THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Division of Information

Scholarly Information Services/LIBRARY

 

LAW LIBRARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

(LAWLAC)

 

 

Minutes of the LAWLAC meeting held on Monday 2 June, 2.30pm in the Library Meeting Room, R.G. Menzies Building

 

Present:  Prof S Bottomley, Prof P Cane, Mr T Cibiras, Ms K Collier, Mr V Elliott (Chair), Mr R Grime (Minutes), Ms Sue Kosse, Ms J Longley, Mr M Sherman (Law Students’ Society), Ms S Walpola.

 

1. APOLOGIES     

 

Mr Sherman attended as the Law Students’ Society representative.

 

2. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING OF 31 MAY 2007

 

The minutes were adopted as a correct record. However, it was noted that the minutes indicated that the previous meeting was held on 19 June 2005. It was felt that this was an oversight and the last meeting was, in fact held in 2006. It was decided that this matter would be looked into. [The 2006 meeting was held on 19 June 2006. The 2007 minutes have been amended.]

 

3. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

 

  • Mr Elliott reported on some of the residual aspects of the February 2007 hailstorm and its consequential damage to level four of the Chifley Library.

 

·        Ms Kosse provided further information about this matter including the timeline of repairs. It was noted that the ANU’s insurer was paying for most of the necessary floor resurfacing and repair work would be carried out during the break between semester one and semester two, commencing on 19 June 2008. A retrieval service will operate during this time on a two hourly basis and request forms for this service would be available in hard copy and online, through the library catalogue. The study carrels would be moved from the level 4 to level 3 prior to the examination period to minimise disruption to students.

 

4. DIRECTOR’S REPORT

 

Budget

 

·        Mr Elliott reported that the University Library Access and Collections Budget for 2008 is $8.23 million. $2.4 million has been used to purchase US dollars, and is in a term deposit account. This has been done to take advantage of the current favourable exchange rate.

Last copy retention

 

·        Mr Elliot reported that seven of the GO8 libraries are participating in the project.

 

Review of Information Services

 

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

 

4.1 Open Access

 

Mr Elliot spoke to his paper Open Access: A Policy Proposal. He also provided the committee with a news clip (Harvard Law faculty votes for ‘open access’ to scholarly articles) about the introduction of a similar policy at Harvard Law School. He invited the committee to comment on the proposal.

 

  • Professor Bottomley asked whether there had been any reaction to this matter from publishers. Mr Elliot responded that, with regards to peer reviewed material, publishers generally thought that this development would not damage their market
  • Mr Cibiras raised the question of whether or not the publication and editing process would be affected. This was discussed along with confidentiality issues.
  • Mr Elliot also referred to the federal government’s initiative of making research widely available free of charge.

 

4.2 Article Reach

 

Mr Elliott reported that the University Library has joined ArticleReach, a co-operative document delivery service. Eight US libraries are current members of the co-operative, but several UK libraries and two Australian libraries have been invited to join. The Australian libraries are the ANU and the University of Sydney. The service will allow ANU users (including undergraduates) to request articles directly from other participating libraries and the articles will be scanned and e-mailed directly to the requestor. There will be no charge for requests.

 

  • Ms Longley expressed concern that the Law Library may receive a disproportionate number of requests for Australian law materials

 

  • Ms Kosse mentioned the financial benefits for undergraduates under this scheme as it is free of charge as opposed to the present charges for undergraduate inter-library loans.

 

5. ACCESS AND COLLECTIONS BUDGET 2008

 

Five papers were tabled:

  • Result of the 2007 financial year
  • 2008 Access and Collections report as at Period 05 (18 May)
  • Significant purchases in 2007
  • Proposed cancellations in 2008
  • Proposals for purchase 2008

 

There was an overspend by the Law Library in 2007 and the 2008 budget will also be overspent. It was noted that while there is no budget for new monograph purchases there will be a need for new materials to be purchased in 2008.

 

All proposed cancellations were agreed to, with the exception of Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments. The committee recommended that the College of Law as a whole be asked about this title and the related Halsbury’s Statutes of England.

 

Most purchase requests were agreed to, except for Policing: Journal of Policy and Practice, BestCase and the Kluwer Library on HeinOnline. BestCase will be reconsidered once pricing is available.

 

None of the titles listed as possible purchases was considered necessary at this time.

 

6. Collection Relocation Project

 

Mr Elliot reported on the progress of the Collection Relocation Project with particular reference to the service provided by the Hume store. He stated that this service was well received and appeared to be meeting user needs. He also noted that there was an increased demand for this service and that staffing levels had been increased to meet the need.

 

Ms Kosse spoke to the tabled report, Collection Relocation Project: Progress Report. She reported on the state of backspacing and the subsequent plans to increase study space. She also noted that the wireless network would be boosted to accommodate increased demand. She reported on the timelines for various libraries and noted that this project was still on time and on budget.

 

·        Professor Cane notified the committee of a difficulty he had experienced in ordering materials from the store. It was not always possible to provide the issue number of a journal as this information is not accessible from the library catalogue. Ms Collier said that this issue would be looked into and addressed

·        Ms Longley informed the committee of some of the plans for the Law Library as a consequence of the relocation of materials to the Hume store. Canadian primary materials have been moved downstairs and the journal collection has been reordered. If the budget is available new furniture will also be purchased.

 

7. Any other business

 

Mr Sherman asked about the possibility of reinstating a subscription to the Federal Court Reports. Ms Longley informed him that an ongoing supply of loose parts had been sourced free of charge, and that these would be bound and made available in the Law Library.

 

The meeting closed at 4.00pm