Swinburne Library News

Profile: Frank Ponte

Tell us about your role.
I manage service desk operations at the Hawthorn campus library; monitoring service delivery statistics and traffic flows, streamlining services to meet customer needs and innovating services for clients. I actively support and promote:

• Learning spaces that are active and social, flexible and configurable
• Library services and resources that are valued by learners, researchers and staff
• Better access to online resources with continuing access to print material
• 24/7 open spaces with power and wireless access
• Efficient and effective service delivery.

The Hawthorn Library will expand in 2012. What improvements will we see?
By first semester 2012 there will be an extra floor that will increase the capacity of the Library from 1100 seats to almost 1500.  The collections currently on level three will move to levels four and five, doubling the group study space on level three. We will have two quiet study floors. Provision will be made for additional power points and tables for group study. It's a very exciting time for the Library.

What Library service are you most proud of?
In early 2010 the Rover team at Swinburne Library won a Vice Chancellor's award for outstanding customer service in the category of leadership and service excellence. Rovers are Library staff who move around the Library assisting users with a wide range of information technology-related queries. They are easily identifiable in their bright red t-shirts. Rovers assist with laptop wireless access, printing problems and simple IT troubleshooting. This service continues to be a success and is highly-regarded by students at the university.

The Fluxus Reader redux

In the early 1960s the American writer, composer and performance artist George Maciunas gave a name to an eclectic swell of artistic energy: Fluxus. It would become an influential international phenomenon encompassing many fields of artistic endeavor including visual art, music, literature and design. Fluxus artists produced publications and anthologies—affordable open editions of their work. Almost 50 years later Professor Ken Friedman, Fluxus artist, Dean of the Faculty of Design and University Distinguished Professor, has opened up The Fluxus Reader.

Research Services Librarian Rebecca Parker charts the Library’s central role:

After noticing that copies of his out-of-print book The Fluxus Reader were selling for up to $2500 on Amazon.com, Professor Ken Friedman approached the Library for assistance in making a free high-quality digital copy available for download. We worked together to convert the 1998 print book to digital format and make it available through Swinburne Research Bank.

The challenge of digitising valuable books is that scanning often damages or even destroys them. To ensure that one of the few remaining print copies of The Fluxus Reader would not be harmed by the digitisation process, the Library commissioned the CAVAL Digitisation Service to scan the book and prepare a searchable pdf of the text. CAVAL uses a high-speed scanner that recognises images at up to 2400 pages per hour. The machine is especially suited to handling rare and fragile items, as it turns the pages of each book without human intervention and can take images of its contents without needing to dismantle the spine.

The new digital edition of The Fluxus Reader (http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/42234) was launched on 13 May. Within a week web traffic to Swinburne Research Bank had almost doubled and the book had been accessed nearly 1000 times. Currently that figure is over 5000.

By maintaining copyright in his work Professor Friedman is able to distribute it freely and he encourages all libraries to add The Fluxus Reader to their digital collections. In addition, the work has been licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which allows unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction of the work provided that credit is given to the original publication.

The new digital edition of The Fluxus Reader is a great way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fluxus movement next year. Professor Friedman and his faculty are keen to find more ways that the Library can assist with promoting their research in the future.

Science Classic 1880-1996

The Library has purchased Science Classic, the digital archives of the prestigious magazine Science. Staff and students can now access full-text articles from the first volume of Science in 1880 right up to the present day. Science Classic is a great addition to our scholarly digital collections together with the Nature archive purchased by the Library earlier this year. Dr Glen Mackie of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing agrees:

“Having online access to the complete archive of Science … from 1880 onwards allows all researchers (staff and students alike) direct access to fundamental science papers necessary for high-quality research work”.

Wantirna celebrates Library Week

Staff and students celebrated Library Week with gusto at Wantirna Library in May. Highlights included entertainment by talented circus performer Leo Cartouche and free raffle tickets for students.

The Library featured displays from book suppliers The Bookery and James Bennett, inspiring staff to make suggestions for new books and materials. Staff enjoyed scones and sausage rolls at a very popular morning tea midweek.

The week of festivities wrapped up with prizes given to the raffle winners and an enjoyable wine and cheese get together. The whole week was a great opportunity to promote Library services in a fun atmosphere.

Harvard AGPS Style Guide live

A Practical Guide to Harvard AGPS Referencing is now available as a video presentation on the Library website. The guide covers all referencing formats including books, book chapters, journal and newspaper articles and web documents. Students will find tips on paraphrasing, using direct quotations and much more.

The guide was made possible through the involvement of Hawthorn Liaison Librarian Nicholas Pavlovski, Hawthorn Support Librarian Em Johnson, Lilydale Liaison Librarian Julie Badger, Copyright Support Officer Gabrielle Boffa and Prahran Information Services Manager Kim Tairi together with University of Southern Queensland staff.

Watch the presentation now:
http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/videos/tutorials/harvardguide/

Web 2.0 at the TAFE Australasian Library Conference (TALC)

Wantirna Liaison Librarian Maha Abed and Amy Rossiter from Chisholm Institute gave the audience a taste of their favourite web 2.0 tools at the TALC conference on 28 July—tools library professionals shouldn’t live without. The tools presented were: Xtranormal, Diigo, iGoogle, Google Calendar and Yammer.

Watch their introduction now, created using Xtranormal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VS-RZpk34k

Telecommunications Journal of Australia moves to Swinburne Online Journals

In February this year the Swinburne Online Journals service began publishing the Telecommunications Journal of Australia (TJA) the official journal of the ACS Telecommunications Society of Australia. Published since 1874, the TJA moved to digital format in 2007, when it was published by Monash University Press.

The TJA is the third journal published with Swinburne Online Journals, a service of Swinburne Library. It joins the E-Journal of Applied Psychology published since 2006 and the inaugural issue of Settler Colonial Studies published earlier this year.

The upcoming August issue (vol. 61, no. 3) will feature articles on advanced broadband applications to e-health and papers supplementing the previous issue’s focus on National Broadband Network policy gaps.

Library launches sleek new website

The Library website has a new streamlined design with many of our more popular links now easier to find. Opening hours, My Library, FAQs and Swinburne Research Bank computer or room bookings—all are just one click away from the homepage.

The Library blog has moved to the right-hand side of the homepage, making our four central headings: study help, referencing, IT help and past exams clearly visible.

New features for students include the 5 steps to research success and understanding your reading list plus finding journal articles

Liaison Librarians work with Swinburne Online

In her enhanced role as Online Education Liaison Librarian, Susan Roberts will be spending two days each week for the next 12 months at the St Kilda Road office shared with SEEK Limited as part of the new joint venture. Susan will be joined by Julie Badger and together these long-term collaborators will work as information specialists in the learning design stages of unit development, in particular advising and supporting academic staff in obtaining and adapting open educational resources and clarifying copyright issues. Both will continue in their existing roles for part of each week.

Susan and Julie will join a small group of mainly Lilydale staff already designing units in business and education degrees which are to commence in 2012. Students will be able to enrol in an entire degree instead of separate units as they currently do with Open Universities Australia. The office is conveniently situated near the Belgian Beer Café and many excellent coffee shops. After nearly 15 years ‘out in the sticks’ at Lilydale Susan and Julie are looking forward to a taste of sophisticated city living and a new challenge.

Swinburne researchers guide to EndNote X4

The Swinburne researchers guide to EndNote X4 advanced features is now available from the EndNote webpage: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/bibsoft/endnoteX4-advanced-guide.pdf

The guide includes tips and answers to our most frequently asked questions including:

• Using EndNote's advanced features to manage duplicates
• Solving a known conflict between 'track changes' and Cite White You Write (CWYW)
• Compiling thesis chapters for submission
• Submitting papers without embedded EndNote code.

The guide is a project in progress. The EndNote team welcomes your tips and questions. Email us at: endnote@swinburne.edu.au

Friends of Swinburne Library Online newsletter

The fourth issue of the Friends of Swinburne Library Online newsletter is now available. We keep the Swinburne community informed about Library developments, with a focus on our digital and online identity.

In this issue:

• News from Swinburne Research Bank, highlighting some recent papers by Swinburne authors about the National Broadband Network
• Computers on campus: a pictorial evolution in photographs from Swinburne Image Bank
• Extracts from the digital archives of Nature, now accessible to Swinburne staff and students—including an 1869 article about science teaching in schools
• News of many other recent digital and online developments in the Library.
  
  Read the current issue now >>

Want your video or audio content to reach a wider audience?

Swinburne Commons is the new centralised service for the management and distribution of digital media content produced across Swinburne University of Technology. The Commons draws together quality digital media content from across the university to highlight the research strengths, teaching excellence, student accomplishments and unique aspects of Swinburne. The content is free to view and of interest to a wide audience including current and potential students and researchers (both local and international), alumni, industry partners and anyone with an interest in higher education.

Commons’ content is also available via iTunes U

We welcome feedback from the Swinburne community. Email us at: commons@swinburne.edu.au for more information.

Teachers: are you screening TV programs in class?

Find all the information you need about screening, recording and requesting TV programs at Using TV at Swinburne

Do you want to stream video in class, add a link to Blackboard or email a link to students? You can do it using content from TVNews and iView

Do you want to record TV programs yourself? Swinburne’s TV and Radio Licence allows staff to record anything from TV (including PayTV) and make it available providing only Swinburne staff and students have access.

Using TV at Swinburne allows you to make a request for anything not in the Library or TVNews. Available items can be accessed online for streaming or downloaded for teaching or research purposes.

Do you have questions about copyright for TV and radio broadcasts?
Have your questions answered at: copyright for teaching

For more information phone us on 9214 8330 email the Library or contact your
liaison librarian

Search the Library—find books, articles and more!

Library search has improved with the launch of our new search radio button books, articles and more. Search the Library collection in one step and find all formats including books, ebooks, subject materials, videos and DVDs, journal articles and conference papers from multiple publishers and platforms.

It’s easy to refine a search. Simply type keywords in the search box and click search. Click on the links under refine my results—find only peer reviewed or newspaper articles, limit your results to recently published material or see what’s available in your campus library.

Tell us what you think: email the Library or contact your liaison librarian

Closing remarks

Thank you.

As always we have had great help from our customers. The Library Client Survey in May attracted 2700 responses, 14 per cent more than our last survey in 2008, helped along by the chance to win an attractive prize. Two lucky winners received an iPad 2 and six winners came away with $100 retail vouchers for completing the survey. The Library’s scores on overall performance and satisfaction both increased this year.

The Library’s users are very diverse: five campuses, two sectors, staff and students, researchers, teachers and general staff, on and off-campus users. So generalising is very difficult and we are still delving into the detail.

The two key questions in this style of survey are: what is most important for the clients? And how well are we doing at it? Here are the top things that clients want:

Good helpful knowledgeable staff is the first and our clients like us and think our staff are doing their jobs well. Second is a good place to study. This is not so easily achieved: just finding a place to work, especially at Hawthorn but not only, ranks eighth in importance but only 24th in performance. We hope the new space at Hawthorn in 2012 will help with this one.

An easy to use website and search functionality—two things—comes third in importance, understandably since over half of our use is from offsite. We have been putting a lot of work into these things and we are glad to see improvement in our scores, but there is still a way to go.

Facilities are fourth in importance and we rank well on wireless, not too badly on printing and copying, but poorly on computer availability. The interesting thing is that the importance of a computer being available has dropped to 19th.

Opening hours is the next most important thing and we perform well. Information resources—physical and online—rank sixth and we have improved in our performance—perhaps in perception of performance too—we hope that our resources are easier to find.

Thank you for your feedback, for letting us know what we do well and where we could do better. We will be working on these things as we plan for 2012. The client survey is a key driver for our planning and the needs and wishes of library customers will help to determine what we do and where we put our resources.

Derek Whitehead
Director, Information Resources