Using Libraries Australia: A View from the Library of the Department of Education, Science and Training
The Library of the Department of Education, Science, and Training (DEST) provides information and research services for approximately 2000 officers located in 77 locations in Australia and overseas. The library also provides a publications inquiry service to the Australian public for DEST publications.
As Senator Helen Coonan said when she launched Libraries Australia, ‘the Australian Government is committed to ensuring that the benefits of information and communications technology are enjoyed by all Australians, no matter where they live, study or do business’. DEST library services, like other Australian libraries, supports this policy by providing access to Departmental information and publications via Libraries Australia and the Libraries Australia Document Delivery service.
Libraries Australia was made accessible to DEST staff via the DEST intranet in late 2005. DEST obtained a unique IP address in September 2005, coinciding with the launch of Libraries Australia. This, and the introduction of an affordable annual subscription policy by Libraries Australia, made it possible to provide access for all DEST staff.
The DEST library provides information focussing on the work of DEST. Library clients can conduct their own research, as well as request that research be conducted on their behalf by library staff. Libraries Australia increases the quality of the research conducted by DEST, by providing easy access to a wide range of collections and databases. Clients can target and limit their searches to a range of databases to suit their needs. DEST staff find the Australian Library Collections (ANBD), ARROW and CISTI particularly useful.
The records on Libraries Australia provide an authoritative description of each item and, when available, links to full text are included. A range of options is provided to download records in a number of formats which can be used as sources for references.
Libraries Australia’s new search interface makes it easy to navigate, and to limit searches, thus making them more focussed to the client’s needs. The interface allows limits in searching to specific collections, ranging from the nature of the material to its format. Searches can be limited by the year of publication, and to show in which libraries items are held.
DEST staff find the personalisation facility very useful; they can create a default search screen tailored to their requirements, and save their searches and records to personal folders. They can also create alerts tailored to their specific needs, to keep them up to date.
As well as enabling our clients to view a wider range of information, they can now request items recorded on Libraries Australia via DEST Library Services. Although we have turned on the enhanced requesting functionality, staff email records from Libraries Australia direct to the Library when requesting interlibrary loans.
Libraries Australia is included in the training sessions we offer to our library clients. We have designed ‘cheat sheets’ for searching, requesting and personalising Libraries Australia. These are available from the library’s homepages on the DEST intranet. The feedback from these training sessions has been very positive.
DEST library services is planning to promote Libraries Australia further during the forthcoming 2006 Library Week, by offering training sessions and including it in displays of useful resources.
Robyn Spry
Manager
DEST library services
Department of Education, Science and Training




