National Library of Australia

Annual Report 2004

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Information technology issues

The Library’s Website

The website underwent a major redevelopment in 2003–2004 in conjunction with the replacement of the Library’s Integrated Library Management System. The Library undertook extensive user testing as part of this project. The new website embodies an enhanced information architecture that delivers a significant improvement in the effectiveness of the website. A number of new services were introduced including:

OneSearch, an integrated simple Google-like search facility over both the catalogue and website

Copies Direct, enabling users to order copies of articles, chapters of books, maps, manuscripts, music, etc. to be delivered to them anywhere in the world for a small fee

Online shop, providing an online capability for the purchase of books and other merchandise produced by the National Library.

Kinetica Redevelopment

In November the Library commenced a major project to redevelop the system which supports the Kinetica service. This followed an extensive study by the Library during 2003 of the future options for the system and approval by Council and the Minister of a recommended strategy.

The Kinetica Redevelopment Project is scheduled for completion by December 2005. The development cost ($4.3 million) will be depreciated and recovered by the Library during the life of the new system.

The project will be divided into two major stages, with the first stage due for delivery in December 2004. In early 2004 the Library completed its initial planning for the project, including development of a detailed Project Plan and Risk Register. The Library engaged Ernst & Young to provide quality assurance services during the project.

Some software components of the new system will be acquired from the marketplace, and other components will be developed by the Library. In March the Library issued a Request for Tender for a major component of the system, and completed its evaluation of the responses by late June. Specifications for the developed components were also completed by June.

Collection Support

The Library continued to develop in-house systems to support its digital collections. The Digital Collections Manager was enhanced to further support the Library’s photographic collection, and to allow the Library to share descriptive metadata with other organisations.

As a result of international interest in the software developed by the Library for archiving and long-term preservation of web-based material, the Library developed an evaluation environment for this software. A number of institutions have evaluated it with a view to licensing the software from the Library, including the UK Web Archiving Consortium, the National Library of New Zealand, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), the Library of Congress, the National Library of Portugal, the Royal Library of Denmark and two university libraries, Oxford University and the University of Melbourne. The British Library, on behalf of the UK Web Archiving Consortium, has signed a license agreement.

Access to digital collections was enhanced through the introduction of online delivery systems for manuscripts and books. The technical infrastructure to support streaming audio delivery was also implemented during the year.

The amount of digital collection information held on the Digital Object Storage System approximately doubled during the year to exceed 10 terabytes. A breakdown of storage by collection type appears below.

Information Technology Infrastructure Improvements

The Library continued its practice of regularly market testing the provision of key services to ensure that it achieves best value for money. In 2003–2004 the provision of Internet and mobile phone services were market-tested. In the case of the Internet service, a significant price reduction was achieved that should enable the Library to manage the increasing usage of the Internet within existing budgets.

A number of systems and services were replaced or upgraded during the year including the:

Integrated Library Management System

payment system for photocopying and printing from computers and microform equipment in reading rooms

desktop environment to support Office XP

corporate backup/recovery system to support latest generation tape drives, and

Internet firewall and email virus gateways.

The Library undertook successful feasibility studies in the areas of business intelligence and knowledge management, resulting in funding for provision of these services in the next financial year.

Service Availability

The average availability during the year of 10 key service areas was as follows:

The target availability of 99.5 per cent was exceeded for all services.

Astro Boy

Tezuka Osamu
Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy)
Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2003, Vol. 1 of 5 vol. set
Asian Collections JAP 726.1 Te95A (v.1)
© Tezuka Production
Astro Boy comics are a good example of the manga genre, popular in Japan with adults and children alike. The Library acquires a representative sample of manga to add to its Japanese collection.