The Australian Library Journal
volume 48 issue 2
[guest editorial] WM Horton
The relevance of 'cited by leading journal' to serials management in Australian university libraries
Klaus G Altmann and GE Gorman
This study highlights the importance of Australian scientific journals to overall serial usage in a variety of disciplines in an Australian university library. Examination of Journal Citation Reports demonstrates that there is a high degree of
cross-citation between major Australian science journals. It is deemed inappropriate for Australian academic libraries to base serial selection decisions on the Cited by Leading Journal (CBLJ) approach, as this fails to lead to the selection of high-use
Australian serials. The authors suggest that Australian university libraries would be better served by basing selection decisions on a combined CBLAJ (Cited by Leading Australian Journal) and CBLJ strategy, given the high use of Australian scientific
journals in Australian university libraries, the low ranking of Australian serials by the leading journal in each discipline and the high degree of cross-citation between major Australian science serials.
Keywords serial selection, serial deselection, collection development, Cited by Leading Journal.
Manuscript received November 1998 - this is a refereed article
Web site design for public libraries: a marketing tool for the new millennium
Merolyn Coombs
Web site creation and maintenance is becoming commonplace in the community. Individuals, businesses and organisations such as libraries are becoming aware that to have a presence on the 'Net' is desirable and even obligatory. Some sites are designed
for a broad and often undefined audience, others are aimed at very specific audiences with particular purposes or problems. Library sites often try to do both by attempting to reach the 'general public' and specific groups of users.
Manuscript received April 1999 - This is a refereed article
The rural reader: a Queensland survey (1930-1970)
Denis Cryle and Betty Cosgrove
This article derives from an ongoing project to map regional print culture in Queensland. An essentially qualitative methodology combined survey questionnaires with selected follow-up interviews. Conscious of the focus on metropolitan reading within
existing Australia Council studies (1990, 1995), the authors were keen to explore issues of cultural consumption, distribution, exchange and community identity in a regional context. Subsequently, however, they examined the notion of regionality itself and
identified a reading sub-group within the larger sample of fifty responses, living outside larger regional centres like Rockhampton and Townsville. The study documents and explores reading patterns of this rural group whose experiences are often subsumed
within the broader regional category. Lyons' and Taksa's valuable study [Australian readers remember] of a New South Wales cohort makes this assumption, admitting to 'a definite bias in favour of Sydney at the expense of country districts' while
acknowledging that 'cultural attitudes differ in rural environments' (1992: 22-23).
Manuscript received September 1998 - this is a refereed article
The internet and the revival of the myth of the universal library
Miroslav Kruk
The creation of the universal library where the whole of human knowledge would be accumulated has long been a dream of librarians and scholars. The advent of computers, and of the internet especially, made this vision possible of realisation --so we
are told by many librarians, teachers and politicians, not to mention computer specialists. Yet we should not ignore lessons of history. Attempts to create universal libraries made in previous centuries failed. In the twentieth century knowledge is not
perceived as a solid structure any more. The universal library is a utopian vision and it belongs to the same category as the universal encyclopedia and the universal language.
Manuscript received October 1998 - this is a refereed article
An information technology centre: The Redland Shire Library Service model
Helen Partridge
The Redland Shire Library Service began offering public access to an Information Technology Centre [ITC] on May 13th 1996. The ITC has been an exciting and dynamic addition to the more traditional services offered by the Library Service. This paper
explores the experience of the Redland Shire Library Service in planning and establishing an ITC. Issues addressed include identifying the principal decision-makers, determining the resources to be provided, establishing the physical layout and technology
requirements, developing service policy, establishing user education and service funding. Recommendations for planning and implementing a successful ITC are offered.
Manuscript received November 1998 - this is a refereed article
Professionalism through ALIA: Outcomes from group mentoring programs
Ann Ritchie, Carolyn McSwiney, Moyra McAllister and Paul Genoni
ALIA-based mentoring programs were introduced into Western Australia and Victoria early in the 1990s. This paper explores the concept of professionalism in librarianship, and in this context, refers to the introduction of the individual mentoring
programs and traces the growth of the group mentoring programs in both states. It provides a critical analysis of the contribution of these mentoring programs to the profession, and especially to the cohort of new professionals who have been actively
involved in the programs. Outcomes with regard to the professional socialisation of new graduates are reported following research into the influence of the WA Group Mentoring Program.
Manuscript received December 1998 - this is a refereed article
On-site and off-site collections: costs and challenges
Paul Scully
There is little doubt that the internet provides public libraries with the opportunity to develop their collections beyond the walls of their libraries. The physical location of materials is no longer the key issue, rather the provision of timely access to
information. Those public libraries that are actively selecting web sites to meet client needs are in effect developing an off-site collection. However, many librarians are operating in a political environment where the internet is viewed as an extra cost
burden for public libraries. There is a perception by some that it costs more to provide access to a library's off-site collection than a library's on-site collection. Is this the case? Little has been written to date on a comparison of the costs. This
paper attempts to identify the main costs in on-site and off-site collections and to specify the main challenges in an on-site/off-site collection strategy.
Manuscript received September 1998 - this is a refereed article
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