Last September 2422 of you responded to our survey. In November, we let you know what you said. We promised to let you know what we’re doing to address the 4 issues you raised – and here’s the first you mentioned:

that the Library collection should include more of what you need

• 11,500 books were added to the Library’s collections in 2008 and you can now find them in our catalogue.
• 106 new journal, mostly ejournal, subscriptions will begin in 2009. Many of them will also come with access to content from recent years.
• You now have access to hundreds of ejournals and ebooks in the JSTOR Arts & Sciences V & VI, and Life Sciences packages and Safari techbooks (great for IT books!)
• We now have access to hundreds of ebooks but they are not always easy to find. This year we’ll focus on making ebooks easier to find in the catalogue.
• You can now tell us what items you think we need – just fill out the suggestion form on the Library’s website and catalogue pages (http://www.utas.edu.au/library/0justus/request_purchaseForm.html)
• The Faculty of Education has generously given the Library $20,000 to use in 2009 to improve the Education collection in Hobart, Launceston and Cradle Coast.
• We’re investigating access to CAVAL’s store in Melbourne. This is a high-density, climate controlled store of nearly 1 million volumes of printed archive and research material. Requested articles would be delivered electronically to you.

Much of what the Library buys for the collection is paid for in US dollars – and we all know what’s happened to the exchange rate in recent months. This will inevitably have an impact on the funds available for buying new items in 2009 – we won’t be able to buy as much – but UTAS as a whole is investigating how to manage volatile exchange rates to minimise the impact of fluctuations.

Look out for part 2 of this series in a week or two…