INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACADEMIC LIBRARIES edited by Rowena Cullen and Philip Calvert ● Australian University Libraries and the New Educational Environment by Gaynor Austen, Janine Schmidt, and Philip Calvert T hirty-nine institutions are represented in the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), the main forum for cooperation between university libraries in Australia, a country of nearly 20 million people. The Australian university system has undergone substantial changes in recent years. A number of major trends have developed which have impacted on the provision of library services to the university community. Some of the major trends are: ● A significant increase in the percentage of young Australians undertaking university education (this is known in Australia as the “massification” of university education). This increase has been combined with declining government funding as a percentage of university income. ● The “internationalization agenda,” as a result of which Australian universities have been developing increasing ties with the international community, through (1) recruitment of overseas students into their courses, (2) offshore teaching in other, chiefly Asian, countries, and (3) the development of international perspectives within the curriculum. ● An increased emphasis on measurement of university service performance and, more specifically, performance management of individual staff contributions to this. ● The “online agenda,” that is, the increase in online teaching and learning programs, introduction of personalized portals, customization of services, and development of the virtual interaction between the university and its clients. ● The integration of all student support services, including Gaynor Austen is Director, Library Services, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia ⬍g.austen@ qut.edu.au⬎; Janine Schmidt is University Librarian, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia ⬍universitylibrarian@library.uq.edu.au⬎; Philip Calvert is at the School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand ⬍philip.calvert@vuw.ac.nz⬎. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 28, Number 1, pages 63– 67 library and information services, across the university campus. Australian university libraries have been working to respond to these developing trends to ensure that they maintain their centrality to the academic process and relevance to the business of their parent organizations. Increased demand resulting from larger student numbers on campus combined with increased competition for scarce financial resources have led many Australian university librarians to adopt measures such as business process reengineering, outsourcing and increased student self-help mechanisms. Self-checkout machines for student loans, for example, were pioneered in Australian libraries. The trend to greater international involvement by universities has increased the need for library support for teaching at a distance. This has combined with the transition to online teaching and learning to increase the emphasis on virtual library services, in particular, virtual reference service. Australian university libraries have also responded to the emphasis on performance measurement initiated both by the Australian government, which has recently established an Australian Quality Agency to audit university performance, and by individual institutions. Libraries have developed and shared examples of best practice, benchmarking, and performance measures across the sector (e.g., CAUL collects and publishes performance indicators for academic libraries). This sharing has included publication of a federal government funded Best Practice Handbook for Australian University Libraries.1 “Best Practice for Australian University Libraries” was a federally funded project under the Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs Evaluations and Investigations Program (EIP), and the aim was to investigate best practice activities in Australian academic libraries. Reference was also made to relevant best practice activities in selected overseas countries. Best practice activities within Australian academic libraries were considered to encompass the extent of implementation of quality frameworks; the use of benchmarking and performance measurement as tools for the continuous improvement of products, processes and services; and the development of staff competencies and training required for these activities.2 Jan-Mar 2002 63 Finally, many libraries have been part of a trend to integrate student support services in many universities, including a renewed interest in the merger of information technology, instructional design, and library support, at times within an even larger student support center. THE “ONLINE AGENDA” Over many years Australian universities have been leaders in the field of distance education and open learning, offering courses, initially by correspondence, over vast distances to a widely geographically dispersed population. While most Australians are urban based, there are still a significant number of potential university students located outside the metropolitan areas where university education is readily available. Thus, for many years, distance education has been an important element in Australian university teaching, albeit generally concentrated within a few institutions. The development of the online agenda within universities has meant that much local, as well as distance, student learning has moved away from face-to-face interaction. The Internet is becoming increasingly the basis for the student educational experience. For Australian university libraries, two possible scenarios could arise from such changes in teaching and learning. On the one hand, as university coursework is transferred to the Web, it is possible that library provision for coursework units could become irrelevant. When, in the past, Australian university distance education was print based, the library supported this mode of learning by providing a postal service of books and photocopied articles on request and by responding to student calls for information searching assistance. With the transition to online teaching, coursework programs could be developed for all students with pre-packaged information resources in online format available at the click of a mouse. If this were to become the principal approach to online teaching and learning, there would be no need for the student to become involved in extended information research activity. Use of libraries by such students may become severely curtailed. On the other hand, however, the change in approach to student learning made possible by an online environment may instead facilitate, even demand, a greater integration of library service into the curriculum development process. Many Australian university libraries are pursuing this model aggressively, and, as a result, are re-thinking their former concepts of what constitutes core library business. Increasingly, Australian university teaching faculty are coming to accept that online course development requires specialist skills outside their current capacities. While teaching staff may rightly claim expertise in a subject discipline, many are now willing to admit the need to work with specialist instructional designers and educational technologists to mount effective units/courses on the World Wide Web. Many Australian university library staffs are now seeking to become part of such course development teams, and to ensure that their role as information content specialists is recognized within all course development processes. A project at Griffith University (in Queensland) illustrates what can be achieved by library and faculty cooperation. Media and communication courses are expanding rapidly in Australia, but a common problem is how to meet the combined challenge of teaching larger and more heterogeneous groups with reduced 64 The Journal of Academic Librarianship resources, and preparing students for diverse modularized degree program that are now the norm. The Griffith project was designed to use library information systems at first year level to embed the skills of information literacy and independent learning in the students. The project team have developed an integrated online “communications module” that contains ● ● ● ● ● An introductory overview on why research is important in university study and how electronic databases help independent research; A section on accessing electronic databases that explains the different kinds of database, their varied functions, and how to access them; A section called the “research preparation process” that explains the process of analyzing a topic, identifying keywords, and planning search strategies; A section that models the keyword search process on databases for specific communications areas; and A final section called “from searching to writing” that takes the student from the search process to the planning and writing of an assignment, including reviewing materials to focus an answer, identifying secondary keywords, and drafting and editing the paper. From the faculty viewpoint, the integration of library training components into the subject material creates a flexible pedagogic framework that supports independent learning. It helps students learn competences in a range of new skills and techniques grounded in appropriate learning activities.3 This is one such project among many. Such extension of the core business for Australian university libraries, however, can create substantial issues of workload priority for reference/liaison librarians. While most Australian university library management now acknowledge the need for librarians to seek involvement in curriculum development teams, and to take on increasingly large teaching roles within undergraduate and research classes, such activities need also to be balanced against the increasing complexity of the reference interview process and the move of traditional library reference services into the virtual environment. Informal exchanges of views among Australian university librarians suggest that, while fewer information queries are now being received at the reference desk, the complexity of these queries has increased substantially. In addition, clients now expect to be able to send information queries and receive responses via e-mail. Most Australian university libraries now use e-mail as an additional form of reference service. Many are currently experimenting with Web “chat” for the reference service interaction, and some are also investigating call center concepts with a view to greater integration of reference service within a broader, university-wide student service development. This is all occurring at a time when librarians need to lobby to join course development teams to ensure the incorporation of information literacy into the curriculum. Such conflicting workload requirements put enormous pressure on the library’s reference/liaison librarians. INFORMATION LITERACY Information literacy has become a university-wide issue in many Australian educational institutions. It is a more com- prehensive concept than “user education” or “bibliographic instruction.” Many Australian universities are coming to accept that the inculcation of discipline knowledge is insufficient in the fast changing world of the 21st century. In a recent work examining Australia’s higher education system, two university administrators, Peter Coaldrake and Lawrence Stedman, state “. . . the best education a person could receive would be one where they learnt how to learn,. . . this is far more important than learning particular facts or techniques. Universities which provide a stimulating, broad and challenging education, for young people in particular, should be highly valued.”4 An agenda for the development of “generic attributes” or “graduate attributes,” which would promote students’ lifelong learning, has come to be increasingly emphasized within the curricula of Australian universities, and its achievement (or lack of it) is being increasingly measured. This provides an opportunity for Australian university libraries to develop instructional materials and to assist teaching staff to develop curricula that will foster information-seeking skills among students. This is being done most successfully where teaching staff can be convinced to revise student assessment criteria to require information-seeking skills to be demonstrated, thus embedding such skills within the academic curriculum. This developing trend within Australian universities has the potential to bring the library service back to its rightful place in the center of all academic community life. The US Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education have been revised by CAUL with the addition of two new standards: the new standard four addresses the ability to control and manipulate information, and standard seven represents information literacy as the intellectual framework that provides the potential for lifelong learning.5 The increasing importance in Australia of virtual interactions on campus, and of information technology as a facilitator of academic and administrative pursuits, has led to a second wave of structural integration or mergers involving information technology services units, instructional design/ multi-media areas, and university libraries. In some cases this has been confined to loose liaison between these functional areas. In some universities the library has become part of an overarching division while retaining its own separate identity. In others, library services have been fully integrated into an alternate structure in which separate structural entities such as the “library” and “information technology services” have been eliminated and replaced with alternative groupings of “client services,” “technology support,” and so forth. In one Australian university (Edith Cowan University in Perth) this merger has extended to the point where library services are now integrated into an overall student service involving student administration operations as well as library services, information technology services, and learning support. THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND AS A CASE STUDY The University of Queensland is one of the largest universities in Australia, and it has been involved in teaching students remotely since its inception in 1910. It will serve as a case study of how one university library is responding to demands placed upon it by changes in the student body, the push and pull of new technology, and tightening financial circumstances for all public institutions. The University was a pioneer in external studies, and until the early 1970s, one of only five institutions in Australia with a substantial external studies program, reaching nearly 3,500 students throughout the state and beyond. Greater competition changed the situation, though, and by the mid 1980s, there were 16 institutions (four in Queensland) offering external studies. By that time (the mid-1980s) the University had less than 5% of the total number of external students in Australia (and less than one-third of those in Queensland) compared to about 36% of the total in 1971 (and virtually all of those in Queensland).6 Following a Commonwealth Government review of higher education in Australia in 1988, and the designation of other institutions as Distance Education Centers, the University decided to withdraw from external teaching, though some program continued to deliver to external students.7 Library services to external students were provided through the Off-Campus service of the Social Sciences and Humanities Library and the Gatton Library. Various University departments accepted post-graduate students located remotely and all branch libraries provided services to small numbers of students in this category. Many of these services involved a charge that was paid either by the Library or by the department, and in some instances by the students themselves, although all models included some provision of a minimum number of services to be provided gratis. THEN CAME THE WEB In 1993, the Library was connected to the Internet and the potential to provide information and services beyond the Library’s physical location became immediately apparent. In 1994, dial-in access to the Library’s server, via Telnet, allowed access to Current Contents, OCLC’s FirstSearch and (as a trial) to some of the Research Libraries Group (RLG) databases. The opportunity for this access was made available nationally by CAUL in one of the earliest national consortial agreements in the world. In 1995, 38 Australian university libraries contracted with RLG to provide access to nine databases. John Shipp, the President of CAUL at the time, said that this “will allow Australian university staff and students gain wider access to vital international information and will assist in their long-term usage of networked databases.”8 In the same year, steps were taken to extend the development of electronic delivery services, paving the way for desktop access to, and delivery of information from branch library, office or home. A new library management system, Innopac, was chosen as the foundation of the new services. The Library implemented an Internet homepage via its new Web server, making available information about the Library and its services, along with links to other information on the Web. The Silverplatter ERL (Electronic Reference Library) database platform was purchased to provide standardized access to a wide range of different databases; an Electronic Reserve collection of copyright-owned University material (exam papers, lecture notes) was mounted on the Library homepage; and the Library partnered with the Education Department in a project called Creating New Approaches to Information Access: Developmental Project for Postgraduate Students in Education. In February 1996, Innopac management software system went live. By the end of the year, there had been 2.5 million catalogue transactions and 1.43 loans recorded; 10 million database records viewed Jan-Mar 2002 65 or downloaded by one million logins and just over 90 databases (mostly bibliographic) were available.9 FLEXIBLE DELIVERY In 1996, the University began to reconsider its involvement in teaching remote students as part of a move towards flexible delivery and, in 1997, established a working party to consider the implications of flexible delivery. Following this report, the Academic Board’s Library Committee examined the implications for the Library and its report identified numerous issues. These were adequacy of access via the University network; copyright issues in digital copying; license agreements for databases; student access to technology in remote areas; adequacy of information technology (IT) help available to remote students; identification of remote students; the types of Library services to be provided; adequacy of information skills; and the high cost of service to remote students.10 Subsequent activity refined both the issues and service delivery. BADGING THE CYBRARY In 2000, the Library decided to badge its services as the Cybrary; a similar concept to the hybrid library, the virtual library or the e-brary but somewhat easier to pronounce and certainly more memorable. There are over 6,000 pages on the Cybrary’s Web site, which provides information about the various services provided, and facilitates availability as well as navigational links to support both resource discovery and access. The Cybrary emphasizes the combination of cyberspace and physical place, focusing on client access to and use of information, and emphasizing remote access. While there are multiple physical branch libraries with opening hours ranging up to 84 hours per week, the Cybrary is available 24/7 through dial-up access from home, laboratory, or workplace. It is a gateway for customers located anywhere, to access POP (Print on Paper) and WOW (words on the Web) everywhere. The Cybrary is the window on the world of knowledge and a springboard to learning. Cybrary is now used on the Library’s Web site, on all its publications, and in all information skills programs. Cybrary has become an accepted term within the University community and frequently serves as a useful conversation starter. The Library is now acquiring as many e-journals as possible, as well as electronic databases available either via the ERL (Electronic Reference Library), or directly from overseas Web sites. The Library negotiates with suppliers to make these resources available regardless of location. The negotiations have not been trivial and have not always been successful. CAUL has done much to contribute over-all to developing contract terms that assist in providing remote access. International model license agreements have also be helpful, such as the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Licensing Principles.11 Ezproxy and Innopac’s Web access management approaches facilitate access for students using commercial Internet service providers. Students and staff with Web access can now connect to 400 networked databases; over 8,000 electronic journals; 125,000 e-books; Internet gateways and a Virtual Reference Collection that provides direct access to Internet dictionaries, encyclopaedias, statistics, directories, maps, government records, and similar resources. Services like these are available at most universities in Australia, where 66 The Journal of Academic Librarianship linking to teaching and learning materials in the easiest way possible is seen as essential to effective information service provision. Links to University-generated course materials continue to be available on the Cybrary Web site, as are guides known as Find-its and Use-its to aid customers with their search for information. The Web site receives up to 1.5 million page uses per month. IT support, help and training are the focus of the AskIT service, and Ask a Cybrarian offers a 24-hour electronic reference service with responses guaranteed within two working days. Specialist gateways have been developed, for example, the Australasian Virtual Engineering Library (AVEL),12 which provides Web access to Australian sources of engineering and information technology information. AVEL is a collaboration of the University of Queensland, the Queensland University of Technology, and other bodies. The Library is also a collaborative partner in the Australian Literature Electronic Gateway (ALEG). About to be launched, ALEG is a major database for Australian literary study, providing Web access to creative literature, poems, plays, novels and short stories; criticism: books and articles; reviews of Australian literature and of literary aspects of stage, film and sound productions, and awards, prizes and grants publishing; and distributing Australian literature and creative literature translated by Australians. SPECIALIST SERVICES FOR REMOTE STUDENTS All students now use the services initially targeted at remote students. When considering its strategies for service development, the Cybrary assumes that all students, at some stage, will seek to access services remotely. Some student specialist services are, however, provided to remote students. These students are currently identified as those living more than 50 km from the nearest University of Queensland campus (St. Lucia, Ipswich, or Gatton) and having exceptional circumstances involved. The school also agreed to meet the costs for them. Contact Librarians for remote students are designated in each branch library to offer advice on accessing and using Library services, and for those who do not have Internet access, to perform a limited number of searches. In addition to those services made available via the Cybrary, students may register as reciprocal borrowers at other Australian tertiary institutions; receive extended loan periods; and they are allowed a designated number of journal articles free of charge (with the opportunity for further articles for a fee). The Library pays postage for the delivery of books with the student paying the return postage. Requests for items or services can be made via an Electronic Document Delivery form, e-mail, mail, or fax. DIGITAL LEARNING OBJECTS Software products like WebCT and BlackBoard are being used to deliver educational program. Library resources are frequently included in these interactive packages. As always, new technology raises new questions. Will books and journals become Digital Learning Objects (DLOs)? What standards are being used? What intellectual property controls are there? What provisions can be made for archiving and preservation? WHERE TO FROM HERE FOR THE CYBRARY? Cybrary services delivered any place, any time, any pace, have become the norm, no matter where the student is located. Reaching the student who does not come physically to the Library, and using “push” or “pull” technologies has become the challenge, and the solutions are not always immediately obvious. Marketing to the “e-customer” and the unseen is difficult, but as with all marketing, some products and services must be given a trial to discover the degree of customer acceptance before the institution commits to further development. Portal technology is being trailed. Initial inhouse forays into “MyCybrary” approaches have been terminated awaiting further commercial software developments. The Web site is being redeveloped to encompass both changes in customer needs and improved capacity of software and hardware. Ensuring appropriate content, connectivity, and competence of both library staff and customers continues to have priority. Meeting the costs of development is also problematical. Focus groups have explored customer needs, and service delivery developments are focused on customer needs and not solely on preconceived notions of effective service by libraries. Strategic planning of service delivery to remote students and the capacity to deliver services in an e-environment have come together to ensure that distance learning is a reality and not just rhetoric. CONCLUSION Australian university libraries have a long history of supporting distance education and open learning opportunities for Australian students. As a result of this, and of the new initiatives they are taking to foster information literacy within the curriculum, they are well placed to continue that leadership role in the provision of alternative forms of educational experience for students. This can apply whether such libraries maintain their independent status on campus, or whether they form part of a new, more integrated structure. Such experience is likely to be greatly expanded as part of the online agenda that is currently sweeping Australian universities. By comparison with almost all other countries in the world, Australia is a lucky and prosperous nation. It has a strong tradition of higher education provision and many very well established university libraries with large collections and well-qualified staff. It is worth reflecting on the thought that, if Australia is struggling to cope with changes in higher education, then how will other less fortunate countries cope? Fortunately, Australia’s experience could well provide useful examples of ways in which university libraries in other parts of the world could adapt successfully to a new core role in the university of the 21st century. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. Australia, Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Best Practice Handbook for Australian University Libraries. Available: http://www.deet.gov.au/archive/ highered/eippubs/eip00_10/execsum.htm (accessed October 18, 2001). 2. Working towards Best Practice in Australian University Libraries: Reflections on a National Project, Available: http://dois.mimas.ac.uk/DoIS/data/Papers/juljuljus53.html (accessed October 19, 2001). 3. Dugald Williamson, Library and Academic Collaboration: A Case Study in Teaching Media Communications. Available: http://www.alia.org.au/sections/ucrls/aarl/32.1/fulltext/ williamson.html (accessed October 20, 2001). 4. Peter Coaldrake & Lawrence Stedman, On the Brink: Australia’s Universities Confronting Their Future (St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1998), p. 46. 5. See http://www.alia.org.au/sections/ucrls/aarl/32.1/fulltext/infolit. html 6. Bill Richmond, The Ending of an Era: External Studies in the University of Queensland (St. Lucia, Queensland: School of External Studies and Continuing Education, The University of Queensland, 1990), p. 2. 7. Higher Education. A Policy Statement circulated by The Hon. J. S. Dawkins, M. P., Minister for Employment, Education and Training, July 1988 (AGPS: Canberra, 1988); Review of the Efficiency and Effectiveness in Higher Education (Report of the Committee of Enquiry) Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission (‘Efficiency and Effectiveness Report’) (AGPS: Canberra, 1986). 8. Australian Libraries Provide Access to RLG Databases. Available: http://www.rlg.org/pr/9502aust.html (accessed October 15, 2001). 9. The University of Queensland. Library, Annual Report. (St. Lucia: University of Queensland, 1993–1997). 10. Working Party of the Library Committee of the Academic Board, Implications of Flexible Delivery for Provision of Library Services. Online. Report of the Working Party, 1998, p. 3. Available: http://www.cybrary.uq.edu.au/papers/ (accessed October 12, 2001). 11. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Licensing Principles (2000). Online. 2001. IFLA. Available: http//:www.ifla.org/V/ebpb/copy.htm (accessed October 12, 2001). 12. AVEL Gateway, http://avel.edu.au/ (accessed October 12, 2001). Jan-Mar 2002 67