This is a pertinent question right now for the National Library of Australia on two levels.
The first is that it is one of the most frequently asked questions by non-research visitors to the National Library. They imagine a library full of books they can see, like the local library. But when they arrive they do not see shelves and shelves of books as they imagined. The vast bulk of the collection is hidden from public view.
The second is that more and more information is to be found electronically. Either the search is done electronically to find the information on paper, or both the search and the information are electronic.
This winter the library has been addressing the question at both levels with the upgrading and naming of the Kenneth Baillieu Meyer visitor centre and the short-listing and selection of a tenderer to make electronic searching directly by researchers easier and quicker; at present it is almost the exclusive province of specialist librarians.
The modern parthenon on the lake has been part of the Canberra visitor circuit for 26 years.
Two decades ago, the typical visit was a few snapshots outside and a quick peer into the cavernous lobby.
That has all changed. Multimedia interactive displays show visitors that there is more to the library than books. One is a touch-screen guide to the library, others access recordings from the oral history and other non-book collections and visitors can use the computer catalogue to look up favourite topics or authors.
The multimedia touch-screen guide was made in-house. A program monitors how many times each item is touched, so visitor interest can be monitored.
The big change is coming in the research area, though.
At present, the library has drawn together an array of databases and networks that help researchers through 1300 libraries in Australia find the information they want.
The trouble is it runs on several sorts of proprietary software (some dating back to the mid-1970s), is command driven, is difficult to use, is slow and not a responsive as it should be. It means specialist librarians have to use it to find information.
The database network is there listing some 20 million items (books, journals etc), but access is difficult.
Next month a contract will be let to create the National Document and Information Service.
The idea is that information seekers will have a graphical interface (point and click) using open systems. They will be able to access Ozline Australis, a collection of 30 major databases and indexes of publications, including books, journals, conference reports and so on _ about 20 million catalogued items. The most important of these is the Australian Bibliographic Network that links some 1300 libraries and has access to the indexes of the national libraries of New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and Vietnam, the US Library of Congress and National Library of Medicine.
Others include REEF (all published material on the Great Barrier Reef), Multicultural Australia and Immigration Studies, the Australian Engineering Database, The Australian Sport Index, AGPS and a raft of scientific and legal databases.
These can be accessed now. The trouble is the computer interface is user-hostile.
The assistant director-general (services to libraries division), Warwick Cathro, hopes the new system will be used directly by researchers, teachers, journalists and so on to find the information they want and where that information is.
Having found it, of course, they have to get a copy. Increasingly that copying is being done electronically, rather than by photocopying, sending the original book through the post or faxing.
The system will continue to run on a cost-recovery basis, though subscribers can build up credit by being information providers as well as consumers. At present the library nets $7.5 million a year, after giving $2.5 million in credits.
Cathro says the National Library does not aim to create one huge national database or duplicate the work of other libraries and organisations. Rather it aims to be a gateway.
Indexes and databases have been electronic for a long time, but an increasing amount of the actual information is now electronic. Many journals are only published electronically. Much other material is available in image form.
Cathro hopes that with the National Document and Information Service, users will be able to download this directly. Part of the contract requires that charging and copyright issues be dealt with. As information is downloaded, copyright fees will be levied.
The new service is being developed in conjunction with the New Zealand National Library which has similar requirements.
“”No doubt is will get some new snappy name when it is launched,” Cathro said.