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ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 40 | August 1999


A first for Kinetica users

Julia Trainor & Mick Fortune

Julia Trainor, Director Kinetica Implementation and ELiAS
Marketing Manager, Mick Fortune at the Kinetica Annual
Users Meeting. Photograph from the Image Library, State
Library of New South Wales

Two hundred and forty delegates participated in the first Kinetica Annual Users Meeting in Sydney on 19 and 20 July. With the Kinetica search and cataloguing services in operation for just three months, the main interest of the meeting was in system functionality. Other major topics at the lively meeting were charging policy, response times and the batch loading service.


Users left no doubt about their strong stakeholder interest in the future development of the Kinetica services. A highlight was a presentation from Mick Fortune, Sales & Marketing Manager, ELiAS, outlining the expected development path for the LibriVision and AMICUS software that underpin the Kinetica services. He showed samples of new screens and summarised the improvements that will appear in the next version of the Kinetica Cataloguing Client (due for release in Spring 1999).

The meeting was presented with an overview of the various suggestions users had made to the National Library during the first three months of operation. The most frequent suggestions have been for improved screen displays and navigation. Users are keen to use keyboard shortcuts, function keys and fewer screens to enable them to streamline their workflow and reduce use of the mouse. These priorities were reinforced during the meeting.

To bring users up-to-date, presentations by Kinetica staff addressed topics such as strategic directions, system implementation, rate of contribution to the NBD, advisory mechanisms, charging policy and progress with the Kinetica Document Delivery Service. Dale Chatwin, representing the Federal Libraries Information Network, described the problems experienced by libraries that are subject to the security requirements of the Defence Signals Directorate, and presented a case for special consideration for this group in the Kinetica charging policy.

As some libraries are still experiencing slow or variable response times, Andrew Wells described a study commissioned by the National Library to investigate the causes of this phenomenon at selected sites. He described the components of local and wide area networks that may contribute to slow response times, and explained some of the findings of the study. Kinetica will provide a checklist of things to do if a library is experiencing the problem. He also undertook to provide benchmarks so libraries can compare their local response times with those experienced at the National Library and a range of other sites.

Peter Grude from Liverpool State Library

Peter Grube from Liverpool City Library had a question about adding USMARC codes to drop down search menus in Kinetica Web.
Photograph from the Image Library, State Library of New South Wales

Once again, users had an opportunity to discuss Kinetica issues in smaller groups, chaired by members of the Kinetica Advisory Committee. All groups expressed enthusiasm for user contribution to the advisory process, with a strong role for users groups in suggesting priorities for proposed improvements to the products and services. Users also expressed interest in sharing advice which Kinetica staff might give in one-to-one communications with users, as all users may benefit from improving their knowledge and understanding of the system and services. Other topics emerging from the group discussions included end-user access, access to other electronic resources, and charging policy.

In response to feedback from users, the Director-General explained his decision to moderate the Kinetica-L list. The Director General said that the Library welcomed comment on its Kinetica services, including critical comment, on the Kinetica-L list. He assured users that only three messages had been removed from the list—because they commented on wider National Library policy and were outside the subject scope of the list.

The Director-General also spoke about the charges for the Batch*Link service, which had attracted criticism during the meeting. He emphasised that the purpose of the meeting was to give the National Library an opportunity to listen to users, and confirmed that the Kinetica Advisory Committee would review this issue after the meeting. He undertook to accept any recommendation from the Kinetica Advisory Committee that would be helpful to all users, including small libraries.

Users also expressed interest in the effect of the Goods and Services Tax on Kinetica services. David Toll, Assistant Director-General, Corporate Services, responded with an outline of the impact of the GST on Kinetica services, and suggestions about how users can obtain rebates from the government in certain circumstances. He undertook to seek advice from the Tax Office on whether the interlibrary loan payments constitute a sale, and would therefore attract a GST.

A satellite meeting of 27 Kinetica training agents reviewed the Kinetica training achievement to date and were briefed on the training implications of the Kinetica Document Delivery Service. Mary Mortimer demonstrated the beta version of the KineticaWeb interactive tutorial and 80 delegates had the opportunity to test drive it and provide feedback during the course of the meeting.

The users of the National Chinese Japanese and Korean (CJK) Service also held a satellite meeting to discuss topics such as Web access, additional sources of Korean and Chinese MARC records, and the future of the JOIN software.

This was the last Annual Users Meeting attended by the current Director-General before his retirement on 27 July. Hans Groenewegen made a presentation to Warren Horton on behalf of the Kinetica Advisory Committee and users. Hans reminisced about Warren Horton’s involvement with ABN and Kinetica, in each case from their inception. He paid tribute to the Director-General’s commitment to the consultative process, in particular to ensuring that the advisory committees included a range of inputs from different sources. Warren Horton replied by describing ABN and Kinetica as grand national enterprises, which the National Library held and will hold in trust with other Australian libraries, to underpin library operations in this country.

Next year’s meeting will be held in Melbourne, probably in the Spring. The date will be announced on Kinetica-L as soon as it is finalised.

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

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