E initiatives and networked infrastructure.

Infrastructure and Support

National Library of Australia

The National Library of Australia is a statutory authority within the Commonwealth Communications, Information Technology and the Arts portfolio. The library's collections and services underpin Australian cultural life and intellectual pursuits. The library aims to be the pre-eminent source for the documentary record of Australia and its place in the world.

The library runs a fully switched Ethernet 10/100 Mbps local area network connecting over 700 PCs and numerous servers. Two internet connections at 100 Mbps are maintained to support the Kinetica service and National Library applications. The internet connections are provided by different suppliers for redundancy purposes.

Operating systems in use include Windows 2000 on the desktop, and a mixture of Windows 2000, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, Red Hat Linux on the library's servers. In 2001 the library took delivery of a Digital Object Storage System (DOSS) to handle the library's digital object storage requirements for the period 2001 to 2006. A combination of state-of-the-art storage products was selected. The system consists of a Sun E450 server, a CLARiiON FC4700 disk array, a StorageTek Tape Library connected via a SAN switching infrastructure. The system has a capacity of 4 TB of disk and 12 TB of nearline tape storage.

State Library of Tasmania

The State Library of Tasmania is part of the Tasmanian Department of Education and is responsible for all public library and reference library services across Tasmania. An integrated wide area network provided by Telstra through a whole of government contract is used to connect all these libraries as well as TAFE Colleges and all government schools managed by the Department of Education. Individual libraries all provide a mix of internet access personal computers and staff/library management computers. All are modern personal computers replaced on a four year revolving cycle through the Department of Education, and have recently been upgraded to Microsoft XP Professional.

The type of connections provided to individual libraries varies depending on size of library and location, and ranges from 56k dial-up connections to 256 and 512 ADSL links to 100M Broadband connections. Network support is provided by the Department of Education's Internal Information and Communications Technology Branch. The provision of adequate bandwidth is a continual issue due to the ever increasing use of internet to deliver information and services.

All State Library branches, TAFE college and government school libraries use a single central library management system provided and supported by the State Library. Currently the State Library uses Geac which runs on a central Sun server with 6 GB of RAM and with 216 GB mirrored and 432 GB unmirrored disk capacity. The system supports 54 State Library of Tasmania outlets and 183 schools, and is typically loaded with 1000 concurrent users. Geac is used to provide a central library management system, including acquisitions, serials control, cataloguing and Kinetica access, and circulation modules that are used by TAFEs and schools as well as the public library system. A Tasmanian newspaper index is also provided through Geac.

The State Library provides a Systems Support and Development Section comprising 12 FTE, including a full-time help desk and after hours support for public libraries. The Systems Support Section also provides advice and support for other computer applications including statistical databases, website management, and special services for other sectors including Tasmania Online and Service Tasmania Online websites for the Tasmanian government.

State Library of Western Australia

The State Library of Western Australia operates the central state library services. The provision of public library services in WA is a partnership between the state, local governments and other participating bodies and the State Library of Western Australia provides services to 238 public libraries such as the selection, acquisition, processing and distribution of resources, both book and non-book.

The State Library's Innopac system provides the central holdings of all library stock in the statewide collection including stock in the State Reference Library, the JS Battye Library and WA public libraries. The public libraries access the Innopac system via the internet. There is also a Public Libraries Online extranet which is a major communication-sharing forum for WA public libraries and provides access to a web-based document delivery system.

Individual local government authorities have adopted a range of different local library management systems. SLWA has its own intranet and is also networked to the Department of Culture and the Arts for bureau finance services using the Sun system. There is also a shared internet connection across the Department, not available to public libraries which make their own arrangements for internet access. Consequently the speed of service provided varies a great deal according to the availability of broadband services in the area and the resources of the governing authority.

The State Library uses Innopac (Release 2, Phase 2) running on a Compaq Alphaserver 4100 System. Specifications include 5/600 Mhz CPU, 1.5 GB RAM, and 8 x 4.3 GB hard drives. Innopac runs on Digital Unix4.0d. Innopac provides a central library management system which includes modules for acquisitions, serials, cataloguing and Kinetica downline loading of records, circulation, library exchanges, indexing and community information. In 2002, the State Library purchased Innopac's latest web and java based Millenium suite of products. The Millenium acquisitions product has recently been implemented and plans are underway to progressively install further products to offer clients enhanced services as well as enabling staff to achieve increased efficiencies.

State Library of New South Wales

The State Library of New South Wales has a legislative role to 'promote, provide and maintain library services for the people of New South Wales through the State Library and through cooperation with local libraries and other library and information agencies' (Library Act, 1939). With NSW public libraries, the State Library of NSW aims to strengthen the identity and effectiveness …