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ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 38 | April 1999


NLA at work

Reference services review

As part of the Library's ongoing program of performance evaluations of key operational areas, last year we undertook a review of our reference services. The services we looked at included those we offer through our reading rooms as well as our written, telephone and electronic inquiry services.

Our aim was to establish how appropriate and effective our current reference services are in meeting the Library's service objectives and to assist the Library to plan our reference services over the next decade.

An external committee chaired by then Council member Professor Mairéad Browne, conducted the review. Other committee members were Professor Angus Martin, Professor John Fitzgerald, Professor Stuart Cunningham, Dr Suzanne Rickard and Dr Peter Cochrane. The committee presented its report in February 1999.

The review was geared to the three main terms of reference:

  1. How appropriate are the National Library of Australia's reference services to users' current and anticipated needs in accessing information?
  2. How effective are the Library's reference services in meeting service objectives?
  3. How well placed are the Library's reference services to respond to changes and opportunities in the environment?

Input to the review was sought through public submissions, a commissioned survey of users of the Library's reference services, and interviews with members of staff. Twenty-one submissions were received from a range of individuals and special interest groups.

The findings

The National Library emerges from the review in a positive light. The review committee commends the Library for recognising that improved access to information in all forms is the key to the future, for working positively to meet both traditional and new demands for information, and for being innovative and responsive to change.

The report also notes that the survey of current users of the reference services reflected satisfaction with the services provided.

The report highlights areas it believes the Library needs to begin—or continue—to focus on in order to remain effective into the future. These relate to levels of user satisfaction, service promotion, staffing, staff skills development and national leadership.

The specific recommendations of the report are that the Library:

The Library's response

In general the Library agrees with the thrust of the report and with the conclusions it reaches, although the review's recommendations about assuming a leadership role in this area have many practical implications. The Library will be considering this part of the report carefully.

Much of the emphasis in the report is on increasing the range and quality of reference services we offer and dealing with the increased complexity of services. It acknowledges that current staffing levels are already stretched. While the Library accepts the challenge of the review committee to restructure the way it provides reference services in order to maximise use of the range of services, it has to be realistic about how much more it can do with a static resource base. For instance, the resource implications for the Library in assuming a leadership role of the type envisaged by the committee are potentially substantial.

The Library plans to address the first four recommendations by establishing a Reference Services Working Group, with membership from a number of areas within the organisation, which will be set up to develop a work plan for carrying out the necessary tasks. These include:

The Library will aim to complete these tasks by December 1999.

With regard to leadership, the Library will consult widely at the national level, especially with academic and special libraries, to identify the critical problems and needs. It will continue to pursue the strategic development of infrastructure support that it already provides for national access to information (e.g. Kinetica, Australian Libraries Gateway). It will develop models for the provision of Web-based subject gateways with the aim of encouraging national cooperation and standardisation in this area.

The Library will also participate in international development in this area including the OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre, Ohio) CORC (Cooperative Online Resource Catalog) Research Project to explore cooperative cataloguing of information resources on the World Wide Web, and the creation of digital pathways to information. These digital pathways will comprise lists of links to Internet resources in different subject areas.

Finally, the Library will contribute to projects being undertaken by CASL (the Council of Australian State Libraries) and CAUL (the Council of Australian University Librarians) to develop performance standards for core library activities, including reference services. Within this context, it will develop special standards and measures for service provision to remote users, to the extent that these are necessary.

Implementation of these actions by mid-2000 is the intention, by which time the National Library will be in a position to announce its leadership role in the provision of national reference services, having clarified the strategic framework within which that leadership will be provided.

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

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