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28th annual report of the Australian Institute of Criminology, 2000

ISSN 0311-449X
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2000

Information services

Objective

To underpin research and other work in the field of criminology by developing timely and cost-effective criminal justice information services. Core activities are the continuing development of comprehensive library-based collections and databases; provision of Internet and Intranet information services; publication and distribution of research outcomes; and conduct of conferences, seminars and workshops.

J.V. Barry Library

Description

The AIC's J. V. Barry Library is a major criminal justice information service that not only supports the information needs of the AIC's research program but also services key stakeholders and other clients, and produces the CINCH database, an index of Australian criminal justice subject matter.

Services to Clients

Reference services

The Library aims to provide clients with timely and efficient criminal justice information services by utilising staff expertise, the Library's collection, and other information resources.

The Library's work involves responding to a wide variety of requests for information from within the AIC. It also involves developing an understanding of criminal justice information needs among the Library's clients and assisting in their understanding of the information services and sources that are available. Within Australia, the Library maintains close links with the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department and other relevant agencies and departments. Internationally, the AIC is an active participant in the World Criminal Justice Library Network.

During 1999-2000, the Library handled 2115 inquiries: 592 from AIC staff and 1523 from outside the AIC.

Loans and Interlibrary Loans

The J.V. Barry Library has continued to be a significant net lender and supplier of interlibrary loans. During the year, the Library made 2013 loans to AIC staff and handled 1645 items on interlibrary loan: 1176 were issued to other libraries and 469 were received from other libraries.

The Collection

Collection Development

This work involves developing the Library's collection and identifying the location of criminal justice information and other relevant information to meet clients' information needs. The Library's emphasis is to collect material that provides current information and which is relevant to the AIC's overall program.

During the year, 1457 monographs were received. Of these, 1074 were gratis or exchange items and 383 were purchased. At 30 June 2000, the Library was receiving 1475 current serial titles. These titles include journals, magazines, annual reports and other report series.

Cataloguing the Collection

The AIC has continued to make a significant cataloguing contribution to the National Library of Australia's Kinetica service. In addition, a considerable quantity of less substantial, but still important, bibliographic items have been catalogued on the Library's local system only. All of the Library's material can be searched through the online catalogue (www.aic.gov.au/firstopac).

During the year ended 30 June 2000, 642 titles were added to Kinetica with original cataloguing, sixty-four existing Kinetica catalogue records were upgraded and 1819 holdings were added to Kinetica.

The current contract cataloguers are Informed Sources Pty Ltd.

Valuation of the Collection

The valuation of the Library's collection was completed in August 1999. The collection has been developed over twenty-five years and has significant heritage value, in addition to the value it has in giving support to current research activities. The value of the collection was calculated at $1,116,000.

CINCH, the Australian Criminology Database

The J.V. Barry Library makes a unique contribution to the dissemination of criminal justice information by producing and developing CINCH. This bibliographic database is an index of Australian subject matter relating to crime, crime prevention, and criminal justice. CINCH is available on CD-ROM as part of the AUSTROM disk. In addition, a selection of CINCH records is now available as part of two other CD-ROM compilations from RMIT Publishing: ATSIROM and AUSThealth. CINCH is also available online through Informit Online, an Internet-based information service from RMIT Publishing (www.informit.com.au).

All indexing for CINCH continues to be undertaken by contract indexers. The current contractor is Datascape Information Pty Ltd. During the year, 2400 records were added, compared with 2543 records for the previous year. At 30 June 2000, the database had 40,800 records.

Web Site

The AIC's web site provides information about the work of the AIC and the CRC, and aims to be the foremost Internet site for information on crime and criminal justice in Australia. Use of the web site, measured in terms of requests for pages, is currently averaging around 5000 visitors per day.

Web Site Development

The AIC's web site is managed and coordinated by the Principal Librarian. A team of web site officers undertakes the design and maintenance work.

A number of features have been added to the web site and developed over the past year, including the following:

  • Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice The full-text of all issues of this series, is now available on the web site in pdf (Adobe® Acrobat®) format. Each new issue is added to the site on the day on which the print version is released.
  • Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings This was launched at the AIC's conference on Transnational Crime.
  • Corrections in Australia This section has been developed in consultation with a number of correctional agencies.
  • Occupational Violence in Australia: An Annotated Bibliography of Prevention Policies, Strategies and Guidance Materials.
  • Directory of Australian Researchers in Criminology and Criminal Justice. This directory has been re-designed and was re-launched in May 2000.

Other Web Site Work As foreshadowed in the AIC's 1998-99 Annual Report, it has developed and launched web sites for two other organisations:

  • Asian Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators (APCCA) www.apcca.org
  • National Police Ethnic Advisory Bureau (NPEAB) www.npeab.gov.au

Both web sites are managed by AIC staff and operate from the AIC web server.

Staff Activities

Pamela Garfoot attended the National Library of Australia's annual Kinetica Users' Group meeting, held in Sydney on 19-20 July 1999. Karen Collier and Wendy Limbrick attended the 10th National Library Technicians' Conference, held in Perth on 8-10 September 1999.

Library staff hosted a study visit by students from Peru State College, Nebraska, USA, on 11 May 2000.