National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 72 | December 2004


Libraries Australia, Gateway to a Wealth of Information

The National Library of Australia is pleased to announce the launch of Libraries Australia, a new service that helps Australians, through their libraries, to easily ‘find and get’ items from the wealth of information held in Australian libraries.

The new search service, online from 8 December 2004, dramatically improves searching of the collections of Australian libraries. New requesting options enable searchers to go directly to online resources, to obtain the item from their library or from other libraries, or purchase the item from an online book supplier.

National Library Director-General Jan Fullerton said, ‘Libraries Australia represents a major step towards removing the barriers to obtaining resources from libraries and other suppliers. It offers a very simple 'Google-like' search, and provides searchers with the choice of ordering material from Australian libraries, document supply services and Australian booksellers and publishers.’

‘A feature of the service is its highly sophisticated search capability. Searchers can use value-added services such as an alert service, which will automatically email new records to the client in any subject area. It also offers improved support for researchers through providing records in a variety of formats which can be loaded into personal library software,’ she said. 

Libraries Australia acts as a single gateway to a number of Australian and international databases. These databases can be searched simultaneously, enabling the user to identify resources published in almost any country in the world. It also provides access to online content of Australian journals.

The launch marks the first release of software developed by the National Library specifically for the redevelopment of the Kinetica service, completing the first phase of the redevelopment. The second phase, due for completion in late 2005, will provide a new cataloguing system.
—Roxanne Missingham, Assistant Director-General, Resource Sharing

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