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Faculty Librarians in each Faculty provide individual help and advice to teaching staff.
The Curtin University Library Remote and Regional Services model aims to ensure that regional students at campuses not served by an onsite Curtin library (e.g. Geraldton Universities Centre, Margaret River CWE) have a level of access to Curtin library services to meet their needs. This model takes advantage of the hard-copy and electronic resources the Library is able to supply. It also addresses the information literacy and reference support needs of students.
The model is based on the following assumptions:
1. That all the clients concerned meet the current definition of a Curtin student and are recorded on the appropriate Curtin administrative system (i.e., Student One, CMIS or Horace) in a readily identifiable form.
2. That the Library is appropriately funded to provide the library services to these students.
3. That no other agreements have been entered into with other parties (e.g. local libraries) to provide library services to these students other than those with/by the Library.
4. That appropriate ICT infrastructure is in place to facilitate electronic access to and delivery of the Library's electronic services and resources.
Core Services
Extension Services
Reference Services and Support
Information Literacy
Core Services are those made available by the Library to all onshore Curtin clients, regardless of their location. Such services are either provided directly to the individual by the Library, administered from the Robertson library on the Bentley campus, or accessed by the individual on a “self-serve” basis. Specific services are listed below.
Library Catalogue.
Electronic Reserve Collection (full text documents online e.g. book chapter, journal articles, conference papers).
Past Curtin Exam papers online.
Scholarly Electronic Databases via Gecko (including full text and bibliographic databases) online.
Full-text electronic journals
E-books (where available, with priority given to locating e-resources appropriate for remote clients).
Online Ready Reference resources (including online encyclopedia, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference tools)
Items from Library collections will be loaned to individual clients, posted to them at their home address, with return postage paid. Standard loan terms would apply, but appropriate allowances are made for returning items recalled by another Library client.
Copies of articles from journals held in the Library collection will be provided free of charge. Material provided from libraries outside of the Curtin University Library system will be provided at the standard document delivery charges. Delivery is available by post, fax and (in future) email.
In addition to the services listed above, further services may be offered where groups of Curtin students are studying together in the one regional campus (e.g. Geraldton Universities Centre, Margaret River CWE), where the required material is not available electronically, and where a critical mass of enrolments is reached, e.g. where provision of a hard copy item on site is more cost effective than the mailing of the same item multiple times to multiple individual clients.
Where at least 10 students are enrolled in a particular unit, the Library may, where appropriate, provide on-site access to:
A set of the very high-demand items for a particular unit which cannot be supplied electronically, e.g. as e-books, e-journals, e-databases or via E-Reserve. [This is the material which at a Library site would be placed on hard-copy Reserve.]
A limited set of subject specific ready reference material or other readings, selected by the Library in consultation with the course controller, where suitable electronic resources are not available.
Further, where appropriate, the Library will give consideration to the purchase of extra subscriptions to a limited number of hard copy core journals, where no other mechanism for delivery of those titles exists. However, the Library will continue to investigate electronic options in accordance with our Collection Development Principles.
The Library will negotiate with local libraries/institutions (ECC, TAFE, public library) to facilitate provision of high demand material on-site (by loan or donation).
Typically the Library would purchase and supply the material to the local library shelf-ready. The local library would add both the material and the Curtin clients to their own local library system and thereafter regulate management of the material through its systems (the parameters of such loans to be negotiated between the Curtin University Library and the partner library). Clients would then use their local service provider to discover their locally available material, and the the Library's on-line catalogue to source material from the wider Curtin collection.
The following services are available to answer queries and provide support to clients:
Telephone support is available during all hours of service at the Robertson Library (8.00am – 9.30pm Mon – Thu; 8.00am – 7.45pm Fri; 10.00am -5..45pm Sat and Sun).
An online chat service, Ask Online
An SMS service
An email reference service. Client requests and queries are monitored and responded to during normal business hours.
Regional clients can phone us on the toll-free number 1300 850 339.
Details and links to these services are available via the Contact Us link on most library web pages.
4.1 Online Information literacy
The Library provides a range of online resources designed to assist clients to master information resources and include:
4.2 Face-to-face Information Literacy
Where a critical mass (10+) of clients is reached, occasional visits by a Library staff member may be considered, to deliver on-site support and information literacy, both to Curtin clients and also, where required, to the on-site academic staff and the staff of the partner library.
Such a programme of skills training may include:
catalogue and database searching skills,
web searching skills,
introduction to Off Campus services and staff,
set up of Document Delivery profiles for access to Off Campus services,
introduction to subject-specific information on the Library website
introduction to guides and training information on the Library website (referencing, InfoTrekk, InfoTrekkPlus, Step-by-Step Guides to Gecko and Library Databases and the Library Catalogue).
