Asia Pacific Library Advisory Committee Meeting

Minutes of the meeting held Friday 30 May 2008 9.30am
Library Meetings Room, R G Menzies Building

Present:  Dr Richard Barz, Ms Kathy Collier, Dr Robert Cribb, Mr Vic Elliott (Chair), Dr Yusaku Horiuchi (for Prof Jenny Corbett), Prof Terry Hull, Dr Peter Jackson, Ms Sue Kosse, Dr Tana Li, Prof John Minford, Dr Hossein Heirani-Moghaddam (for Dr Kirill Nourzhanov), Dr Barbara Nelson (for Prof Robin Jeffrey), Ms Renata Osborne, Dr Benjamin Penny, Prof Ken Wells, Ms Wan Wong (for Ms Amelia McKenzie)

1. Apologies : Prof Kent Anderson, Dr Chris Ballard, Prof Geremie Barme, Prof Jenny Corbett, Prof Robin Jeffrey, Prof Andrew MacIntyre, Ms Amelia McKenzie, Dr Kirill Nourzhanov, Dr Nicholas Tapp.

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting and Matters Arising

The minutes of previous meeting were accepted.

3. Director's Report

a. Budget

Mr. Elliott reported on:

• total budget for Access and Collections for 2008 is A$8.23M.
• US dollars were purchased at the end of 2007 at the favourable exchange rate A$1 to US$.923
• Funding has been carried forward to cover all 2007 unfilled commitments

b. Last Copy Retention

Mr. Elliott reported on the progress of this project, that:

• Seven of the eight GO8 libraries (exception UWA Library) are participating in the project
• Discussions are underway on how to share responsibility for retaining the last print copy of journals duplicated in Oxford Journals Online.   Elsevier journals will be next group of journals to be discussed.
• Mr. Elliott emphasised that participating libraries will consolidate their holdings to build complete runs of titles before any issues are disposed of
• Dr Penny asked to be informed of journal titles that will be written-off
• there is the prospect of selling back-sets of unwanted copies of journals to Swets Subscription Agency

c. ArticleReach

• Mr Elliott reported that the Library has joined ArticleReach, a service designed to facilitate document delivery of journal articles between member libraries.  Eight US academic libraries are members and the service is being expanded to the UK (Glasgow, Warwick, Liverpool) and Australia (ANU and U of Sydney).
• ArticleReach averages 4000 transactions per month in the US.  Mechanisms exist within the system to balance the request load between member libraries. There is no charge for this service, and it will be open to undergraduates.

d. Review of Information Services

Mr. Elliott noted that the report of the report of the Review of Information Infrastructure and Services (IIS08) has been submitted to the Vice Chancellor’s Office and is expected to be released soon.

4. Open Access

Mr. Elliott spoke to his paper “Open Access: a Policy Proposal” and invited the Committee to comment.  Several points of concern were raised, including:

• Open Access policy is modelled on scientific information and that difficulties with non-scientific information have not been anticipated
• it is easier to apply Open Access to research outputs but not to datasets  Concept of ‘final version’ not easily defined
• the difficulty and expense of translating non-English data into English to make it accessible.  Needs a budget.
• privacy of personal data used in research should be protected, such as some information on Australian indigenous societies.  There should be guidelines on standards and privacy issues
• different versions exist eg articles carried in paid journals may not be the same as open access versions
• some categories of material deemed suitable for contributing to open access are too broad in definition, eg ‘source materials’
• copyright and ‘fair dealing’ for authors

5. Report from Menzies

Ms. Osborne reported on the completion of the project to catalogue approximately 25,000 titles in the China Book Collection.  This is material acquired from the late 1970s to early 1990s that did not have an online catalogue record.  A large proportion of these records are now fully catalogued online.   The online retrospective conversion of East Asian catalogue records is now 99% complete.

A number of points were raised in relation to Menzies:

• Prof Minford mentioned the revival of literature as an undergraduate subject with enrolments of between 60-70 students, and expressed his concern that resources are made available in Menzies to support these studies.  Ms. Osborne responded that the entire PL classification range on literature will remain on campus
• Dr. Barz remarked on the poor shelf order in the PK classification range.  Ms Osborne related this problem to present over-crowding on the shelves, a situation which should be alleviated with re-spacing of the collections.
• Concern was expressed that rare books were placed on the open shelves.  Ms. Osborne asked that these instances are brought to the attention of library staff so that appropriate action can be taken.

6. Access and Collection

Three papers were tabled on:

• the 2008 Access and Collection budget for Asia Pacific
• a list of 2007 major acquisitions
• a list of proposals for expensive items, new journal subscriptions and cancellations for 2008.  The Committee endorsed the journal cancellation and purchase of all expensive items with the exception of:
  • Asahi Shinbun Shukusatsuban , Taisho period 1920-1926 (84 volumes).  Dr. Horiuchi expressed concern at the expense and the large number of volumes associated with this title and requested the Library to further discuss this purchase with the Japan Focus Group.  The Library agreed to do so.

7. Collection Relocation Project

Ms.Kosse drew attention to the tabled report Collection Relocation Project: Progress Report, and highlighted two elements in the Report:

• Level 4 of Chifley Library will be closed to replace flooring damaged in the storms of early 2007
• planning is underway on the reallocation of space in Chifley and Menzies buildings and the backspacing of the collections.

8. ArticleReach

Reported on under item 3 above.

9. Report from Asian Collections, NLA

Ms.Wong reported on the following developments at the National Library:

• that negotiations are in progress to allow registered users remote access to electronic resources
• that work has begun to archive selected Southeast Asian and Pacific websites in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea, which will be available on the website “ARCHIVE-IT”
• that NLA has adopted a comprehensive collection development policy for East Timor
• that a Japan Fellowship Scholarship scheme has been established which offers 4-6 months’ support to scholars to use the Japan Collections.  Narangoa Li is the first recipient of this scholarship
• that a Japan Study Grant covering airfares and an allowance has been established for interstate PhD students to use the Japan Collections
• that there will be no reduction of staff or cuts to the collection budgets as a result of the Federal Government’s funding cuts.  However, nine positions will be lost through natural attrition and there will be some reduction of services to Petherick Room users.

10. Any other business

Dr Jackson reported on receiving a British Library grant for the collection of ephemeral material in relation to gay and lesbian cultures in Thailand.  This material will be available on the British Library’s “Endangered Archives” website.

Dr. Nelson queried the location of newly acquired Indian atlases in the Print Repository.  Ms Osborne reported that these atlases have already been brought back to Menzies

The meeting closed at 11.15 am