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Effectiveness

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Comments
on Performance—Effectiveness
The
effectiveness target was met.
Quality
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Comments
on Performance—Quality
Both
quality targets were exceeded.
Quantity
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Comments
on Performance—Quantity
A
total of 1 418 987 information services transactions took
place during the year, 24 per cent above target. This trend
is discussed below, under Key Issues/Developments.
Price

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Key
Issues/Developments
Increase
in information services transactions
This
year the Library recorded a significant increase in the number
of information services transactions. In particular:
- Onsite
usage of hardcopy Collection items increased by 13 per cent
from last year, reversing the downward trend experienced
over the past few years and reflecting the wide acceptance
of the electronic
call slip system introduced last year
- the
number of offsite reference enquiries increased by 11 per
cent, the result of increased use of the email reference
service, and
- the
target for the number of electronic resources used was exceeded
by 64 per cent, with 705 000 digital Collection items accessed
on the Library’s web site
The
increase in use of both hardcopy and digital collections is
attributed to the significant development of systems to support
Library users through both the electronic
call slip system and the web site. This increase in use
of collections and services is in line with the objectives
outlined in Directions
for 2000–2002, and use is predicted to increase further
in future years as technology enables enhanced access to the
Library’s collections and information services.
Interlibrary
lending/Document supply benchmarking
The
Library undertook a national benchmarking study on interlibrary
loan/document delivery. This study involved 97 Australian
libraries in all sectors, including higher education, government,
public, special and State libraries. Many Australian libraries
have made changes to their document delivery operations based
on the study results. Also, an Interlending and Document Delivery
Best Practice Course has been developed and is being offered
throughout Australia.
Digital
reference services
The
Library, in association with the Council of Australian State
Libraries, is undertaking a pilot project to develop an interactive
digital reference service. The service will enable users to
co-browse electronic information resources and simultaneously
chat online with a reference librarian. The nine participating
libraries will staff the service on a time-share basis, taking
advantage of national time zones. The service will be made
available from the web sites of the National, State and Territory
libraries.
The
Library continued its active participation in the Collaborative
Digital Reference Service pilot coordinated by the Library
of Congress.
As
a result of the pilot, a new subscription-based service has
commenced—QuestionPoint—which
provides a worldwide reference service.
Improvements
to reading rooms
The
Library continued a long-term program of improvement to reading
room services, with the refurbishment of the Asian
Collections Reading Room completed this year.
MusicAustralia
The
National Library is leading a collaborative research project
to develop a proof-of-concept prototype to deliver digital
music objects in a range of formats and from a range of institutions.
The MusicAustralia
pilot, in which the National Library and ScreenSound Australia
are joint partners, is testing the requirements for a production
service to deliver digitised sheet music, digital audio-files,
‘born digital’ music scores, and a range of relevant images
and electronic text. Key Australian music stakeholders, including
the Australian Music Centre and the Australia Council’s New
Australian Music Online initiative, are participating in the
development.
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