To provide guidelines for the operation of the library.
Acquisition of Resources
The acquisition of resources for the library is guided by the Library Collection Development Policy. This policy affirms that the acquisition of electronic resources is to be a priority with physical resources only to be acquired where an e-book or electronic subscription is not available, is expensive or has a lengthy embargo.
Accessibility of Resources
This policy affirms that 24/7 accessibility of electronic resources is to be provided. All enrolled students shall have access to the electronic databases, e-books and the library catalogue through appropriate web links on the library's web-site. The library shall provide on-line help tutorials to assist students/staff in the use of these on-line resources.
In order to facilitate discovery, all physical resources shall be catalogued in accordance with the Dewey classification scheme (items previously classified under PETEE shall be re-classified according to Dewey). In addition, individual items within the collection shall be assigned American Library of Congress Subject Headings (the Library Acquisitions and Cataloguing Standard Operating Procedures give further detail on the outworking of this policy).
A copy of physical resources in great demand for a particular unit (such as prescribed texts) shall be placed on the not-for-loan shelves. Other resources may be placed on the 7-day loan shelf at the request of academic staff.
Borrowing, Re-borrowing and Reservations
The library runs a mixed model in the provision of e-books where some titles are automatically available and others require the student to request the e-book (demand driven model). Where a student requests an e-book using the demand driven model, the loan shall be automatically granted if the cost is low. If the cost is high, it shall be referred to the Library Manager who shall decide whether to approve the loan after making a balanced judgement while considering the quality of the resource and budgetary considerations.
For physical resources the library has a graded borrowing policy where the higher the level of study the greater the borrowing privileges in terms of number of items and loan length. All checked items shall be processed with a Due Date receipt at the time of borrowing and students shall also receive an e-mail alert prior to the return date of the item(s). These policy elements are reassessed regularly to provide maximum accessibility for the majority of borrowers.
As part of maintaining this accessibility only a single extension of any loan is permitted, excepting 7-day loans where no extensions are permitted. Where there are multiple copies of an item, the borrower may take out another copy as the computer recognizes it as a separate item. Similarly, it is not possible to reserve items that are out on loan. This policy element has been implemented as previous experience has shown that most items reserved by students were not picked up within one week of the item becoming available.
Support for Students
There is a trend for students to have increased expectations and/or desire for assistance in the library. However, the finite human resources (Librarian’s time) necessitates a policy to balance these two competing demands. This is addressed in the Academic Assistance Policy.
In addition to the on-line help tutorials, the library shall offer training programs to equip students and staff to competently and efficiently access the various collections.
For students who live outside the Melbourne metropolitan area, or who are only studying on-line, the library will provide free postage of requested items to the student’s nominated address. The student will be responsible for returning the books in person or paying for the return postage. An extension to standard borrowing times will be made to allow for postal delays.
Support for Academics
The College shall support academic staff by granting them library borrowing privileges.