Creating Value for Our Clients

Library Objectives:

• Extend Information Literacy Partnerships

• Linking clients with relevant information resources

• Provide a conducive learning and working environment

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Extend Information Literacy Partnerships

There were significant increases in the number of information literacy sessions offered and the number of students attending.  While this increase is good there is still disparity in offerings across disciplines. Chart 1 illustrates changes in demand and activity in 2004 compared to 2003.

The following observations can be made:

Non-Faculty areas such as Steps, Nulloo Yumbah, and CQU International  are committed to information literacy and collaborate in such a way that programs are comprehensive, timely and relevant to students.

Some Schools including Nursing, Health and Human Performance, Occupational Health and Safety, Education, History, Geography, and Biomedicine offer meaningful and effective programs. In the areas of literary studies and geography the programs are well established, supported by the lecturer and therefore protected from disruption through staff change.
 

The progress of information literacy programs in other areas was less successful due to other reasons including:

• lack of direct support by academics (Biology),
• failure to make information literacy sessions mandatory or included in the content of lectures (Psychology and Sociology),
• Library staffing instability (Business and Law and Informatics and Communications), and
• uncertainty within programs due to the organisational review (Education and Creative Arts).

Temporary staffing arrangements within the Library made the delivery of information literacy programs unstable. Stephen Anderson (Business and Law) and Suzanne Yule resigned. The Library was unable to permanently fill these positions due to the University's embargo on permanent recruitment, consequently internal temporary appointments were made. Furthermore Jacky Cribb (Education and Creative Arts) was seconded to Mackay for approximately 12 months. On each occasion there was a lapse in service, considerable discipline-based experience was lost,  and there was a time delay before the temporary replacement could learn the process and build rapport with the Faculty or School.


Collaboration on information literacy continued in forums provided by ANZIIL, CAUL and QULOC. There was a lot of discussion about learning through electronic tutorials such as Compass, and the costs and problems associated with maintaining these tutorials. There was also discussion on how best to design e-learning resources such as web guides. The discussion in these forums (combined with usage figures of our e-learning resources) has changed the way our subject area guides and tutorials will be developed.

David Draney from the Bundaberg Campus Library travelled to the Pomona hub to provide information literacy programmes for the Bachelor of Learning Management students. This trip was not without problems but was well received by staff and students alike.

Linking clients with relevant information resources

Usage of electronic library resources generally increased in 2004 over 2003. The Library website delivered over 3,500,000 pages. Although statistics have only been effectively recorded since June 2003, the web site delivered 12% more pages in the period June - December 2004 compared with the same period the previous year.

Databases, especially the full text databases, were very heavily used. It is hard to compare usage amongst vendors as many vendor measure different things, eg searches, documents or sessions. Table 1 shows selected databases with high usage figures:

Database	2004	Av. per day	2003	Variance
Proquest (documents)	809265	2217	559902	45%
Emerald (total sessions)	72875	200	82525	-12%
Informit (total searches)	120943	331	n/a	n/a
Infotrac (total sessions)	69943	192	66843	5%

 

Article Linker is Serials Solutions citation to article open url linking solution. 2004 was the first full year of operation for the service. During the year the service was used 193,850 times.

 

Like many other university libraries CQU is experiencing an overall decline in its traditional reference and information questions. Chart 2 illustrates that while requests for traditional type reference questions has declined this has been combined with a significant increase in technical questions.  This highlights the changing nature of services provided by libraries including the emphasis on electronic access for library resources and move by the university to online course delivery and/or support.

Door counts across all CQ libraries dropped. Again this is consistent with trends across the university sector. Mackay library experienced the greatest reduction in clients visiting the library followed by Gladstone.  Rockhampton's door count dropped from 208,797 in 2003 to 194,267 in 2004. Chart 3 illustrates the variances.

Continuing the trend of electronic access and use increasing email enquiries from students increased from 5441 in 2003 to  6247 in 2004, an increase of 16.5% and may account for the downward trend in phone enquiries.  

Patronage of the Capricornia Central Queensland Collection, based in Rockhampton, also dropped. Due to a shortage of staff, opening hours for the Collection were reduced in 2003.  Community users accounted for 78% of patrons. Overall, usage dropped by 32%. Chart 4 illustrates changes in demand between 2003 and 2004.

During the year there were numerous requests for CQ to open for a full day so that researchers could have uninterrupted time using the resources. Hours were extended to include all day Wednesday and this day is staffed by Technical Services.

At this point there are a number of outstanding jobs in CQ – numerous boxes of donations awaiting listing, photographs to be described and reorganisation of the collection including manuscripts. While there are a number of potential volunteers and interested staff, there is limited capacity to train and supervise them.

A regional collection for the Wide Bay - Burnett region has been established at the Bundaberg Campus Library. The collection will endeavour to collect books and some other items of relevance to the Wide Bay-Burnett region. As at December 2004 there were approximately 100 items waiting to be redesignated Wide Bay-Burnett Collection. A web page has been designed and will be added to in the near future.

The Records and Archives Office continued to work closely with Chancellery and Registry staff to complete the implementation of recordkeeping practises and the TRIM records management system. The Office also provided advice to other areas of the University on recordkeeping matters.

Provide a conducive learning environment

The highlight of the year was the announcement of a $2.5milion Capital Development Pool (CDP) grant for the Mackay library in 2007. This will be combined with $500,000 from the 2005 Information Commons CDP grant. 

Preliminary consultation was undertaken at Mackay, Gladstone and Bundaberg libraries in preparation for the design and construction of Information Commons.  The Gladstone and Bundaberg projects will be completed in 2005 however, the Mackay project will be deferred in order to accommodate the additional funding.

Replacement furniture was acquired for the Rockhampton Library's middle floor area. Some of the furniture that was originally purchased when the Library was opened in 1978 was replaced with tables and chairs similar in style to those in the recently refurbished Reading Room. Even this small change has considerably improved the ambiance of the area.

Snack, drink and coffee vending machines were introduced to the Rockhampton library, and coffee vending machines were introduced to Gladstone and Bundaberg libraries. The Mackay library already had a coffee machine.