABN ILL system allows users to exchange document requests through the online network and to track progress of the request. ABN shares this market with ILANET, operated by the State Library of New South Wales, and a number of regional networks. Most libraries receive requests by other methods as well, including fax, telephone, Email and post, and have multiple systems, both automated and manual, for dealing with them.
Various national, institutional and regional level projects are attempting to address this administrative burden. The Library is closely associated with two specific projects initiated and sponsored by the Australian university library community, CILLA and JEDDS.
CILLA is the Coordinated Interlibrary Loan Administration Project.
The impetus behind the CILLA project came from the recognition that libraries not only need to work smarter and more efficiently for the benefit of an identified clientele, but also need to be innovative in the way services are provided to make the best possible use of resources: human, material, technical and financial. Traditional approaches to providing interlibrary loan and document delivery services have typically resulted in operations with little or no integration of systems and with little opportunity to improve efficiencies at the point where the services cost most - library staff.
The CILLA Project encompasses a vision of system development and integration which automates as much as possible of the internal procedures relating to document delivery and interlibrary loan operations, and shifts the emphasis from wholly mediated services to a point where library staff need only intervene under specified conditions, usually to tackle exceptions. While particular focus on business processes is seen to be essential, an equally critical need has been identified which places work flow management on an equal footing with application and useability. Work flow management technologies have now improved to a point where systems are able to support the innovative reorganisation or reengineering of those processes.
A generalised statement of expectations of what a system which implements the CILLA vision should comprise includes the:
The Project began with a broad-based view of the world, with a wholly open-systems approach to design, with integration and interconnectivity as primary motivations, and with a keen interest in working towards a high level, generic architectural structure for greatest flexibility which would facilitate all variations on the theme of identification, location and supply.
The following two models illustrate the proposed coordination of and links between the NSP's National ILL Utility service and local interlending and document request management systems meeting the CILLA requirements.
The CILLA Feasibility Study was funded by a grant from the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee (AV-CC) National Priority (Reserve) Fund, Improved Information Infrastructure Program 2(a), with additional funds from the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS), and with administrative support for the six months of the feasibility study provided by the Co-operative Action by Victorian Academic Libraries (CAVAL) Ltd.
Now in the second stage of development, CILLA is a fully funded, core project of the AV-CC's Program 2(a). Administrative support for this second stage is provided by Deakin University, Victoria, and Griffith University, Queensland.
Full documentation on the CILLA Project is available at: http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/cilla/cilla.htm.
The JEDDS (Joint Electronic and Document Delivery Project) will provide software to libraries to deliver documents electronically using Email, FTP or Fax, and to exchange transaction and status information between the document delivery software and request management systems using a subset of the Interlibrary Loan Protocol. These facilities are designed to make electronic document delivery easier to use for library staff and requesters. The project also aims to develop and foster adherence to international electronic document delivery standards, and participates in a number of standards development activities.
Full documentation on the JEDDS Project is available at: http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/jeddshom.htm.
Return to Start or Continue to Appendix B