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The Library was one of the first government
organisations in Australia to take advantage of access to the Internet in 1991.
Since that time the Library has monitored and assessed the potential of the
Internet as a means to provide an increasing range of its services to the
Australian people. The Library has implemented a succession of web-based
services to immediately reach Australians who have access to the Internet at
their home, school, place of work, or local library.
These web-based services include:
Demonstrating the importance of the Internet to
the Library's activities, this annual report is the first to be issued
simultaneously in print and electronic form. The Internet version includes
links to over 100 products, services or policies on the Library's web site.
As an organisation that is largely concerned
with the collection, maintenance and provision of access to information, the
Library will continue to take advantage of the discovery, information
distribution and navigation potential of the Internet. Importantly, the
Internet provides new audiences for the Library's services, not previously able
to visit the Library in Canberra. This does not detract from the traditional
products and services that the Library offers, but rather creates new
possibilities for the Library to meet its statutory functions and to meet the
Government's broad objectives of
providing services electronically to the Australian people.
During the year the Library commissioned a
review of the usability of its web site in order to test whether a broad range
of people were able to navigate successfully through the site and to locate the
information they required. As a result, the Library has made a number of
changes to improve the user's experience of the web site.
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