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About the library

Swinburne University of Technology has five campus libraries in Melbourne: Hawthorn, Prahran, Wantirna, Croydon and Lilydale; and one in Sarawak, Malaysia.

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Our values are:
  • a focus on the customer
  • collaboration and partnership
  • the importance of information and knowledge in human society
  • equity of access to information
  • open processes
  • a commitment to staff learning, growing and being creative
  • a commitment to be open and responsive to change

What happened in 2008

In Semester 1 we ran a comprehensive survey of library users (May 2008), with a record 2363 responses. This provided us with a huge amount of information about what library users think and want, and we have used this to inform our budget proposals, and to prioritise our spending.

In 2008 we began construction of a new library at Croydon campus - finished in early 2009, and launched on 24 March. The new library is a stunning improvement.

In 2008 we experimented with extended opening hours at Hawthorn campus, because of the large volume of use. In the second half of Semester 2, we opened the library until 3am. We decided for semester 1 in 2009 to scale this back to 12am. Of course, the Late Lab is open 24 hours, and provides about 200 PCs.

We created a Rover service in 2008. People have noticed the anomaly that despite their name, the rovers do not actually rove or move about. This is because there is a great deal of pressure on them. In 2008 rovers helped over 25,000 people to do everything from connecting a laptop to the wireless network to fixing a paper jam to finding a book.

Swinburne Research Bank, our online repository of Swinburne research publications, was launched by the DVC Research, Professor Andy Flitman - have a look at Research Bank.

The library won one of the prizes awarded annually for excellence in a number of different areas. This was the Vice Chancellor's International Prize, which we won for the Library International project run by Fiona O'Donnell.

2008 was marked by massively increased use at Hawthorn campus library - the number of people entering the library increased by 66%, and the total number entering the library (all campuses) was over 2.1 million - one of the busiest university libraries in Australia.

We acquired more books. In fact, in 2008 Swinburne library (all campuses) increased its purchase of books by 32%. By early November, we had ordered 16,951 books (compared with 12,922 in 2007) and also purchased 981 ebooks through EBL (Electronic Book Library). This situation is unlikely to prevail in 2009, since the Australian dollar is buying a lot less.

We acquired more computers. The Hawthorn Library added an extra 40 desktop computers and a further 30 laptops in Semester 2, with plans to further increase the number of laptops in 2009. We now have over 300 laptops and 250 desktop computers available for all Swinburne students at Hawthorn, and slightly over a thousand desktops and laptops across the library at all campuses - 422 PC workstations, 18 Mac workstations, 403 laptop PCs and 178 Macbooks.

And . . . the 250 desktop computers at Hawthorn were used 324,632 times over the eleven months from May 2008 to March 2009 - statistics courtesy of the MyPC software.

Facts about the library

The library has

  • PC workstations (422)
  • Laptops (403)
  • MacBooks (178)
  • Apple / MacIntosh workstations (18)
  • Network printers (20)
  • Scanners (17)
  • Photocopiers (17)
  • User plug-in network points (65)
  • AV workstations (9)
  • SelfCheckut units (8)
  • Seats - total (1519)
  • Seats in study/meeting rooms (182)
  • Study tables (304)
  • Seats - study tables (605)
  • Group study rooms (27)
  • Carrels (211)
  • Casual seats (232)

In 2008 there were

  • Traffic - people entering the library (2,069,000)
  • Traffic - people entering the Hawthorn Late Lab (112,000)
  • Equipment loans (169,000, an increase of 24%)
  • Loans (first time book loans) (228,000, an increase of 9%)
  • Journals including electronic journals (68,000 unique titles)
  • Books and other items (478,000 in 2008, of which 135,000 were electronic)

Library Services

  • Information resources: access to print and digital information resources from Swinburne and elsewhere by borrowing, online access, onsite use, reciprocal access, inter-campus and off-campus deliveries, and copying.
  • Information literacy training: library orientation and skills in finding, evaluating, organising and using information.
  • Information access services: liaison, reference, and other personal information services - onsite, offsite and online.
  • Space and facilities: places and facilities for students to study, meet in and use library resources and PCs.
  • Provision of wireless access to the Swinburne network.
  • Evaluation of services through customer feedback surveys - part of the Library Management Information Framework.

Senior staff

Contact Us

For full contact details please see the contact page.

Library system project

The Library is currently reviewing tenders for the library system. Click here for a pdf copy of the Request for tender. A Microsoft Word version of the tender is available by emailing Stuart Hall.