
OUTPUT DESCRIPTION
Australians have access, through the National
Library of Australia, to a comprehensive collection of Australian library
materials and to international documentary resources.
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Josonia Palaitis
(b.1949) Portrait of Patrick Dodson, Yawuru Man, 1998 Pictorial
Collection One of the portraits of Australians of national
significance that entered the National Library's collection during
20002001 and soon to be available on the Library's
picture catalogue.
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PERFORMANCEOUTPUTS
Performance Targets
Quantity
A total of 453 800 collection items acquired
and/or processed, broken down as follows:
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79 600 new collection items
acquired |
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282 000 serial issues
checked in |
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92 200 collection items
catalogued and journal articles indexed on national bibliographic
databases |
A successful year in acquiring and processing
library materials saw higher levels of activity in collecting and describing
than in preceding years with all targets exceeded.
Quality
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95 per cent of collection
items, equivalent to 431 110 items, were checked in, catalogued or indexed
within set standards and within specified timeframes |
The target was exceeded, with 98 per cent of
items checked in, catalogued or indexed within set standards and specified
timeframes.
Price
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$43.90 per new collection
item acquired and/or processed |
The unit price per collection item acquired and
processed was $39.54.
PERFORMANCEOUTCOME
Effectiveness Indicators
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85 per cent of current
Australian and overseas publications that fall within the Library's Collection
Development Policy have been collected by the Library |
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85 per cent of the
Library's Collection has been catalogued online |
The collecting target for Australian published
material was met, with 88 per cent of eligible Australian publications
deposited by publishers. Items not received were claimed from publishers to
ensure all relevant items are included in the collection. The target for
overseas collecting was met.
The Library provides online access to 100 per
cent of its current acquisitions and has a program to convert older card
catalogue records to online access with the result that 81 per cent of the
Library's collection is now online. The Library will continue to give high
priority to cataloguing the complete collection online.
KEY ISSUES
Building the Collections
Trends in Australian publishing indicate a rapid
move towards online publishing in both the government and private publishing
sectors. To meet this development the PANDORA Archive of online publishing
negotiated agreements with an increasing number of publishers to allow
archiving of their publications. The Bringing Them Home Oral History Project, a
key outcome of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, made significant progress
during the year. One hundred and sixty-two interviews were held with Indigenous
Australians and a range of others affected by or involved in the separation of
children from their families.
Collection Management
Online publications risk disappearing or
becoming inaccessible. To assist creators and publishers of online publications
manage this problem, the Library issued two sets of guidelines: Safeguarding Australia's Web
Resources: Guidelines for Creators and Publishers and Managing Web Resources for
Persistent Access.
Recognising the need for a general thesaurus of
descriptors for metadata creation by government agencies and others, the
Library made the APAIS thesaurus of descriptors for periodical indexing
available on its web site.
To facilitate management of and access to
Australian published music, a new service, the International Standard Music
Numbering Agency was announced. It will become operational before the end of
2001.
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